Water management in a city of southwest China before the 17th century

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 574-581
Author(s):  
Xiao Yun Zheng

Kunming City is the capital of Yunnan Province, China. From the 12th century, it has developed from a remote rural town to become a large city. Successful water management was one of the key dynamic factors in the city's development. As a result of the location of Kunming City, in its early age it was in a narrow area between the north bank of Dian Chi lake and the mountains, therefore the water management in the history of Kunming City mainly focused on two key projects, one being the Song Hua Ba Dam with the function to control flooding from Pang Long Jiang river, and the other the Hai Kou He river dredging project to control the drainage from Dian Chi lake, therefore shaping a water supply system for the city in the upper basin of the Yangtze River. Pang Long Jiang river is only one large river from the mountains flowing across the city into Dian Chi lake. Therefore the city's development from its early age (11th century) mainly depended on irrigation and flood control of Pan Long Jiang river basin and the basic water system for the city was formed before the 17th century (Ming Dynasty), the most important period of the city's water history.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (40) ◽  
pp. 617-656
Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Mahan ◽  
Ghassan Muslim Hamza

       Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) was a great city. It had been a large city since Old Babylonian times, but Nebuchadnezzar’s expansion of the city and large-scale rebuilding of important buildings with good baked brick instead of the traditional unbaked mudbrick created something exceptional. Babylon now was larger than Nineveh had been and larger than any of the cities in the known world. The political and economic base for this development was of course that it was the centre of the Neo-Babylonian empire created by Nebuchadnezzar’s father Nabopolassar (625–605 BC) and succeeding the Neo Assyrian empire as the main political entity in the Middle East.         An attempt for the first time to bring together the main results of the German excavations in Babylon with the main results from the Iraqi excavations there and thereby make use of the available cuneiform documentation and a selected use of the best of the classical tradition. With the help of a GIS software (QGIS) and a BIM program (ArchiCAD) the use of satellite images and aerial photos combined with inspection on the site, the historical development of the site has been studied and a digital research model of Babylon for different periods of the city’s history has been created.          Only main buildings and constructions have been considered and placed in the appropriate historical and archaeological context. Part 1 includes some information about the historical development of buildings and nature in Babylon, the rivers and groundwater in Baybylon, as well as basics about the building materials used in Babylon. Part 2 discuss the city walls and city gates, introductory matters about the history, excavation and other documentations of the walls and gates. The chapter also includes presentation of the walls and gates during Nabopolassar followed by a detailed discussion of the walls and gates during Nebuchadnezzar. The Ištar gate and the area around it with the different levels and the upper level glazed decoration have been treated separately. Detailed interpretations about the palaces, development of the main traditional South Palace and the new constructed North are discussed in part 3. Reasonable suggestions for the Hanging Gardens in the North Palace have be provided.          The temples are discussed in part 4 detailing the Marduk temple and the zikkurrat. The historical development of the four temples reconstructed on the site in Babylon on their old foundations, i.e. Nabû, Ištar, Ašratum, and Ninmaḫ temples, is discussed with indication which levels have been used for the reconstructions. The historical development of the other excavated temples, i.e. the Ninurta and Išḫara temples, are discussed in a similar way. Attention will be paid to the remains of wall decorations in the temples.  


<em>Abstract.</em>—From its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains, the Platte River drains 230,362 km<sup>2</sup> in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The Platte River is formed by the confluence of the North Platte and South Platte near the city of North Platte, Nebraska, and receives additional flow from the Loup and Elkhorn rivers that drain the Sand Hills region of Nebraska. Water diversions for mining and irrigation began in the 1840s in Colorado and Wyoming, and irrigation diversions in Nebraska began in the 1850s. Construction of dams for control of river flows commenced on the North Platte River in Wyoming in 1904. Additional dams and diversions in the North Platte, South Platte, and Platte rivers have extensively modified natural flow patterns and caused interruptions of flows. Pollution, from mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural sources, and introductions of 24 nonnative species have also taken their toll. Fishes of the basin were little studied before changes in land use, pollution, and introduction of exotic species began. The current fish fauna totals approximately 100 species from 20 families. Native species richness declines westward, but some species find refugia in western headwaters streams. Declines in 26 native species has led to their being listing as species of concern by one or more basin states.


Antiquity ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 17 (65) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Matheson

In a previous paper (1) an attempt was made to describe the inter-relations of man and bear in Europe from early times to the present day. In many ways the influence of the wolf has been more important than that of the bear on the habits and thoughts of European man. Occasionally it has figured in a favourable light, as in the case of the she-wolf credited with suckling the twin founders of the City on Seven Hills (though even here the double meaning of lupa—applied in a transferative sense to ladies whose character would not bear close investigation—has led some authors to a conjecture which it might not have been politic to mention to any patriotic inhabitant of the grandeur that was Rome). But in general, whether in Italy or elsewhere, no animal has been so hated and feared. Among the ancient Greeks in the south—whose Lyceum at Athens and sanctuary of Apollo Lukeios at Sicyon may have originated in efforts to propitiate the wolves-as among the Letts of the north who, perhaps as late as the 17th century, sacrificed a goat each December to the wolves so that their other livestock might be spared(2) ; from Scotland where priests offered the prayer, quoted by Fittis (3) from the old Litany of Dunkeld, for deliverance ‘from robbers and caterans, from wolves and all wild beasts’, to Russia where peasants pronounced a spell on St. George's Day with the recurring plea, ‘God grant the wolf may not take our cattle‘ (4); the wolf was the great destroyer, the despoiler of flocks and herds and man's chief enemy in the animal world.


