The Flood Adaptive Landscapes In Ancient Chinese Cities Of Shangqiu Area

The Yellow River is well-known for its high sediment yield throughout the world. The flooding frequency of the Yellow River is relatively high compared with other rivers around the world, especially in the downstream region, the riverway changed frequently, forming a large area of inundated plain.Shangqiu area had been in the center of Yellow River floodplain from A.D1128 to A.D1855. The ancient cities in Shangqiu area include Shangqiu, Yucheng, Xiayi, Yongcheng, Luyi, Zhecheng, Suixian, Ningling, Kaocheng. During the long struggling history against flood and silting disasters, people acquired lots of valuable experience about how to control and mediate floods. The unique flood and waterlogging adaptive landscapes is created gradually, which can be seen as the city's identity.The flood adaptive landscapes had been lasting a long time durning the stage of farming. Until it changed in modern times . In recent years, with the rapid process of urbanization and industrialization, the adaptive landscapes are being destroyed critically.From the study on several ancient cities in the Yellow River floodplain of China, we can learn the evolution of the flood adaptive landscapes and some past experience of adaptive strategies in the long history of survival under hazardous conditions. Today, not only the adaptive landscapes as historical heritage should be valued, but aslo we can reuse the heritage landscapes to solve the current multiple water problems for daily life.