A New Record of Characteristics of Droughts and Floods in Yuan River Basin: Paleohydrological Values of Ancient Building

Many ancient buildings represented by Water Temples are located in the lower reach of the Yuan River in Hunan Province. In ancient times, due to the worship of water god, the water god temples were generally built near, water, mainly for praying for the safety of water transportation and facilitating the navigation. In this paper it interprets the paleohydrological value of ancient buildings, explores the characteristics of droughts and floods in the history of the Yuan River basin, and provides references for the study of regional climate change. Because of the special nature of ancient buildings such as the Water God Temple built by water, so its site marked the ancient shoreline of the Yuan River. In addition, the ancient buildings were built on bases higher than the height of the water level in that year. Data such as the location of the ancient buildings and the elevation of their bases were used to reconstruct the historical river channel changes and drought and flood characteristics of the lower reach of the Yuan River. The ancient buildings represented by the Water God Temple are concentrated on the plain area and the transition zone between hills and plains in the downstream of Yuan River, which corresponds well with the paleohydrological environment such as river channel changes and drought and flood characteristics in the history. The Water God Temple in Zhenlongge proves that the local water is an ancient river channel; the stone cabinet in Wuling District indicates an extremely dry period during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and a flood period during the Kangxi period, the average value of dry and wet climate is calculated for 40 meters from the ancient buildings; above 40 meters is the flooding period, it's the warm climate period, and below 40 meters is the dry period, it's the cold climate period, which provides important values for ancient climate research.