Built in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC), the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is one of the oldest canals with the longest mileage and the largest project in the world that has been used ever since. The Grand Canal and the Great Wall and Kanerjing are called the three great projects in ancient China. The Grand Canal starts at Yuhang (presently Hangzhou) in the South and ends at Zhunjun (presently Beijing) in the North, running through Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province, Hebei Province, Tianjin and Beijing along its way. It links five great rivers, the Hai River, the Huai River, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Qiantang River, and stretches for 1794 kilometers. The main water source of the Grand Canal is Nansi Lake (Weishan Lake, Weishan County, Shandong Province). The Grand Canal has played a huge role in the economic and cultural development and exchanges between the north and south of China, especially the development of the industrial and agricultural economy along its way. The king of the state of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period ordered the Hangou Canal to be dug in order to crusade against the state of Qi. In Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal was greatly expanded and extended to Luoyang, the capital city, and Zhuojun. When rebuilt in Yuan Dynasty, the Grand Canal was straightly dug towards Beijing without running through Luoyang. It has a history over 2500 years. In 2002, the Grand Canal was included in the Western Route of South-North Water Transfer Project. On June 22, 2014, the 38th session of World Heritage Committee announced that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal project was successfully included in the World Cultural Heritage List.
Tehran city has been subject of critical environmental challenges .Releasing industrial wastewater into river valleys have led to considerable changes in structure of city’s natural landscape. The natural structures of river valleys in northern Tehran that historically function as ecological corridors for transferring surrounding air and water into city, have been gradually turned into large concrete canals for urban wastewater to downstream land, damaging ecosystems balances and biodiversity needs. Using FAHP- the questionnaires distributed among experts, and factors were classified. Outcomes of FAHP were used as input for Arc GIS 9.3 to export the analytical maps of Tehran‘s urban landscape enhancement through river valleys’ restoration.
The ecological restoration of abandoned mines in the Amazon Rainforest region of Brazil is a challenging task. It is necessary to integrate existing ecological restoration technologies, adopt ecological restoration strategies suitable for specific site conditions, and consider many aspects including biodiversity of the landscape. Due to inadequate grasp of basic information such as endemic native tree species in the forest before destruction, and insufficient understanding of the ecological knowledge required to make an effective restoration plan, many tropical rainforest ecological restoration works are hindered during the restoration process. But the rainforest restoration plan implemented by the mining company Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN) in Trombeats , Para in the Central Amazon in the 1980s was a successful case. This plan aims to use various methods as much as possible to explore the most suitable way to restore the ecological level of the damaged site after mining to the level before or near the destruction. Only in this way can the integrity and ecological diversity of tropical forests be protected, and the sustainable development and use of animal and plant resources be guaranteed.
Sanya Mangrove Forest Wetland Restoration Project in 2015 includes the Sanya River Mangrove Forest Protection Project and Sanya Tielu Port Mangrove Forest Protection Projec with a construction scale of 655 mu and a total investment of 15 million yuan. The contents of Sanya Mangrove Forest Wetland Restoration Project are as follows. First, the Restoration Project of Sanya River Reserve, which coves an area of 105 mu, and focuses on restoring tidal flats along the river that are small, broken and suitable for forest. The restoration scope includes Phoenix Waterside, Yuechuan Bridge,Bailu Park, and the riverside of Shanyu Lake. The planted trees are mainly Aegiceras corniculatum, Kandelia candel, and Rhizophora apiculata, with more than 70,000 plants. Second, the Restoration Project of Tielu Port Reserve, which coves an area of 500 mu, and focuses on the restoration of coastal tidal flats that are suitable for forest. The restoration scope includes Qingtian Village, Shigui Village and Jiangqian Village in Haitang District. The main planting specie is Rhizophoraceae apiculata such as Aegiceras corniculatum, Ceriops tagal, Bruguiear gymnorrhiza, etc, and semi-mangrove such as Heritiera littoralis, and Hibiscus tiliaceus are also planted, with a total of about 360,000 plants. Third, the Seed Breeding Base, which covers 50 mu. The base is mainly to cultivate local tree species, including Ceriops tagal, Rhizophora apiculata, Aegiceras corniculatum and Bruguiear gymnorrhiza, and plans to cultivate 500,000 high-quality seedlings. In addition, the project construction includes infrastructure construction and the formulation of mangrove forest protection zone planning (including Sanya Mangrove Forest Reserve Overall Planning, Sanya River Mangrove Forest Reserve Planning and Tielu Port Mangrove Forest Reserve Planning). In the meanwhile, the enhancement of the management and scientific research of mangrove forest reserves is also included. Sanya Tielu Port Mangrove Reserve The restoration project will cover an area of 1.68 square kilometers. Sanya River Wetland
“West-to-east power transmission project” signifies the energy transmission from the resource-rich western provinces, especially coal and hydropower resources, to eastern coastal regions in shortage of electricity power by means of power transmission.
The coal occurrences in China are mainly distributed in the western and northern regions, hydropower in the southwest, while the eastern regions with heavy electricity load are scarce in primary energy. The decoupling relationship between electricity consumption and resource distribution calls for the “west-to-east power transmission” project.
Among all key projects of Western Development Strategy, this project has the largest quantities and investment with the total investment exceed RMB 520 billion during the decade from 2001 to 2010. The implementation of this project will be conducive to transforming western region’s advantage in resources into that in economic, reducing environment burden as well as transportation cost, which is of great significance for the optimization of resource allocation and energy structure, and sustainable development of China's social economy.
