Journal of Coastal Research, Vol.14, No.2(1998), 591-599
MORPHOLOGY AND LANDUSE OF THE COASTAL ZONE OF THE NORTH JIANGSU PLAIN,
JIANGSU PROVINCE, EASTERN CHINA
ZHU DAKUI1 I.P. MARTINI2 and M.E. BROOKFIELD3
1State Pilot Laboratory of Coast and Island Exploitation, Nanjing
University, Nanjing, China
2Department of Land Resource Science University of Guelph Ontario, Canada
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The North Jiangsu Plain is a vast flat coastal area in eastern China, which
formed over the last 5,000 to 6,000 years by reworking of sediments from the
Yellow and Yangtze rivers along the coast of the Yellow Sea. The plain has sandy
and rocky shores on the north, an eroding coastline along the old abandoned
delta of the Yellow River in the centre, and vast tidal flats on the south. Salt
is produced along the northern coasts. Aquaculture, primarily of shrimps and
eels, is practised everywhere. A wheat- and fruit-based agriculture predominates
in the drier north and a rice- and silk-based agriculture in the wetter south.
The political and sociological goals are to increase the industrial output of
this area. The main hindrance to this is energy supply and communications. Plans
exist to enlarge one of the existing harbours in Lianyungang in the north, and
built large offshore anchorages for oil tankers and coal cargo ships along tidal
channels in the flatter central part of the coast.
