On October 6, the 2022 World Irrigation Engineering Heritage List was announced. The Duotian Irrigation and Drainage Engineering System in Jiangsu Province, Tongjiyan in Sichuan Province, Songyang Irrigation District in Zhejiang Province, and Shangpu Terrace in Chongyi in Jiangxi Province were on the list. In addition to the Jiangsu Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation District selected last year, Jiangsu already has two World Irrigation Engineering Heritage Sites.
What are the selection criteria for the World Irrigation Engineering Heritage, what are the lessons for the construction of modern water conservancy projects, and what other major "irrigation heritage" in Jiangsu? Xinhua Daily·Interchange reporter interviewed all parties concerned.
Industry and wisdom, creating a "world-class project"
In the water town Xinghua Duotian, people work according to the "duo", and live according to the "duo", each of them "floats" on the water, the water system is vertical and horizontal, endless as far as the eye can see ——This is the "Qiandao Scenery" displayed by the "Traditional Agricultural System of Duotian in Xinghua, Jiangsu". "Drinking water never forgets the people who dig wells. Today's irrigation and drainage projects are the result of thousands of years of Xinghua people's transformation of nature, hard work and wisdom." Liu Wenfeng, the former director of Xinghua Water Conservancy Bureau, said that the rivers in Xinghua are vertical and horizontal. It is the lowest place among the three major depressions in Lixiahe area, commonly known as "Guodiwa", which has always suffered from floods. In order to deal with the flood, the ancestors built wooden floating fields on the shallow water grass beach, built soil into piles, turned the removed river mud onto the field surface between the river ditches, and poured the mud on the top to form a platform-shaped highland more than 1 meter above the water surface. , and gradually formed today's Duotian. According to research, the Xinghua Duotian irrigation and drainage project can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty at the earliest. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it developed into a composite irrigation and drainage engineering system such as polders, irrigation and drainage channels, and sluices, which are still in use today. Because the duo and duo are surrounded by water on all sides, like an island on the sea, the bottom mud itself is very fertile, and the mud is poured on the duo field, which not only solves the problem of water and fertilizer, but also has a good thermal insulation effect and resists flood attacks.
Gaoyou located in the Lixia River area is also densely covered with river channels and has suffered from flooding since ancient times. "Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation Area" is located in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River and on the bank of the canal. It uses the canal water to irrigate thousands of hectares of fertile fields in Gaoyou.
"The formation of the 'li Canal -Gaoyou Irrigation District' is inseparably related to the natural features of Gaoyou." said Li Jiangan, deputy director of Gaoyou Water Conservancy Bureau. From a bird's-eye view of Gaoyou City, the canal embankment is higher than the urban area. The difference makes the city look like a basin, and the Grand Canal has become a "hanging river", so Gaoyou is also called "Yucheng". The Huaiyin to Guazhou section of the Grand Canal flows through here and is called the "Li Canal". Every year, when the Huaihe River floods and the Huai River flows southward, it must pass through Gaoyou Lake.
"Li Canal - Gaoyou Irrigation Area" water diversion irrigation can also be traced back to the Tang Dynasty more than 1200 years ago. At first, the function of the sluice was only to reduce water, but the canal also has a shipping function. If the water level is too high, the embankment is at risk of bursting. Later, through engineering measures, the ancients formed three major water storage carriers of lakes, rivers and ponds, and built four types of irrigation and water diversion channels: sluices, water tunnels, water gates, and dams. It is "similar in purpose" to the Chengdu Dujiangyan Water Conservancy Project, which is also a World Irrigation Heritage Site.
spoke highly of the two "World Irrigation Heritage Sites" in Jiangsu. Wang Min, full-time director of the Xinghua River Chief Office, said that the Xinghua Duotian irrigation and drainage project system is "the only one at home and abroad, and unique in the hinterland of the Lixia River". It has an important position in the history of irrigation and drainage engineering in the world. Professor Liu Xueying from Zhejiang Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, who participated in the application of the Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation District, said that in ancient times Gaoyou realized the water level balance of drought and flood regulation and the functional balance of irrigation and water transportation through water conservancy facilities, turning water damage into water conservancy. At that time, it could be described as "world-class level", with its unique historical value, scientific value, economic value and ecological value.
has been in good condition for thousands of years. It has been used for thousands of years. Xinghua Duotian irrigation and drainage engineering system is still in use today. Not only that, but also the traditional methods of planting, shoaling, scouring water, scouring mud, scouring, and scouring water plants. The farmland water conservancy farming method has been retained and used, and the old and ancient farm tools not only undertake agricultural production, but also an important medium to convey the tenacity and hardworking will of the ancestors.
