Somehow none of the formatting and videos made it to the newsletter. I just edited again everything so it shows properly. It might have been due to an oversight since I spent a day in the hospital this week.
Given what Tomas has said about the Yellow River I'll grant that the Chinese must be very familiar with this. But I feel like it should be the kind of thing that is more obvious outside of China, as well. I live in Alaska, and have flown to Nome over large patches of land that, from the air, are basically silt and mud with the patterns of old, twisting rivers left in them--and somehow I still missed this, which amazes me because in retrospect it is so obvious, and ties so many things together.
One of most famous irrigation system is The Dujiang Dam or Dujiangyan irrigation system which located in China. With good maintance it benefit Chinese over 2200 years.
In China, Chengdu is always praised as the Tian Fu Zhi Guo, which means 'Nature's Storehouse'. Over 2,200 years ago, the city was threatened by the frequent floods caused by flooding of the Minjiang River (a tributary of the Yangtze River). Li Bing, a local official of Sichuan Province at that time, together with his son, decided to construct an irrigation system on the Minjiang River to prevent flooding. After a lengthy study and a lot of hard work by the local people, the great Dujiangyan Irrigation System was completed. Since then, the Chengdu Plain has been free of flooding and the people have been living peacefully and affluently.
Leshan Giant Buddha is also the byproduct of human wrestling with river around 1200 year ago。To tame the river ， human take sandstone from the mountain，and create the giant Buddha 。
Three minutes to understand Dujiangyan with games. Look at this big river called Minjiang River, and this plain is Chengdu. Historically, the Minjiang River was a suspended river with a higher terrain than Chengdu. What if Feng expects the water level to rise? Then we raise the water level to see that the water level of Minjiang River rises and the dike burst during the high water period. The flood flooded Chengdu, and the Minjiang River did not flow through Chengdu and could not irrigate farmland. Therefore, we can open an opening here, which can lead water to Chengdu, which can not only irrigate farmland, but also discharge flood, this is the mouth of the treasure bottle in Dujiangyan. However, it is not enough to control the mouth of the treasure bottle. Therefore, it is necessary to build a fish mouth here to divide the Minjiang River into two to form the Inner River and the Outer River, and the Outer River should be wider. Then the bottom of the Outer River should be raised to finally form the layout of the Inner river Deep Station and the Outer River shallow and wide.
Why is it so laid out? Let me show you the different water levels. First of all, lower the water level and simulate the dry season. Because the Inner River is deep and the outer river is shallow, looking at the comparison between the total water volume of the outer river and the total water volume of the Inner River, the Outer river is only divided into 40%, while the water of the Inner River is divided into 60%, and the water becomes the mainstream river. If the water level drops again, even the outer river has no water, it also ensures that the only water flows to the Inner River, and there is enough water to irrigate the headquarters during the dry season.
Then we increase the water level and simulate the wet season. I will take you to the bottom of the water and look outside. Jiangyin is wide inside, so the water discharged accounts for more than six layers. Drainage plays a role in flood discharge during wet season, while Inner river accounts for four layers, which is the famous "split the water by 40% 60%". But this is not enough. At the mouth of the treasure bottle, the mouth of the treasure bottle controls the amount of water. What if there is too much water? So we can open a river here, and the most important thing is to make the river bed higher.
Why this design? The lowering of our water level, that is, the dry season, ensures that the slurry water only flows to the mouth of the bottle. When we raise the water level to see the flood season, the excess water will be discharged to the Outer river through here. This is the second-level automatic diversion of Dujiangyan, called Feishayan. However, Dujiangyan not only flows water, but also diverts sediment. Because the Inner River is in the recess of the Minjiang River and the outer river is protruding. As we all know, sediment is more likely to protrude into giant size. Therefore, the Neijiang River is only divided into two layers of sediment and 80% of the outer river. This is the famous "split the sand by 20% 80%", and it is not over yet. Because the Neijiang River is also curved, at the mouth of the treasure bottle, the water flow will flow back due to the separation from the pile, and the sediment will fall down the flying sand weir under the action of centrifugal force. Therefore, the height of the flying sand weir is required not to be too high, otherwise the sediment cannot pass through, and another part of the sediment will accumulate in the air nest. Every year, someone will dig the river to clean up, in this way, the role of burning sand again is achieved.
