River Geo Analysis for Kayaking: Basic GIS for Kayaking
This blog post is the script for my YouTube video. So, it can be more casual and less concise.
In the blog post, I will show you my explorations in river geography.
The main points of the article are as follows:
- Basic river geo-information, including river network, river route, elevation profile, milestones of a river, and dams on a river.
- Analyze a river using its geographic information.
- The river resources for kayaking in China.
- My kayaking plan, travel around China by river cruising.
Next, I will talk about the details of the main points.
1. Basic river geo-information.
River Network
River Route
River Elevation Profile
Dams on the River
Dams data is downloaded from OpenStreetMap. However, it’s not complete. Some data are missing.
Milestones on the River
Milestones Imported into Mapbox.
Milestones Imported into Gaia GPS App
Milestones Imported into a Chinese Outdoor App “两步路户外助手”
2. Analyze a river using its geographic information.
In this section, I will show you how to use the geo-data above.
Beijing is possibly the city with the most people kayaking in China, as I have seen the most videos from Beijing. So, I will use a river as an example that passes through Beijing. Yongdinghe River is a really famous river.
River Network and River Route
Elevation Profile
From the elevation profile and the terrain map, we can know that. This river flows through both a plateau and a plain, with the majority of its length on the plateau and plain. Only a small portion of the river is on the slope between them.
We can clearly see the sign of dams on the river from the elevation profile because this figure is stepped. So the construction of many dams has turned most sections of the river into reservoirs. Maybe kayaking will benefit from that because the dams eliminate most of the rapids on the river. Some guys may think rafting in static water is boring. I’m not a whitewater guy. For now, I’m really conservative about this. If there are any rapids on the river, I’ll bypass them on the road. I’m just a kayaking traveler.
The river we just analyzed is 700 kilometers long.
Next, I’m gonna show you a river double the length.
Hanjiang Or Han River, with a length of over 1500 kilometers, has the same name as the Han ethnic group, the majority ethnic group in China.
From the elevation profile, we can see that. Only the first 100 kilometers of the Han River are in the mountains, and the remaining 1400 kilometers can be kayaked.
This is the basic use case for elevation profiles.
Next, I’m gonna talk about the use cases for river networks.
The display of river networks can be controlled in GIS software like QGIS. You can show or hide any part of it. You can customize the display style to make it more visualized to inspect.
In a basin or crossing several basins, you can choose any river that interests you to go kayaking. Maybe because it flows through an interesting city, or the scenery around the river is beautiful.
I have to make this section a bit longer because there is so much interesting stuff about rivers we can review on a map when we have the data on river networks.
There is an interesting example. The Minjiang River and the Tuojiang River are both major tributaries of the Yangtze River with different origins and routes. But somewhere in the middle, they are connected naturally. A certain amount of water flows from Minjiang to Tuojiang. In Chinese, there is a term to describe this kind of phenomenon called “双生河流” I cannot find a term in English. Maybe we can call them Conjoined Rivers.
There is another interesting fact about two other rivers, which are both major tributaries of the Yangtze River as well. The source of the Jialing River was once the source of the Han River. About 2000 years ago, during the Han Dynasty, a significant earthquake cut off the source of the Han River. The falling rock debris caused by the earthquake, with a depth of dozens of meters, blocked the flow of the Han River at this location within the circle on the diagram. The major river of the source is still called by its original name, the West Han River. But it will never flow through its original route. One of the main cities on this river is called Hanzhong. It means the middle of the Han River. Before the source was cut off, Hanzhong was located in the middle reaches of the Han River. The name “Hanzhong” has been used for over 2,000 years. The name of the Han ethnic group in China can be traced back to the Han River, the City of Hanzhong, and the Han Dynasty.
As I mentioned in the last paragraph, the West Han River still uses its original name, but it will never flow into the Han River. It may not be correct in the future. The government plans to dig up the earthquake-caused debris that has dammed the river for two thousand years to allow the West Han River to flow into the Han River again. Because the South-to-North Water Transfer Project has caused a shortage of water in the Han River. I’d really like to kayak there to find the clues about the river diversion.
There are many modern or ancient canals and roads crossing basins. Using river network data to inspect crossing basin routes is one of my major use cases.
Next, I will show you how to use river milestones data, It’s quite simple.
- Trip planning. I need to choose an appropriate destination for my daily trip. The daily kayaking distance cannot be longer than 30 kilometers. And the destination must be a crowded place in a town. If the parking spot is in a village, my belongings are more likely to be stolen.
- Trip meter. The outdoor app shows my current location on a map with milestones. Easy math tells me how far I’ve kayaked and how much further I have to go.
- Reference point. If you kayak in a remote area and there is no village or roads, and there is a notable place, maybe its scenery is beautiful, or it’s a dangerous place. If you want to share the information with others, you can simply say, “A rapid is located at the 100-kilometer milestone of the River”.
3. The river resources for kayaking in China.
China has a vast network of rivers that flow through diverse landscapes, from mountains and plateaus to deserts, grasslands, and forests. These rivers are rich in natural shooting material and hold countless stories of history and culture. Moreover, China’s high population density, compared to countries like North America, ensures easy access to supplies even in remote areas while rafting.
4. My kayaking plan, travel around China by river cruising.
I’m trying to combine kayaking, cycling, and driving as a new approach to travel around China by waterways.
And I will use rivers as an index to string cities, stories, and sceneries.
My YouTube channel is JackOnTheRoad_en.
That’s all for this blog post.
In my next post, I will show you how to get and use these geo data.
See you next time.
