Journal of Landscape Architecture ISSN: 1862-6033 (Print) 2164-604X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjla20 Living with Water: Flood Adaptive Landscapes in the Yellow River Basin of China Kongjian Yu , Zhang Lei & Li Dihua To cite this article: Kongjian Yu , Zhang Lei & Li Dihua (2008) Living with Water: Flood Adaptive Landscapes in the Yellow River Basin of China, Journal of Landscape Architecture, 3:2, 6-17, DOI: 10.1080/18626033.2008.9723400 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2008.9723400 Published online: 01 Feb 2012. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 364 View related articles Citing articles: 3 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjla20 living with Water: Flood adaptive landscapes in the yellow river Basin of China Kongjian Yu, Zhang Lei, Li Dihua the graduate school of landscape architecture, Peking University Abstract Introduction This paper is a report on a research project. It shows how the past expe- Global warming and climate change may increase flood hazards in some rience of adaptive strategies that have evolved in the long history of sur- regions and drought in others. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions vival under hazardous conditions is inspiring for us in facing future un- is a priority, it is of no less significance to develop adaptive strategies to certainty. Based on a study of several ancient cities in the Yellow River lessen the potential hazards caused by climate change. The past experience floodplain, this paper discusses the disastrous experience of floods and of adaptive strategies evolved in the long history of survival under hazard- waterlogging and finds three major adaptive landscape strategies: siting ous conditions is inspiring for us in facing future uncertainty. on high ground, constructing walls and protective dikes, and reserving or The Yellow River, famous for its high sediment yield, is probably the digging ponds within cities. These adaptive strategies create three types most difficult river to regulate in the world. The downstream region of the of water city: water-within-city, city-in-water, and ying-yang-city. It is Yellow River has been inundated throughout history, especially through argued that all these traditional experiences and landscape heritages help major flooding, levee failure, or river diversion. The flooding frequency us to understand the vernacular cultural landscape of cities in the Yellow of the Yellow River is relatively high compared with other rivers around River floodplain, and that they have important value for landscape archi- the world. tecture and urban planning as universally applicable strategies in facing However, during the long history of struggle against flood and silt- global warming and regional climate change as well as practical land- ing disasters, ancient cities acquired much valuable experience of how to scape strategies for better urban design in this region. It is further argued control and alleviate floods, experience which is expressed in the unique that the water-adaptive landscapes are valuable features of the cultural local landscapes. These kinds of landscapes have been mentioned before heritage, and should be integrated into landscape and urban planning (Liu 1936; Li, 1895), and are further explained in modern times (Zheng 1985; for urban development today. Wu 1995; Zhang 2000). Furthermore, there are related studies on specific cities in the fields of archeology, history and geography etc. (Ding 2004; Li 1988; Chen 2002; Zhao 2000). Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on the ancient cities in the Yellow River alluvial plain as a whole, and systemat- Flood Adaptive Landscape / Flood Adaptive City / Urban Water System / ic study on the origin and evolution of this adaptive landscape is also in- Cultural Landscape / Yellow River Basin sufficient. Recently, the unique landscape of these cities has been highly valued, and also used in slogans such as ‘Water city in the north of the Yangtze River’ or ‘Water city in the north country’ in the comprehensive urban plans to enhance city images to boost the development of tourism and at- tract investment. However, the origin of the water-featured landscape in the cities is always misinterpreted as using geomancy or Feng-shui (Chen 2002), while the unique value of the landscaping as an ‘Art of Survival’, is not yet fully appreciated (Yu and Padua 2006). In the face of today’s ecological and environmental degradation around China, it could still be beneficial to consider ‘the art of survival’ which is a unique cultural heritage of the ancient Chinese people, especially in current urban water system management, flood and waterlogging control planning and land use planning. 