ROOM FOR THE ESTUARY
AN ALTERNATIVE REGIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN FOR EAST PEARL RIVER ESTUARY
An attempt of system approach under Chinese context
XINCHANG TONG
MASTER THESIS LANDSCAPE ACHITECTURE ROOM FOR THE ESTUARY
AN ALTERNATIVE REGIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN FOR EAST PEARL RIVER ESTUARY
An attempt of system approach under Chinese context
XINCHANG TONG
MASTER THESIS LANDSCAPE ACHITECTURE © Wageningen University, 2019 In fulfillment of the requirements for Master of science degree in Landscape Architecture at the Wageningen University, Landscape Architecture Group Xinchang Tong
Reg. No. 920128838070 E-mail: [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval Supervisor and examiner: Prof. Ir. Adriaan Geuze system, or transmitted, in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of either the author or Professor Landscape Architecture Wageningen University Landscape architecture chair group. This publication is written Wageningen University as a final master thesis report Landscape architecture by order of chair group of landscape architecture at Wageningen University.
October 2019 ______Landscape Architecture group phone: +31 317 484 056 fax: +31 317 482 166 e-mail: [email protected]
Postal address: Examiner: Prof. Dr. Ir. Rudi van Etteger Postbus 47 6700 AA Wageningen Assistant Professor Landscape Architecture The Netherlands Wageningen University Visiting address: Gaia, building No 101 Droevendaalsesteeg 3 ______6708 PB Wageningen The Netherlands PREFACE ABSTRACT
This project was inspired by my concern about the ecological environment The rapid and intensive estuarine-coastal development has caused severe of my homeland. The study at Wageningen University has facilitated in me a ecological environment problems in China. Chinese society calls for ‘holistic system view on the landscape. Landscape is a broader and deeper concept approach’ in regional planning and design for addressing this issue. However, than I learned in previous education. I believe my knowledge gained from here the current planning system is still urban-focused and economy-driven. Local the Netherlands has the potential for improving the landscape situation in my authorities make dissociated plans and compete for shared natural resources. It homeland. is an urgent issue to enhance ecological value on the upper scale level of re- gional planning for Chinese estuarine-coastal regions. My study at Wageningen University, including the process of this project, has been an exciting challenge for me. Completing the study here and growing The project takes the East Pearl River Estuary as the study case. Due to previ- such a lot would not have been possible without the support of many people ous aggressive development, the ecological landscape at the upper half of the whose name may not all be enumerated. region has lost. The most recent giant seaport project Nansha New Port is with- out any spatial environment compensation plan; and each of the other coastal Here I want to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Adriaan Geuze, for areas in the region has a plan for itself. These situations constitute the problem his pointed and wise comments, valuable guides on the project and on my that the estuary region as a whole landscape unit has been overlooked. personal skills, and encouraging me to explore independence; and to Roel Di- jksma for helping me understand the hydrology situation and Martijn de Jong in This design research tried to improve this situation. It is an attempt to make sys- Deltares for helping me understand the maritime transportation and navigation; tem regional landscape planning for the East Pearl River Estuary and to provide and to my fellow students for their support, advises and company. an alternative landscape design for the Nansha New Port related area, the Hu- Men Outlet area. It aims to reduce the environmental impact of the Nansha New At last, I want to thank Yanran Luo for her support and company since we ap- Port and make environmental compensation for it. plied for this university, Wei Dai in TU Delft for his insights and providing infor- mation and maps of the study case and company throughout the process and The project first looked into the system theory and design approach for land- my parents for their unconditional support and love. scape architecture and studied reference cases in system regional landscape planning for identifying the design method and principles. Then used the knowledge for the through-scale landscape design in the study region.
The final products propose a regional ecological landscape structure and land- scape casco for different land use development areas. The designing process also provides insights for improving regional landscape planning and design under the Chinese context.
Keywords: regional landscape, system approach, ecosystem-based, dynamics, through-scale, landscape casco, China C O N T E N T S
Preface and Acknowledgment RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGNING Abstract 46 06 REGIONAL LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE 46 Strategies INTRODUCTION 48 Regional design 1/100000
12 01 RESEARCH CONTEXT 50 07 THROUGH-SCALE REGIONAL DESIGN 12 The Chinese estuarine-coastal land reclamation 13 A gap in Chinese regional landscape planning and design 50 Site introduction - Three linked zones 14 02 THESIS STATEMENT - Zoom-in questions 14 Study area 54 Strategy 18 Problem statement - Regional system understanding 18 Goal and objectives - Two models 18 Research design 56 Models application 19 Outline of the report - Long-Xue Island - Nan-Sha Is;land - Wei-Yuan Island RESEARCH FOR DESIGNING 70 Design overview 22 03 ‘HOLISTIC’ APPROACH - The prototypes - Open space system 22 Systems theory and systems thinking - Water-borne transportation and recreation 23 Systems approach in regional landscape planning and design 24 Conclusion EVALUATION 26 04 CONTEXT LANDSCAPE UNDERSTANDING 26 Context system understanding 86 08 EVALUATION 35 Problem understanding 86 Comparison 36 Conclusion: the interim questions 89 Reflection 90 Conclusion 38 05 REFERENCE CASES STUDY 38 Environment restoration 41 Environmental-friendly seaport 94 References 42 Conclusion: the design principles 96 List of figures 98 Attachments INTRODUCTION situation and adopting holistic approach to planning However, the actual effectiveness of the regional envi- and design is one of the most desired solutions. ronmental problem is limited. This attributes to three 0 1 R E S E A R C H C O N T E X T main reasons: first, under Chinese context of gigantic As China is undergoing the fourth stage of coastal land population, high population density and uncommon eco- reclamation, seaports development at the estuaries is logical aesthetics, mass public and even some scholars the very typical and urgent case for studying these above rather prefer artificial and traffic-based greenways (Liu et problems (Hou et al., 2016; Xu, 2016). The future sea- al., 2017); second, the planning of the greenway system port development not only needs to compensate for only considered connecting existing good condition natu- seaports, followed by urban areas, grew the most. The development of Chinese estua- their environmental impact but also should as much as ral landscape rather than restoring and protecting those possible to restore the environment damaged by the rine coast Negative environmental impact is definite, caused by damaged or under damaging; third, regional (geo-)land- previous reclamation and development activities. the coastal land reclamation, and is much severer at es- scape system and the natural process underlay did not be China has a very long history in coastal land reclamation, tuarine-coastal areas (Gao et al., 2013). As said before, included and studied in the planning and design process. which can date back to the Song Dynasty. The coastal these estuarine coastal areas are resource-rich deltas In spite of the above, China does have studies on the reclamation happens, especially along the estuarine and plains (Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Yel- A gap in Chinese regional landscape geo-landscape system and natural process but by geol- coast. Flood plain behind the estuarine coast has always low River Delta, North China Plain, Yangtze Plain and planning and design ogists, and regional ecological landscape planning and attracting people to live in as it provides fertile land and South-east coastal plains), where social and economic design practice but on much smaller scales. Under the livable environment. Coastal land reclamation has been activities tend to thrive. Urbanization in these areas have China has put great effort into urban development. Re- Chinese context, landscape researcher and designer have an efficient way to increase land supply for the increasing been significantly accelerating and reached a population gional planning (spatial) in China is called “City-town not yet played well the role of trans-disciplinary knowl- population in the region. density above 500 ppl/km2, at deltas, it is above 1000 structure planning ( 城镇体系规划 )” or “City group edge coordinator nor made sufficient contribution to the ppl/km2. Land reclamation has specifically been a way planning ( 城市群规划 )”, the system has evolved several To recover and develop economy after World War II, Chi- large-scale regional landscape planning, design and man- to alleviating the contradiction between land supply and times, through which industry and economy develop- na has experienced three massive coastal land reclama- agement. It is believed and proven worldwide that re- demand and expanding the space for development in ment remain the focus and priority and urban construc- tion stages: first for agriculture in the 1950s and 1960s, search-inclusive, nature-based, adaptive, through-scales these areas (Song & Liu, 2013). And unfortunately, these tion space development has been the major subject (Cui, then for aquaculture in 1980s and urban construction and public-involved regional landscape design is a cata- estuarine-coastal areas are very unique and precious 2006; Hu, 2006; “Review of China regional planning in 1990s. Although the environmental impact of coastal lyst to urbanization and ecological crisis problems in hu- ecological environment as well. They have highly complex history”, 2010). Even so, such regional planning is made land reclamation has been getting more and more aware- man activities dominated area (Nijhuis, 2019). Landscape dynamics: freshwater from rivers and saltwater from the to serve as a foil to the local city master plan (Hu, 2006). ness, and stricter and stricter policy on land reclamation designers, therefore, may have better solutions for the sea meets, and tide regularly flushes in and out, which In recent years, theories of the regional pattern of eco- has been launched by the national government, China is environmental problems of the Chinese coast through means they are essentially abundant in biodiversity and logical security have been widely discussed and regional having the fourth massive coastal land reclamation stage regional landscape planning and design. Considering sensitive to environmental changes. greenway system has been regarded as a valuable at- now, mostly for government-led coastal hydraulic infra- that, this project is an attempt of making through-scales, tempt of environmental planning and design on this scale. structure development, especially cross-sea bridges and Due to the massive land reclamation and associated rap- research-inclusive and nature-based regional planning deep-water seaports (Liu & Liu, 2008). id development, the ecological environment of Chinese and design under Chinese context, using East Pearl River estuarine-coast has been suffering from a series of prob- Estuary as a test site. China has a very long coastline and is rich in coastal re- lems: the change of coastline and underwater topography sources. In the distant past, the coast evolution was even- has altered the water dynamics and broke the balance ly led by natural forces and human activities: it changed of sediment flushing and silting, causing tidal seawa- slowly, constantly, forwards and backwards from time to ter intrusion and unexpected erosion at coast defence time. In recent decades, human activities surged in the and siltation at navigation fairways; the sharp growth coast area and pushed the coastline towards the sea fur- of waste has led to eutrophication and pollution of the ther and further, and faster and faster. Years of massive water; many natural habitats have loss, the communities disorder coastal land reclamation has significantly altered structures have been damaged, marine economy like fish- the Chinese coastal environment. According to scholars’ ery, coastal tourism and mariculture have been declined, studies (Gao et al., 2013; Gao et al., 2014; Xu, 2016; Xiao, enormous number of people at these areas, in the end, 2017), in the rapid development period since 1980, Chi- also have suffered from higher risk to natural disaster like nese coastline has increased 10-20% (differentiate by storms and floods as the protection function of ecosys- measure methods) at an increasing rate; 45% of natural tem service has been weakened (Liu & Liu, 2008; Song & coastline has been lost while artificial coastline has been Liu, 2013; Wang et al., 2014; Xu, 2016). extended 153%, the ratio of natural coastline to artificial coastline has shifted from 2.16 to 0.47; among the loss of Such a critical situation has provoked a lot of attention natural coasts, bedrock and mudflat coasts dropped dra- and discussion. Scholars (Liu & Liu, 2008; Sun et al., 2010; matically, from 36.6% to 18.6% and from 14.8% to 2.1% Wang et al., 2014; Hou et al., 2016; Xu, 2016) believed Figure 1 Evolution of Chinese coastline types (Hou et al., 2016) representatively; on the other hand, aquaculture and that the development approach is the main reason to the In general from blueish (natural) to reddish (artificial)