Zaili Canal - Gaoyou Irrigation Area, Pingjinyan, Nanshuiguan Cave, Nanguan Dam, ZiThe heritage sites of weir and dam gate hydraulic facilities such as Ying Sluice are well preserved. Ziying Sluice, Jieshou Small Sluice, Nanshuiguan Cave, Pipa Cave and Cheluo Sluice have been built several times, and the main structure has been used to this day.
"It is well-preserved and has been used for a long time, which is an important selection criterion for the World Heritage." Chen Jing, Dean of the School of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Hohai University, told reporters that the selection of the World Irrigation Engineering Heritage requires a history of more than 100 years, which is still in use today. Able to adapt to modern production and lifestyle.
"always used", stemming from the lasting vitality and practical value of ancient irrigation projects. Shao Guoyu, director of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau of Xinghua City, said that the soil of Duotian is mostly humus soil, which contains a variety of trace elements. It is surrounded by water and has good ventilation and sufficient sunlight, which is convenient for watering and drainage. There will be no standing water. Therefore, Duotian has become the best growing place for dragon taro and chives. Among them, Xinghua chives grow on Duotian all year round, which is an important agricultural product in the traditional agricultural system of Xinghua Duotian, and has become a Chinese geographical indication product protected by EU . "Duotian grows two seasons of chives and one season of longxiang taro every year, and the income per mu is between 16,000 and 20,000 yuan." said Zhang Quan, party secretary of Gaojiadang Village, Duotian Street, Xinghua City.
"adapting to modern production and lifestyle" is a sustainable requirement for the World Heritage of Irrigation Engineering. Li Jiangan introduced that the Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation District was selected as the World Irrigation Engineering Heritage, behind the increasingly perfect protection, development and utilization of the irrigation area. While protecting the ancient projects, it was upgraded and transformed with modern technology. The gates along the canal used to be manually opened and closed, but now they are equipped with automatic control gates, which can realize remote telemetry and remote control, video monitoring, and promote the transformation of irrigation from "flooding irrigation" to "efficient and intensive" to facilitate farmland water use, Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation District The management office assigns a QR code to the gate, and the farmers will know when to open the gate and when to close the gate by scanning WeChat. "Irrigation of farmland in the irrigation area is only 20 yuan per mu, but it costs 40 yuan per mu outside the irrigation area." Lu Dengrong, a farmer in Jieshou Town, Gaoyou, said that the gate is equipped with an automatic control gate, which saves money and labor for farming.
On the basis of ancient hydraulic facilities, the two major irrigation projects have been continuously expanded. Hu Jinhui, director of the Gaoyou Irrigation District Management Office, said that at present, there are 9 main canals, 127 branch canals, 3,250 bucket canals, and more than 18,500 field buildings in the irrigation area. The connected drainage engineering system, the irrigation area has grown from tens of thousands of mu in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to more than 500,000 mu now, and it can reach 630,000 mu at the peak. Shao Guoyu introduced that Xinghua dredged the surrounding river channels and main production river channels of Duotian Village, and comprehensively rectified the irrigation and drainage projects, so that the project played the composite functions of drainage, irrigation, flood control, shipping, human settlement, ecology, and soil and water conservation. The total irrigation area is nearly 53 square kilometers. Jiangsu is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Huai River. One-sixth of the province's area is water, with all rivers, lakes, and seas. It has been nourished by water for thousands of years, and it has also encountered water troubles. In a sense, the history of achievements in Jiangsu's "land of fish and rice" is also a history of irrigation that turned flood problems into water conservancy. "This has left a rich heritage of irrigation engineering in Jiangsu." Chen Jing said, in addition to Xinghua Duotian and Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation District, Jiangsu also has a number of other dams, such as the Hongze Lake Embankment and the Tangpu polder system. It is a water conservancy heritage with regional characteristics and a long history.
is located in the 70-kilometer-long levee of Hongze Lake on the east bank of Hongze Lake in Huaian City, taking into account the functions of flood control, water storage and irrigation. Chen Jing introduced that in history, the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River and entered the sea, and diverted its route to the south many times, forming Hongze Lake in the Hongze Sag area upstream of Qingkou. In order to cooperate with the engineering strategy of "storing, clearing, and brushing yellow" and "steaming water and attacking sand" and solving the sediment deposition at the intersection of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River, the Ming and Qing dynasties built earth dams on the east side of Hongze Lake. The embankment, which lasted 171 years, has built large-scale projects such as water flow guidance, regulation, water distribution, water leveling, hydrological observation, flood control and drainage, and was evaluated as "the highest level of water conservancy and water transportation engineering technology in the East during the period of human agricultural civilization".
If it is said that the construction of the levee is to put a "tightening spell" on Hongze Lake, then a series of flood discharge and irrigation projects are equivalent to installing a "decompression valve" for Hongze Lake. In the 70 years since the Huaihe River was governed, Hongze Lake has successively built four main flood discharge channels, which respectively lead the water from the upper reaches of the Huaihe River to the Yangtze River, the Northern Jiangsu Irrigation Canal and other rivers.
"Suhu Lake is ripe, and the world is full." In the Taihu Lake watershed, "Tangpu polder" has transformed the original low-lying waterlogged land into fertile land through the criss-crossing artificial water network ("Tangpu"). The excavation of river channels has formed a "land of fish and rice" with abundant products in the Taihu Lake Basin.
Similar to the Lixia River area, the Taihu Lake Basin is also a water country. The wise ancients made walls with bamboo fences and wood, gradually separating the soil and water, forming criss-crossing rivers and arable land. Among them, the ones that are parallel to the shoreline of Taihu Lake are called "ponds", and the ones that are vertical are called "pu", "lu" and "gang". dike". Water runs outside the polder, and fields form inside the polder, creating a large area of polder. In the history of
, the Tangpu polder system was founded in Spring and Autumn , and formed in and Song Dynasty. Yang Wanli "Ten Interpretations of Polding Poems" describes the Tangpu polders like this: "The polders are encircled! Fields are enclosed inside, and water is enclosed outside. Each polder is dozens of miles away, like a big city, with rivers and canals outside. The gate will be opened when it is dry, and it will be closed when it is flooded, so as to prevent the harm of rivers and lakes, and the drought and flood are not enough, which is beneficial to farmers.”
The Tangpu polder system continues to this day, shaping the mechanism of the water town in the Taihu Lake Basin. But in the coastal area of Yancheng, a section of the seawall project has been buried in the dust and smoke of history and turned into a part of today's national highway - National Road 204.
In the Northern Song Dynasty 1023, when Fan Zhongyan served as the salt officer of Taizhou Xixi (now Dongtai urban west), he wrote Taizhou Zhizhou Zhang Lun built the Haiyan Weir, "Flooding will not harm the salt industry, and it will block the tide water. Do not harm crops". After the construction of the dike, more than 3,000 households who fled the famine returned to their hometowns, benefiting from both farming and kitchen. The coastal area of Dongtai has not been affected by the tide for more than 90 consecutive years, and there are a lot of fertile fields around.
The stars are changing, and the seas are changing. As the coastal shallow seas became land one after another, the Republic of China began to reclaim waste stoves and reclaimed cotton. Nowadays, with the development of highway traffic in Jiangsu, the 204 National Road has been relocated and widened, and many sections have left the ancient Fangong Dike, but there are still fragments of the Fangong Dike in Caoyan Town, Dafeng District.
