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TOPOS: Slow Down: Hydrological Infrastructure for Liupanshui, China

2014-07-15 Source:TOPOS

Liupanshui in Guizhou Province, known for its cool plateau climate, is an industrial city built in the mid-1960s in a valley surrounded by limestone hills, with the Shuicheng River running through it. With an area of 60 square kilometres, the city is densely inhabited by a population of 600,000. As part of a major campaign of environmental improvement, the city government commissioned the design firm Turenscape with its head designer Kongjian Yu to develop a holistic strategy for addressing a variety of serious problems, including:
 
1) Water pollution: As one of the major heavy industrial cities built during the cold war period, Liupanshui has been dominated by coal, steel and cement industries for decades. Consequently, the city’s citizens have suffered from the resulting air and water pollution for a long time. From its industrial chimneys, decades of air pollution deposits have fallen onto the surrounding slopes and been washed into the river along with stormwater runoff that carries chemical fertiliser runoff from the farm land on the slopes and sewage from the scattered settlements in the area.
 
2) Flood and stormwater nundation: Situated in the valley, he city is subject to floods and stormwater inundation during the monsoon season, but also to severe drought in the dry season due to the porous limestone geology.
 
3) Channelization of the mainriver: Channelization of the Shuicheng River was carried out in the 1970s as a solution to inundation and flooding. The channel carried the stormwater from upstream but caused even more severe flooding problems downstream. Hence, the former meandering river became an ugly concrete, lifeless ditch and its capacity for flood retention and environmental remediation was totally lost.
 
4) Lack of public space: Recreation and green spaces are inadequate due to a population explosion in the city. The water system that was once a blessing to the city has become a deserted backyard garbage dump and the dangerous backside of the city. Pedestrian access to a restored green space system is badly needed in such a densely populated community.
 
The strategy was to slow the flow of water from the hillside slopes and create a water-based ecological infrastructure that will retain and remediate the stormwater, and make water the active agent in the regeneration of a healthy ecosystem that will provide natural and cultural services in order to transform the industrial city into a livable human habitat. The Liupanshui Minghu Wetland Park project, 90 hectares (222 acres) in size, is the first phase of the response to these problems and a major part of the comprehensive ecological infrastructure project planned by the landscape architects for the city. For the overall ecological infrastructure, the landscape architects focused both on the Shuicheng River drainage basin and on the city. Firstly, existing streams, wetlands, and low-lying land were all integrated into a storm-water management and ecological purification system linked by the river, forming a series of water retention ponds and purification wetlands with different capacities. This approach not only minimizes urban flooding but also increases the base flow in order to sustain river water flow after the rainy season. Secondly, the concrete embankment of the channelised river was removed. A natural riverbank was restored to revitalise the riparian ecology and maximise the river’s self-purification capacity. Thirdly, continuous public spaces were created to incorporate pedestrian and bicycle paths that increase access to the riverfront. These corridors integrate urban recreation and ecological space. Lastly, the project combines waterfront development and river restoration. The ecological infrastructure serves as a catalyst for urban renewal efforts in Liupanshui, significantly increases land values and enhances urban vitality. As one of the major projects included in the ecological infrastructure of Liupanshui, the Minghu Wetland Park features the ecological restoration of the upper stream section of the channelised river.
 
The rainbow bridge is an iconic cultural landscape element that focuses views toward the extensive karst landscape surrounding the city. The bridge provides a cultural route for ordering, experiencing and interpreting the otherwise ordinary natural landscape.
 
About TOPOS
 
Topos is the definitive international publication about landscape architecture and urban design. Topos covers a broad range of topics and scales, from urban landscape to rural areas, from infrastructure to gardens. The quarterly issues are a rich source of insight into the creative forces that shape the spaces in which we live. Topos is essential for those within landscape architecture, urban design and architecture, as well as those who are simply curious about the constructed nature of the world around them.
 
 
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