Presents essays and field reports assessing the impact of the Three Gorges dam now under construction at Sandouping in China's Hubei Province, revealing deep-rooted problems with the project that the government is attempting to suppress. Opponents of the dam discuss issues including safety, population resettlement, environment and economic impact, loss of cultural antiquities, military considerations, and lessons learned from dam disasters of the past. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
"The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China is a massive project entwined in controversy. When finally completed in 2009, it will stand as the world's largest generator of hydroelectric power, with a yearly output equal to that of fifty million tons of coal or fifteen nuclear power plants. However, the dam's 375-mile reservoir has already displaced over one million people and submerged over one thousand towns and villages. This publication examines the work that four leading contemporary Chinese artists - Chen Qiulin, Yun-Fei Ji, Liu Xiaodong, and Zhuang Hui - have created in response to the dam. Despite differences in backgrounds and artistic practices, these artists have engaged with the theme of displacement, responding to the movement of people, the demolition of old towns and construction of new cities, and the astonishing changes the project is bringing to the local landscape. Their powerful works represent four major branches of contemporary Chinese art: ink painting, realist oil painting, conceptual photography, and performance and new media art." "Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art continues a series of Smart Museum catalogues produced in conjunction with Wu Hung's groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art. Through extensive illustrations, interviews, and a substantial essay by Wu Hung, the publication documents the exhibiting artists' work, backgrounds, and concerns. Other essays extend consideration to representations of the Three Gorges Dam in film and in contemporary art in the West. Moving beyond any single medium or trend, Displacement offers nuanced, thought-provoking perspectives on a project of great social, environmental, and global concern."--BOOK JACKET.
The Three Gorges dam, currently being constructed on the Yantgze River in China, is controversial both inside and outside China, particularly because of the large number of people to be resettled (officially 1.2 million) and the environmental impacts. Using material previously unavailable in any Western language, it analyses the Chinese discussions over policy-making for the resettlement process and impacts. It concludes that the environment and resettlement policies have been linked in a new way in this project. However, despite these positive developments, it argues that the social impacts from resettlement have not yet reached a high level of political attention and that the Chinese authorities need to acknowledge that resettlement has social costs. The book provides an understanding of the social, political and economic factors of one of the largest and most controversial development projects currently being implemented. It also sheds light on China's policy-making procedures and political priorities over the past decade.
Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. A Review of the Work during the Early Stages of the Three Gorges Project -- 2. The Features of the Three Gorges Reservoir -- 3. Comprehensive Assessment of the Ecological and Environmental Impact of the Three Gorges Project -- 4. The Three Gorges Project Should Not Go Ahead in the Short Term -- 5. Some Aspects of Sedimentation at the Three Gorges Project -- 6. The Flood Prevention Function of the Three Gorges Project-Disadvantages Outweigh Advantages
A New York Times Notable book, this memoir by a journalist who lived in a small city in China is “a vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be. “This touching memoir of an American dropped into the center of China transcends the boundaries of the travel genre and will appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about the heart and soul of the Chinese people. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “This is a colorful memoir from a Peace Corps volunteer who came away with more understanding of the Chinese than any foreign traveler has a right to expect.” —Booklist
Produced biennially, The World’s Water provides a timely examination of the key issues surrounding freshwater resources and their use. Each new volume identifies and explains the most significant trends worldwide, and offers the best data available on a variety of topics related to water. The 2008-2009 volume features overview chapters on: • water and climate change • water in China • status of the Millennium Development Goals for water • peak water • efficient urban water use • business reporting on water This new volume contains an updated chronology of global conflicts associated with water, as well as brief reviews of issues regarding desalination, the Salton Sea, and the Three Gorges Dam. From the world’s leading authority on water issues, The World’s Water is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information and analysis on freshwater resources and the political, economic, scientific, and technological issues associated with them. It is an essential reference for water resource professionals in government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, researchers, students, and anyone concerned with water and its use.
This book is highly informative and carefully presented, providing scientific insights into the flood resources utilization in the Yangtze River Basin both for scholars and decision-makers. The book is for the purpose of analyzing the potential utilization of flood resources in the Yangtze River Basin and exploring effective ways to put forward the countermeasures against the risks. Major objectives of this book include: (1) revealing the characteristics of the inflow and the sediment variation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, quantitatively evaluating the potential utilization of the flood resources in the Yangtze River and demonstrating the feasibility of its utilization in the Basin; (2) proposing the necessity and feasibility of utilizing the flood resources by the Three Gorges Project; (3) shedding new light on the characteristics of the flood resources, presenting different methods of flood resources utilization in different regions over the Basin and raising the overall risk-optimized strategies of the flood resources utilization in the Yangtze River; (4) analyzing the risk of flood resources utilization for the Three Gorges Project regarding flood control, sediment, ecology, etc., and putting forward the risk-optimized countermeasures of flood resources utilization for the Three Gorges Project.
This book presents selected articles from the International Conference on Asian and Pacific Coasts (APAC 2019), an event intended to promote academic and technical exchange on coastal related studies, including coastal engineering and coastal environmental problems, among Asian and Pacific countries/regions. APAC is jointly supported by the Chinese Ocean Engineering Society (COES), the Coastal Engineering Committee of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), and the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers (KSCOE). APAC is jointly supported by the Chinese Ocean Engineering Society (COES), the Coastal Engineering Committee of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), and the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers (KSCOE).
"In this book, Edward Burtynsky presents photographs of the remnant and newly established zones of Chinese industrialization - those places created while realizing the "glory" of wealth for a powerful civilization yearning to move forward and join the ranks of modern nations. Using diplomatic channels, Burtynsky has gained rare access to these sites, creating images that are at once arresting and unsettling. These photographs afford us privileged glimpses of the vast social and economic transformation currently underway in China." "Burtynsky casts a watchful eye over the extreme expressions of Chinese industry. His subjects include the Three Gorges Dam, at present the world's largest engineering project and Bao Steel, China's biggest steel producer. He explores the vanishing dinosaurs of old industrial complexes in the north eastern "rust belt" and shipyards at Qiligang, the single most concentrated area of shipbuilding in the country."--BOOK JACKET.
