Architecture Commons^™

A Water Field Civilization: The Shifting Rural Territories Of Taiwan, Pei-Chun Wen

NAKHARA (Journal of Environmental Design and Planning)

The Taiwanese countryside is representative of Asia's 'hydraulic civilization' and has a society based upon a water-orientated productive landscape. Its irrigation system of paddy fields and fish pondsis strongly interrelated to society's collective units, such as families or unions, which, in turn, structure social morals and behaviors. In a comparison of three different agriculture plains in Taiwan, interpretative maps reveal differences in the settlement patterns related to topography and water resource management. The critical reading of historical documentation and creation of interpretative maps reveals how early settlers solved water threats and managed to stabilize water sources. The study proposes a …