Abramson, DanielWu, Shuang2022-07-142022-07-142022-07-142022Wu_washington_0250E_23974.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/48844Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2022With the rapid process of urbanization, many traditional rural landscapes in the world have shrunk or even disappeared. As a special type of rural landscape, the linpan landscapes interwoven with the scattered market towns on the Chengdu Plain, Sichuan, China, and especially the Dujiangyan Irrigation District – China’s largest and one of its oldest – constitute a fine-grained mosaic in which ecosystems are traditionally well utilized for human development. With the accelerating loss of the linpan landscapes recently, there is an increasing need to broaden and deepen the recognition of their values. In this study I combine advanced geo-spatial tools with sociological interviews and built-environmental typological approaches to understand: (1) the configuration and spatial pattern of the linpan landscapes and market towns; (2) their functioning roles in delivering services; (3) the socio-economic connection of the linpan landscapes through hierarchical market towns; and (4) the resilient features of the rural societies of the Chengdu Plain in coping with external disturbance. The spatial pattern of linpan and their densities are related closely to local topography, population density, availability of water supply and accessibility to market places. Linpan are smallest in area and occur at highest densities in flat areas closest to the historic center of the irrigation system, and are larger and less densely distributed in the gentle hills peripheral to the irrigation system – suggesting that linpan were integral to the historical resilience of the irrigation system. The layouts of traditional cottages present a “line” shape, “L” shape, “U” shape, or “compound” shape with an evolutionary process of family expansion, and all of these layouts often reflect the adaptation to the surrounding environment such as the orientation of houses. As a coupled social and natural system, linpan provides multiple goods and services to the lives and livelihood of local communities including provisioning (foods, fuel woods, or water), regulating (air, temperature or pollination) and cultural (ecotourism or spiritual enrichment) services. Linpan dwellers have been integrated into a holistic society through rural markets, where public spaces provide them a commercial agora or socio-cultural platform for socializing themselves through the public exchange. Easy accessibility and cheap logistic flow contributed greatly to the development and prosperity of market towns. The alternative periodicity of neighboring markets becomes convenient for local people and puts the most disadvantaged villager within easy walking distance to one of the market towns flexibly. Public spaces in market towns provide local people an area for socializing themselves through public exchange, which are important venues for social harmonization and the “epitome” of rural development. Finally, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a shock, I assessed the resilience of rural districts in Chengdu using four categories (Health-care Index, Economy Index, Governance Index and Landscape Index) including 11 indicators. I combined the quantitative method (statistical analysis) with qualitative method (interviews) to give weight to each index. The results showed a close relationship between resilience value (R) and post-pandemic (mainly economic) recovery in rural Chengdu. Statistical analysis also shows that the economic recovery in the post-pandemic period is closely related to the strength of socio-ecological resilience. Agriculture functions as a stabilizer for the local economy in the face of the COVID-19. Among the four categories of indexes, the landscape domain contributes most to the economic recovery, but it was underestimated by both farmers and experts. Considering the pandemic has not been fully terminated, a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between socio-ecological resilience and external disturbance still needs a longer period for further verification.application/pdfen-USCC BYChengdu PlainlinpanmarketsPandemicresiliencespatial patternsUrban planningArchitectureEnvironmental studiesBuilt environmentThesis