12 13 0 2 T H E S I S S T A T E M E N T
Study area The region has a long history of coastal land reclamation, dating back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Coastal land reclamation has indeed been a very ancient and low- The study area of this project is the East Pearl River Es- cost way to expand space for development. However, the tuary, with Nansha New Port, a developing deep-water speed of the reclamation was rather slow in the past time. seaport project, in it. Compared to other Chinese estua- Ancient locals even developed sustainable circular econ- rine-coast, Pearl River Estuary has always been the most omies like mulberry-fish ponds, sugarcane-fish ponds and sensitive to the development of changing trends, an ac- livestock-fish ponds by the old method of reclamation. tive experiment field and a typical case of the coastal de- The reclamation speed and amount started accelerating 1897: 200 ha 2000: 4000 ha 2022: 7600 ha velopment problems. It has strategic significance to study at late Qing Dynasty (the late 19th century) and it surged Pearl River Estuary for Chinese coastal development (Gao Figure 3 The expansion of the Long-Xue (aka. Lankit I.) Island since the 1950s when Chinese start modern urbanization et al., 2013). movement. the estuary funnel is surrounded by heavy urban and seaport stimulation, it can expect that the near-by urban The Pearl River is an extensive river system in southern industrial areas, especially at the funnel top, the Hu-Men areas will be further developed and the water area will The massive coastal reclamation and rapid development China. The modern geomorphology of the region was de- Outlet area. be more busy with navigation. There will be no guarantee in recent decades have already far away surpassed the veloped based on several rias formed 40000 years ago. for the survival of the near-by crucial ecological habitats. volume that the ecological environment can bear. From Rivers and ocean dynamics both contributed to what it The ecological environment decline has triggered se- However, there is no such spatial environmental compen- 1950 to 2015, 930 km2 area was reclaimed from the generally looks like today. Now the eight outlets of the quenced problems including more frequent floods, fish- sation research and plan along with the seaport develop- estuarine-coast water, accounts for 25% of the estua- Pearl River system flow into several estuarine-coastal ery resources exhausting, water quality declining, severer ment plan, not to even mention to integrate the regional rine-coast water area. Mudflat, mangroves and shallow funnel bays. The East Pearl River Estuary is the largest tidal seawater intrusion, land subsidence and so on (Liu environment restoration. sea areas shrunk dramatically; plenty of bedrock islands funnel bay among them, constituted by four outlets: the et al., 2017). Without holistic regional landscape studies were annexed by reclamation and became parts of the Hu-Men Outlet, the Jiao-Men Outlet, the Hong-Qi-Men and landscape plan, the development in coastal suburban Furthermore, the economic-prioritized development ap- land pan (Gao et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2017). Now the Outlet and the Heng-Men Outlet (figure 2). areas and the new-made land has been disorder and too proach has made the local authorities along the estuary coastal landscape structure is unrecognizable in the estu- much intensive. It has been further ruined the coastal ary funnel area. Instead of the natural coastal landscape, landscape, habitats and human living environment.
Now the area is in the fourth stage of massive coastal Crucial habitats land reclamation, seaport and related industries develop- Stimulated urban area
ment are leading the way (Liu et al., 2107). Though in East Busy navigation route Pearl River Estuary region, here lies the largest group of seaports in the world, whose annual throughput in total is far beyond the other regions (Vonck & Notteboom, 2013), the ambitious deep-water seaport project - Nan- sha New Port - has launched.
The Nansha New Port project locates at the Longxue Island. The island was a 200-ha-large, 60-meter-high mount island in the middle of the estuarine bay until the 1950s. Before the seaport project started, the island had been expanded to 4600 ha, first for agriculture and aquaculture, then tourism, and ship factory at last. Up to now, the first three phases of the seaport construction have been completed. The island is expanded to 6500 ha large and will be 7600 ha till 2020 eventually, according to the plan. It is without a doubt that this is casting extra Figure 2 The location and constitution of the Pearl River Estuary pressure to the estuarine environment. And with the Figure 4 The system impact of the Nansha New Port
14 15 1973 1986 1994 2005 2017
Figure 5 (top) The massive reclamation and rapid urbanization in the recent decades (Google earth) Figure 6 (bottom) The remaining natural coast in the region Figure 7 (right) The study area
Mangroves
Seagrass
Coarse sand
Fine sand
Natural coast severely lost at upper funnel area
16 17 coast compete with each other for the space resource. Goal and objectives Research for design sub-questions ing approaches were applied to support and explore the Right next to the Nansha New Port, Dongguan and designing, which is the general ‘research through design- Zhongshan have both pulled out plans to reclaim great 1. What is ‘holistic approach’? how to apply it ing’ phase (figure 8). Based on the previously stated situation, this project, amount for urban construction, in which even includes in regional landscape planning and design? therefore, try to provide an alternative blueprint for the another deep-water seaport construction plan. By using pragmatic research through designing approach, regional landscape of the East Pearl River Estuary from 2. What are the possible methods for solving the research and the design parts serve for finding use- an ecological-prioritized worldview. Nonetheless, in the plan of building Guangdong-Hong the problems in question in terms of region- ful and applicable solutions. Different issues pop up in Kong-Macau (GHM) Greater Bay Area, ecology restora- The goal of this project is to explore a way to reduce the al landscape planning and design? the iterative exploring process can be discussed through tion and environment enhancement have also been par- environmental impact of Nansha New Port and make different research methods according to the nature of ticularly highlighted as one of the main goals paralleled to compensation to the East Pearl River Estuary through Research through design sub-questions the issues, as long as it helps to serve the ultimate goal. economic development. The government aims to shape multi-scale holistic regional landscape planning and de- In such a way, the research and the designing help each a world-class ecological bay environment, regarding the sign. And through this attempt to provide experience and 1. How to reduce the environmental impact of other and together help to explore an answer that can fit top three greater bay areas (New York greater bay area, insights on multi-scale holistic regional landscape plan- Nansha New Port? better to the given context (Lenzholzer et al., 2013). San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Tokyo Area) as referenc- ning and design under Chinese context. es (“Interview to HMO Director Xiaoming Zhang”, 2019). 2. How to make compensation to East Pearl However, in the test site, the estuarine ecological land- Innovative research and design attempt are desired by River Estuary, using Hu-Men Outlet area as scape structure has been too much damaged so that the Outline of the report the region. an example? objectives are devised as follows: Although the whole process was iterative and cyclic, the 1. Reduce as much as possible environmental Methodology report tries to present it in a more linear way for easier impact of the current port plan reading. This report has four parts. The first part explains Problem statement This project was conducted by research for designing and 2. Rehabilitate as much as possible natural pragmatic research through designing approach. the background and purpose of the projects; The second coast as environment compensation of the part presents the preliminary knowledge found in the The estuarine coastal development in china has been eco- port In this project, the goal and objectives ask for a design general phase of ‘research for design’ and introduce the nomic-prioritized. After decades of massive land reclama- solution for real problems under specific geographical main interim questions for the later designing part; The tion and rapid, disorder and intensive development, the context as well as new knowledge generated through third part demonstrates how the preliminary knowledge environment of the estuarine-coastal areas of China has Research design the design process. For doing so it requires information is applied in the design and answers both the project been significantly declining. Future seaport development, collection from associated aspects and contains iterative questions and interim questions; The final part gives an as one of the main purposes of the fourth stage of mas- questioning processes. After identifying the problem, evaluation of the design according to the project objec- sive coastal land reclamation, not only needs to compen- Main research question literature and references study were used at first to pro- tives and rounds up the knowledge gained in all previous sate for the environmental impact of their own but also vides preliminary knowledge for the designing, which is phases. How to reduce the environmental impact of Nansha New should as much as possible to restore the environment the general ‘research for designing’ phase. When new Port and make compensation to the East Pearl River Es- damaged by the previous reclamation and development issues were identified in the middle of the designing pro- tuary through holistic regional landscape planning and activities. However, there is little experience under Chi- cess, research for designing and research through design- nese context on such holistic regional landscape planning design? and design.
In East Pearl River Estuary, excessive rapid reclamation has eaten up to 25% of the estuarine-coastal water area of the Pearl River Estuary, where most were mangroves mudflats, bedrock islands and shallow sea. Coastal recla- mation together with the human development activities on the new land has brought a series of ecological envi- ronment problems.
