The Yellow River : The Problem of Water in Modern China / David A. Pietz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pietz, David A., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Water--Pollution--China.

Water.

Water--Purification--China.

Economic development--Environmental aspects--China.

Economic development.

Yellow River (China).

North China Plain (China).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (382 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Flowing through the heart of the North China Plain—home to 200 million people—the Yellow River sustains one of China’s core regions. Yet this vital water supply has become highly vulnerable in recent decades, with potentially serious repercussions for China’s economic, social, and political stability. The Yellow River is an investigative expedition to the source of China’s contemporary water crisis, mapping the confluence of forces that have shaped the predicament that the world’s most populous nation now faces in managing its water reserves. Chinese governments have long struggled to maintain ecological stability along the Yellow River, undertaking ambitious programs of canal and dike construction to mitigate the effects of recurrent droughts and floods. But particularly during the Maoist years the North China Plain was radically re-engineered to utilize every drop of water for irrigation and hydroelectric generation. As David A. Pietz shows, Maoist water management from 1949 to 1976 cast a long shadow over the reform period, beginning in 1978. Rapid urban growth, industrial expansion, and agricultural intensification over the past three decades of China’s economic boom have been realized on a water resource base that was acutely compromised, with effects that have been more difficult and costly to overcome with each passing decade. Chronicling this complex legacy, The Yellow River provides important insight into how water challenges will affect China’s course as a twenty-first-century global power.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables

Introduction

1. On the Ecological Margins

2. Management and Mismanagement in the Imperial Period

3. Transforming the Land of Famine

4. Making the Water Run Clear

5. Creating a Garden on the North China Plain

6. Managing Legacies, Managing Growth

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

9780674966925

0674966929

9780674736108

0674736109

OCLC:

897600732