Abstract: Due to excessive opening of new lands during the Ming-Qing period, the ecology and hydrology of the mountainous areas of Shaanxi witnessed some distinctly negative changes. Serious soil erosion led to increasingly ineffective irrigation canals and other types of water conservancy, as well as to the rapidly growing number of natural disasters, especially floods. This essay relies on stele inscriptions from Hanzhong and Xingan prefectures to investigate the changes that irrigation and water conservancy induced in Shaanxi during the late Qing. The article also examines the special characteristics of natural disasters, and the relationship between natural disasters and human activities in this locale.