- Problems and Countermeasures of Dujiangyan Agricultural Area Protection during the Rapid Urbanization in Chengdu   click here to open paper content540 kb
by    Lin, Yuan & Lin, Yuan | yuanlin018@126.com   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
To protect the Dujiangyan agricultural area during rapid urbanization in
Chengdu, the paper suggests reiterating the ‘traditional Dujiangyan
watershed area’ in the Qing Dynasty, strictly limiting urban growth within
this range, and demarcating ‘Dujiangyan Essential Agricultural Heritage
Areas’ to protect the farm land, human settlements, watershed and
traditional
culture comprehensively.
Abstract
Dujiangyan Irrigation area contains high-quality farmland, artificial
drainage system, unique Lin-Pan settlements and traditional rural culture,
which are gradually formed in thousands of years in China’s history. During
the recent 20 years, the rapid urbanization in Chengdu has caused serious
threats to the traditional agricultural area. The government in Chengdu has
taken a variety of policies and economic measures to protect the Dujiangyan
Irrigation area, but they haven’t produced a significant effect in the
background of urban-rural integrated rapid urbanization. The present
urbanization process is still causing rapid damage to farm land, watershed
and Lin-Pan human settlements. From 2004 to 2006, the number of Lin-Pan
human settlements in Pi County in Dujiangyan watershed decreases from 11000
to 8700 (1150 per year), and from 2004 to 2011, only the farm land in
Chengdu decreases 320.2 sq.km, which sufficiently prove the serious damage
to the traditional agricultural area.

This paper analyzes the current protection measures, summarizes the their
deficiencies and considers that the fragmented protection of Lin-Pan human
settlements, negative protection of farm land and inappropriate regional
planning cause today’s difficulties.

To improve the protection measures, the paper suggests reiterating the
‘traditional Dujiangyan watershed area’ in the Qing Dynasty which are
managed by 14 counties together, strictly limiting urban growth within this
range, and demarcating ‘Dujiangyan Essential Agricultural Heritage Areas’
to protect the farm land, human settlements, watershed and traditional
culture comprehensively. ‘Dujiangyan Essential Agricultural Heritage Areas’
should firstly demarcate in Wen, Pi and Du Counties, in which the farm land
has the highest natural value.

Using the technique of establishing ‘Essential Agricultural Heritage Areas’
to protect the Dujiangyan agricultural area is a new approach to improve
the protection measure in nowadays, which is similar to national park or
‘Green Heart’ in European countryside, and would have some new benefits for
Chengdu Plain: (1) it is conducive for integrated management of great
agriculture area in the region.(2)it will help to avoid rural land market
failure and its damage to ecology;(3) it will be a great event to re-form
the space pattern in the region, and make new balance between the urban
areas and the great protected agricultural areas; (4) it will be good to
public interest, food security, and special agricultural economy
development; (5) it will fully reflect the respect for the value of
agricultural heritages, and help to protect their ecological and aesthetic
value which are completely ignored during the rapid urbanization in
nowadays.
Keywords
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2013: Frontiers of Planning - Evolving and declining models of city planning practice
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