165. Dujangyan and Shingenteh: Lessons from the World's Longest Living Flood Control Works

Dujangyan, now a World Heritage Site, was built in Chengdu, China about 2250 years ago, while Shingenteh was constructed in Kofu, Japan about 400 years ago. Dujangyan is a water intake and Shingenteh is for flood control. Although the main purpose of each structure is different, the basic engineering challenge in both cases is flood control. They have both been in use since their construction to the present time without interruption. The concept of controlling floods on which both are based was similar: “let nature control nature”. This paper revisits this most potent concept and tries to compare it with the increasingly frequently employed counter-concept, namely the use of artificial power to control nature. After examination of the reasons for their long lives, it is concluded that civilization would be sustainable if successive generations of society could afford the maintenance costs, so as to continuously compensate for the stresses applied to nature. On the occasion of the UN Year of Freshwater, this paper calls for the revitalization of the wisdom captured by the phrase “Learn from nature, use nature and live as part of nature”.