Water Policy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 898-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Hearne ◽  
Craig C. Kritsky

As new demands for water management emerge, water managers need to evolve and accept new roles and new ways of working. Local water management districts with traditional water quantity roles need to adopt new activities and new ways of working in order to support basin-wide water quality and flood control initiatives. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the adoption of twenty-two activities and strategies by local water management districts in the Red River of the North basin in Minnesota and North Dakota. A variety of explanatory characteristics of districts and district boards are assessed. Empirical analysis does not demonstrate a dramatic difference between Minnesota districts and those in North Dakota, nor a remarkable difference between upstream and downstream districts. Board member characteristics have significant influence on local water management district activities and institutional arrangements.


Author(s):  
Dora P. Crouch

Can we discern differences in the way water was managed at larger and smaller Greek cities? Let us take two Greek cities in Sicily as case studies, examining them in some detail as to area, population, date, geological situation, and the water system elements known at each. The aim of this exercise is to begin to understand the impact of scale differences on the clusters of water system elements in ancient cities. Useful examples are Akragas—modern Agrigento—and Morgantina (Figs. 15.1, 15.2). Akragas is located on the south coast of Sicily, approximately in the center, and occupies a dramatic site on a hill between two rivers. The earliest settlement—and later the medieval town—were located on the highest peak of the 280-meter hill (Storia della Sicilia, 1979, map 1), but during classical and Hellenistic times the city spread down the hill to the wide and gentle valley to the south, which then rises again to form a ridge that separates that valley from the plain leading to the sea. In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. a line of temples was built along the lower ridge, forming today the single largest, best preserved, and most impressive group of Greek temples anywhere. These architectural glories were possible because of the size and wealth of the city, the same factors that necessitated and made possible the extensive water system of the city. In contrast, Morgantina was built inland, on a ridge at the juncture of the Catania plain with the plateaus of the center of Sicily. This ridge stands 578 to 656 meters above sea level, higher by 300 to 350 meters than the valleys to the north and south, but lower than the site of the nearest modern town, Aidone (885 meters), about 3 kilometers away. Morgantina began as a prehistoric settlement of migrant tribes from Italy whose king, Merges, gave his name to the city. The earliest Sikel settlement was on Cittadella, the easternmost wedge of the ridge, during the archaic period, no later than the sixth century.


1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Marzanna Jagiełło ◽  
Wojciech Brzezowski

In the third part of the 18th century the earliest public landscape gardens began to appear in the area of suburban Jelenia Góra. They were the first public parks in Silesia. When establishing them, the natural landscape features of the area were used (Karkonosze). Two of them, Hausberg and Helkon, were created at the end of the 17th century on the north-western side of the city.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-102

AbstractIn 2013 and 2014, Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions conducted comprehensive survey, mapping and trial excavation to the walls and passes of the Hailong Tun Site. These archaeological activities identified the walls and passes of two phases belonging to the Song and Ming Dynasties respectively and generally made clear the full layout and evolution of the relevant remains through these periods. The extant Bronze Pillar Pass, Iron Pillar Pass, Flying Dragon Pass, Flying Tiger Pass, Chaoqian Pass, Flying Phoenix Pass, Wan’an Pass, West Pass and Rear Pass and the walls built of marlstone are the remains of the Wanli Era of the Ming Dynasty and the north and south walls and the “Earthen wall” on the top of the tun (castle) and the gates associated with them are the remains of the Southern Song Dynasty. These discoveries provided important references for the chronology and periodization of the relevant remains, and also enriched the understandings to the city sites of the Song through the Ming Dynasties in the nearby areas.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-691
Author(s):  
A. Cihat Kürkçüoğlu ◽  
Kasım Yenigün ◽  
Mustafa S. Yazgan

In ancient times, the city of Urfa suffered serious flood disasters due to the Karakoyun river which surrounded the city on the north and west sides. In order to prevent the recurrence of such disasters, in 525, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian had built a huge wall of stone (Justinian wall) to the northwest of the city that conducted the river to the north and east walls of the city. He also constructed an artificial channel and three bridges which are known as the Justinian system. This system has been used by the many civilizations that have occupied the city, since the 6th century. Each civilization added some new water structures to the system and carried out some renovations to it. The system, being still in use, defended the city against moderate size floods and survived for 1,500 years. In this paper, the Justinian system is evaluated from the hydraulic point of view together with its ongoing functionality. It is interesting that although the cultural structures of the civilizations settled in the city do not have the same characteristics, the water structures have similar features in terms of hydraulic and architectural perspectives.


Urban History ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-207
Author(s):  
CHERYL BRADBEE

ABSTRACTThe political ecology of historical urban water systems can yield information on the long-term, social organization of resource infrastructure and its management. In this article, the water system of Piacenza, Italy, is examined through its history and the documents of the Congregazione sopra l'ornato, the committee in charge of water management in the city, under the Farnese dukes, from 1545 to 1736. The documents include letters from residents, responses and orders from the committee, tax documents and engineering reports. These records tell a story of a water system and its relationship to the city residents.


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