Tianduowa Zhu - Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg ۱, ۲۶۲۸ CN Delft, the Netherlands
Maurits Ertsen

Zhengguo Canal System was built some two thousands years ago in China. It is the earliest large-scale water conservancy project initiated by the central government. The system had close relation with the first and second unities of China. The area thus offers interesting prospects of studying ancient irrigation in relation to water control and power relation. This paper will review feasible resources that might be used for the study case, including archaeological data, ethnographic materials, and different kinds of modeling; and then address selectively directions with certain problems which are worth studying further, and discuss some research aspects and available methods. Based on this case, the paper will attempt to provide guidelines for future research.

Ancient irrigation; feasible resources; future research; China