Feisha Weir, a method of digging rivers by Xu Haiyan and Fengqi Wo, must have six tapes, deep sand washing, low weir making, and then playing games. Without river sand, this thing cannot be demonstrated. The overall automatic diversion of Dujiangyan has not only solved floods, sediment, but also irrigated farmland, thus making Chengdu a land of abundance.
Good timing. Central Europe is hit by flooding with most of the damage happening in the past week, a few dams broke in Poland and Czechia causing flash floods.
I used to teach kids about meanders and oxbow lakes etc - at a much more basic level! Thanks again for the depth of research. Hope you’re feeling better from whatever it was Tomas.
Thank you for sharing this! This has been a pet interest of mine since I lived in New Orleans a few years back and became obsessed with the Old River Control Structure on the Mississippi. It makes me wonder about sustainability - not in the sense that Green Party types use the word, but in wondering to what degree over what length of time something can be maintained. In the super-long term such a widget will always be overpowered by nature’s force. But I do wonder if any major infrastructure like this on rivers was constructed in the ancient world / whether any projects have survived even partially.
Fascinating. I especially like the radiograph visuals. They show both the floodplain and the oxbow lakes.
Regarding man's interventions of rivers, the Euphrates, which ran right through the center of Babylon, was diverted by Darius so that his troops could sneak right under the wall and into the city for a surprise nighttime attack. That's how Babylon, which was thought to be impregnable, was conquered in one night.
Somehow none of the formatting and videos made it to the newsletter. I just edited again everything so it shows properly. It might have been due to an oversight since I spent a day in the hospital this week.
Did you? Sorry to hear, hope you're ok
This just blows my mind. How have I not heard of this before?
Thank you for what you do. This is spectacular.
This is one of my favorite things: finding some pattern that drives a lot of our world but we barely realize!
Same here. We just look in different places. :-D
Because you're not Chinese? There's a reason why the Yellow River is called both the Mother River and China's Sorrow.
Given what Tomas has said about the Yellow River I'll grant that the Chinese must be very familiar with this. But I feel like it should be the kind of thing that is more obvious outside of China, as well. I live in Alaska, and have flown to Nome over large patches of land that, from the air, are basically silt and mud with the patterns of old, twisting rivers left in them--and somehow I still missed this, which amazes me because in retrospect it is so obvious, and ties so many things together.
One of most famous irrigation system is The Dujiang Dam or Dujiangyan irrigation system which located in China. With good maintance it benefit Chinese over 2200 years.
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/sichuan/chengdu/dujiangyan.htm
In China, Chengdu is always praised as the Tian Fu Zhi Guo, which means 'Nature's Storehouse'. Over 2,200 years ago, the city was threatened by the frequent floods caused by flooding of the Minjiang River (a tributary of the Yangtze River). Li Bing, a local official of Sichuan Province at that time, together with his son, decided to construct an irrigation system on the Minjiang River to prevent flooding. After a lengthy study and a lot of hard work by the local people, the great Dujiangyan Irrigation System was completed. Since then, the Chengdu Plain has been free of flooding and the people have been living peacefully and affluently.
2nd time this week that I get my attention drawn to Sichuan. I will need to study it better at some point!
Leshan Giant Buddha is also the byproduct of human wrestling with river around 1200 year ago。To tame the river ， human take sandstone from the mountain，and create the giant Buddha 。
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:5089298819514431
Here is the video demo of how Dujiang Dam spilt water during rainny period and dry period, how to spilt the sandiment for irrigation.
Here's the script translation of the video
Three minutes to understand Dujiangyan with games. Look at this big river called Minjiang River, and this plain is Chengdu. Historically, the Minjiang River was a suspended river with a higher terrain than Chengdu. What if Feng expects the water level to rise? Then we raise the water level to see that the water level of Minjiang River rises and the dike burst during the high water period. The flood flooded Chengdu, and the Minjiang River did not flow through Chengdu and could not irrigate farmland. Therefore, we can open an opening here, which can lead water to Chengdu, which can not only irrigate farmland, but also discharge flood, this is the mouth of the treasure bottle in Dujiangyan. However, it is not enough to control the mouth of the treasure bottle. Therefore, it is necessary to build a fish mouth here to divide the Minjiang River into two to form the Inner River and the Outer River, and the Outer River should be wider. Then the bottom of the Outer River should be raised to finally form the layout of the Inner river Deep Station and the Outer River shallow and wide.
