Historical dataset of reservoir construction in arid regions

Reservoirs are important for flood control, irrigation, and electricity generation, and the scarcity of water resources in arid areas makes the role of reservoirs even more important. We registered 669 reservoirs distributed in China's arid zones and supplemented the reservoir-related historical and socio-economic data, and the reservoir information completion degree in the dataset reached 98.53%. The study showed that the construction of reservoirs in China's arid zones can generally be divided into rapid growth, stable growth, and high-quality growth phases. According to the hydrological pattern of the arid zone, the spatial distribution of reservoirs in the arid zone overlaps strongly with the distribution of agricultural land and population, and the construction of reservoirs significantly affects socio-economic development. The historical and socio-economic dataset of reservoir construction in China's arid zones provides a scientific basis for solving the problems of reservoir construction and abandonment, reservoir optimality and scheduling, efficient use of regional water resources, ecological construction, and sustainable development.