Digital Analysis of the Water Layout Ecological Wisdom in Traditional Chinese Rural Settlements: A Case Study of Liukeng Village in Jiangxi Province

Abstract

During the long-term construction and development process of eliminating water disasters and promoting water conservancy in traditional settlements, a set of mature strategies that have simple ecological wisdom in water layout have been formed by adapting to the natural water environment and utilizing the regional water system. This study conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the water layout strategies and their effects on Liukeng Village from three aspects: deciphering the water systematic pattern, calculating the spatial characteristics and quantifying the water environment, to explore the technical assistance and potential of water layout research in traditional rural settlements. The results indicated that Liukeng has an unambiguously systematic water layout pattern of source diversion, middle drainage and end purification of the water. Through 3D point cloud computing, it was shown that the site selection made accurate use of micro-topography and adopted the strategy of a multi-source water management. It formed an organic water system pattern, which provided sufficient water sources for all kinds of needs of Liukeng Village.The Dragon Lake in Liukeng held 83.0% of the precipitation, and the vegetation area accounted for 34.7% of the total area of Liukeng, which had high surface permeability and good middle drainage effects. Water detection showed that the Dragon Lake provided good water quality and purification. The purposes of this study are to fill the gap in previous non-quantitative research on water layout in traditional rural settlements, excavate the hidden information and value of settlements, and deepen our understanding of the ecological wisdom of the overall planning, layout and construction of water conservancy in traditional rural settlements. This knowledge can assist the win-win situation of water conservancy cultural heritage protection and modern utilization. It also provides useful inspiration and reference for properly dealing with the problems of rain and flooding, realizing the sustainability of water resources, and protecting the ecological environment in the process of the development and construction of village settlements in China.