Drainage in Ancient China: Historical Wisdom and Lessons

Abstract: China as a country has an extensive history of drainage engineering. However, the purpose of drainage in the ancient ages was for flood control, river management, irrigation, urban water supply and waste water management, storm water drainage, etc. Also, the ancient Chinese society was made up of the rural society and the urban society. Accordingly, the functions of drainage in the rural areas was for flood management and irrigation purpose, and that of the urban area was also for managing flood, storm water and waste water control. According to the idea of Chinese ancestor, riverside was strongly considered as a major priority before a city is established. However, almost all the early influential cites in China were established near the rivers, just like Xi'an, Beijing, Nanjing, etc. During the ancient ages, the city governors did not only apply great efforts in developing water supply system continually in the cities, but also improved the drainage systems at same time. The archeological evidence showed that drainage facilities have long existed at the early city in Henan province in 2300 BC. Therefore, it was also evidenced that drainage system began from early designs and was developed along as the city develops. The traditional water system comprises of drainage system that had been in existence in most Chinese Cities before the current great urbanization in the 1980s. Thus, the incomplete drainage system of the current rapid urbanization process has brought more and more problems like storm flood and water pollution which does not just occur fre quently in common cities but also in major cities like Beijing, Tianjin, etc. As a result, it requires us to rethink on the drainage situation in the current enlarging process of the cities, and to proffer solutions especially by learning from history. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the idea and process of the drainage in the history of China and the lessons learnt from history so as to proffer solution to water risk in current urbanization.

Key words: China Drainage, Historical Wisdom, Lessons