China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, or IWHR, a non-profit research institute on water resources and hydropower under the Ministry of Water Resources, is China's largest with the widest research fields in water sector.

IWHR dates back to 1933 and was restructured in 1958. It acquired its present name in 1994 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018.

IWHR headquarters comprises of 2 campuses in downtown Beijing; in addition, it has 2 experimental bases in the suburb and 2 more departments in Inner Mongolia and Tianjin, covering a total area of 480,000 square meters.

IWHR currently has around 1,300 staff members: over 600 hold PhD degrees and 300 master degrees. There have been 15 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering working at IWHR.

Located in southern Beijing, the institute’s Daxing Experimental Base takes up an area of 140,000 square meters. Its modern and large-scale labs for hydraulics, sedimentation science, irrigation and drainage, and electromechanical equipment can be used to research on the layout of major water and hydropower projects, sedimentation and river training, water-saving irrigation, and testing of turbine performance.

Another experimental base in Yanqing, in the northwest of Beijing, occupies an area of 150,000 square meters, and hosts professional labs for research on water resources and ecology, engineering mechanics, earthquake engineering and automation.

IWHR has altogether 36 labs with state-of-the-art equipment: vacuum tank with a vacuum degree of 98.7% and maximum working head of 14 meters, universal test bench of high-precision hydraulic machinery model, tri-axial earthquake simulating shaking table with 6 degrees of freedom, 450g-ton geotechnical centrifuge, 1500-ton large-scale dynamic material testing system, 1000g-ton geotechnical centrifuge and 1000g high-speed geotechnical centrifuge, chromatography-mass spectrometry for water quality analysis, and self-developed software and large-scale high-performance parallel computing platform.

With 13 research departments and 4 affiliated SciTech enterprises, IWHR possesses research and development capacity in over 100 directions under 17 disciplines: hydrology and water resources; water environment and ecology; flood control, drought relief and disaster reduction; remote sensing technology; water history and culture; sediment research and erosion control; water resources in rural and pastoral areas; hydraulics; geotechnical engineering; hydraulic structures and materials; earthquake engineering; hydro machinery and electric equipment; automation and informatization; engineering monitoring and examination; new energy and sustainable hydropower.

IWHR runs 1 state key laboratory, 4 national research centers, and 1 national field station, and also 9 research centers and 6 key laboratories under the Ministry of Water Resources.

As inter-disciplines emerge and evolve, IWHR has been exploring new research frontiers in recent years while maintaining its competitiveness in traditional areas.

Aside from research, IWHR has been taking in graduate students since the 1950s. Its Graduate School currently offers 8 doctoral and master’s degree programs and 2 postdoctoral programs, and enrolls over 500 students. It was certified to take in international students in 2018 and since then, over a dozen of overseas graduate students have been admitted.

For years, IWHR has undertaken hundreds of government-sponsored research programs, and engaged in river basin planning and related research that is critical to China's strategic development of water resources and hydropower sectors.

IWHR has contributed to almost all the largest water and hydropower projects in China in decision-making, planning, consulting, construction, operation and management, including Three Gorges, Xiaolangdi, South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Xiaowan, Ertan, Wudongde, Shuangjiangkou, and Baihetan. It has completed research on cooling water and other subjects for over 200 large thermal power plants and almost all nuclear plants in China, and supported the upgrading of generation units for a number of large hydropower stations.

IWHR has provided key technological solutions to many large hydropower projects in flood discharge and energy dissipation, inter-basin water transfer, projects safety monitoring, and sedimentation.

Enterprises of IWHR have developed and manufactured automatic monitoring systems, electromechanical equipment, water-stop materials and many other products for hydropower projects at home and abroad.

Total contract amount keeps rising year by year.

With abundant research accomplishments, IWHR takes the lead in winning national and ministerial awards, including over 100 national prizes for science and technology.

IWHR has served as the chief or associate editor of over 300 standards and specifications in water and hydropower sectors.

IWHR highly values international cooperation and exchange. It hosts not only the Chinese chapters of several international organizations, including ICOLD, ICID, GWP, IHA and ARRN, but also global secretariats of other international associations/mechanisms including WASER, WASWAC. IAHR and ICFM. It is also a member of WWC and AWC.

IWHR is the host, organizer or participant of many influential international conferences.

IWHR has program collaborations with UNESCO, UNDP, UNEP , EU, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank, and has a substantial overseas footprint on research, planning, consulting, design and construction of water and hydropower projects, particularly in Asia and Africa.

Over the years, IWHR has signed more than 40 cooperative agreements with overseas partners, including research institutes, universities, corporations and international organizations. It is dedicated to addressing global water challenges through international collaboration.

Aiming at becoming one of the world's top research institutes, IWHR remains committed to win-win cooperation and building a community of shared future.