Living in flux : new model for dam resettlement in China

Abstract

Because of dam construction, currently there are 25,000,000 migrants in China, and until 2020, Chinese government will be built as much as 9 Three Gorges dams, but the resettlement compensation was never satisfied migrants benefit over the past 50 years. My thesis is looks at this particular phenomenon and proposed new resettlement model for the future that is to take advantages of water level change in the specific area and create new resettlement policy as an opportunity to change people’s life. Through Chinese resettlement history and case study to understand the resettlement situation in China. Choice a future dam location, to solve the problems, at first, I try to redesign dam but it maybe not the best way, then I focus on the drawdown zone which is one of the most important issues of dam construction, I want to take advantage of water level change to think new resettlement model. The strategy was considered about the effect in social, cultural, economic and ecological ways. Respect the original environment and creates a new resettlement model. My project goal is to contribute to reduce settlement, minimize erosion, make a productive drawdown zone but still keep the reservoir capacity, the method is to balance cut and fill land. To achieve this, I analyze the typology in the site, the first type is rural area and another is city area, I take different strategy for different category, the design method is use the water level change and land available time to utilize the land in range. he main strategy is: built a road following the high water level as a structure to reorganize resettlement around road, then manipulate topography to reserved villages and vegetation in range, also plant with fluctuation add new activities make a more productive drawdown zone, create wetland system for water treatment.