In the meantime, Nansha New Port, the deep-water seaport project which again requires intense land recla- mation, has launched and is under construction without any spatial environment compensation plan. Even more, without a landscape plan as the bible, local authorities are planning to reclaim more land from the estuarine water area and build more repetitive seaports right next to the Nansha New Port area. It can be imagined that the problematic situation could become further worse. Figure 8 The research and designing process
18 19 RESEARCH FOR DESIGNING Capra & Luisi, 2014). are created in order to persuade the system to transit to the desired state from a problematic state, as well as 0 3 ‘ H O L I S T I C ’ A P P R O A C H Systems thinking is a way of thinking in terms of connect- to test and improve the understanding of the system. edness, relationships and context (Capra, 1996). It under- The decision-making process is to synthesize the design stands the network of reality not only through the basic options at each level in a certain way and evaluate the building nodes as objects but intendedly through basic synthesized results under the given context. Such evalua- principles of organization between and within the nodes tion could also enhance the understanding of the system as sub-networks (Figure 9). Through-scales thinking is thus prompt iterative design processes. This means more Holistic: anti-anthropocentric, regarding human as a normal part, particularly needed under systems thinking as changes in cycles of systems understanding, design options creation, 1 : of or relating to holism instead of the centre, of the world. It sees the world as a systems can influence both upper scales and lower scales. synthesis, and evaluation. As such clearly the designing is 2 : relating to or concerned with wholes or with network where human and other things else are all fun- The system approach is a particular problem-solving par- an endless process, therefore, the definition of the scope complete systems rather than with the analysis damentally interconnected and interdependent parts of adigm using such systems thinking. It considers the rela- is very important to a time-limited project. Such a scope of, treatment of, or dissection into parts it (Capra, 1996; Capra & Luisi, 2014). Such abstract con- tionships of systems to achieve the objectives (Jackson, defining in the systems approach is to define the bound- (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) cept of ‘holistic’ was further developed as ‘systemic’ and Hitchins & Eisner, 2010). ary of the systems of interest and subsystems to study at gave rise of ‘systems theory’, ‘systems thinking’, ‘systems the beginning (Jackson et al., 2010). It is widely believed by Chinese scholars that ‘holistic approach’ and so on(Capra, 1996; Antrop, 2005; Günther, approach’ is urgently needed for achieving a healthier Systems approach in regional landscape planning 2013; Capra & Luisi, 2014). The whole procedure is as follows. The steps are inter- Chinese coastal development. ‘Holistic approach’ is put and design related and it is an iterative and cyclic process until the forward as a catalyst to the current situation of Chinese In systems theory, reality is perceived as a network of In landscape architecture field, it is believed that system result serves the project objectives: spatial planning situations. It is expected to treat the es- relationships. Notions of a network are again networks of approach can provide better landscape understanding tuarine landscape as a living whole beyond the boundary relationships, rather than fundamental blocks of matters and more transparent design process (Murphy & Hed- between the local authorities and consider the ecological - there are no such foundations in the network anymore, fors, 2011), especially for large-scale landscape planning environment development and the urban and industrial but only different system levels that none of which is any and design where require great input of knowledge from development under the same frame rather than sepa- more fundamental. In different system levels, different different disciplines (Murphy, 2006; Murphy & Hedfors, rately. complexity exists and different kinds of law operate. 2011). The meaning of ‘landscape’ is intrinsically holistic Also, the same concepts to different system levels have So what exactly ‘holistic approach’ means and how to ap- including multiple meanings in different perspectives different meaning and exhibit different properties. When ply it in regional landscape planning and design? (Antrop, 2005). Under systems worldview, ‘landscape’ the reality - a living system - is regarded as an integrated can be understood as a system with dynamic interre- whole under systems theory, the essential properties of lationships between the sub-systems such as cultural Systems theory and systems thinking the system arise from the interactions and relationships and environmental systems1, and it is the manifestation among the parts, instead of being the sum of the prop- of the interaction of these sub-systems (Capra, 1996; ‘Holistic’ or ‘holism’ emphasis on the whole. Under holis- erties of the parts. These essential properties belong Antrop, 2005; Murphy & Hedfors, 2011). The process tic worldview, the world is an integrated whole rather only to the system whole and will be destroyed when the of problem-solving through systems approach includes than a dissociated collection of parts. Especially, it is system is dissected into isolated elements (Capra, 1996; integrated learning and decision-making process (Mur- phy & Hedfors, 2011). According to Murphy & Hedfors (2011), Churchamn (1971) and Gharajedaghi (2006), such ... integrated learning and decision-making process is inter- Figure 10 Procedure of regional landscape planning and design active with the designing process and the core of them is process under system approach the creation of the design options. 1. Mapping the system of interest: “The most effective way to learn about a system is to de- Identify the interacting elements that constitute sign it ” (Churchamn, 1971). In one way, the relationship the system of interest. Then group the elements and the function of the landscape system elements, the that constitute sub-systems of interest and iden- dynamics between these elements, and the context of tify smaller elements within the sub-systems. the landscape system, as Murphy and Hedfors (2011) de- Map the structure of the system of interest in- scribed as structure, function, process and environment cluding its context and subsystems Systems at different scale levels of the landscape, is studied to provide system under- 2. Define the study boundary and context of standing. With this systems understanding of the land- the system: scape, designers can model and anticipate the emergent phenomenon of the sub-systems changes, and test the According to the problem defined, limit the design options. In the other way around, design options study scope within the system network. Such Thinking objects Thinking relationships boundary definition may contain an iterative Figure 9 Shift from thinking objects to thinking relationships (based on Capra, 1996) 1 Could be other categories depending on the grouping methods. process besides the system understanding.
22 23 3. Understand the system: temic understanding of the dynamic interrelationships Identify the function of and relationship be- between the sub-systems that form the study landscape. tween each element and understand how they The planning and design interventions fall on these inter- interact with each other. relationships for fostering the desired result system. The intervention influence is projected and evaluated. Such 4. Making design options: processes also deepen the understanding of the study Based on the system understanding, propose landscape. design options that may prompt the system to Compared to the traditional way, which changes things transit in the desired direction. directly and regardless of the context relationship, land- 5. Synthesize and evaluate: scape planning and design under system approach is Combine design options and evaluate under the more likely to be cost-efficient and effective in longterm given context and objective. By this way to re- consideration. fine and convergence the design choices (Based on Jackson et al., 2010 and Murphy & Hedfors, 2011)
Conclusion
From the literature study, a valuable finding is that the ‘holistic planning approach’ proposed by Chinese plan- ning and design academia has developed as system think- ing in western science. It holds the same world view that the world is an integrated whole, a living system. Such a system is composited by sub-systems and is the manifes- tation of the interaction between the sub-systems. Inter- ventions under this system thinking have two keywords: Dynamics This keyword refers to the dynamic interrela- tionships in the context system. In the system approach, people understand the study subject through its dynamic interaction with other subjects and the dynamic interrelationships between its components. Based on this un- derstanding, people try to tweak the system dynamics into the desired condition by making small adjustments on the interrelationships. Scales Instead of thinking multiple scale levels of ob- jects composition, in the system approach, peo- ple think of multiple scale levels of relationships. It is vital for understanding and modifying the study system. Because different law operates at different scale levels and different properties exhibit at different scale levels, though manifes- tations of the study system on different scale levels have through-scale consistency.
When using system thinking on landscape planning and design, firstly landscape is considered as a dynamic sys- tem. The planning and design should base upon the sys-
24 25 cal cyclones often visit the area in summertime, therefore half day mixed tide, with one spring tide and one neap there is no dominant wind direction of this area but the tide in a day. Most tidal seawater flushes into Hu-Men 0 4 C O N T E X T L A N D S C A P E U N D E R S T A N D I N G wind from the east side is more frequent, especially from Outlet, making it be the main tide corridor in this area. the southeast. The freshwater to seawater ratio of the four outlets is 0.25, 1.66, 2.07 and 2.65 respectively. Hu-Men Outlet Water dynamics is the only outlet that strongly dominated by tidal effect amongst all. As the area is funnel-shaped, the tidal differ- The East Pearl River Estuary funnel area is the place ence increases inward. At Heng-Men Outlet, the average As indicated in chapter 3, a systems understanding of where landward river runoff and seaward tidal seawater Context systems understanding tidal difference is around 1.10 m while at Jiao-Men Outlet the study area’s landscape is essential for creating design meet and mix. and Hu-Men Outlet it is 1.30 m and 1.60 m respectively. options under system approach. To solve the problem re- Nature systems Landward river runoff now comes from four river out- lated to Nansha New Port, a border scale of the system, The water dynamics between the river runoff and tidal lets. The water of the downstream broad Pearl River the contextual system, needed to be studied to provide Location and climate seawater is significantly influenced by rain season, dry comes form four main river branches: the North River, an understanding base. season and tropical cyclones. In general, the tidal sea- the West River, the Canton Pearl River and the East Riv- The East Pearl River Estuary funnel area is located in the water floods in through the two deep channels at the In the first section of this chapter, understanding of the er. The branching in the downstream river net is under southeast of China, between 22~23N, 113.4~114E. It bottom of the estuary funnel area and ebbs out together relevant subsystems in interest is present, including the the influence of Coriolis force: right branches always get has a subtropical monsoon climate, which is hot and hu- with the river runoff. The head of the freshwater and nature system, the reclamation system, the seaport sys- more runoff thus grow stronger. Therefore Hu-Men and mid most of the year. The monthly average temperature saltwater is partially mixed, and better mixed in the east tems and the recreation system. In the second section, Jiao-men Outlets have the largest river runoff output. ranges from 16.3 ℃ to 28.8 ℃ , and the yearly average than in the west. In rain seasons, the river runoff surges the interrelations between these subsystems are mapped Water from Hu-Men Outlet carries the least amount of precipitation is 2381.3mm. The summer (June, July and and therefore forms resistance to the tidal effect. The to understand how the Nansha New Port would ruin the sediment per unit, however, together with the largest August) is the rainy season and the hottest season with seawater stays outer area in the funnel. In dry seasons, ecological environment of the East Pearl River Estuary. runoff amount, Hu-Men Outlet still contributes a consid- average 414.5mm precipitation per month and an aver- such resistance is much weaker, it is easier for the tidal At last, the conclusion leads to the interim questions for erable proportion of the total sediment output. age temperature of 28.5℃. This area is within the north- seawater to flush in along the river channels thus cause the following ‘research through designing’ part. east trade wind area. However, the wind direction of this tidal seawater intrusion. When tropical cyclones come, Seaward saltwater flush in and out every day through area are also affected by land-sea convection, and tropi- an extremely strong wind can create storm surge. tide fluctuation. The tide pattern of this area is irregular