Harmony between people and water, and the concept of water control "the past serves the present"
From Xinghua Duotian to Taihu polder, from Hongze Lake Embankment to Li Canal - Gaoyou Irrigation District, the irrigation heritage has witnessed the hard-working and intelligent Jiangsu people's struggle against water and transformation of nature. , has left us a rich cultural heritage and precious spiritual wealth.
"The river has ten thousand bends and many clear waters, and the fields have no piles of yellow flowers" - in the water town Xinghua, the water town wonders achieved by irrigation projects have become the landscape of rural tourism. The annual "Thousand Duo Cauliflower Festival ", attracts a large number of tourists. In order to protect the Duotian landscape, in November 2020, Jiangsu issued the "Taizhou Duotian Protection Regulations", which clarified the protection planning, management, utilization and inheritance of Duotian. As an immovable cultural relic, Xinghua Duotian was also listed as the eighth batch of national cultural relics protection units. The construction technology of Gaoyou Irrigation Area is particularly outstanding. The Pingjinyan site is also a national key cultural relics protection unit. The main body of Nanguan Dam is a strip-stone structure, the foundation is dense fir piles, and the surrounding is three-helix soil. Lime is used between the stones. The glutinous rice juice is poured and connected with iron ingots, and the dam surface forms a streamlined overflow surface. Such a well-structured dam has survived thousands of years of floods and is still well-preserved. In addition to the rich shoal wetlands in the irrigation area, there are more than 500 kinds of wild animals and plants, and the three-dimensional planting and breeding of "rice and duck co-cropping" is of great tourism development value.
Today, many places in the province have recognized the tourism value of the water vein site and developed it into a characteristic tourist destination. Chen Wen, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested that while developing irrigation tourism, don't forget the cultural connotations of heritage. "We must reminisce about the fundamentals of agricultural farming, inherit the development concept and labor concept of our ancestors, and appreciate the beauty of cauliflower and the style of lake fields, while not forgetting the value of irrigation projects and agricultural activities, and feeling the teaching of 'everything is hard work'. "
"The protection and utilization of irrigation heritage not only shows the history, culture and material form of the project, but also draws on the wisdom concept of the ancestors of 'the past serves the present'." Tan Xuming, chairman of the Water Conservancy History and Water Heritage Professional Committee of the China Hydraulic Society, believes that systematic It is the idea of irrigation engineering that has been passed down for thousands of years in my country. Like "Li Canal-Gaoyou Irrigation Area"The advanced nature is not only reflected in the construction of dikes to adjust the water level of the canal, following the water control idea of "deficiency prevention and excess drainage", but also in the comprehensive utilization of water diversion channels of gates, holes, gates and dams to form a complete irrigation water system. This suggests that we should start with planning, pay attention to systematic thinking, make full use of local water and soil resources, and make the best use of local conditions and circumstances when constructing water conservancy projects.
The World Irrigation Engineering Heritage has survived thousands of years of floods, which proves its success in engineering technology. "In the ancient times when the industry was underdeveloped, people used the method of 'four or two to move a thousand pounds' to make clever use of nature, avoid disasters and even turn waste into treasure, so that water and fields, irrigation and farming were skillfully combined." Chen Wen believes that these still play a role today. The irrigation project reflects the ancients' concept of "integration of man and water" and harmonious development between man and nature, and its concept of low cost, green circulation and sustainable development is timeless.
"It is the ancestors who made use of nature to transform nature reasonably and make Jiangsu a land of fish and rice, which reflects the pragmatic and sophisticated spiritual core of Jiangsu ancestors." Chen Jing said that with the rapid development of society, we might as well be quiet Come down, pay attention to and excavate the wisdom of the ancients to get along with nature, obtain auxiliary production materials from nature, and obtain productivity from nature without harming nature. From today's point of view, the agricultural water conservancy project does not necessarily require comprehensiveness, but can carry out "low-impact development" in the form of micro-scale and implement diversified transformation.
Xinhua Daily · Junction reporter Hong Ye Ye Zhen Cheng Xiaolin Wu Qiong Gu Weizhong
