History
Japanese culture
Environmental Conservation
Environmental Science
Civil Engineering
Traditional knowledge
In the mid-16th century Japanese feudal lord Takeda Shingen invented the Seigyuu, an ingenious method to control sedimentation of rivers, reduce rapid water flow and protect levees during flood events. Non-permanent installations easily handmade using local materials.
Permanent sediment controls almost always end up creating more damage to levees but the seigyu are designed to break apart before they can accumulate so much sediment that they allow flood waters to overwhelm levees. Expendable, they are easily rebuilt after the flood event.
They require no machinery no money no imported materials and being human scaled they can even be constructed by women and children if necessary, and by the locals who know the precise conditions of the rivers and levees themselves.
We can never brute force control flooding events and rapid rivers, but we can guide the water to where we want it when we want it, working with the forces of nature rather than against it.
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