Salt and Wetland: Traditional Development Landscape, Land Use Changes and Environmental Adaptation on the Central Jiangsu Coast China, 1450-1900

摘要

China's coastal wetlands are subjected to increasing pressure in terms of the sustainability of the economic and social development, due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization over the last 30 years; the protection and sustainable use of wetland resource requires local knowledge of traditional development model, management policy and historical landscape change. However, there is a lack of the relevant research of traditional wetland utilization and environmental adaptation practice for China's coast. Using the various data sets of the central Jiangsu coast, we reconstruct traditional development patterns of wetland and environmental adaptation process, based on a historical approach. The results show that, in this dynamic tidal flat wetland, with continued shoreline advancement, traditional salt-making activity in this region formed a low-density distribution and labor-intensive pattern, which had a remarkable adaptive change of production pattern from centralization to dispersion; this unique cultural ecological landscape was the result of the combined action between wetland evolution and monopolistic land use policies. This study reveals a representative cultural ecological landscape of coastal wetland development in China; an improved understanding of human-coast interaction and local knowledge is beneficial to the management of wetland resource uses, enhancing the value of ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands.