Ecological Wisdom and Inheritance Thinking of the Traditional Village’s Water Resources Management in Taihang Mountains

ABSTRACT In the context of China’s rapid urbanization, the landscape texture and ecosystem of traditional villages are being constructively damaged, especially the water ecosystem responsible for maintaining the sustainable development of villages. It is urgent to explore the green construction technology of traditional villages. However, some traditional villages in Taihang Mountain area exist and develop in the environment of drought and flood, which contains rich ecological water resources management wisdom. Therefore, in this paper, Taihang Mountain is selected as the research area to collect data through literature analysis, field research, and in-depth interviews. This study uses ArcGIS spatial analysis and statistical functions to analyze the acquired data and explore the water resources management practices of traditional villages based on three aspects: safety, function, and spirit. Then it summarizes four key inspirations for contemporary water resources management: “adapt to local conditions, pay equal attention to water use and prevention”; “division of labor and cooperation complement each other”, “low cost, low technology, low maintenance” and “make the best use of materials and compound functions”. These advantageous insights can be offered for the preservation of traditional villages, the enhancement of the living environment, and the management and growth of urban stormwater.


Introduction
The water resources environment is one of the key selection factors for traditional villages, according to studies on traditional villages that China has been conducting since 2012 (Li et al. 2021).Early research on ancient water resources ecosystems was primarily concerned with protecting ancient cities from flooding.In "Ancient Cities of China in Flood Control Research of Ancient Cities of China", for instance, Wu proposed the idea of a flood control strategy that includes "high, prevention, strengthening, storage, guiding, protection, management, and relocation."(Wu 1995)In addition, from the perspective of flood control and drainage, they systematically examined and summarized the water system of the ancient city of Ganzhou (Wu et al. 2020).Living on high ground, constructing city walls and retaining dikes, and creating water storage ponds are three major adaptive landscape heritages of flood prevention and control in ancient cities that Yu and Zhang summarized in their discussion of the flood disaster experiences of cities and towns in the Huanghe River inundation area (Yu and Zhang 2007).However, more and more research has been conducted on the water environment of traditional villages.Most academics have focused on the connections between the water resources environment, village site selection, and spatial layout.Villages in the Huanghe River Delta, for instance, are widely spaced along the river's path or its tributaries as a result of the Huanghe River's diversion.In order to better understand, preserve, and develop traditional villages in the Huanghe River Delta basin and other basin villages, Liu investigated this area from the perspectives of village spatial position, spatial structure, and village water pattern (Liu 2021).Liukeng Village in Jiangxi Province, which is by the bank of the Wujiang River and surrounded by green mountains, was selected by Min et al. as the research object, and by examining its location layout, water resources management system, and waterfront space, they came to the conclusion that it possessed wisdom regarding water resources management (Min, Huang, and Duan 2018).They all researched towns with an abundance of water and close proximity to rivers.In fact, several academics have studied the infrastructure for water resources in arid regions.For instance, Ezgi Akpinar Ferrand and Fatima Cecunjanin studied traditional rainwater collection systems and came to the conclusion that they are helpful for enhancing microclimate (Ferrand and Cecunjanin 2014).The meaning and concepts of "water resources management" in traditional villages were clarified by Ou et al.They also investigated the causes and effects of waterlogging and conducted a thorough analysis of its impact on humanistic education, ecological water resources management, and construction technology (Ou, Li, and Sun 2022).In Rome, ancient people collected rainwater from roofs and recycled it in central cisterns (Mays, Koutsoyiannis, and Angelakis 2006).These scholars have conducted studies on a certain kind of water environment facility in different regions, reflecting the wisdom of traditional village water environment facilities, but lacking a systematic compendium of water environment facilities.At the same time, due to the regional differences that lead to different characteristics of the construction of the village water environment, the above studies lack an exploration of common problems.
In general, the research on ancient stormwater management experience is relatively complete, and the importance of historical experience to modern construction has been noted at the present stage, but there are still limitations to the research on this topic.First, many scholars only focus on the "storage" and "drainage" of a certain facility as an example; they ignore the inextricably linked between facilities, fail to consider the village water environment as an organic whole, and lack a systematic and comprehensive review of traditional village water environment facilities.Second, there is a lack of specialized cultural inheritance and rejuvenation measures, and most experts only consider the influence of material space form on communities and the aquatic environment, ignoring the influence of cultural and spiritual aspects.Third, while the Taihang Mountain region is a semi-arid environment in the north that should take into account both summer flood disasters and winter drought disasters, most experts focus their research on flood management measures in the southern portions of China with dense water networks.Therefore, Although the existing research results can be learned and used for reference, regional differences will produce different characteristics in the construction of village water environment, which cannot be blindly applied.China's urban and rural construction pays attention to green, ecological, and sustainable development.However, more planners ignore the texture and culture of villages and renew and transform traditional villages with a one-size-fits-all approach to "urbanization", which leads to the continuous decline and even disappearance of traditional villages.Moreover, the ecological and energy-saving wisdom contained in traditional villages has not been fully explored, so it is urgent to protect traditional villages and explore their ecological wisdom.In this paper, traditional villages in the Taihang Mountain area are taken as the research object.Based on literature and field research, GIS software is used to analyze the location of traditional villages in the research area according to elevation.The ancient construction of traditional villages in the Taihang Mountain area is re-examined, typical villages are analyzed, and regional characteristics of "low-impact development" are summarized.The enlightening ecological wisdom of water management in the Taihang Mountain area is further extracted to provide a reference for the improvement of the human settlement environment and the construction of stormwater management.The contents and goals of this paper are to: (1) trace the systematic presentation of traditional village water resources management and gradually analyze the practice system of traditional village water resources management from the aspects of safety, function, and spirit; (2) reveal the ecological wisdom contained in water environment facilities in traditional villages; (3) reflect on contemporary water resources management construction; and (4) put forward ecological sustainable cultural inheritance and translation ideas to adapt to the development of The Times.

Study area
The Taihang Mountain region is the focus of the research in this paper.Geographically, it is bounded by the Sanggan River and Yongding River in the north, reaches Qinhe Plain on the north bank of the Huanghe River in the south, reaches Xinding Basin, Taiyuan Basin, and Linfen Basin in the north and south, and borders the North China Plain in the east.Taihang Mountain is a long strip from the northeast to the southwest, with an average elevation of 864 m.It spans Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan provinces, with 665 traditional villages (Figure 1).Flooding when it rains and drought when it doesn't can be used to describe the characteristics of the water environment.On the one hand, the climate is a temperate semihumid continental monsoon climate with an irregular spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, which is concentrated from July to September, accounting for about 50%-70% of the annual precipitation (Xing 2008); however, the average soil layer is less than 15 cm, the soil is relatively poor, and water retention is poor, resulting in 66% of rainwater loss, coupled with a large number of hills (about 73%), which is very likely to cause flash floods; Secondly, a large concentration of rainwater confluence during the rainy season makes the flood level of the river system increase sharply and is also very easy to cause flooding (Han 2020).On the other hand, rainfall is comparatively infrequent the rest of the year, with the exception of July to September, and there aren't many surface water resources.Although loose granitic fissures and limestone karst regions have enriched groundwater, these regions are in the earth-rock mountains of northern China, where there is no comprehensive water storage system, making it difficult to access and extract these scarce but precious groundwater resources.In addition to the rainy season, the other three seasons are often dry.

Data collection
In the form of main data and secondary data, respectively, spatial data and other auxiliary data were gathered.The field survey of this study was conducted from August 2022 to February 2023, and the dry season and flood season were respectively investigated to make the data more comprehensive and accurate.The information required for this study was gathered from a variety of sources, including websites, books, relevant government organizations, direct field observation, and field mapping.Satellite imagery, elevation data, village locations, regional boundaries, the locations of water environmental facilities (such as wells, waterlogging, springs, and drains), meteorological information, and river data are all needed for this study.

Researchmethods
The foundation of this research is a review of the literature, a field investigation, a case analysis and summary, and a software analysis.This study used 665 villages in the Taihang Mountain region as its research subject.And these villages are among the five batches of traditional Chinese villages listed in the paper.This paper uses Baidu map API to pick up the coordinate system to obtain the geographical coordinates of each village and visualize them in ArcGIS to get their general distribution characteristics.Then, typical villages are selected according to the research focus of this paper "traditional villages' seeking advantages and avoiding hazards to water".Firstly, the ArcGIS10.8software is used to analyze the buffer zone of the main river at 500 meters and 1000 meters to study the coordinate points of traditional villages, and then the elevation analysis diagram is superposed.It is known that the traditional villages less than 500 meters away from the river system are mostly located on the valley platform.Traditional villages within the range of 500-1000 meters are arranged on gentle slopes in combination with mountain conditions, while traditional villages larger than 1000 meters are mostly located on higher terrain.Since most villages are now facing the following problem, this paper mainly selects 58 typical traditional villages with rich cultural heritage, obvious geographical advantages, and large permanent populations according to the elevation section (Figure 2); secondly, as the foundation for its research and for its argument, this study collected and compiled ancient and contemporary Chinese and foreign works on low-impact development and historic stormwater management experiences, as well as information on physical geography, human history, village records, family trees, and other topics in the Taihang Mountain region; thirdly, we conducted three field surveys in typical villages selected for 10-15 consecutive days each time, conducted indepth interviews with villagers, took photos, mapped and recorded them, understood the construction process and functions of water environmental facilities, obtained real and effective basic data and relevant information, and had a more intuitive and practical cognition of the research object, laying a solid foundation for the research (Figure 3).Fourth, the case study and induction method are used to study the research villages, summarize the ancient camping characteristics and problems in development, and extract the universal characteristics, which can provide a reference for the conservation and renewal of traditional villages; at last, the satellite images and vector data of the villages are downloaded by using WeMap, and the acquired data are added to ArcGIS 10.8 for hydrological analysis and spatial analysis (Table 1).

Analysis of a multidimensional system of water environment management practices
The characteristics of the water environment in the Taihang Mountain area determine the water resources management objectives: to address seasonal floods and droughts, which differ significantly from those in southern China (Wang, Han, Wang, & Wang 2021) (Table 2).Compared with the national disaster situation, on the one  hand, the Taihang Mountain area is in the serious area (east) and heavy area (west) of rainstorm flood disasters; On the other hand, it is basically in the medium-high frequency area of drought, and the disasters are more serious in general (Figures 4 and 5) Therefore, water resources management plays an important role in the development of villages.The internal and external multidimensional water resources management ecosystem constructed by the ancestors in response to nature is both ecological practice wisdom and ecological philosophy wisdom (Figure 6).
The subject of water resources management is people, and the object of service is also people.According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, human needs are hierarchical, so water resources management should also be based on the corresponding hierarchy: Ensuring village safety is to meet the lowest demand for survival; meeting the water function of production and life and even ecological aspects is the basic demand of serving life and development.Spiritual identity, such as culture and system, is a higher level of demand to maintain a sustainable operation.Based on this, this paper analyzes the multidimensional water resources management practice system of traditional villages from the three levels of security, function, and spirit, and reveals its ecological wisdom.

Blocking external water: avoidance and interception
The external floods faced by the traditional villages in the Taihang mountain area are mainly the external mountain torrents and river floods in the period of the rainstorm, which have the characteristics of sudden rise and fall and short duration.

Avoidance.
Avoidance is to follow the laws of nature to cleverly choose the layout of the site to avoid external flooding of the water resources management ideas.The traditional villages in the hillside are mostly located in the watershed area of the ridge zone under the contour lines, avoiding the invasion of mountain floods with the natural law of "Valleys gather water and ridges divide it", such as Guangou village, Hougou village, Xiaodianhe village, Liuliqu village, and Wangnao village (Figure 7), etc.The layout of the traditional villages in the valley area not only avoids the rain and flood catchment area but also is on a gentle slope to avoid flooding, such as Xiamen village, Duan village, Lingshui village, etc.While traditional villages near the main rivers are generally located in a straight line or bend inside the convex bank of the river section on the terrace.As the Qing Dynasty feng shui scholar Xiong Qifan said in "The Secret of Geomancy" in the discussion: "Inside the river curve is an auspicious place, outside the river curve is a vicious place", they tend to be located in "the river bend of the high ground", which has the advantage of natural defense against floods (Figure 8), such as Chian village and Douzhuang village.
In addition, some traditional villages, especially gully villages, are not only concentrated on one side of the gentle slope but also distributed on both sides.The main street is made in accordance with the flow law of the water, and the residential buildings are distributed along the slope on both sides of the channel (gully), so that the river and the street can jointly divert the transit flash floods, such as in the villages of Xisuohuang and  Shangzhuang.Shangzhuang ancient village is divided into two parts: north and south.There is a seasonal river in the valley: Zhuanghe, which is a road when it is sunny, and a river when it is raining, "taking the road instead of the ditch" to receive the floods in transit and flow out of the village quickly (Figure 9).

Drainage of waterlogging: system synergy
The drainage and flood discharge in traditional villages is coordinated with the functional nodes of decentralized storage, stagnation, infiltration, and drainage "according to the potential", forming an efficient and coordinated systematic drainage level with courtyards as the unit, streets as the thread, and the river system as the endpoint, rapidly removing surface runoff and preventing waterlogging (Figure 11).

Building and courtyard drainage. Buildings
and courtyards are the most basic structural units of internal drainage organization.The flat roof of the cave dwelling and the hard-slope roof of the building both use the slope to exclude rainwater.The yard is generally of the courtyard type; the overall slope is not flat, but according to the rainfall and pavement materials, 2% to 6% of the whole slope is processed, and in the courtyard around the building, set up drainage recesses (also set up the dark ditch, but not common), and the roof drainage and courtyard rainwater with a weak slope gathered in the recesses after the drainage outlet to the street (Figure 12).alleys and determine the main "waterway" from high to low.When the slope was large, they also set the streets and alleys into "Z" or "S" shapes to slow down the slope and reduce the water speed, such as in Yingtan village, Hougou village, and Daqian village.The secondary alley is connected to the main alley according to local conditions, dividing the building into various groups and draining rainwater from the courtyards of the residential houses into the main alley.This is similar to modern partition drainage, such as in Cuandixia village (Figure 13).

Street
In addition, the width of traditional streets and alleys is generally narrower, and most alleys, especially sub-alleys, are of the central concave arc type.Drainage is made from low-lying areas in the middle, and open ditches or culverts are selected only when the slope is large or conditions permit (Wei Nan Zhou 2018).Compared with the modern central convex road surface, the central concave arc pavement can save land and avoid erosion of the wall foundation without affecting traffic (Figure 14).What's more, the street pavement is mostly made of local materials such as green stone slabs and sandstone, which are porous and have good water absorption and permeability, combined with drainage and permeability after splicing with the inverted trapezoidal practice (Han 2020).

Ditch drainage. Some traditional villages
also incorporate ditches for drainage, which are divided into natural ditches and artificial ditches.Natural ditch drainage is usually organized by using the existing water system and flood drains in the village, such as in Yingtangu and Weizishui village, etc.; artificial ditch drainage is usually organized by man-made culvert drainage.Although there are certain construction costs and difficulties, the culverts can prevent stormwater from washing away the road and intensive land use (Figure 15), such as in Jiuguan, Wangnao, Daliangjiang, Xiangyu village, etc., especially in Daliangjiang village.Because the village is located on the slope, the ancestors' attached importance to drainage and designed and built a stone drainage hole with a height of 1.5 meters and a width of 1 meter through the village at the  beginning of the village construction to drain rainwater to the river under the mountain, leaving drainage space below and creating space above, which is an example of modern urban construction.

Functional dimension: water resources management practice based on water conservancy 3.2.1. Digging channels for water diversion and water utilization.
Drought in the spring and autumn occurred frequently in the Taihang Mountain area.Traditional villages show the characteristics of living by the water, and a certain safe distance is maintained to avoid flooding, but the distance is often too large due to the lack of scientific calculations, making it more difficult for the ancestors to fetch water for use.The central part of the Taihang Mountain area has relatively more rainfall, and the loss of a large amount of rain not only increases the disaster risk but also wastes resources.The southeastern section and the western middle section have a greater distribution of large and clear springs, but the springs are generally point-like and partly far from the villages, which makes it inconvenient for villagers to use water.Consequently, the wise ancestors built canals and other water channels to bring springs or external secondary, non-flood-threatening rivers and rainwater into the villages by taking advantage of the natural terrain to facilitate the water demand for production, living, and ecology.When there is a certain height difference between the village and a tributary near a river with a relatively stable volume of water, the village usually builds a ditch to bring the river water into the village for use by taking advantage of the height difference.For some villages where there is a catchment path for rainwater outside the village that is not threatened by flooding, the village will generally use roads to bring the rainwater into the village for domestic use.Of course, there are also some villages where there are springs inside or outside the village, and then the village will build flumes, etc., to allow water to flow through the villagers' households in a linear manner.Table 3 lists the three types of open channel diversions (Table 3).

Facilities construction, storage and use integrated
According to the characteristics of the natural environment, the ancestors designed and built a series of wells, cellars, ponds, and other storage facilities to develop and utilize the potential water resources to cope with drought.Especially in the utilization of rainwater, the collection and storage of rainwater during the rainy season from July to September, transformed into water resources in times of drought, which solved the problem of uneven distribution of rainfall in space and time, adjusted peaks and valleys and made a positive transformation between disasters and resources.
In the utilization of surface water, the ancestors usually built simple, and varying sizes of the Gutuo (in the riverbed flowing side of digging a pit, and surrounded by a circle of stones, forming a clean water pit) to accumulate river water and set up fixed points to carry water, and the bottom of the riverbed will also seep out of the dew, so the water in the Gutuo is relatively clean (Figure 16).For example, the traditional villages along the Taohe River, such as Yanhui village, Shangpanshi village, and Xiabanshi village, all have Gutuo.In ancient times, Shangpanshi village has four big Gutuo to draw from the Taohe River.The whole village only uses dry wells in winter, and the rest of the time uses Gutuo.
In the utilization of groundwater, especially in the eastern and westernmost regions where the terrain is low, the river system is abundant, and the geology is dominated by loose rocks, it is usually used by drilling wells, but they are similar to those in the whole country, so it is not mentioned here.In the utilization of rainwater, water cellars, waterlogging ponds, and cisterns were the most commonly built facilities by the ancestors.It is very difficult to obtain groundwater and surface water in the central Taihang Mountain area, and villages mostly use rainwater as their water source.Water cellars (also called dry wells in some villages) are facilities for collecting, storing, and taking rainwater.They are the most numerous, widely distributed, and common facilities with low technical difficulty, less Table 3.Three types of channel diversions and diversions for water use (From the author).The transportation water channel used by Shangzhuang village in cooperation with the rolling water spring (the canal built in the village will flow spring water into the village, similar to modern "tap water") evaporation and leakage, and less pollution of water quality.In addition, most of them are built in yards or at the nodes of streets and alleys for convenient and efficient access (Figure 17).Almost every family in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province, has built water cellars.In the Qing Dynasty, there were nearly 100 wells in Duanhe village.In Yujia ancient village, more than 1000 stone wells and pits were dug to store water and solve water problems.Flood ponds and cisterns are often distributed in a planar form in the lowest part of the village terrain or near the location of farmland, using the natural terrain to achieve the collection and storage of rainwater, with sedimentation ponds at the inlet to remove impurities and garbage for natural purification for daily drinking, laundry, washing dishes, and other miscellaneous uses and firefighting use.The   drainage outlet is directed to farmland or ditches to meet farm irrigation, etc. (Figure 18).At the same time, the flood ponds can also stagnate rainwater, reduce the total amount of runoff, reduce the peak runoff, delay the peak present time, etc., and they have the advantages of preventing flooding in the rainy season and fetching in the drought, typical of such villages as Wangnao village, Ding village, Jiaquan village, and Zhangbi village, etc.

Environment construction and ecological harmony
Different from the widely constructed gardens in the south, there are few construction activities of "landscape for scenery" in Taihang Mountains, and more villages are "creating landscape according to local conditions" to construct environmental space for leisure, entertainment, culture, and microclimate improvement.Along with the water extraction activities, people gradually gathered in the places where wells, public water cellars, waterlogging pools, canals, etc. were located.The ancestors set stone mills, stone mills, laundry, vegetable washing and other living appliances near the facilities in combination with the site conditions to form square space, which is both water extraction space and public activity center for communication and leisure, promoting the stability and harmony of villages, such as Lingshui village, Dayangquan village, Dijicheng village, etc.In addition, in summer, water of different sizes can absorb and accumulate heat, so that the temperature will not be too high; In winter, water can slowly release heat, so that the temperature does not get too low.Water systems, like "air conditioners", regulate the microclimate of villages and improve the quality of the ecological environment of village settlements, especially the large surface water systems and linear water systems (Figure 19).In Ding village, the planar waterlogging pool is combined with public buildings such as the viewing tower, Guanyin Pavilion and Bodhisattva Temple to form a large spatial landscape for public activities, which improves the microclimate of the village and also reflects life atmosphere.In the village of Niangziguan, linear springs and streamlet flow through the streets and residential buildings, where villagers fetch water, do laundry and wash vegetables, and rest, which improves the microclimate of the village and forms a lively and cheerful street landscape.

The worship of gods and spirits in building shrines and temples
Influenced by traditional culture, the ancestors feared and worshipped nature, which is the inherent root of living in harmony with nature.Facing the problem of frequent floods and droughts, the ancestors built many shrines and temples to worship gods, such as the dragon king, water officials, and water gods, and they regularly held a series of sacrificial activities to pray for good weather (Table 4).From the perspective of water resources management, this cultural belief in god worship is not only a connection between village construction and spiritual support for blessings but also a source of ecological orientation for water resources management to respect nature, practice the law of nature, and integrate nature and humans, which is conducive to the inheritance of belief, cognition, and treatment methods of water.

The belief of animism and pictographic simulacrum
The ancestors believed in animism.The dragon and turtle were auspicious and were believed to protect the village.In the process of water resources management, they used their image patterns to pray for Table 4. Gods worshipped and their wishes (From the author).

Gods Dragon King River God Well God Pray
Pray for the elimination of heat anddrought, and favorable weather.
Pray for peace when the river is in flood.
Pray to make the well water sufficient and pure and sweet.
the village to exist in nature with a bionic form and vitality, which was a metaphor for the natural ecological value of "imitating nature and integrating nature and humans".In traditional villages in the Taihang Mountain area, there are many bionic shapes, such as "dragon, turtle, and ship" (Table 5)."Dragon", a symbol of good luck, can turn disasters into blessings.And it is also given the image of a deity in charge of rainfall in all seasons.Building villages by imitating the shape of dragons, implying smooth winds and rain and a healthy life, such as Shangfu and Baizhongbao village."Turtle", is capable of longevity, has strong vitality, and can predict good fortune.It adjusts the layout of villages in the form of a turtle, implying that the golden turtle is seeking water and hitting water, such as Lingshui, Diqicheng, Xiaodianhe, Ding village, and so on."Boat", which means to ride the wind and waves, is safe, stable, and unsinkable.In addition, some villages imitate phoenixes, fish, and other forms according to the natural environment for good luck.Moreover, the site environment of the "Pictorial Mimicry" village was deeply investigated, and its bionic form was not only the psychological comfort of praying for the harmony of the village water resources but also the result of clever adaptation to the environment.

Plain water resources management and utilization system
Based on cultural beliefs, production, and life experience, some traditional villages have also formulated strict water resources management and utilization systems in the form of water volumes and monuments, which are integrated into the villagers' daily life behavior and consciousness in the form of precepts and rules to deal with various problems arising from water (Lin et al. 2015).For example, Yujiagu village formulated the "Liuchi Prohibition" to ensure the conservation and reasonable distribution of water resources; In the village of Dahushu, the Forbidden Stele of Dahushu village was carved, which prohibited all kinds of acts of water pollution in wells.Mapaoquan village has made regulations on the use of the three pools of water in the village.These simple systems guide the maintenance of water resources and the use of water, and the entire village participates in water resourses management, thus ensuring the sustainability of water resources.

Adaptation to local conditions, pay equal attention to prevention and use
Water resources management analyzes, judges, and responds to the characteristics of the village site, driven by the pressure of survival and the constraints of the natural environment, complies with and makes use of the objective laws of nature, reduces the disturbance to nature, and integrates water resources management demands into nature through the concept of adaptation rather than confrontation with as little artificial construction as possible to achieve harmony between village and water.In addition, the management of water resources in villages pays

Division of labour and cooperation, complement each other
Kongyawei takes four typical villages located in arid, semi-arid, semi-humid, and humid areas of China as examples.Water facilities are divided into four subsystems: supply, collection, transmission, and treatment.He analyzes the wisdom of water management in traditional villages, such as water intake and supply, water transmission and drainage, waterproofing and water collection, and wastewater reuse (Kong, Cao, and Jiang 2022).Therefore, water resources management is an internal and external organic system, regardless of the type of village.The various links and processes are not segmented and isolated, but closely coordinated and synergistic.Buildings, courtyards, streets, water environment facilities, farmland, rivers, or even roof tiles and street paving are all involved in the system operation of water environment management.Infiltration, storage, purification, utilization, and drainage complement each other to jointly reduce the total amount of rainwater runoff, reduce peak flows, recycle rainwater, and maintain the natural hydrological cycle (Figure 20).

Low cost, low technology, low maintenance
The ancestors had a clear awareness of their limited capacity, and at the beginning of the construction, they tried to make the village in a less disaster-prone position as much as possible, using mostly local materials and simple traditional techniques to build the facilities.In addition, the water environment facilities are integrated into nature, participate in the villagers' production and life, and are closely related to the villagers' behavioral activities.As an important part of the village space, it can be consciously maintained by the villagers every day.What's more, the process is simple, and the maintenance cost is low.

Make the best use of things and compound functions
Traditional water environment facilities meet the requirements of water consumption but are also important nodes of the village's open space.For example, during the heavy rainfall season, the waterlogged pond can store water to prevent flooding and at the same time assume the functions of water for livestock, irrigation, women's laundry, and children's play.In addition, the roads in most traditional villages not only meet the traffic demand but also serve as flood passages, and the walls are both defense facilities and also have the function of intercepting floods (Zhao et al. 2018).They all reflect the wisdom of making the best use of things and making the functions multiple.
In particular, the organic combination of the water environment facilities creates a leisure and cultural landscape space that is real and natural, and the functional and cultural landscapes are integrated with each other, improving the microclimate and enhancing the quality of the human living environment.

Discussion on contemporary inheritance
The ecological wisdom of water resources management in traditional villages in the Taihang Mountains is adapted to the regional environment and integrated into the village, which is a combination of respect for nature, the summation of production and life experience, and the observance of customs and institutions.It has been tested over time in flood prevention, drainage, and coping with drought and still has great ecological, economic, and social value for modern development.However, traditional water resources management still has some disadvantages: First, traditional water resources management is to serve the low productivity level of farming society, lack of professional and scientific support, and mostly favoring experience; second, village development, changes in production, and lifestyle make the modern habitat environment have changed greatly; traditional water resources management has differences in the times; third, the construction of ecological civilization has put forward higher requirements for village development; Fourth, each village is equivalent to a small internal self-digesting circulation system, there is a lack of unified planning within the town and city boundaries, and the pressure of ecological protection in the watershed is greater (Huang et al. 2023); Finally, some of the water resources management measures are produced by the influence of the ancient environment and no longer have significance in contemporary times.Therefore, we need to carry out a comprehensive assessment of traditional water resources management wisdom and then pass it on.Contemporary stormwater management meets development needs but relies too much on technology for active control, which mainly uses stormwater pipe networks and other drainage facilities to reduce flooding (Zhou and Zhu 2022), but if applied to traditional villages, it may cause damage to the ecological environment and historic preservation buildings.Traditional water resources management is mostly adapted to nature, but there are limitations of the times that need our dialectical cognition and reference.We should extract the essence of traditional water ecological wisdom, such as concepts, technical measures, and systems, and summarize their classic "original form", Let them complement and learn from each other with new concepts and technological systems to create the "new form" of the development of the times, which not only has the modern "form" but also the traditional "spirit", and makes clear the development direction and thinking according to local conditions (Figure 21).Specifically, firstly, it can be complemented and improved with modern concepts and management systems to adapt to the development of the times and possess traditional wisdom at the same time; secondly, it can be adapted to modern technical measures, which are highly targeted but have a single function and are less flexible.In addition, applying the wisdom of traditional water resources management to village renewal, combining tradition and modernity, activating and continuing village culture in development, and triggering villagers' recognition and humanistic perception of local culture is also the most dynamic way to protect and inherit.

Conclusion
The encroachment of ecological space such as farmland and woodland, the disorderly expansion of construction, the gray infrastructure cutting the original ecological texture, the excessive hardening of the substrate, the original flooding space occupied by construction, etc. have disrupted the natural hydrological cycle of villages, weakened the storage capacity and elasticity, and increased the potential risk of flooding.Moreover, the problems of water pollution and shortage are becoming increasingly serious, and scientific concepts and methods are urgently needed for guidance.The traditional ecological wisdom of water resources management in the Taihang Mountains is explored, summarized, and combined with modern concepts for an inheritance that can effectively provide inspiration and reference for the improvement of village habitat in the future.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Extent of the Taihang Mountains (From the author).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The village of choice (From the author).

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Field research process (From the author).

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Location of Taihang Mountains in the National flood disaster distribution map.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Location of Taihang Mountains in the National drought hazard distribution map.
3.1.1.2.Block and Intercept.Some studies have shown that walls, retaining walls, and flood control walls could be used as barricades in the path of rainwater catchment to avoid external flooding, which was an artificial means of flood control in ancient times (Figure10)(Wang 2021).Walls and retaining walls often intercept water at higher elevations to prevent excessive floods from flowing into the village, and drainage is carried out in combination with flood discharge channels.Due to the ancient warfare in the Taihang Mountains, most traditional villages set up fortress walls, and fortress gates to enhance their defense.The wise ancestors combined them with flood control, who used the walls to block the flood water and then combined it with the flood drains outside the walls to divert the flow, and the fort gates were set up with water gates to act as gates to regulate the water entering the villages by opening and closing them, typical of which are the mainstay cities, Diqicheng, Tuncheng, and Guoyu village in the Qin River basin.Flood control walls are mainly built in low-lying areas and are often found in villages with river systems in the outer valleys to prevent the flooding of river systems from flooding the village during heavy rainstorms, such as in Cuandixia village.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Water resources management system in traditional villages (From the author).

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Illustration of the siting layout of Wangnao Village (From the author).
drainage.The total amount and duration of seasonal flooding faced by Taihang Mountains are relatively small, and streets and alleys generally serve the function of organizing rainwater transmission and diverting surface runoff (S.M. Wang 2021).Based on field investigation, most of the traditional villages have a certain topographic elevation difference.The ancestors used the natural terrain to lay out the main streets and

Figure 8 .
Figure 8. Site se lection of villages to avoid seasonal river floods in water resources management (From the author).

Figure 9 .
Figure 9. Quantitative study on main street of Shangzhuang Ancient village Based on ArcGIS (From the author).

Figure 10 .
Figure 10.Schematic diagram of two ways of intercepting flood in traditional villages (From the author).

Figure 11 .
Figure 11.Systematic collaborative operation system of drainageC organizations in traditional villages [Source (Zhou et al. 2022),: revised by the authors].

Figure 12 .
Figure 12.Courtyard with high middle and low sides and drainage grooves [Source (S.M. Wang 2021),: revised by the authors].

Figure 13 .
Figure 13.Diagram of drainage subdivision in Cuandixia village (From the author).

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.Schematic diagram of land saving in drainage culverts (From the author).

Types
Dig of channels to divert river water for use Dig of channels to divert rainwater for use Dig of channels to divert spring water for use Distinction The river flows slowly from the outside or inside of the village parallel to the main street, which is convenient for access.Rainwater is introduced into the village for collection and utilization through "channels" under natural conditions.The spring water flows through each house in the linear form of a sink and waterway, which is convenient for access.in Tuncheng village (the village uses the terrain difference to divert the Zhengcun River with a channel made of sand and stone) Water diversion channel of Shangpanshi village (the village uses the road as a "diversion channel" to divert the rainwater separated from the ridge to the south and east of the village, which can solve the problem of water source access.)

Figure 17 .
Figure 17.Schematic diagram of the collection-storage-taking of the water cellar inside the courtyard (From the author).

Figure 18 .
Figure 18.Section view of waterlogging pool (From the author).

Figure 19 .
Figure 19.Principle of water improvement on village microclimate and example landscape (From the author).
dual character of rainwater.It not only pays attention to flood control and drainage but also focuses on water storage and diversion, storing flood water when flooded and supplying water when drought strikes, turning flood water in the flood season into a resources in the arid season, and turning harm into benefit(Li et al. 2021;Xu, Wang, and Wang 2017).

Figure 20 .
Figure 20.Division of labour between the various components of water environment management (From the author).

Figure 21 .
Figure 21.Relationship between traditional water ecological wisdom and the sponge city concept (From the author).
Research methodsSurvey contents Survey period Literature analysis method Natural geography, history and humanities, village history and genealogy, various plans, etc. 2022.8.1-2022.8.10 Field survey method and interview method Data acquisition, distribution, quantity and quality of water environment facilities; residents' satisfaction; construction time and function of water environment facilities in villages2022.8.15-2022.8.30  2022.10.3-2022.10.13  2022.12.7-2022.12.22

Table 2 .
Comparison of characteristics of water environment, types of water disasters, and internal needs of water resources management between traditional villages in the South and the North.

Table 5 .
Schematic diagram of the bionomic forms of some traditional villages that complement the natural environment (From the author).