Ancient and current resilience in the Chengdu Plain: Agropolitan development re-‘revisited’

The Dujiangyan irrigation system, China’s largest and one of the world’s most sustainable agropolitan systems, has sustained 2000 years of stable urban culture, high agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and flood management in the Chengdu Plain. However, rapid urban expansion over the past decade has transformed the landscape, shifting from grain export to import, consolidating settlements, and corporatizing farming—processes that may undermine resilience. The study finds that neither market-driven nor state-driven development aligns well with key resilience factors like landscape heterogeneity, crop diversity, permaculture, or household livelihood flexibility. Instead, decentralized governance and community-based management of the irrigation system are proposed as critical to preserving social-ecological resilience in this UNESCO-listed site.

Abramson, D. B. (2019). Ancient and current resilience in the Chengdu Plain: Agropolitan development re-‘revisited’. Urban Studies, 57(7), 1372–1397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019843020