The production of hydrosocial space in contemporary China

The relationship between water management and landscape entails the formation of institutional frameworks and the anthropogenic shaping of the land. Historically, socioeconomic development has shaped such a context-dependent association. This chapter focuses on the case of China to investigate the hegemonic societal values embodied in the contemporary relationship between water management and landscape. Specifically, this chapter concentrates on the policy framework and design interventions radically transforming the urban landscape of the Greater Bay Area of China but also discusses the extent to which hydrological transformations are shaping everyday life in contemporary China. The study offers an overview of the policy development and corpus-assisted discourse analysis of a large dataset of policies (N=134) and newspaper articles (N=13,482) to uncover changes in the approach to and understanding of river management. Finally, the study uses the case of the Dasha River of Shenzhen to illustrate the consequent production of hydrosocial space. © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Shamik Chakraborty, Amit Chatterjee and Pankaj Kumar; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved.