#nanggang

[edieeebity]

If it’s nice, play I twice!! I don’t think any of you are ready for this next @hostilebassmusic !!!😈 #getorix #blackraptor #nanggang

[edieeebity]

Caption this photo! The best comment will win a pair of tickets to the #HostileTakeover! ( Chosen next Friday. ) 🎟 link in bio 🤟🏻 #Dubstep #Riddim #Monsters #NangGang #SavageSociety

[edieeebity]

You've been warned, our #HostileTakeover special guests are going to be... LIT😈 Limited $20 tickets still available 🎟! #dubstep #nanggang #savagesociety #monstersdubstep

[edieeebity]

On sale NOW! 🎟 in bio... #HostileTakeover #NangGang #MonstersDubstep #SavageSociety #BassweightRecords #BlackLabelNSD #FreshBlood representing on this one !

[edieeebity]

If it's nice, play it twice ✌🏻 Throwback to our first #HostileTakeover with some of the #NangGang! Who do you want to see at this years HTO? 🧐😈

[lettersfromtaiwan]

Flood Control In Nanggang, Taipei City

On Saturday, I got the chance to briefly explore one of the water control features of Nanggang, just outside the Academia Sinica campus.   Taipei City sits in an old basin that was once a great lake.  Today, at least three major rivers converge on this basin and run out to the Taiwan Strait through Danshui.  Of these, the Keelung River (top right - it actually originates near Jingtong in New Taipei City) flows through Nanggang and is joined by smaller two tributaries that flow off the mountains and past Academia Sinica:

  The flood control center I am documenting here sits on the Yanjiuyuan Road (Section 1)  (Route 106) bridge over the tributary to the left of the picture above.  On either side of the bridge are rails that allow a barrier to be slid across the road seemingly either to stop traffic using the bridge during high water times or to ease flooding from either direction.

Flood control and barrier operation towers sit on both sides of the river (on the western side of the bridge) ...

... whilst the barriers themselves sit on the western side:

The tributary itself looks pretty sedate here ...

... but it is a sobering thought to know that this channel is likely to fill up completely with raging waters during a typhoon.  That means the water level hits well over 12 meters from river bed sea level (hat tip to Mike for the correction) ...

A local shop commemorated one such occasion with a plaque of a flood in 2000 showing (red arrow) the frightening height the river reached:

Let's zoom out for perspective:

So we can see that the tributaries not only breached the walls 12.5 meters above sea level but then went on to flood the street level by another meter or so.  And these tributaries are not exactly long by Taiwan standards.  That should give you an idea of the sheer volume of water than runs off of Taiwan's mountains during the heaviest parts of the rainy season and during typhoons.  Without flood control measures like this, whole swathes of Taiwan would be extensively flooded each year potentially costing trillions of New Taiwan Dollars in repairs.  At the very least, cities like Taipei, Tainan and Kaohsiung would be unliveable.  Is it any wonder then that one of the first things the Japanese did during their colonisation of Taiwan was to build an extensive network of dams and water management features similar to the one above.  As Chinese colonisation meant a massive increase in population and the need for extra housing meant development of previous high risk flood areas, more and more water control systems have been built nation-wide.  Despite this, as the 2009 Typhoon Morakot demonstrated, flooding and landslides as a result of water flows remain a major source of potential disaster in Taiwan.

If you are interested in reading more in-depth and detailed articles about water management in Taiwan, I recommend mirrorsignalmove.blogspot.com (I've provided links to most of his excellent articles on Taiwan's reservoirs here).