湄公河和西贡内河三角洲的抵抗力、韧性、水文环境及动态变化的地形学研究

Topographies of Resistance,Resilience,Bathymetrical Realities,and Dynamics of the Mekong and Sài Gòn-Đồng Nai Deltas

湄公河三角洲和西贡内河三角洲与大多数三角洲一样,通常被认为是一个广阔、相对平坦的动态水域,其特点是水体形态丰富多样,生物栖息地众多。在这种过于简化的理解之下,古代和现代工程学为了在人造生产性和保护性景观中建设抽象意义上的有序而静态的景观结构,将整个交错群落区彻底转变为干湿分明的区域,海拔和水湿条件的流动梯度也逐渐被固定的海拔高度所取代。大规模攫取式的单一耕作在带来巨大收获的同时,也造成了生态和生物多样性的丧失,而且这种丧失在很大程度上是无法修复的。本文批判性地揭示了三角洲的历史发展与其顺势地形之间的关系:如何利用地形来制定生产景观、居住环境和基础设施的发展规划,以及如何将地形与宇宙世界观和领土地缘政治联系起来。通过案例研究,本文揭示了本土知识体系及实践利用地形改造所进行的特定社会文化再生产。通常而言,边缘地区的大量当地实践要么逃脱了无情的“现代化”进程,要么在当地适应和/或巧妙地颠覆了强加的超秩序,体现了(对人类颠覆力和大自然地质力)强大的抵抗力和韧性。这些土地管理实践案例的侵扰性和控制性各不相同,但都强调了三角洲仍然是一个在文化、宗教和生产上都因地形变化而产生微妙变化的地区。同时,三角洲的自然地貌和地形显然具有不断变化的内在特性——这既是一种天然的资产,也是一种脆弱的劣势。

The Mekong Delta(across Cambodia and Vietnam)and the Sài Gòn-Đồng Nai Delta(where Ho Chi Minh City is embedded),like most deltas,are typically considered a vast,relatively flat water-dominated and dynamic territory characterized by always evolving variations of wetness,multiplying by that multitudes of biotopes.Ancient and modern engineering developed with this overly simplified preconception and subsequently radically transformed the entire ecotones into sharp and categorical distinctions of wet and dry,primarily to create productive and protective landscapes for humankind within abstractly ordered and static landscape structures.Fluid gradients in elevation and humidity were systematically replaced by fixed elevations.Extractive monocultures on massive scales resulted simultaneously in gigantic harvests but also the loss of ecology and biodiversity that is largely irrecoverable.The paper critically unravels the historical development of the deltas in relation to their homeopathic topography:how its manipulation framed development agendas—of productive landscapes,of settlement,and of infrastructure—and was linked to both cosmological worldviews and territorial geo-politics.The micro-topographies of the deltas were significantly altered by the mighty Khmer Empire and Nguyễn Dynasty and since the 19th century by French and American occupiers and subsequently by Cambodians and Vietnamese projects.The paper utilizes several case studies to reveal that IKSP(indigenous knowledge systems and practices)have harnessed topographical manipulation for context-specific socio-cultural reproduction.A host of local practices,often in peripheral geographies,has either escaped the relentless“modernization”process or locally adapted to and/or intelligently subverted the imposed supra-order.There is a strong resistance and resilience(subversive by humans and geological by the forces of nature including sea level rise and subsidence)to imposed topographical manipulation.The cases,arranged from the least to the most intrusive and controlling land management practices,underscore that the deltas remain a territory that is culturally,religiously,and productively nuanced by topographical transformation.At the same time,there is clearly an innate,ever-changing nature of deltaic physiography and topography,which is simultaneously an asset and a vulnerability.