Evolutionary analysis between geographic typology and urban morphology of Jiangnan historical watertowns in northern Zhejiang, China

Abstract

Over the past century, water has played a vital role in the socioeconomic system which is beneficial for agricultural irrigation, river navigation, etc. The development of watertowns in the Jiangnan region of China has tight relationships with the geographic environment, of which territorial characteristics are currently declining due to modern urbanisation and social transformation. This paper establishes a morphological overview of the typical historical watertowns evolution process from the early 20th century to nowadays and intends to find out how watertowns interact with water under the influence of urban expansion. Using the Conzenian methods, we examine five types of watershed topography in Northern Zhejiang Plain, one of the relatively developed areas in the Jiangnan region. Then in the view of geomorphology and urban geography, maps and photographic data in the four years of 1918, 1969, 2000 and 2022 are vectorised to outline the two-dimensional variations of water bodies and building foundation forms of 19 historical watertown cases. Tracing watertown’s evolutionary process suggests that water forms and urban forms shift in particular geographic contexts in three stages: earliest synergistic relation, town fringe variation and new structure which may provide evidence for recognising and preserving local identity.