Title
Using Local Toponyms to Reconstruct the Historical River Networks in Hubei Province, China.
Abstract
As an important data source for historical geography research, toponyms reflect the human activities and natural landscapes within a certain area and time period. In this paper, a novel quantitative method of reconstructing historical river networks using toponyms with the characteristics of water and direction is proposed. It is suitable for the study area which possesses rich water resources. To reconstruct the historical shape of the river network, (1) water-related toponyms and direction-related toponyms are extracted as two datasets based on the key words in each village toponym; (2) the feasibility of the river network reconstruction based on these toponyms is validated via a quantitative analysis, according to the spatial distributions of toponyms and rivers; (3) the reconstructed historical shape of the river network can be obtained via qualitative knowledge and geometrical analysis; and (4) the reconstructed rivers are visualized to display their general historical trends and shapes. The results of this paper demonstrate the global correlation and local differences between the toponyms and the river network. The historical river dynamics are revealed and can be proven by ancient maps and local chronicles. The proposed method provides a novel way to reconstruct historical river network shapes using toponym datasets.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.3390/ijgi9050318
ISPRS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEO-INFORMATION
Keywords
DocType
Volume
toponym quantitative analysis,historical landscape reconstruction,geographical weighted regression,Thiessen polygon,spatial cluster
Journal
9
Issue
Citations 
PageRank 
5
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Aini Zhong100.34
Yukun Wu200.34
Ke Nie300.68
Mengjun Kang412.04