ABSTRACTThrough an analysis of both the historical and the present-day processes, an effort has been made to deal with the long-term environmental effects induced by man's regulation of the Yellow River of China, which was started more than 2,000 years ago. The artificial levee construction on the Yellow River was proposed as a prerequisite for regional development of the Lower Yellow River alluvial plain. However, the resulting formation of a“hanging river”led to frequent occurrences of course changes, which closely control the micro-landform formation, the soil formation and distribution, the surface water and groundwater features, and so on. Particularly, a descriptive model is proposed to explain the formation process of micro-landforms controlled by the artificial levee construction and the course change of the Yellow River. In history, the Yellow River regulation strategies of“narrowing water flow by diking to scour sediment”and“storing the Huaihe River's clear water to scour the Yellow River's sediment’were proposed and put into action, giving rise to far-reaching environmental effects. The practice of the former greatly increased the delta's extending rate, and the practice of the latter resulted in a sharp expansion of the Lake Hongzhehu, one of the earliest large artificial lakes in the world, and consequently increased the frequency of flood and water-logging hazards in the middle Huaihe River basin.