Figure 11 Spatial water flux and sediment distribution and dynamics at upstream and down stream of the estuary Figure 12 Spatial tidal water dynamics at the estuary
26 27 Surface geomorphology formation Levee bars: kinetic energy in the water The East Pearl River Estuary is developed on an ancient and though the general morphology of the funnel basin dissipates at flow sides thus sediment Top bay: sediment brought by long- ria, a flooded river valley. The rising sea level in Holocene remains, the deep-water channels are largely deepened deposits. Two underwater levees shore current and rising tide current squeezed by two close outlet water deposits at bays facing against the main drowned the ancient Pearl River Delta and invaded inland by navigation maintenance and stronger flushing of the flows can merge into one larger flat. flow direction. through the ancient river valley. Since then new Pearl Riv- water flow. Therefore erosion may happen at near outlets er Delta has developed as the modern delta topography, areas and the remaining mudflats areas, the west shallow on which we build our living today (Zhao, 1982). Sediment flat is moving south and the middle shallow flat and the deposition has driven modern topography evolution. east shallow flat is getting closer (He et al., 2018). Barrier flats: outlet water flow injects Yuan (1984) summarized 5 types of sediment deposition into the open water body directly from Side bay: sediment brought by the long- the river channel, the water flow speed in the whole estuarine region and Zhao (1989) mentioned Apart from the above, eastern winds also have an effect shore current deposits at bays facing to suddenly slows down and meets and the main flow direction. one more that specifically in Hu-Men Outlet area (see on the sediment deposition by influencing the water cur- mixes with saltwater, thus sediment de- figure 15). In the current phase of the study area, all these rent. Though human reclamation activities have taken posits in the area in front of the outlet types of sediment deposition can still be recognized near over the main driver role in the geomorphology transfor- and a new mudflat develop. the river outlets (figure 14). mation process of this area, these natural forces are still working and responding to human behaviours. However, the spatial distribution of the sediment depo- Tidal sand bars: sand bars formed Island shadows: Islands in the middle of by regularly flushed tidal water flows sition is changing responding to the massive reclamation the open water area create ‘shadow’ ar- alongside the tidal channel. and rapid development in the past decades (see figure eas parallel to the water flow direction. 16). In general, though the funnel area is getting narrow- er, the funnel capacity of containing water has increased;
Figure 15 Six types of sedimentation (Based on description in Yuan, 1984 and Zhao, 1989)
Legend Legend Levee bars (m/a) (m/a)
Barrier flats Long-Xue Long-Xue Island Island shadows Island Shenzhen Shenzhen
Top bays
Side bays
Tidal sand bars
Zhongshan Zhongshan
Hong Kong Hong Kong
Zhuhai Zhuhai
Macau Macau
River Delta Mountain valley plain terrain （）(bedrock) （（））） 1985-1999 1999-2011 Delta Estuary Delta Continental front funnel associated shelf Figure 16 Spatial sediment deposition velocity change (Based on He et al., 2018) Figure 13 General geology structure of the estuary (Based on Zhao, Figure 14 Spatial distribution of the sedimentation types In this two graph He et al.(2018) used terrain outline of year 2018. The black dash lines mark the terrain outlines of year 1986 and 2000 re- 1982) spectively.
28 29 Biomes 2. If the flow velocity is faster like near the islands in the middle of the open water Excoecaria agallocha Bruguiera gymnorhiza Avicennia marina Logically, complex water dynamics and broad water salin- and face to the funnel outer mouth, sandy Heritiera littoralis Aegiceras cornicu- ity range should have created a living environment suita- beaches tend to grow. Rocky sand beaches Acanthus ilicifolius Aiton latum ble for abundant flora and fauna. However, the ecological dominated as they develop from rocky bed- landscape has been too much severely damaged. Most rock islands. Fine sand beaches are only at Kandelia remained natural coastlines are in the southeast of the the inward-curves of the rocky islands or estuary funnel (figure 17). the terrain outline.
Despite this situation, we can still have a glimpse of what was there in the estuary from these the remaining. The natural estuarine coastal landscape in such limited area range diverse by differentiation of flow velocity, salinity, sediment particles mainly, left out the human activities influence. With the help of the previous investigation on the regional water and sediment dynamics, it can be im- plied that the ecological landscape pattern in the funnel area is:
1. If the flow velocity is slow near the terrain, mudflats or sandy mudflats tend to grow. The closer to the funnel top, the lower the salinity, the more flourish the mangroves. Flow velocity: Salinity: Halophila beccarii Ruppia maritima The closer to the funnel bottom, the higher Particle size: the salinity, seagrass may be found. Halophila. ovalis Zostera japonica
Mangroves
Seagrass
Coarse sand
Fine sand
Flow velocity: Salinity: Ulva lactuca Particle size: Codium cylindri- Enteromorpha Hypnea cum Holmes
Pterocladia tenuis Petalonia bing- Sargassum Okam hamiae
Flow velocity: Salinity: Particle size:
Figure 17 Remained natural coastline Figure 18 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal landscape Figure 19 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal landscape
30 31 Reclamation systems Seaport systems
The human reclamation activity in this region began in In history, the reclamation activities grew in scale and The seaport system in the East Pearl River Estuary has chants Port and Kwai Tsing Terminals, which devote to the Song Dynasty (960-1127AC). In the beginning, peo- speed. The newer land is always lower and has more risk a very long history and has always been a significant different sub-hinterlands. The system has potentials to ple built dykes at the mudflat to utilize the newly formed of subsidence, and the environment of the newer outside increase pole in regional economic development. In the differentiate development and reallocate the capacity: land. Since the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911), people start dyke are harder and need more time to recover by itself. past decades, local authorities competed for each other when Nansha New Port is fully built in the future, it will to throw rocks into the shallow sea to accelerate the land for the seaport resources. It led to the consequence of reach the upper limit of the seaport construction inside forming process. This method was greatly applied after excess capacity of the regional seaport system. There- the estuary funnel, and the specialized triangle of the the 1950s when the first massive reclamation phase fore, regionalization of the seaport system is needed. ports of Guangzhou, of Shenzhen and of Zhuhai will form. started. Since then the reclamation methods have be- Local authorities should be called off the competition on come more and more efficient. Now people use the sand The system analysis is shown in figure X. Main seaports seaport resources, only cooperation and coordination sprays to directly make new land. in the funnel area now is Nansha New Port, China Mer- can help each other to develop further and better.
Figure 20 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal landscape Figure 21 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal landscape
32 33 Recreation systems Problem understanding Dyke-based fish ponds and villages landscape has a very landscape in the funnel area, the most famous are the long history in the study area. It is common that fisher- group at upper funnel area standing at the mouth of Hu- Tidal sea water intrusion men offer their tools and ships for visitors to experience Men Outlet. The Pearl River Delta Greenway system is The tidal seawater intrusion in the region mainly attrib- the life of being a fisherman. These spontaneous fami- the government planed large scale recreation landscape uted to the dredging activities, which becomes more ly-based fisherman tourism and eco-island tourism were system. It connects only existing nature and tourism intense after the land reclamation. And due to the land the two dominant coastal landscape recreation type. resources and is strongly based on traffic accessibility, reclamation, the estuary funnel basin became narrower, Both of these two has declined to some extent due to therefore the ruined estuary landscape was little in part and many natural coastlines were reclaimed straighter land-use change and fishery resource decline. Long-Xue of it. and harder(figure 26). Therefore the river runoff flushes Island has turned into a seaport base, Qi’ao Island and In- deeper and harder through the river outlet section, while ner Neilingding Island now are restricted reserves. In addition, ecology aesthetics is not yet common among the Chinese mass. Those already built coastal greenway the tidal seawater current also flushes harder and faster Eco-tourism based on better-preserved nature resourc- in the region is still at large proportion with impermeable through the estuary funnel basin. These changes alter the es are more located at the south of the estuary funnel, pavement and has intensive urban infrastructures that morphology of the coastal and basin (figure 27). If the namely the Qi-Ao Island, the Houhai Bay and the coast separate the visitors from nature instead of helping them estuary bay evolved in a natural situation, there should Figure 26 Changes on the basin section and coastline edge of Zhuhai and Hong Kong. There are also military forts to blend in. have enough resistance to tidal seawater flush. But the balance has been broken by the previous and current land reclamation. Therefore the tidal seawater intrudes further and further. What would help is to give more room and reshape natural coast space.
Habitats loss
There should have various types of habitats in the es- Figure 27 The influence on the basin morphology tuary funnel area, considering that it contains highly complex water dynamics and situates at a tender climate zone. Although some of the natural habitats can still be recognized but they have significantly reduced in amount Figure 22 Dike-based villages (Source from Internet) and quality. Together with the coastal land reclamation, water pollution and eutrophication due to the sequenced development activities are the dominant contributors to the loss of natural coastal habitats.
The loss of natural coastal habitats can trigger a chain ef- fect through the food chain. As mangroves, mudflat and shallow sea were lost the most in the last decades, what affected the most was the benthic organism that lives in these environments. Then it further affects the birds, fish and mammals that live upon these benthic organisms. Eventually, the human will also be affected, for example, Figure 23 Island tourism (Source from Internet) by fishery resource decline and coastal recreation value drop.
Food shortage and water quality drop have driven many species, like otters, to escape from the region, and endan- gered the survival of some unique local species, namely the Chinese Bahaba and Indo-Pacific humpbacked dol- phin.
