Author(s): H.B. Gu; Qianli Guo; P. Lin; Y. Zhang
Linked Author(s): Pengzhi Lin, Yingfeng Zhang
Keywords: Ancient Tuoshan Weir; Flood diversion; Irrigation; Salt-prevention; Storing fresh water
Abstract: Ningbo is a coastal city on the southern arm of Hangzhou bay opposite to Shanghai. In ancient time Ningbo was called Mingzhou, which is located in the west part of the present city, Yinjiang town. The region had been always encountered flood from Zhangxi river originating from Siming Mountain, and saline intrusion from East Sea across Yinjiang river before Tuoshan Weir constructed. The Weir is an important engineering project in water resource regulation and control in the ancient Ningbo city, which was built in 833 and conception designed by local county head Yuanwei Wang. Its hydraulic system had been well designed for preventing salty water from Youjiang (to Yinjiang) river going upstream to Zhangxi river, diversion flood water from Zhangxi river to Youjiang, storing fresh water in several water ponds and irrigation western Yinjiang plain. The project has been a complicated hydraulic system consists of 5 weirs, 9 dams and 13 ponds at that time. At present the basic layout is keeping as its original working. The designing conception will be described in this paper. Then the famous Tuoshan Weir will be presented according to its scale, materials, structure, construction and its history. The functions of the system will be introduced in details. Current status is also presented to illustrate its perfect working mechanism lasting in a long historical process, which has been playing a great role for more than 1180 years. Finally, some suggestion will be discussed to let people emphasize its function in the future.
Year: 2018