2,000-Year Reconstruction of Floods, Population, and Sediment in the Yangtze River Basin

A 2,000-year reconstruction tracks hydrological extremes, population dynamics, sediment flux, and flood disasters across the Yangtze River Basin. The dataset, authored by Chonghao Chen and last updated in April 2026, reveals shifting human-flood coupling driven by migration and land use changes over millennia.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in flood disasters based on the 2,000-year reconstruction of hydrological extremes.
• Study the coupling and decoupling of human settlement and climate-driven flood impacts based on population dynamics data.
• Model the relationship between sediment flux, agricultural intensification, and flood conveyance capacity based on described geomorphological changes.
• Compare upstream versus downstream flood risk drivers based on the described spatial contrast in human-flood coupling from the 20th century.

Strengths

• Covers a 2,000-year time span, providing a millennial-scale perspective.
• Integrates multiple data types: hydrological extremes, population dynamics, sediment flux, and flood disaster records.
• Explicitly documents a major shift in human-flood coupling mechanisms around the 12th and mid-19th centuries.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small (409.2 KB), suggesting a limited scope or highly aggregated data.

Provenance

Source

Chonghao Chen, published on figshare.

Collection Method

Likely a synthesis of historical records, paleoclimate proxies, and sedimentological data for reconstruction.

Time Range

Approximately 2,000 years, spanning from roughly 26 CE to the present.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 02:10:56; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Yangtze River Basin, China.