Research Projects: The History of Human-Water Interactions in East Asian Livelihood Complexes

muramatsu Koichi Research Institute for Oriental Cultures, Gakushuin University

ueda Makoto Faculty of Letters, Rikkyo University

tsuruma Kazuyuki Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University

bao Maohong Department of History, Peking University

yamanaka Norikazu Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University

kitagawa Hideki Faculty of Policy Science, Ryukoku University

an Jiesheng Institute of Chinese Historical Geography, Fudan University

iguro Shinobu Waseda Institute for Advanced Study

nawata Hiroshi RIHN

hou Yongjian Center for Historical Environment and Socio-Economic Development in Northwest China of Shaanxi Normal University

matsunaga Kohei RIHN

This project will describe a regional environmental history of human-water relationships within in a set of livelihood complexes found in four areas of the Loess Plateau. The area has a long history of human inhabitation, and several distinct livelihood complexes can be identified, as can a long sequence of both natural and anthropogenic environmental transformations. In particular, the availability and use of water has been a determining environmental factor throughout the history of the Loess Plateau, with great impact on human livelihood complexes. As many people continue to live in arid environments and are likely to experience even greater water scarcity in the coming decades, accurate understanding of the linked patterns of human and environmental change is necessary.

The objectives of this research are to describe the history of human-water relationships within a set of livelihood complexes in four areas of the Loess Plateau and to design a framework of practical countermeasures to solve environmental problems that emanate from the Plateau. In integrating environmental history arid-land forest science and environmental law and governance, we will link environmental and social dynamics in past, present and future.

Disciplinary dimension
Project research relies on the insights and methods of several academic disciplines, including environmental history, afforest science, and environmental law and policy. In combination, they will allow us to construct a detailed map of Loess Plateau environmental history, with particular detail regarding changes in plant ecology in relation to past and present human development in the area.

Time dimension
Project research pays particular attention to different forms of environmental knowledge, from traditional to futuristic, the ways in which this knowledge has changed through time, and the significance of different knowledge systems and change in specific environments.

Regional dimension
Yanan, Wuding Hu, Fen He, and Datong have been selected as case study sites. Research at these sites will allow a series of inter-comparison studies. As a whole, this inductive structure will produce a regional synthesis of human-water interactions on which practical countermeasures to environmental problems can be based.

We will construct a state-of-the-art map of environ-mental history of the Loess Plateau. An integration of environmental history, afforest science, and environmental law and policy is expected to contribute to a design-oriented, problem-solving approach to global environmental problems. Project research will be of special relevance to the current policy for converting farmland to forest and grasslands (i.e., the Grain-for-Green Project), and in mitigating transboundary environmental problems that extend from the Loess Plateau to the Bohai Sea through the Yellow River.