Figure 24 Coastal greenway (Source from Internet) Figure 25 Regional coastal recreation system Figure 28 The chain effect through food chain
34 35 Figure 29 The critical habitats in East Pearl River Estuary Figure 30 The problem-forming dynamics of the region
Conclusion newly reclaimed land caused water pollution shore benthic environment and wa- and eutrophication. These activities also made ter quality. That is, to rehabilitate the In this chapter, the geographical formation of the region, the water turbid. natural coast system in the region. the water dynamics of river runoff and tidal water, the The health of the benthic communities and natural and artificial sediment deposition, the regional the water quality are mutually beneficial to Interim question seaport development and the public coastal recreation each other. The benthic communities live on methods are studied. It establishes an understanding of clean water. They can tolerate polluted water How to rehabilitate the natural coast the region. to some extent and have some capability to system of the East Pearl River Estu- ary while accommodating the Nan- The spatial problem-forming dynamics in the region are purify it. But once the limit is reached and sha New Port? visualised by graphic works in terms of sus-systems. Fig- exceeded, they harm each other. That is the ure 30 shows the whole in general. It demonstrates how current situation. And because of this, higher the estuarine-coastal land reclamation and development ecology, economy and society are all affected. in the previous decades caused the series of problems The new seaport development, as a part that constitut- spatially. ed the regional land reclamation and development, also The massive and rapid land reclamation shares the same problem-forming dynamics. pushed the coastline towards the water area Under system thinking, tweaking the problem-forming of the bay. So the space for benthic communi- dynamics can solve the project question. Therefore, the ties shrank a great deal in a short period. The system tweaks for this project is to improve the near- intensive and disorder development on the Figure 31 The system tweak to the problem-forming dynamics
36 37 benefit from nature. Such projects are, for example, the Sand engine and the Depoldering Noordwaard. 0 5 R E F E R E N C E C A S E S S T U D Y In Dutch Sand Engine project, the goal of building nature and the goal of reinforcing the coastline benefit each other and reach mutual achievement. The whole project adopts the ecosystem-based approach, nature dynamics such as the weather, waves and currents, the sand distri- This part aims to answer the preliminary question ‘What First to mention is the National Ecological Network Plan bution, the water table and water quality, the flora and are the possible principles for solving the problems in (the NEN) in the Netherlands Nature Policy Plan, 1990. fauna were all studied for making the project plan. The question in terms of regional landscape planning and de- This plan “facilitated an offensive strategy to develop or plan itself is a longterm dynamics prediction of a model sign?’. The cases selection falls on two dimensions: to restore nature (de Jong et al., 2007, p.41 )” from a na- of intervention based on the understanding of the dy- tional scale (figure 33). The essential elements are: 1. How to rehabilitate the natural (estua- namics. With this plan, the Dutch only need to regularly rine-coastal) system that damaged by 1. Maintain the core nature areas; supply sand at a certain location on Ter Heijde coast, the Figure 35 Currets modelling in project Sand Engine (Deltares) land reclamation in urbanized delta area? wave and wind will transport the sand to higher ground 2. Develop new nature area on former agri- and to the north, and create and enlarge literally natu- 2. How can deep-water seaport combine culture lands; ral marshland, mudflat and various sandy habitats. The location made the Noordwaard have suffered several cat- with ecological restoration and be envi- 3. Connect the nature areas by ecological whole process spread not only at Ter Heijde but along the astrophic flooding events. The project lowers the regional ronmental-friendly? corridors; whole Dutch coastline and other coasts of the North Sea. water level by reopening the polder thus broadening the waterways. The reintroducing of the river and tidal water The reference cases are selected based on their context 4. Develop special plans for target species The Depoldering Noordwaard project originally aimed current eased the flood risk of the larger surrounding and problem similarity to the study area. (group); for flood risk mitigation, while nature rehabilitation em- region, at the same time stimulated other related nature 5. Solve environment problems. bedded as a part of it. The Noordwaard was a single large processes like sediment redistribution, tidal creek forma- tion, biomes succession. Therefore nature got a chance to Besides the plan, specific number as objectives were also polder created by Dutch during the history at the head grow. written in legislation document to pushes the plan imple- area where the River Nieuwemerwede and the River mentation (de Jong et al., 2007). Amer joint. Large scale land reclamation at such critical
The plan was made based on island biogeography, me- ta-population theory and other principal ecology knowl- edge. This knowledge was used to translate the landscape into the patterns and processes. For the NEN, the Dutch defined three patterns and processes according to the types of water: the rainwater, the groundwater and the surface water, as different behaviours of these waters develop corresponding ecosystems. Then, they connect- ed different pattern and processes of the landscape to Figure 32 The selection of the reference cases enhanced nature capacity by shaping large scale and gen- eral strategic spatial relations (figure 34). Therefore it il- lustrated the desired condition of the landscape patterns Environment restoration and processes and showed the direction for sequenced series of physics actions. Nature creation, the Netherlands The greatness of the plan is it not only proposed a se- ries of actions but valued both the natural processes on Dutch people are not only famous for creating land but general scale and species protection on detail scale, and also for creating nature. provided a robust large scale strategic landscape ecolog- Due to the long history of land reclamation and fast ical structure, which is based on a comprehensive under- development since the industrial revolution, the Neth- standing of the national landscape processes, to guide erlands was also confronted with the problem of nature the following actions. areas loss and sequenced problems of biodiversity drop and increased risk of flooding. Referred to this issue, Since then, numerous public spatial planning projects in- Dutch has made great effort and plenty of successful ex- corporate the nature area facilitation and restoration as Figure 33 Ecological landscape structure plan of the Netherlands Figure 34 Water types and dynamics behind the ecological land- perience can be learned. a part of the project objectives and seek opportunities to scape structure plan
38 39 2. Increase scientific understanding, public erative to nature. The final selected port plan no only has awareness, and stewardship of the natural the least requirement on land reclamation and cost the waterfront; least, but more importantly, works the best under the contextual nature dynamics. In the design process, com- 3. Enhances the robustness and resilience of prehensive environment impact assessment provided a local and regional ecosystems. system understanding of the environment. The alterna- In particular, the restoration of oyster reef, mussel bed, tive port plans are tested based on those understandings eelgrass and sea lettuce habitats are pointed out that of the natural environment. The key factors are the inter- have multiple benefits on sustainability beyond improv- action with coastal currents, wind, sediment dynamics, ing water quality. For example, the harvested sea lettuce fish and bird migration and wave hit. The final selected can be made into high-quality fuel (Department of City plan has the most similar shape as the southern delta Planning City of New York,2011). lands, coastal water currents and wind can flow smoothly. Secondly, the planning and design of the port compen- Environmental-friendly seaport sate for its environmental impact on the surroundings. The compensation is not only based on the environmen- Maasvlakte 2, Rotterdam tal impact assessment but also the National Ecological Landscape Plan. Together with the compensation plan, Maasvlakte 2 is the most recent port expansion project Maasvlakte 2 will become a part of the national coastal of the Port of Rotterdam. In this project, various methods dune and enhance dune protection. Figure 38 Five considerations in the eight strategies of the New York were used to reach environmental-friendliness and re- City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan At last, in the detailed site design, the coast of the port duce environmental impact. explored low-impact and ecosystem-based solutions. The As New York City is a high density developed area, the Firstly, the port pan is designed to blend in and be coop- sea defence of the coast is a combination of cube reef and characteristic of its waterfront redevelopment is the con- sideration of public welfare and economic development Figure 36 Depoldering plan in progress: before and after activities. Regarding to regional landscape planning and (Google earth) design, the principles dedicated to public welfare and economic development activities are as follows: For public welfare, Project MainportFigure 39 Port Development plan alternatives in design Rotterdam process (Expertisecentrum Mainportontwikkeling Rotterdam) 1. More public waterfront open spaces that Figure 1 Lay-out alternatives, Expertisecentrum Mainportontwikkeling Rotterdam are connected, high quality and support di- Figure 2 shows the lay-out, as it is known at time of the publication of this report. verse uses; Calculations and argumentations in this study are based on this lay-out. 2. Utilize waterfront brownfield sites and his- toric resources; The total area of waterways, sea defences, infrastructure and industrial areas is 2000 ha. The focus of this study lies at the protection of the northern side of Maasvlakte 2. The 3. Promote water recreation; western and southern shore will be protected by an artificial dune. 4. Increase waterborne public transportation. For economic development activities, Figure 37 The regional recreation system in Noordwaard region 1. Maintain robust activity in the main sea- (Nationaal Park De Biesbosch) ports in the region; 2. Promote the region’s marine highways; Open green waterfront, New York 3. Pursue a long-term dredged material man- New York City is famous for its waterfront and water- agement strategy; ways. The high density of urban and industrial develop- 4. Promote environmentally sustainable prac- ment also left New York City a series of estuarine and tices. waterfront environment degradation. However, regional plans on its estuarine and waterfront landscape and envi- Referring to ecological environment restoration, the prin- ronment, like the New York City Comprehensive Waterfront ciples are: Plan and the Hudson-Raritan Estuary Comprehensive Resto- 1. Protect existing shoreline habitats; ration Plan, were pulled out and now the efforts are paid. Figure 40 Regional relationship© Copyright - Portof Maasvlakte of Rotterdam 2 (Port of Rotterdam) 19
40 41
Figure 2 Lay-out "doorsteek variant"
1.2 Problem analysis
1.2.1 Hydraulic boundary conditions For a proper design the hydraulic boundary conditions at the location of Maasvlakte 2 must be known. RIKZ ran simulations with the computer model SWAN (Simulating WAves Near shore). For three reasons the results were not very reliable. Firstly these calculations did not take bathymetry transformation by the construction of Maasvlakte 2 into account, secondly no combined statistics of wind, waves and water levels were applied and thirdly the results showed strong wave growth within the model area, which is questionable.
1.2.2 Design August 1996, Grabowsky&Poort BV, nowadays known as Arcadis BV, made an inventory of possible constructions for Maasvlakte 2. The emphasis was put on innovative constructions. Two brainstorm sessions with recognized hydraulic engineers were held [ref 12]. It was concluded that a project so great should be used to maintain the Dutch lead in the field of hydraulic engineering.
