Author(s): Xingya Xu
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Water Engineering Human-water relationship Dongting lake Flood disaster
Abstract: Water engineering promotes the development of economy and society by developing, utilizing, and protecting nature water such as stream, rivers and lakes. It is an important connection between human and water, and has a significant impact on the evolution of the relationship between humans and water. Taking the Dongting Lake in the Yangtze River Basin of China as a study case, it reveals the driving mechanism of water engineering construction on the evolution of human-water relations. Firstly, a conceptual model is constructed to illustrate the driven-feedback mechanism of human-water relationship of the Dongting Lake. Then, the historical evolution characteristics of population, lake area, cropland area, and flood frequency in Dongting Lake are analyzed since 1300s. By distinguishing the change of correlation between different factors with piecewise linear regression method, the human-water relationship in Dongting Lake was divided into four stages: independent, conflictive, confrontational and harmonious. Finally, an analysis was conducted on the driving mechanism of the four stages of water engineering construction on human- water relations, and it was pointed out that the construction of local irrigation facilities and large cascade reservoirs in the upstream played important roles in alleviating the tense human-water relations of the Dongting Lake.
Year: 2025