Presentation on China’s Water Crisis: Projects Leading Policy Water Urbanism across Scales Water Urbanisms East (Book) 2013 by Kongjian Yu

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China’s Water
Crisis: Projects
Leading Policy
Water Urbanism across Scales
Water Urbanisms East (Book)
2013
Presentation on
Author: Kongjian Yu
Submitted to:
Dr. Sangeeta Singh, Professor
IOE, Pulchowk Campus
Submitted by:
Prabal Dahal | PUL078MSUrP012
April 2022

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About the author
 Doctor of Design Degree from the Harvard Graduate
School of Design : 1995 (Security pattern in
Landscape Planning: With a Case in South China)
 Chinese ecological urbanist, urban planner and
landscape architect, professor of landscape
architecture at Peking University.
 Founder of planning and design office Turenscape in
Beijing
Image: resite.org

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Structure of the paper
 Introduction (China, urbanism, water problems)
 Water Urbanism Strategies across Scales (Ecological
Infrastructure “EI” and Security Patterns “SP”)
 XL Scale: Water-Centered National Ecological SP
 L Scale: Water SP Guiding Growth
 M Scale: Return to the Water
 S Scale: Urban Storm Water Parks
 XS Scale: The productive Balcony and Living Wall
 Conclusion - Water: Curse or Blessing?

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Methodology applied in the paper
 Presentation of selected planning and realized
projects (large to small scale) to make the upside-
down planning mechanism (projects creating policy)
tangible
 Presentation of projects carried out in intensive
partnership between academia and practice
(Graduate School of Landscape architecture at
Peking University and office of Turenscape)

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Introduction
Problem:
 As rapid urbanization and
extreme population densities
radically change land-use
patterns of territories, there has
been a dramatic drop in water
tables, a perceptible threat to
food security and environmental
degradation.
 China has only 6 per cent of the
world sweet water but needs to
quench the thirst of 20 per cent
of the world’s population.

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Water Urbanism Strategies across Scales
 Landscape architecture has the opportunity to take leadership in
reconstructing water adaptive landscapes for both flood and
drought, to teach people to live with water and to treat water as a
treasure
 The key is to build an ‘ecological infrastructure’ (EI) based on water
processes across scales, from the national and continental scale to
the local and site specific.

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Water Urbanism Strategies across Scales
 EI focusses on three landscape categories:
 abiotic processes (mainly water management),
 biotic processes (native species/biodiversity conservation) and
 cultural (heritage protection and re-creation)
 and has works in tandem with landscape ‘security patterns’ (SP)
as a powerful tool for open public space conservation, a major
challenge in China’s predominantly developer-driven, city-building
mode of today.

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Water Urbanism Strategies across Scales
 The development of EI and SPs includes both ‘defensive
measures’ to protect threatened ecological networks and
‘opportunistic’ interventions to restore, complete and integrate
the damaged water network into the urban fabric; it effectively
determines where not to urbanize.

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XL Scale
 2006 - a visionary and forward-
thinking planning effort was sponsored
by the Chinese Ministry of
Environmental Protection, and was
promoted by then-Primier Wen Jiabao,
who backed Peking University’s
proposal to establish a National
Ecological Security Pattern
 The goal of the plan was to establish
an ecological security pattern at the
national scale, which would protect
the most sensitive ecological
landscapes and strategy for both wise
conservation and wise development
Water-Centered National Ecological Security Patterns
Bagua Template for
Feng Shui
Image: nationsonline.org
Ancient Feng Shui >>>
National Ecological
Security Pattern

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XL Scale
 Restoration of the Grand Canal,
which connects Hangzhou in the south
to Tongzhou, just east of Beijing, in the
north
 Ecological and cultural restoration
of the Grand Canal and, together with
various national and provincial level
administrations, is promoting its
recognition as a UNESCO world
heritage site. A pilot restoration project
of the canal at Suqian, Jiangsu
Province realizes a park with new
public accessibility to the majestic
waterfront by way of bold platforms,
lines of vegetation and urban furniture.
Water-Centered National Ecological Security Patterns

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L Scale
 In 2008, the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at PKU in association with Turenscape was
commissioned by the Land Resources Bureau of the Beijing Municipal Government and developed a
negative approach to define urban growth and urban form through the identification and planning of EI
 planning and establishing a regional water security pattern (as a core of regional EI) is a critical spatial strategy for
adapting rapid urban growth
 An analysis of the existing hydrological conditions provided the base for an interpretative map showing the potential
of flood hazards
Water Security Patterns Guiding Growth

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L Scale
Water Security Patterns Guiding Growth
After extensive scenario development and testing using GIS, an EI of medium level has been adapted
as it was chosen—after deliberation—by the government

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M Scale
Development restrictions, particularly
storm water management of the entire
site for Wulijie eco-town in Wuhan
 The main urban design concept
for the town is to use landscape
as EI, integrating various natural
and cultural processes to frame
the city and provide diverse
ecosystem services for residents
 A water-based EI was established
based on the existing landform
and water network
 Interweaving Water Structures
and Urban Development
Return to the water

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M Scale
Return to the water
In 2007, Turenscape was commissioned to
recover the Sanlihe River (flooding and
neglected) and a 13.4 km long by 100 -
300 m wide greenway now serves as an
exemplary project of how a neglected
landscape can be recovered as EI.
 Its restored ecosystem capacity
mediates flood and drought, provides
habitat for native biodiversity,
integrates pedestrian and bicycle
paths for commuting and recreational
uses, creates spiritual and aesthetic
benefits and catalyzes urban
development.
 Flooding is mitigated while storm water
runoff is collected, purified and
disseminated throughout the wetlands

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M Scale
Return to the water
Taizhou (population 5.5 million), located on
the prospering south east coast of Zhejiang
Province, is one of the regions where
Turenscape tested EI and SP across
scales and also realized a river
revalorization project.
 Biodiversity conservation based on four
SPs (water management, biodiversity
conservation, cultural heritage protection
and recreation)
 different scenario of urban growth
simulated
 The ecological infrastructure plan for
Taizhou has been translated into the
legal zoning plan of the city and, as
such, represents the first legislation of its
kind in China.
Transformed Riverfront

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S Scale
In the northern coastal city of
Tianjin, Hedong District, the flat
polluted topography of a former
shooting range has been
manipulated to form the 22-ha
Qiaoyuan Wetland Park with 21
ponds (10–40 m diameter) of various
depth and a series of mounds.
 Turenscape’s regenerative
design not only transformed the
brownfield into a green heart for
the neighborhood, but also
provided diverse ecosystem
services for the city
Urban Storm Water Parks

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S Scale
Urban Storm Water Parks
The artificial topography of mounds and craters generates a
perpetually evolving landscape that alters with the seasons

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S Scale
Urban Storm Water Parks
Design of Qunil Storm Water Park
on former wetland in the outskirts of
Haerbin City, north China.
 The design solutions included the
use of cut-and-fill technique to
create a necklace of ponds and
mounds surrounding the former
wetland, while leaving a major
core untouched for natural
evolution and transformation
 The perimeter-park-nature
experience on the skywalk or on
the ground complements the busy
urban atmosphere.
 Storm water once considered a
flood hazard in the new city
becomes a positive catalyst for the
revitalization of a dying wetland
and an environmental amenity.

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S Scale
Urban Storm Water Parks

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XS Scale
Improvement of habitable space in a
dense urban community by reducing
energy consumption through water
harvesting, solar panels and a living
wall in an apartment building in
north-west Beijing
 Water is released at the top of the
wall, slowly trickling out of the
stone and encouraging moss
growth
 Water collects in a pool at the
base of the wall where visitors can
sit on a ledge and watch fish,
which naturally control insects
The Productive Balcony and Living Wall
The living water wall is constructed from native limestone. Its porosity allows the harvested
rainwater to slowly trickle out of the stones from the top. Moisture and humidity encourage moss
growth and create an ever-changing canvas. From time to time, the house becomes an
educational demonstration center.

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Water: Curse or Blessing?
 Water can be a curse or blessing depending on how wisely one makes use of it
 EI is integrated with other natural, biological and cultural processes
 Like the sacred landscapes, that in the pre-scientific era safeguarded human
settlements, EI acts as a backbone in securing and providing critical ecosystem
services for the increasingly urbanized society.
 Water Based EI (Ecological Infrastructure) across scales
 [National >> Regional >> Individual]
 with ecological SP (Security Patterns)

22. z
Reflection
 Macro to Micro Level thinking
 Good examples of collaboration between Academia and Practice
 Urban storm water parks can act as necessary green sponges, cleaning and
storing urban storm water that can be integrated with other ecosystem services
including the protection of native habitats, aquifer recharge, recreational use
and aesthetic experience while at the same time, supporting urban
development.

23. Thank You