Study On Human Settlements Landscape In Middle Reaches Of Yangtze River

Over the past decades, under the reform and opening policies, China's economy has undergone enormous tremendous development. Meanwhile, the environment of urban and rural settlement has been an unprecedented change. But it is also leading to the continuous deterioration of the natural environment, the damages of historical and cultural monuments, and the issues of loss of cultural identity in both urban and rural regions.The watershed of middle reach of Yangtze River, from Yichang to Jiujiang, is a region with favorable condition of natural environment and without serious ecological degradation. It is a moderately developed region, which has great development potentialities. In this region, however, there is certain indication that the environment carrying capacity is limited. Thus, it is badly in need of planning control and guidance in the region.According to the development trends and ecosystem characteristics, the watershed of middle reach of Yangtze River, the largest area and most important position in economy and ecology in our country, can be divided into three sections. Since the upper reach and lower reach of the river have been studied by a number of scholars and got rich research achievements, author more concerns about middle reach of the river based on the professional planning practice experiences in that region for many years. In the history of the last two hundred years, the frequency of flooding and damage potentials keep rapid increasing, this indicates that the ecosystem of middle reach of the river is becoming imbalance recently. Meanwhile, form cultural ecology point of view, we should understand that how to inherit the plentiful local historic heritage and how to learn culture evolution. In the process of modernization and urbanization, it is critical to maintain the character of a place, and all the developments must be designed to accommodate the preservation of that uniqueness.Through history review and the analysis of the contemporary landscape of human settlements, the dissertation starts form the case studies on the emergence, formation and development of landscape of human settlements in Lianghu flatlands and Poyanghu flatlands, and then summaries the characteristics of landscape of human settlement in the middle reach of Yangtze River, which explores an integrated approach for human beings, nature and society, and find the new way to respond not only for the protection of landscape of human settlement and also for the development in scientific approach.The dissertation consists of seven parts:Section one is an introduction to the study subject --"settlement landscape in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River". This part defines the spatial and temporal scales of the study object. It not only gives the definition of settlement landscape, but also briefly introduces the intention,extension and classification of cultural landscape. In accordance with present situation and existing defects, the innovation points and research framework will be addressed. The relationship between historic and contemporary should be dialectical unity and sustainability, and it eventually reaches variety and harmony unity in the structure of settlement landscape.In section two, the analysis has been done on the aspects of the evolution process and contemporary problem for settlement landscape in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The statement is that the natural geography background is the basis factor for shaping the settlement landscape, and local culture background is the key factor for the formation of settlement landscape.Section three discusses the natural and economic culture background and the cultural characteristics of settlement landscape in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. To explore the cultural value intension, there have been some significant attempts to analysis from in-depth examination of culture intrinsic composition.Section four is the study on the settlement landscape system in the integration way in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. There are separate case studies on the cluster of cities and major cities along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.Section five deals with ecological protection and tourism development of settlement landscape in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Basis on culture decoding and composing of settlement landscape, this study is intended to develop an integrate way for ecological protection, tourism development are also involved.Section six focuses on the system of harmonious settlement landscape in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It generally explores the sustainable way of the settlement landscape in theory and method of planning and finds the way to identify regional characteristics in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.In section seven, it is concluded that harmonious settlement landscape represents of entity space in harmonious society.