Wonders of Our World #7
Introducing a series exploring interesting and impactful triumphs of human engineering from around our world.
In the spirit of springtime, I am bringing something new to the blog this year. I hope you are as excited as I am to explore engineering projects that deserve more attention than they receive. Unlike the original 7 wonders of the world lists (New, Natural and Ancient), my list will judge projects not just on beauty or cultural significance, but on impact. After all, what good do the pyramids do for everyday people? How does Machu Picchu improve the lives of those around it? Apart from tourism income, these “Wonders” are largely useless. As an engineer and a loose adherent to effective altruism, I see a great lack of emphasis on the impact of these large-scale projects, and I wish to use this series of posts as an opportunity to highlight some of the projects whose impacts we may discount or take for granted. I also wish to inspire you the reader, to dream big when it comes to making improvements in your surrounding environments and communities. With that, I’d like to introduce my first pick in the series, #7, the Grand Canal of China.
The Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world. Starting with Beijing, the many rivers of the Chinese heartland have been connected by this nearly 1800 kilometer network of canals. It’s length is roughly equivalent to the distance between Seattle and Tijuana. It is deep enough to be navigable by barge, and serves to connect north and south China, both politically, economically, and hydraulically. Transport by barge is no small improvement compared to the pre-existing alternatives, considering that the project began in the 5th century BCE and was first significantly connected in the Sui dynasty around 600 CE. Records show is that it once served to transport as much as 360,000 metric tons of grain alone, as well as many other goods between the intermediary cities on the route to the imperial capital. This arterial goods highway spurred the development of many cities and towns in the corridor and allowed efficient outsourcing of production to originally inaccessible labor markets. Although this is less well documented, it also transported people, especially from one nearby town to another for extremely low energy costs (transport by sail is much less energy intensive than by foot or pack animal) saving an incalculable amount of time and energy for the people who used it.
For reference on the enormity of time-savings impacts see the clip below:
No one is quite sure how many people have used the canal in history, but I think we can rest assured that it’s impact over the 1400 odd years it’s been in use is huge, and probably saved the people who used it many millions of man hours and calories in time and energy. It also served as the backbone of a central courier road, as well as a network of postal offices, speeding the dissemination of information and culture through China. To be fair, I ought to discount the utility gains provided by the Canal because much of the labor used to construct it was coercive, and it’s ability to transport large armies between north and south China almost certainly propped up more than one unjust regime in history. But I think that if we take a look at the bigger picture, the gains outweigh the canal’s blemished past.
Speaking of pictures, I would feel remiss if I failed to highlight the canal’s aesthetic beauty, which provides utility to those who live along it. Below are just a few of the many beautiful views of the canal that can be seen along its length, much of which is lined by trees planted by Imperial dynasties long since passed.
To wrap up, I’d like to focus on the utility the Grand Canal continues to provide the people who live along its course. While it has certainly saved a lot of time and energy in the past, and still provides beauty utils, it has become less relevant with the rise of rail transport in China. At least, until recently. The Canal is planned to act as a backbone for the North-South Water Transfer Project, which aims to bring balance to the hydrologic landscape of china by moving water from the rainy and often flooded southern half of the country to the arid north. The area of china south of the Yangtze river receives about 80% of the countries total rainfall, whereas the north receives just 20%, despite the two areas being of roughly equal size. Due to population booms, the north has been suffering water scarcity issues for almost half a century. In the past 20 years, 28,000 of China’s rivers have dried up or disappeared, representing a basin area equivalent to the entire Mississippi basin (pictured below in pink).
This trend of river loss and desertification is concentrated mostly in the area north of the Yangtze, with even once mighty rivers such as the Yellow river reaching flows as low as 10% of historical levels. Construction began on the system of pipelines, reservoirs, dams, and tunnels in 2002, and flow started to arrive in Tianjin in 2017, which will eventually receive a billion cubic meters of water per year. One particularly interesting section of the eastern transfer route is where the project crosses under the Yellow River at a depth of 70m from the river bottom. In 2014, China completed the gravity fed central portion of the water transfer project known as the “Grand Aqueduct” which is planned to ramp up in capacity to 13 billion cubic meters of water per year. The project will serve the agricultural sectors of many northern arid provinces along its route, as well as the majority of chinese coal power plants, which use huge amounts of water to spin steam turbines. The expansions made to the Grand Canal as part of the North-South Water Transfer project will help stop desertification and depletion of northern groundwater stores.
Due to its long history of utilitarian impacts, and its bright future as a piece of key infrastructure that will improve the lives of millions, the Chinese Grand Canal earns 7th place in my world wonders list. Stay tuned as we count up the list in upcoming posts, and comment below what world wonders you think should make the list!
-Connor, OfAllTrades.
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How old does a canal have to be before it becomes a river? :thinking: