6 | Monday, March 18, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA

Environment

Authorities plan to use the existing environment to ensure improved protection from typhoons in the Greater Bay Area. Chen Zimo reports from Hong Kong.

A major landscape development under construction along the Tianmu River, the main watercourse through the new district of Hengqin in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, in December. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Coastline to provide natural storm defense

oastal areas across the flood resilience and climate adapta­ ronmental protection during future Guangdong­Hong Kong­ tion on five continents. development, especially in reclama­ Macao Greater Bay Area are Most of his work has been under­ tion areas. ‘Dynamic to be fortified against taken in cities that have learned hard The Civil Engineering and Devel­ C“once­in­a­century typhoons”, lessons after storms wreaked heavy opment Department is planning which, despite the name, seem to be destruction. He cited New Orleans in new environmentally friendly sea monitoring arriving more frequently. the wake of Hurricane Katrina and walls, while flood­prevention struc­ Super typhoons have become a New York after Hurricane Sandy. tures will feature mudflats and mechanism’ plague along the coasts of Hong Dircke’s philosophy emphasizes mangroves that will act as natural Kong and Guangdong province, resilience in hard­hit areas. Because wave barriers. prompting governments to preserve of the possibility that water will One is under construction at the planned and recreate natural seashores. breach the highest barriers, one of Tung Chung East reclamation site References to Typhoon Hato the most important considerations on Lantau Island. Started in Februa­ By CHEN ZIMO (2017) and last year’s Typhoon must be “even if the structures were ry last year, the project is expected to Mangkhut prompt painful recollec­ flooded, you are resilient enough to reclaim 130 hectares of land. In the outline development tions of catastrophic winds and cope with the impact”. Kenneth Leung Mei­yee, profes­ plan for the Guangdong­Hong storm surges — one indelibly “Wherever you build concrete, A man walks through floods in Yangchun, Guangdong province, aft­ sor of aquatic ecology at the Univer­ Kong­Macao Greater Bay imprinted image is of a storm surge, nature will fight it and sooner or later, er Typhoon Mangkhut struck in September. ZHOU KE / XINHUA sity of Hong Kong, provided the Area, unveiled on Feb 18, five stories high, smashing into destroy it. Nature always wins. The Tung Chung East reclamation team authorities set out a frame­ Heng Fa Chuen, a private housing greener we can make our structures, with advice about ecological issues. work for “building ecological complex in Chai Wan in the east of the longer they may last,” he said. Distribution of natural and artificial coastlines in 2016 Leung and his aides have also protection barriers”. Hong Kong Island. He cited the example of the Natural coastline Artificial coastline developed a new type of “ecologi­ “We will strengthen the The complex, on land reclaimed so­called “Sand Engine” in the Neth­ cal brick” that will provide habi­ protection and control of 34.5% 3.5% from a pebble beach, was developed erlands. In 2011, engineers built a Natural Natural tats for marine life around the coastlines, strengthen the in the 1970s by the Mass Transit sandcastle­shaped peninsula in coastline coastline reclaimed land. protection of coastal resour­ Railway Corp and was connected to South Holland to fortify the Delf­ He said most of Hong Kong’s sea ces and the maintenance of the MTR’s undersea tunnel nearby. land coast. walls are vertical and built on piers their natural attributes, and From the beginning, there were Before the engine was built, refill­ or along navigation channels, but establish and improve a reports of severe flooding during ing was required every five years Bohai Bay Area some are built on inclines along the dynamic monitoring mecha­ extreme weather. Heng Fa Chuen, on because the current carried sand coastline to act as breakwaters. nism for coastlines,” the plan the frontline of the typhoon track, suf­ away from the beach. Now, the cur­ However, these constructions are states. fered heavy damage every time a rent brings sand from the peninsula harmful to marine life at the height Even before the outline had major storm struck. Among the most to the beach, meaning no refilling Guangdong-Hong Kong- of summer, when temperatures on been released, Shenzhen, notable events were Typhoon Nesat in will be needed until 2032. That Macao Greater Bay Area rocky surfaces can top 50 C. Bacteria Guangdong province, had 2011 and Typhoon Hagupit in 2008. results in significant cost savings. and microalgae on the sea walls dry taken steps to protect its In November, two months after One of the most significant resil­ 35.1% 2.1% out and die, while immobile orga­ remaining natural shorelines. Mangkhut struck, the Hong Kong iency projects in which Dircke par­ Natural Natural nisms such as barnacles and rock Now, work is underway to coastline coastline Special Administrative Region gov­ ticipated was the reconstruction of oysters are roasted to death. redevelop and upgrade its ernment promised to commission a the “Sandy area” of New York. It may Tokyo This is how primary food chains artificial shorelines. study of low­lying coastal areas and have been the most significant Bay Area are broken — creatures that The new rules demand that other districts vulnerable to high project of its kind anywhere in the depend on these marine organisms the natural coastline of the winds to assess the impact of wind world. abandon the area when they can’t Chinese mainland within the and waves. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck San Francisco find food, leading to the devasta­ Bay Area should stretch at least The city’s Civil Engineering and New York, leaving 43 people dead and Bay Area tion of organism populations and a 105 kilometers by next year, Development Department is more than 9,000 buildings flooded. sharp reduction in the number of according to Shenzhen’s 13th arranging funding and choosing In response, the United States Feder­ species. Five­Year Plan related to urban consultants for the work, which is al Emergency Management Agency Leung’s ecological bricks replicate construction and land use. expected to begin soon and should designated 16 kilometers of Manhat­ Variation of shorelines within the Greater Bay Area natural rocks. They store water, The plan also aims to reno­ be completed late next year. tan coastline as an area at a high risk artificial coastline offer shade amid the heat and are vate 45 km of artificial coast­ However, Heng Fa Chuen and of flooding, and called for designs to covered in pores in which orga­ line, turning it into coastal other low­lying areas will have to reconstruct the shoreline. 10% 43% 56% nisms can shelter, meaning complex leisure zones or public parks. wait at least two years before a solu­ The winning design, named the ecological environments are quickly The coastline of the Pearl tion becomes evident. BIG U, was built as a public park, but established. River Delta has been rede­ One expert urged the government it provided a substantial flood pro­ 1973 2001 2015 The bricks are alkaline, with a pH signed since the reform and to move faster. Piet Dircke, a special­ tection infrastructure. It also served of 8 to 9, which is ideal for bacteria opening­up policy was inau­ ist in the field of flood protection, as an invisible flood barrier and as a and microalgae, and the marine gurated in 1978. said there is a time limit for undoing public site for community integra­ organisms can adhere to the From 1973 to 2017, about 758 the damage following a disaster. tion and development. grooved surfaces. square kilometers of land was “After a flood, I usually tell city The creative inspiration of the BIG Source: Urban Plus CHINA DAILY Leung’s team has spent the past reclaimed from the sea in the authorities ‘you now have five years U, combining disaster prevention year hanging the eco­bricks on sea Bay Area. The area across to move fast and make decisions’,” he and landscape design, has served as a walls, in Tuen Mun and Lantau to Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong said, noting that within that time model for flood resilience ever since. Nature always wins. The test their effectiveness. The results and Guangzhou alone reached frame related images remain etched Now, it is being adopted to buttress proved satisfying, as the number of a combined 575 sq km, account­ in public consciousness and some of the thriving construction greener we can make our species identified on the bricks was ing for more than 75 percent of demand for relief remains high. areas of the Guangdong­Hong Kong­ structures, the longer they may more than double that found on the the total. After that, memories fade, so Macao Greater Bay Area. original sea walls and even Before reform and opening­ when large restoration and protec­ One major landscape develop­ last. approached the number found on up, only about 10 percent of tion projects are proposed, people ment is under construction along Piet Dircke, global leader for water management natural, rocky shores. the shoreline that now makes begin to think, “It wasn’t so bad. Do the Tianmu River, the main water­ with ARCADIS in Amsterdam Leung said the rocky, eco­suppor­ up the Bay Area was artificial we really need all of this?”. course through the new district of tive shorelines composed of ecologi­ coastline, and most of it was Dircke added that constructing Hengqin in the city of Zhuhai, cal bricks in Tung Chung are in Hong Kong. By 2016, 65.5 and rebuilding waterfront barriers Guangdong. Elements include a protective of urging cities to improve drainage expected to not only promote repro­ percent of the Bay Area shore­ takes considerable time, especially The design, by Earthasia Interna­ wetland and specially designed riv­ and reduce flooding. duction among intertidal species, line was artificial. when land must be reclaimed. In tional Holdings Ltd, a landscape erbanks around the flood plain. The The Ministry of Finance provided but also shape the coastal landscape However, the 34.5 percent addition, there are high costs to con­ architect in Hong Kong, has aban­ banks are being built not only to initial support ranging from 400 where people can interact with the of natural coastline that sider. “You don’t talk in years, but in doned the traditional vertical con­ absorb and retain water, but even to million yuan to 600 million yuan water and observe marine crea­ remains is already below the decades,” he said. crete flood defense and drainage purify it. ($59.6 million to $89.3 million) for tures. 35 percent bottom line as systems common in Chinese cities. The project is expected to be com­ 16 pilot cities. A year later, the num­ As a result, the coast will no specified in a national decree ‘Natural’ coastline Instead, the Tianmu project pleted around the end of the year. If ber of cities was extended to 30, longer be a crunch point ravaged by called Measures for the Pro­ Dircke, global leader for water incorporates a multilevel flood con­ the design proves effective, it may including Zhuhai. typhoons, but will become the place tection and Utilization of management with ARCADIS, a trol design for low and normal tides, provide an additional model for flood where people in the Bay Area can Coastlines. The document, design and engineering company in while allowing flooding at the level prevention in other Chinese cities. Advice provided get closest to the ocean. intended to help maintain the Amsterdam, the Netherlands, that of a “once­in­a­half­century storm”, Zhuhai is the site of another pilot The Hong Kong government has natural shoreline, was issued specializes in natural and built said Mandy Kwok Siu­man, associ­ project, the Sponge City Initiative, pledged to give greater considera­ Contact the writer at by the State Oceanic Adminis­ assets worldwide, has worked on ate director at Earthasia. which started in 2015 with the aim tion to flood prevention and envi­ [email protected] tration in 2017.