Sea changes of sandbanks and reclamation of shallows in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the modern period

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Yangtze River waterway is an open and dynamic natural system, where we see natural changes such as soil and water loss, river flooding, and rise and collapse of sandbanks and activities people carried out for land reclamation in the waterfront lowlands. Riverine island, a typical waterfront lowland, is formed by the sediment carried by the water from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River when it is blocked, slowed down, and silted up in the process. It needs the protection of the dam. As important water conservancy facilities in lowland society, dams are, in fact, the result of state intervention and local self-organization governance. People’s adaptation to and transformation of the ecological environment in the waterfront region mainly revolves around the rise, collapse, and reclamation of the land and water control, which demonstrates the dynamic balance between “man and nature.” Since the late Qing, the north branch of Zhangjiazhou has gradually developed into a curved channel; the north bank has been eroded by water and accelerated to collapse, whereas the south bank has gradually silted up. The residents who lived on the north bank of the Yangtze River went to the south bank to reclaim land, resulting in continuous disputes over the reclamation of the new alluvial land. People realized their own demands for land reclamation by organizing groups beyond villages and families and using regulations on reclamation or land laws. This demonstrates that in the modern period the state and its institutional construction played a more important role in “confirming the rights” of the new alluvial land.