The Longue Durée of Weitian Landscapes in the Yangtze River Delta

Authors

  • Wei Lei KU Leuven
  • Kelly Shannon KU Leuven
  • Bruno De Meulder KU Leuven

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2024.2.13

Keywords:

polders, canals, deltaic landscape, water urbanism, mapping

Abstract

The ancient weitian (polder) system in the Yangtze River Delta represents a particular form of water urbanism, integrating productive polders, villages and prosperous water towns (shui-xiang). Over millennia, the hudangweitian (shallow lake polders) transformed the muddy plains around Taihu Lake into a highly productive area. Zhenze, founded in the twelfth century, is an important water town that initially operated within a network of garrisons and trading ports. This case study illustrates the resilience of weitian landscapes and how twentieth-century water management reshaped the small polders into larger wei-qu (polder zones) through a process of lian-wei-bing-wei (joined and merged polders). While urbanization and industrialization continue to erase many historic polders, the region’s water towns are being preserved and developed, largely for tourism. The case highlights both the benefits and shortcomings of the weitian transformations, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that both facilitates development and preserves the region’s unique deltaic conditions.

How to Cite

Lei, W., Shannon, K., & De Meulder, B. (2024). The Longue Durée of Weitian Landscapes in the Yangtze River Delta. Blue Papers, 3(2), 164–75. https://doi.org/10.58981/bluepapers.2024.2.13

Published

2024-11-21

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2024): Water & Heritage for Sustainable Development

Section

methodologies and case studies

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Wei Lei, Kelly Shannon, Bruno De Meulder

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Wei Lei, KU Leuven

Wei Lei is a landscape architect by training and a PhD candidate in OSA (Research Group Urbanism and Architecture), in the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering Science, KU Leuven. Inspired by the notion of landscape urbanism in his graduate studies, he began doctoral research in 2021 on water-based urbanism in China’s Yangtze River Delta, supervised by professors Kelly Shannon and Bruno De Meulder.

Kelly Shannon, KU Leuven

Kelly Shannon teaches urbanism at KU Leuven, is the program director of the Master of Human Settlements (MaHS) degree and the Master of Urbanism, Landscape and Planning (MaULP) degree and a member of the KU Leuven’s Social and Societal Ethics Committee (SMEC). She received her architecture degree at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh), a post-graduate degree at the Berlage Institute (Amsterdam), and a PhD at the University of Leuven, where she focused on landscape to guide urbanization in Vietnam. She has also taught at the University of Colorado (Denver), Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, the University of Southern California, Peking University and The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, among others. Before entering academia, Shannon worked with Hunt Thompson (London), Mitchell Giurgola Architects (New York), Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Genoa) and Gigantes Zenghelis (Athens). Most of her work focuses on the evolving relation of landscape, infrastructure and urbanization.

Bruno De Meulder, KU Leuven

Bruno De Meulder teaches urbanism at KU Leuven, and is the current program coordinator of MaHS and MaULP and the vice-chair of the Department of Architecture. With Kelly Shannon and Viviana d’Auria, he formed the OSA Research Group on Architecture and Urbanism. He studied engineering architecture at KU Leuven, where he also obtained his PhD. He was a guest professor at TU Delft and AHO (Oslo) and held the Chair of Urban Design at Eindhoven University of Technology from 2001 to 2012. He was a partner of WIT Architecten (1994–2005). His doctoral research dealt with the history of Belgian colonial urbanism in Congo (1880–1960) and laid the basis for a widening interest in colonial and postcolonial urbanism. His urban design experience intertwines urban analysis and projection and engages with the social and ecological challenges that characterize our times.

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