6 Journal of Landscape Architecture / autumn 2008 115 120 Lijin Huimin Jiyang Jinan Liaocheng Dongping Puyang Yellow River 35 Juye Changyuan Heze Yuanyang Chengwu 35 Caoxian Shanxian Kaifeng Ningling Yucheng Dangshan Old Course of Yellow River Suixian Shangqiu Pizhou Zhecheng Xiayi Xuzhou Suqian Lianshui Taikang Suzhou Bozhou Sixian Siyang Huaian Huaiyang Mengcheng Xinghua Studied Area Fuyang Studied Ancient Cities N 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 km 120 115 Figure 1 The studied area: the Yellow River flood alluvial plain Therefore there is potential theoretical and practical value in studying the the 16th ,17th and 19th centuries, every 4-5 years on average there was a flood-adaptive landscape of the ancient cities. The priority of this paper is diversion. Kaifeng city experienced bank burst 70 times, and between 1180 to give a general introduction of the background and an in-depth analysis and 1944 the whole city was flooded 6 times and cut off by water 15 times (Li of the origin and evolution of the adaptive landscape in theYellow River Al- 1995). Similarly, in the 3,000 years before 1949 AD, the city of Heze was flood- luvial Plain. ed 12 times by river diversion and 164 times by bank burst. It also suffered disastrous waterlogging 224 times in the 614 years up to 1949. Also the city The history of suffering and experiences with floods and waterlogging has been cut off by floodwater many times. The situation is almost the same The Yellow River alluvial plain lies between the Hai and Huai rivers to the in Caoxian and Chengwu Counties, which have been reconstructed many north and south, while the west-east extent is limited by the Funiu and times after devastation by floods (WCRHCC 1994). Taiyin mountains. The area includes the administrative districts of Kaifeng, Disastrous silting always happens with flooding. After a flood, a large Puyang and Zhoukou cities and the eastern part of Xinxiang city in Hen- amount of silt is deposited on the land, and this can bury the cities and ruin an Province, Heze and Liaocheng cities in Shandong Province, and also the the farmland (Zou 1993). In some cities with a shield of circumvallation and northern part of Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces (Fig. 1). As mentioned above, circumvallating levees, the silt carried by floods can accumulate outside the the people living in the Yellow River alluvial plain have suffered greatly levee or circumvallation, which raises the level of the land. This process has from floods throughout history. According to the statistics, between 1000 caused the phenomena whereby a city lies lower than its outskirts, while BC and 1949 AD. the Yellow River had 1,500 floods including overflow, bank the outskirts of the city are lower than the outskirts of the levee (Li 1895); the burst, river diversion etc. and the flooded area was about 250,000 km2. Du- city looks like a well (Liu 1936) (Fig. 2a,b, Fig. 3). ring this time, the Yellow River had 26 fairly disastrous river diversions. In Journal of Landscape Architecture / autumn 2008 7 Kongjian Yu Living With Water City Figure 2a A typical section of ancient cities in the Yellow Ditch Levee Moat Wall River alluvial plain. Living on high land In the remote past, when the Yellow River overflowed into the large plain area the soil was enriched by floods. Ancient people then gradually migrat- ed from the highland terraces to the alluvial plain to cultivate the fertile soil in the late neolithic Longshan Period (4350 - 3950 BC) (Wang 1998). To Figure 2b Typical elevation model of cities in the Yellow River alluvial plain (Heze City, GIS visualization of terrain) avoid the floods, the settlers chose high land in the plain to settle on, for this was one simple strategy to stay above the floodwater. In eastern Henan­ and southwestern Shandong Provinces, there are many widely-scattered relics of this type of ancient settlement from the Longshan Period and the Shang (1700 BC - 1100 BC) and Zhou Dynasties (1100 BC - 256 BC). After the numerous floods some of the relics have been crushed or bur- ied by sediment while others are still visible above ground. These relics are Therefore the relative height of the sites of the ancient cities would gradu- called ‘Gudui’ (ancient mound) in the local areas, and vary in size and shape ally lower as the sediment process continued, with accumulating waterlog- with heights of 2-5 metres in general. These relics indicate that the strategy ging and increased difficulty in flood control. If the levee were damaged or of living on high land started in the Neolithic period and can be regarded as the circumvallation failed it would be a tragedy for the whole city, with con- a unique feature of the local cultural landscapes (Li 1988) (Fig.4). siderable damage to property and loss of life. In the Spring-Autumn (770 BC - 476 BC) and Warring States Periods (476 The large amount of silt itself also has had the power to crush a city.