Strategic measures for rapid restoration of Xianghe Segment of China’s Grand Canal

China’s Grand Canal is a giant water engineering project and has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its initial construction in the Zhou Dynasty (486 B.C.), the Canal had played great role in transportation and regional economic development. However, those historical functions of the Grand Canal have been almost abandoned during the past century in part due to problems like water pollution and ecological deterioration. While the environmental and ecological functions of China’s Grand Canal have been severely damaged, its socio-economic functions have been crippled. The Xianghe Segment of China’s Grand Canal (XSCGC) is the north end of China’s Grand Canal. Connecting Beijing and Tianjin, XSCGC is an important component of China’s Grand Canal. With the implementation of China’s Strategy for Promoting Ecological Progress and Beijng–Tianjin–Hebei Integration Development Strategy, the restoration of environment, ecosystems, and socio-economic functions of XSCGC has become an urgent task for nat...