A retrospective approach to assessing the sustainability of the Grand Canal of China

作者：Tsung Nilo; Corotis Ross^*; Chinowsky Paul; Amadei Bernard

来源：Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 2013, 9(4): 297-316.

DOI：10.1080/15732479.2012.657648

• canals
• economic factors
• environmental issues
• political factors
• social factors
• sustainability
• infrastructure

This article provides a methodology to assess the infrastructure sustainability of the Grand Canal of China using a systems approach based on historic-geographic data. By taking a retrospective view over a significant historical period, it is possible to assess the usefulness of current modern sustainability measures (SMs) as reasonable predictors. The temporal focus of this article is between 1770 and 1870, while the geographic focus is on Huai'an, Jiangsu province. The period and region selected for study were key for the changing utilisation and viability of the canal. An infrastructure sustainability indicator (ISI) for the Grand Canal is introduced, based on three SMs: economic, environmental and social/political. Each of these measures consists itself of two or three underlying indices. Variations of the ISI over the period from 1770 to 1870 are reviewed in the context of the historical events in China during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This article demonstrates that the concept of infrastructure sustainability assessment can indeed be extended back into history, although proper assumptions need to be made. Only through such a retrospective approach can the true sustainability be verified. It is clear that the particular quantities are unique to this study, but the methodology and concept contains useful lessons for the sustainability modelling of modern infrastructure.

• 出版日期2013