15 MSc thesis D. van Rooijen dune. In this way, it reduces the use of concrete cubes and Restoring the landscape structure plan requires a scien- development and ecological restoration and always pur- Principle 4. Explore ecosystem-based solutions. cobbles and preserves the natural interaction between tific and systemic understanding of the landscape pat- suing extra social benefits. In the reference cases, the ecosystem-based solutions the coastal dune and coastal current. tern. Locating a key factor, like, the types of water, can show great potentials in restoration-related work. This be pivotal in understanding the landscape pattern. This Principle 3. Enhances the robustness and resilience of method makes use of and enhances the local ecosystem understanding is the base for making a comprehensive local and regional ecosystems. dynamics. It let nature be involved and do work for our landscape structure plan. Conclusion The uncertainties to the project mainly come from the proposes. In specific, oyster reef and mussel bed have This landscape structure plan should be offensive. It is local developments. After decades of rapid development, multiple benefits for addressing the problem in the study authorities still pursue high economic growth. What can The reference cases study in this chapter aims to find ecology-prioritized and only for indicating which land- region. be expected is more urban sprawl or old town renovation. possible design principles for solving both the project scape types where. It has a through-scale consistency in The design needs to be adaptive to this situation, either in question and the interim question brought at the end of all scale levels. All scales a robust or resilient way. Chapter 4. In this conclusion, knowledge learned from After sorting the reference cases into different spatial the reference cases is sorted to fit system approach, as Regional scale Site scale scales, a through-scale consistency can be noticed in the follows. In this scale, the study area usually is under the same landscape. For example, the Sand Engine and Maasvlakte contextual natural dynamics. Thus only one or two nat- People can directly perceive the landscape on this scale. 2 are both sub-systems in the Dutch ecological landscape Context scale ural landscape types are involved. The variation is more Different materials used in the composition of the land- structure. Therefore in through-scale designing, system scape or composing elements in different ways have a In this scale, the key property of the landscape is its related to human exploitation. Therefore the landscape understanding and system tweak can be adopted on all distinct difference in the appearance of the landscape. structure. The forming of the landscape is more geo- reflects the land uses more. The key defining factor then scale levels. graphic. The key defining factors are natural dynamics is resource accessibility. such as the water flows, glacier moves, sea level ups and Context scale Regional scale Site scale Principle 2. Public welfare and urban/industrial func- downs, the angle of the sun et cetera. tions should be both considered in developed areas. Principle 1. Landscape structure plan for the restora- Restoration work in developed areas concerns not only tion should be comprehensive and offensive. the ecological environment but also the economic and so- cial development. It is a balancing between the economic BioHabitats (3) In pilot studies to improve water quality and create habitat in Jamaica Bay, eelgrass and mussels are being planted and monitored. Land is also being acquired for two other mid- million to reclaim more than 440 acres of en- are effective at removing nutrients and particu- island Bluebelts—South Beach and Oakwood vironmentally sensitive land adjoining Jamaica late organic matter from the water. Eelgrass, a Beach. Together Bluebelt drainage systems will Bay, including the Pennsylvania and Fountain type of submerged aquatic vegetation important accept stormwater from a third of Staten Is- Avenue landfills. In 2007, the Department of for a number of fish and shellfish species, is be- Key property: Key property: Keyland’s land area. property: Environmental Protection prepared the Jamaica ing reintroduced in a pilot study to evaluate the The City is also applying the Bluebelt con- Bay Watershed Protection Plan, which provides potential for widespread restoration of eelgrass cept in Queens and the Bronx. Wetlands and a comprehensive framework for improvements in the Bay. In another pilot study, DEP skimmer other natural features will be utilized for storm- in water quality, ecological restoration, and the boats were used to harvest sea lettuce to im- water management at Baisley Pond Park and enhancement of valuable natural resources. prove water quality and environmental condi- Springfield Park in Queens and at Van Cortlandt Under the plan, the City will continue to tions in selected areas of Jamaica Bay. Finally, an Landscape Structure Land Use Integration Lake in the Bronx. The SpringfieldConstruction Park proj- improve wastewater infrastructure in areas sur-Techniquealgal turf scrubber is being piloted at the Rock- ect will direct stormwater through a system of rounding Jamaica Bay. In the Rockaways and away WWTP. This mechanical device is used to stormwater management measures and open other parts of Southeast Queens that are often harness the natural abilities of algae to remove water in Springfield and Idlewild parks before subject to street flooding during heavy rains and pollutants from water; the harvested algae is discharging into Jamaica Bay. high tides, the City is installing storm sewers to processed into butanol, a high-quality fuel that quickly convey stormwater runoff to points of can be put right into a gas tank. Jamaica Bay Watershed discharge along the waterfront. To continue to improve overall water qual- Key factor: Key factor: KeyProtection Planfactor: The Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan ity and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay, Jamaica Bay, one of the greatest natural re- laid the groundwork for restoration projects the City will restore wetlands and implement sources in the New York metropolitan area, has that are being piloted in and around the Bay to projects to improve ecological productivity. been another area of concerted effort by the filter pollutants such as nitrogen, other nutrients, These projects include dredging the Bay and its City. Over the last 150 years, wetlands around and particulate organic matter, and to provide tributaries, additional ecological restoration pilot the Bay have been lost as a result of extensive shelter and habitat for fish and shellfish. Two projects, and remediation of nearly 100 acres Natural Forces Resource Accessibility filling operations; shorelines have been hard-Materials,oyster pilot studies are under way: the design Forms of environmentally sensitive land adjoining the ened and bulkheaded to stabilize and protect and implementation of an oyster bed off Dubos Bay. In June 2010 DEP launched an enhanced existing communities and infrastructure; deep Point, Queens, and the placement of oyster reef water-testing program in Jamaica Bay, increas- channels have been dredged for navigation balls (man-made structures that create habitat) ing the number of sampling sites from 13 to 20 and fill, altering bottom contours and affecting in Gerritsen Creek, Brooklyn. The oyster stud- and expanding the monitoring parameters to flows; and natural tributaries have essentially ies will evaluate whether climatic and environ- include biotic and ecosystem measures such as disappeared, leaving behind deposits of silt and mental conditions in the Bay are suitable for the number of bird and animal species and the particulates from urban runoff. Since 2002, the oyster growth and reproduction. DEP is also rate of growth or decline of wetlands, eelgrass City has made upgrades at the four WWTPs undertaking a pilot study at Fresh Creek involv- beds, and other key habitat. and associated sewer systems that surround ing ribbed mussels. The study will monitor mus- THROUGH SCALE CONSISTENCY the Bay. In addition, the City has invested $37.4 sel growth to measure whether ribbed mussels 68 IMPROVE WATER QUALITY Principles: Principles: Principles: Landscape structure plan for the Public welfare and urban/industrial func- Explore ecosystem-based restoration should be comprehen- tions should be both considered in devel- solutions. sive and offensive. oped areas. Enhance the robustness and resilience of local and regional ecosystems. THROUGH SCALE DESIGNING System understanding + System tweak
Figure 41 Maasvlakte 2 as a part of the coastal dune landscape (H+N+S) Figure 42 Conclusion from reference cases study
42 43 RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGNING flection of the declining environment of the low- What the design can do on this scale is to region- er bay funnel. They are in one system. Therefore alise the local seaports in the region. If the local 0 6 R E G I O N A L L A N D S C A P E S T R U C T U R E the rehabilitation needs to consider the natural ports could work together and establish a re- coast system as a whole inside the whole funnel gional seaport business system, they could prof- area. The rehabilitated rooms given should have it more and do benefit the environment (). Based connectivity and constitute a sub-system. on this, the design proposed a regionalised sea- port system. The Nansha New Port, the China 2. More connectivity between the upper and 3. More regulation on the seaport system. Merchants Port and the Guishan Port will form Strategy lower funnel by rehabilitating stepping Regionalising the seaport system to reduce a core deep-water transition ports triangle; the stones. intensive industrial use. other ports will be the feeders of this core. According to the conclusion in Chapter 4, the research through designing needs to answer an interim question The ecological landscape structure mostly lost The current model of urban and industrial devel- first: how to rehabilitate the natural coast system of the in the upper bay funnel area. However, it is the opment in the region needs to be changed. Al- East Pearl River Estuary while accommodating the Nan- whole bay area that connects the river and the though asking land from the sea is cheap, it has sha New Port? It aims to solve the problems by improving sea, which is the only migration way for some a long term negative influence on the regional the nearshore benthos and water quality. According to local species such as Chinese Bahaba. The lost of ecological environment, which we may not able the previous analysis, the spatial design strategies on this natural coast in the upper bay funnel is also a re- to afford it. context scale are made as follows: 1. More room for nearshore natural coast. The land and water in the region are like the fig- ure and ground. This landscape design tries to give more concern on the water area of the fun- nel bay. More room for the rehabilitation of the nearshore benthos and preventing the bay from becoming a river means that the current coast- line needs to be dragged back at some places.
Figure 43 The system tweak in context scale More room More connectivity More regulation
Current coastline Drag back direction Critical habitats Stepping stones Core triangle Future port (off-shore)
Connections Deep-water route Normal route
Figure 44 More room on the coastline Figure 45 Rebuild connectivity between the upper and lower bay Figure 46 Ragionalization of the local ports
46 47 Regional design 1/100000
Although the current ecological landscape structure has N been damaged a great deal for a long time, the ecological landscape types of the natural coast in the study region is not clear any more, the context scale system under- standing in Chapter 4 makes up the deficiency. According to the context scale system understanding, the major 0 1 3 5 10 KM ecological landscape of the natural coast in the region are mangroves, mudflat, fine sand beach and coarse sand beach. Each of these landscape types has a specific form- ing condition. The shared condition is a rather slow flow velocity, which makes the inner bays on the coastline the most suitable places for the rehabilitation.
In the conclusion of Chapter 5, the design principle on this scale is to make a comprehensive and offensive eco- logical landscape structure plan, to indicate which land- scape types where. Therefore the design on this scale is to restore all the inner bays on the coastline. The land- scape types of these inner bays are inferred based on the context system understanding in Chapter 4.
Having the system understanding and inferred knowl- edge in the pocket, the regional design counts in all the spatial strategies made in the previous section. In this ecological landscape structure plan (figure 47), the design Mangroves vision for the future regional estuarine-coastal landscape is demonstrated: more room will be returned to natural coast, unreasonable urban development will give way to recovery of nature. In this plan, from the river outlet Mudflat to the mouth of the estuary funnel, riverine grassland, mangroves and mudflats, and seagrass and sand beaches dominate in sequence. The improvement of the landscape Bedrock islands base will help the bottom of the food chain flourish and thereby secure the living quality of the top of the food chain with ample living space and food supply. Seagrass The primary purpose of this plan is to rehabilitate the original estuarine-coastal landscape spatial order in this Seaports region, based on the understanding of the regional land- scape formation processes. The plan is beyond the local administration boundaries and stands for the environ- mental benefit of the region as a whole. And it delivers Normal navigation route specific environment restoration request to related local authorities and asks for cooperation between these local authorities. These organisational requirements are also Deep-water navigation route part of the design plan that underlying this landscape structure plan.
Future off-shore seaport Figure 47 Regional landscape structure plan on the context scale
48 49 搜地点、查公交、找路线返回 搜索周边 广州市 路况 工具箱
路线 0 7 T H R O U G H - S C A L E R E G I O N A L D E S I G N ×
2
Hu-Men Outlet area, with Nansha New Port in it, is the 1 exact design area for addressing the project question. The through-scale regional design is consistent with the regional landscape structure design that made in the pre- 3 vious chapter. In this chapter, the research and design is going to focus on answering the question 返回地图 | | | GS(2018)1632 20170227 1. How to reduce the environmental impact of Nansha New Port, and 2. How to make compensation to the East Pearl River Es-
55 米 tuary, using Hu-Men Outlet area as an example. Figure 49 Nan-Sha Island 地图地球全景
It demonstrates how system understanding helps the zoomed-in designing, as well as how the regional land- scape structure design can further develop at local sites under system approach and vice versa, how the zoomed- in design can shape the upper-scale regional structure.
Site introduction 2 Figure 48 Hu-Men Outlet areaHu-Men Outlet area 1 Three linked zones 3
At Hu-Men Outlet, three pieces of land define the out- of the island has almost been turned into industrial land. let geomorphology and share the Hu-Men Outlet water The rest of the fishponds and crop fields on the island will body and dynamics. These three lands, incidentally, rep- be replaced step by step eventually. resent three typical land reclamation land uses: the sea- port development, urban development and aquaculture The Long-Xue island is well suited for seaport devel- development. They respectively are Long-Xue Island, opment. The west side of the island lies close to the Figure 50 Wei-Yuan Island Nan-Sha Island and Wei-yuan Island. deep-water channel, providing excellent access for deep-water vessels. The current plan of the seaport is- Long-xue Island land adopts a model with two dig-in basins. 2 1 Long-Xue Island is the place where the Nansha New Like other areas, the master plan of the island has not Port lies. It has been expanded by land reclamation for considered the regional landscape. Previous context several times. At first, it was a 200 ha and 80 m high bed- system understanding has revealed that there is a piece rock mountain, the Long-Gu Mount, in the middle of the of mudflat and a few bedrock islands, which are critical open water in the estuarine bay. The mountain foot had habitats for the region, left in the northeast of the island. been reclaimed to around 4000 ha before the seaport However, the north basin in the current plan stands on 3 project launched. It was for agriculture and aquaculture the mudflat and opens directly to the bedrock island hab- development. Ecological and cultural tourism was once itats. The dredging for constructing the north basin will developed on the island as well. Now it is devoted to destroy the mudflat, and the future seaport operation ship-building factory and deep-water seaport. According and maintenance will disturb the life living surrounding to the current port plan, the island will be extended to the group of bedrock islands. Challenge of the design on 7600 ha. Now the Nansha New Port project has complet- this island is how to protect these critical habitat areas ed the first three phases of its construction. The south while keeping the working quality of the current port Figure 51 Long-Xue Island
50 51 plan. Zoomed-in questions
Nan-Sha Island Due to different site situations, zoomed-in design ques- tion is made for each island aligning to the project ques- Nan-Sha Island is the most urbanised area in Nan-Sha tion: District. It is the vice city centre in the most recent Guangzhou Master Plan. The island was also a bedrock How to redesign the port plan for reducing disturbance mountain island with several peaks, standing in the mid- to near-by habitats? dle of the estuarine bay. Mangroves and mudflat devel- How can urban development cooperate with environ- oped surrounding the mountain before people started ment compensation in the study region, using Nan-Sha massive land reclamation. In the period of extensive land Island as an example? reclamation, people excavated rocks from the mountain How can aquaculture development cooperate with envi- and threw them into the water for the reclaiming. This ronment compensation in the study region, using Wei-Yu- movement left several cliffs on the mountain and de- an Island as an example? stroyed some historical fort sites. Nowadays, urban and industrial developments are taking up the land where aquaculture occupied. The villages and fish ponds on the island eventually will all be turned into modern business skyscrapers and residential apartments. This island is a representative of urban development in the region.
After years of disorderly developing, the land uses on the island is fragmented and all mixed, which brings challeng- es to local management as well as planning and design. Figure 52 Analysis on Nan-Sha Island Figure 53 Analysis on Long-Xue Island Figure 54 Analysis on Wei-Yuan Island
Wei-Yuan Island
Wei-yuan Island is at the fringe of Dongguan city. It is fa- mous for the heritage of military forts. Besides the forts, aquaculture and suburban villages are also characteris- tics of the island. Here the typical regional spatial layer of the mountain-village-crop field-fish pond have been preserved well. Aquaculture is the dominant industry on the island. However, single industry development is low economic-efficient. The island is under huge threat from urban sprawling.
The spatial structure of the landscape layering on the site is rather ancient and precious under the context of dec- ades of massive disorderly rapid reclamation and devel- opment. However, this also means that the site has been left behind from the regional economic surge in the past decades.
The aquaculture industry here has advanced research. There is an aquatic products research lab that studies high-quality fish breeding and farming as well as Bahaba fish rescue and protection. If this mode of combining re- search and production can be promoted, it may push the renovation of the aquaculture industry of the region.
52 53 Stage 1: Natural mangroves and mudflat develop; The island edge is in natural gradient. Stage 2: Aquaculture develops; The island area is divided by pond grid; Dykes define the edge. Stage 3: Urban or industry develop; Artery road ring runs through the island and works as an out- side dyke.
Stage 1: Estuarine water dynamics interact with the island mountain directly; Beach, mudflat, tidal creeks form. Stage 2: The island is expanded by ponds making; Large ditches are left for pond water exchanging; The ditches also define the regional blocks. Stage 3: The island is further expanded by coastal land reclamation and ditches closing-up; Ponds are filled-up as well; Intensive infrastructure cov- ers the island.
BEFORE MASSIVE LAND RECLAMATION AQUACULTURE DEVELOPED URBAN/INDUSTRY DEVELOPED
Figure 55 The evolution pattern of the islands: becoming a solid pan
Strategy Two models
Regional system understanding Therefore the objective on this scale is to bring back more natural intertidal dynamics between the land and The regional massive coastal land reclamation causes water for rehabilitating nearshore natural habitats. The environmental problems through damaging the near- system tweak is reopening the solid pans and connecting. shore benthos and water quality. The problem-forming Based on the detail site situations, two models can be ap- dynamics on context scale has been studied in Chapter 4. plied. For answering the project question through system ap- proach, it is needed to understand the problem-forming Both models reintroduce the estuarine water dynam- dynamics on a zoomed-in scale: how do the island expan- ics into the island. Ditches and creeks for the previous sion damage the nearshore benthos and water quality on aquaculture are reused and enhanced. Current ponds this scale? filling for urban development can continue. The new high ground will be along the artery road ring. The study result is shown in figure 55. The spatial evo- lution pattern of the coastal islands is a process of be- The ‘landward’ model connects the open spaces land- coming a solid pan. In this process, the reclamation for ward. The island mountain will interact with the estuarine aquaculture took up the room for the benthos. Further, water dynamics again. In cliff sections, this model will also urban development extended even more and closed up provide buffer space for landslide protection. REOPEN + CONNECT SEAWARD REOPEN + CONNECT LANDWARD the island edge. Estuarine water dynamics are blocked The ‘seaward’ model connects the open spaces seaward. and pushed outside, and thereby the natural coast has no The island edge will interact with the estuarine water chance to develop or recover. dynamics again. It provides natural wave hit protection as Figure 56 Two models: Room for the estuary well as space for native coast recreation.
54 55 Model application
Long-Xue Island
Port plan adjustment
Current port plan of Nansha New Port spreads over the whole Long-Xue Island. It adopts a two-basins model. Both basins are around 3 km deep and 900 m wide and at an angle of 60 degrees to the main water flow direction. This design limits the vessels inbound distance in 3 km and integrates sedimentation flushing system. It is well-considered for the port functioning. However, putting it into the site context, it destroys the northern mudflat. And the future port operation based on is will severely disturb the island habitat nearby. Therefore the port plan adjustment aims to preserve the ecological environment first and then enhance the habitat quality.
The main move in the design is turning the north basin 90 degrees and then linking it to the south one. As a result, the northern mudflat will stay. Based on this idea, the rest of the port plan is adjusted. After com- paring eight options of adjustment (see Attachment), the plan shown in figure 59 is selected. Figure 58 The current port plan
In this plan, the spatial parameters of the fundamen- tal components of the port are kept more or less the same. The layout of this plan has the most similar zon- ing structure with the current plan. It also enhances the marine-riverine transportation function of the port, which is in line with the objectives of the Nansha New Port. More combination of deep-water berths and barge berths is in the middle section of the port.
Besides reserving the northern mudflat and protect- ing the island habitats, the new design also helps to survive the Long-Gu Mount. In the current port plan, the mountain is isolated and surrounded by dense industrial land. Now it will have a closer connection to the northern ecological habitat reserves, which also will bring more visitors as well.
The distinct shortage of this plan is the deepening of N the port basin. The furthest vessels inbound distance The outside model will go up to 9 km, and the vessels berthing in the basin will become much busier. To make up for this The connection shortcoming, the new plan expands the basin width to 1000 m. The inside model 0 1 2 K M
Figure 57 Regional application of the two models Figure 59 The adjusted port plan
56 57 Design refinement Mount and the infrastructure, a tourism system can be formed (figure 65). Tourists can visit the recreation cores When the Long-Xue Island adopts the new plan, the hy- by cars, bikes, trams or yachts. drology dynamics and the sedimentation will be affected. Based on the knowledge from the context system under- Regarding the island as a whole, the design reserves the standing, the author inferred the corresponding water whole north-east corner for rehabilitating the ecological dynamics and sedimentation, as shown in figure 60, 61 environment in this area. This natural coast will be a shel- and 62. In the north-east of the island, water turbulence ter to the estuarine species as well as for the port. will increase by the islands and the growing mudflat. Therefore more sedimentation process can be expected at these places.