Why is it so laid out? Let me show you the different water levels. First of all, lower the water level and simulate the dry season. Because the Inner River is deep and the outer river is shallow, looking at the comparison between the total water volume of the outer river and the total water volume of the Inner River, the Outer river is only divided into 40%, while the water of the Inner River is divided into 60%, and the water becomes the mainstream river. If the water level drops again, even the outer river has no water, it also ensures that the only water flows to the Inner River, and there is enough water to irrigate the headquarters during the dry season.
Then we increase the water level and simulate the wet season. I will take you to the bottom of the water and look outside. Jiangyin is wide inside, so the water discharged accounts for more than six layers. Drainage plays a role in flood discharge during wet season, while Inner river accounts for four layers, which is the famous "split the water by 40% 60%". But this is not enough. At the mouth of the treasure bottle, the mouth of the treasure bottle controls the amount of water. What if there is too much water? So we can open a river here, and the most important thing is to make the river bed higher.
Why this design? The lowering of our water level, that is, the dry season, ensures that the slurry water only flows to the mouth of the bottle. When we raise the water level to see the flood season, the excess water will be discharged to the Outer river through here. This is the second-level automatic diversion of Dujiangyan, called Feishayan. However, Dujiangyan not only flows water, but also diverts sediment. Because the Inner River is in the recess of the Minjiang River and the outer river is protruding. As we all know, sediment is more likely to protrude into giant size. Therefore, the Neijiang River is only divided into two layers of sediment and 80% of the outer river. This is the famous "split the sand by 20% 80%", and it is not over yet. Because the Neijiang River is also curved, at the mouth of the treasure bottle, the water flow will flow back due to the separation from the pile, and the sediment will fall down the flying sand weir under the action of centrifugal force. Therefore, the height of the flying sand weir is required not to be too high, otherwise the sediment cannot pass through, and another part of the sediment will accumulate in the air nest. Every year, someone will dig the river to clean up, in this way, the role of burning sand again is achieved.
Feisha Weir, a method of digging rivers by Xu Haiyan and Fengqi Wo, must have six tapes, deep sand washing, low weir making, and then playing games. Without river sand, this thing cannot be demonstrated. The overall automatic diversion of Dujiangyan has not only solved floods, sediment, but also irrigated farmland, thus making Chengdu a land of abundance.
You should take a look at the lower Mississippi, specifically the Old River Control structure.
Good timing. Central Europe is hit by flooding with most of the damage happening in the past week, a few dams broke in Poland and Czechia causing flash floods.
Terrific essay. Thank you.
I am teaching Heidegger's essay on technology this semester, and will cite your passage on the Rhine.
What’s the connection?
The LA River, being the perfect analogy for the city itself!
Wonderful!
The solution for fishs dying in dams is nanobots invading their brain and steering the through fish stairs. Change my mind.
I used to teach kids about meanders and oxbow lakes etc - at a much more basic level! Thanks again for the depth of research. Hope you’re feeling better from whatever it was Tomas.
I’m as good as new, and very excited about all that’s coming!
Very interesting... thank you
Thank you for sharing this! This has been a pet interest of mine since I lived in New Orleans a few years back and became obsessed with the Old River Control Structure on the Mississippi. It makes me wonder about sustainability - not in the sense that Green Party types use the word, but in wondering to what degree over what length of time something can be maintained. In the super-long term such a widget will always be overpowered by nature’s force. But I do wonder if any major infrastructure like this on rivers was constructed in the ancient world / whether any projects have survived even partially.
Fascinating. I especially like the radiograph visuals. They show both the floodplain and the oxbow lakes.
Regarding man's interventions of rivers, the Euphrates, which ran right through the center of Babylon, was diverted by Darius so that his troops could sneak right under the wall and into the city for a surprise nighttime attack. That's how Babylon, which was thought to be impregnable, was conquered in one night.
I didn't know. Fascinating!
Amazing piece. Thanks for sharing. There’s one piece of media in there that still has a placeholder, in the section about wetlands and vegetation
Thanks for letting me know! Everything is now corrected. Please look at it and LMK what you think!
One? Three of them. Search the page for "INSERT VIDEO".
Corrected thanks!