Green Watershed Construction: Pathways and Key Scientific Issues

In the context of global climate change and intensified human activities, green watershed construction has become a critical approach to harmonizing human–water–nature relationships and promoting socio-economic development characterized by low consumption, low pollution, low emissions, low ecological impact, and high quality. This paper reviews the background and current research progress of green watershed construction and clarifies its fundamental concepts and connotations. Guided by objectives such as conserving water resources, reducing pollutant emissions, lowering carbon output, minimizing ecological impacts, protecting and restoring ecosystems, fostering green technological innovation, and advancing new-quality productive forces, it outlines four key pathways for green watershed development. These pathways focus on water conservation and pollution reduction, clean-energy optimization and carbon reduction, habitat enhancement and ecological greening expansion, and digital-intelligent empowerment. Key scientific issues are also discussed, including interaction mechanisms and green feedback processes within human–water systems, as well as the green effects and synergistic regulation principles of different pathways. Finally, it proposes the need to strengthen green technological innovation and advance research on policies and regulatory frameworks to support sustainable green watershed development.