Study On Water Conservancy Heritage

During China’s long history of controlling floods and developing water conservancy,a rich variety of water conservancy projects and water culture heritage have come into being,and some of the ancient water conservancy projects are now still in use.However,in the process of economic and social development,"constructive destruction" once occurred.Since the beginning of the 21st century,sustainable use and rational protection of ancient water conservancy projects and water culture heritage has become increasingly important.Currently,research on water conservancy heritage is still in its infancy and lacks a definitive and uniform basic theoretical and conceptual framework,which is disadvantageous to research on China’s water conservancy heritage and preservation of China’s traditional system of water conservancy projects,ancient water conservancy books and various water conservancy cultural relics.In recent years,as the concept of water conservancy heritage and the related preservation concept are being accepted by more and more people,protection of water conservancy heritage has also attracted attention from scholars in different fields of study.As a relatively independent cultural heritage,water conservancy heritage shares some common features of cultural heritage while having its own specific attributes.This paper adopts a universal view on heritage in studying water conservancy heritage,summarizes and refers to similar industrial heritage development within China,and for the first time,clarifies and improves the theoretical framework for water conservancy heritage of China.Examples are also cited to verify the feasibility and applicability of the theoretical framework built in the paper,providing reference for further study on China’s water conservancy heritage.The paper falls into two main sections.The first section systematically sorts out and summarizes progress of domestic and overseas heritage protection,research and practice,and on this basis,systematically clarifies and improves the theoretical framework for water conservancy heritage of China for the first time by referring to heritage protection development in similar industries and based on results of water conservancy heritage investigation.The paper also discusses the definition and features of water conservancy heritage,heritage structure and technical standard system to assess scientific and cultural values of heritage,heritage type,and value judgement elements,and proposes principles to address the problems such as ambiguity as to historical development and project history identification of project-type water conservancy heritage due to multiple changes and major modifications.It discusses the definition and features of water conservancy heritage,proposes the idea that identification of water conservancy heritage shall be based on its value judgement,and suggests universal value standards and unique value codes for water conservancy heritage.The paper explores the types of water conservancy heritage-project and non-project.It believes that for project-type water conservancy heritage,project history shall be analyzed and landmark water conservancy projects or events shall be used to divide its development history into time periods,and the period in which the overall structure and the main layout of the project came into shape shall be used to identify the project’s history.The paper presents the idea that the structure of water conservancy heritage shows a dual circle form,i.e.a combination of core and extensions-the core is a single subject and extensions may include the multiple derived heritage forms,including tangible and intangible forms.Preservation of water conservancy heritage must be built on the basis of fully recognizing heritage development process,heritage features and values.Priority level for preservation of water conservancy heritage and reusable space shall be rationally defined by adopting both rigid and flexible assessment systems,hence forming a multistep system that combines preservation and utilization.Main differences among different levels of water conservancy heritage are reflected by the stringent level of preservation and reuse compatibility.The second section selects two examples to verify the theoretical framework built in the paper.The two typical examples of water conservancy heritage are Lougang project of Taihu Lake and Huangqu canal of Xinjiang.The former is a large,complex,and typical example of water conservancy heritage in use,and the latter is an example of simple-structured water conservancy heritage.Detailed research has been conducted on the two examples:landmark water conservancy projects or events are used to divide the development history of water conservancy heritage into time periods,addressing ambiguous historical problems in the initial construction period and the completion period;historical documents and especially original maps are used to compare ancient project features with current ones based on field investigation of the overall structure and layout of contemporary projects so as to study project formation,development and evolution.Operation modes,evolution process and scientific values of official-civil cooperation in traditional projects are discussed based on studies of Lougang’s project management,organization management,annual repair system,folk sacrifice and water deity worship and from the angles of water conservancy projects and social and cultural relations.Significance of effective management to continuity of such projects is unveiled through a comparative study.By conducting the above research,the paper offers an in-depth analysis of the cultural connotation,heritage structure and value judgement of the two sites of water conservancy heritage.Preservation and utilization strategies are also proposed.