High-quality habitats of high physical complexity and high species diversity, spawning grounds and nursery for juvenile fish and invertebrates, a buffer that protects the shoreline from extensive erosion). The development and functionality of the littoral zone are severely limited in reservoirs and lakes with controlled levels. In reservoirs and natural lakes used as reservoirs, the result of frequent and huge WLF are often total habitat destruction. An adaptive, ecologically sustainable management of WLF is thus badly needed to allow reservoirs and lakes with artificially manipulated levels to be an integral component of the human environment.