The design attempts to take advantage of these natural processes. Sedimentation process at the yellow crosses in figure 63 will be enhanced, by fostering oyster reef or mussel bed. Thereby it will connect the northern mudflat, the islands and the growing mudflat, which can increase the robustness of these habitats. It is also beneficial to the port. The connection of these mudflats creates a buffer besides the basin, which can slow down the tidal flood velocity at the basin and thereby decrease sedi- mentation in the basin. Figure 60 (left top) Tide flooding currents on the new port plan Figure 61 (left bottom) Tide ebbing currents on the new port plan At last, a piece of waveless space will form at the left green cross in figure 65. It is suitable for development ec- Figure 62 (right top) Sedimentation on the new port plan otourism at this spot. By connecting it with the Long-Gu Figure 63 (right bottom) Design intervention for plan refinement
Figure 64 The effect of the sedimentation enhancement
Figure 65 Public open space integration
58 59 Figure 66 Master plan of Long-Xue Island
Local dry forest N Local wet forest Highwater wet bank Intertidal mud 1 KM Mangroves Marshes Visitor information
60 61 Nan-Sha isIand Figure 71 Public open space integration Low land Ponds This island has strategic meaning for the Hong Ditches Kong-Guangdong-Macau Greater Bay development but Natural coast located at suburban fringe. The development of the island has been disorderly managed. It would require a lot of effort to build the vice city centre on such current condi- tion.
For understanding the situation, the study area can be regarded to have three sections, from north to south.
The north section is mainly an industrial landscape. It, Figure 67 Water system however, contains a 3 ha mangroves field which is the last piece of naturally grown mangroves in the upper estua- Main grid Main industry rine funnel. There are mainly wasted lands in the middle Main bridge Small industry section, except a high-end golf club and a yacht club. Public service Tourism developed in the south based on the Tin-Hau Temple, which is the largest Mazu temple in Southeast Asia.
To make room for the estuarine nature, regional principle 2 (see Chapter 5) is developed for the subsystems on the site:
Water system: broaden the channelised ditches and
reconnect them to the remained ponds, following Figure 68 Infrastructures the low elevation contour.
Infrastructure system: keep the main industrial fac- Wasted land Figure 72 Public open space integration tory and ports as well as urban public service. Small Under filling and disorder industrial zone should be cleared out. Land reclamation system: zones that under con- struction can continue. Those filled but wasted zones should be reused for restoration. The heritages: special treatment is needed for these spots.
By synthesising the interventions, a landscape casco ap- pears, as the design result. The design divides the island Figure 69 Land reclamation into small islands pockets by the intertidal spaces. Then the ring artery links all these small islands. Urban or in- Lost fort Tin-Hau temple dustries can develop but restricted on the pocket islands. Dug cliffs Ancient forts
It guarantees the estuarine nature space from being oc- Dug ponds Datan mangroves cupied and damaged. The reopening of the island reintroduces the estuary wa- ter dynamics into the site. Ditches and creeks that were designed for the previous aquaculture are reused and enhanced. By connecting these waterways at landside, buffer areas are also provided for landslide protection to rock excavated cliffs.
Figure 70 Heritages
62 63 Figure 73 Master plan of Nan-Sha Island
Wet-dry forest N Intertidal areas Tin-Hau Temple Ancient fort park Mangroves hotel Village art urban park 1 KM Buffer reserve Estuarine beach Wadi urban park Datan mangroves park
64 65 main water body of the estuary. The water purified by the Wei-Yuan Island The landscape casco also purification ponds will be purified a second time in the helps to improve the region- Urbanisation is undergoing on Wei-Yuan Island. In the landscape casco. al water quality. study area, the threats to the water quality come from The urban surface runoff can be both the urban area and the aquaculture. Improving the The design removes the plain sections of the dyke at the purified by the landscape casco water quality, therefore, is one of the main goals for this wasteland. The rocks are reused for creating artificial before entering the estuary main area. The other goal is turning the wasteland back to na- reefs for shellfish and fish at outside dyke area. The rest water body. ture and establish a nature reserve. of the dyke, together with other infrastructures, are re- designed for the nature reserve. The removal of parts of The estuary water body For water quality improvement, the design provides two the dyke allows the intertidal water flow of the inlet goes levels of buffer areas for water purification. First is the into the wasteland again and brings nature back. The de- purification ponds. The wasted water from the aquacul- sign projected the future evolution of the site, mainly the ture, which has rich nutrients, will go to the purification formation of the tidal creeks, under the regional natural Wasted water from the aquaculture will go ponds first. In the purification ponds, algae shellfish and dynamics and illustrated the image of the nature reserve The landscape casco through the purification ponds first, instead of -di floating vegetable farms constitute a purification system. based on the projection rectly releasing to the estuary. In total, there are The nutrients in the wastewater will be taken up by these two buffers for the wasted water. biomes. And as a return, we will get clearer water, vegeta- As the area confronts with a high risk of being urbanised, bles and shellfish. The purification ponds can also create the design also addressed the uncertainty on future de- an opportunity for suburban recreation. The second level velopment. When the area is taken over by urban devel- is the landscape casco. Polluted urban surface run-off can opment, the major landscape casco will remain the same. be filtered and purified in the casco before joining to the Purification ponds Ditches Fish ponds
Figure 74 Integration and reopening, let nature do the work
Figure 75 Adaptation to uncertain future development Figure 76 Regional purification system for aquaculture development
66 67 Figure 77 Master plan of Wei-Yuan Island
Local dry forest N Local wet forest Intertidal mud Fish ponds 500 M Water exchange Purification ponds Visitor information
68 69 Deisgn overview Aquaculture type: the current coast of which is being hardened and has a high possibility of being urbanised. Prototypes Aquaculture prototype: keep the remained soft coast and apply the casco for urban-type to prepare for the fu- The application of the models ture urbanisation.
Design in the previous section applied the strategic mod- Seaport type: the coast of which is highly specialised for els proposed in section 7.2 on three islands which respec- industrial use. However, the port plan adjustment re- tively represent three main developments in the region. serves a section of natural coast at the outskirt. This process eventually contributes to the forming of the Seaport prototype: extend the soft coast to bring more structural prototypes. intertidal area
Urban type: the current coast of which is mostly already Each of the prototypes provides space for the rehabilita- hardened through recent land reclamation. However, aq- tion of estuarine nature, either at landward or at seaward. uaculture ponds at inland have not yet been all filled.
Urban prototype: utilised the old pond system to create a The casco: landward type continuous landscape casco. Urban islands
Urban prototype
The casco: landward type
Aquaculture islands
The casco: seaward type Aquaculture prototype
Seaport edge
The casco: seaward type
Seaport prototype
N
0 1 2 K M Figure 79 The structural prototypes in the design Figure 78 Master plan of regional design
70 71 Oyster reef and mussel bed
In a further zoomed-in scale, the design implements oys- ter reefs and mussel beds for rehabilitating the ecological environment. Oyster reef and mussel bed have extraordi- nary ability in water clarifying and have high value for the abundance and density of juvenile fish and benthic fauna. Each oyster can filter up to 50 gallons water per day, and 1acre healthy oyster reef can provide habitat for around 1.5 ton of fish and seafood (TNC). These benefits have been studied and acknowledged in academia, and a lot of field experiments and pilot projects is undergoing. In ref- erence case of New York City waterfront project, oyster reef restoration is used as an ecosystem-based method of habitat rehabilitation.
Despite oyster reef and mussel bed provide a range of advantages, the restoration and survival of these shellfish confront with many stressors and have various require- ments. Based on guidebook from TNC, landscape design for addressing these issues is to select proper restoration sites and propose an adequate living environment. Figure 80 Life cycle of oyster (Wallace, Waters & Rikard, 2008) Although the natural habitat in the upper EPRE funnel area has severely lost, according to local history, oysters can be found in the whole EPRE region. And not only for oysters, the superior estuarine environment in the past was also an ideal home place for a wide range of shellfish species.
In the life cycle, juvenile oysters drift in the water column like planktons. Only when they settle on a fixed reef or rock, can they survive and continue growing. Therefore they cannot live in a fast-flowing water environment. Yet the human can also help a bit in this process. TNC has de- veloped various methods on this which adapt to different site characteristics. Figure 81 Hong Kong oyster farm (Kyle Obermann) In the oyster restoration project in Hong Kong, TNC pro- posed using the local tradition method which the ancient Landward type Cantonese used in oyster farming. In this method, people insert short wood sticks into the mud at low tide areas. Seaward type A It helps the oyster bed capture the drifting juveniles and Seaward type B grow.
In the design, this traditional method, together with oth- N er site-adaptive methods, is used for the oyster reef and mussel restoration. Based on this, the landscape proto- types are developed (see figure 83, 84, 85 and 86).
0 1 2 K M Figure 82 Hong Kong oyster restoration (Kyle Obermann) Figure 83 Landscape types in the design
72 73 The landward type has the closest link to the urban areas. The design considered various kinds of urban outdoor recreation. A more exten- sive range of flora and fauna from aquatic, estuarine to urban habitats can find their places in this type. When the waterways and intertid- al areas are given, the edge of this type remains flexible for adapting different further zoomed-in site design. Such design flexibility en- hances the resilience of the casco to future uncertainty. As the flow velocity is rather slow in this type, the mussel bed is used to prevent too much siltation.
mussel bed
Figure 84 Landscape prototypes: the landward type
74 75 This prototype is for reopening of coastal wasted reclaimed lands. Rocks of the removed dyke are reused for the artificial reef at outer water area. In the inner water area, short wood sticks are used to cre- ate plain reefs. The sticks will be placed along- side the ideal creak ways. They can also help to shape the site by interfering the tidal creek erosion and the tidal island formation. Mangroves and local wet forest dominate in this type. It is a refuge for mild water fish and wet forest birds. The remain dykes and other infrastructure are reused for public recreation. People can boat in the inner water area.
artificial reef short sticks
Figure 85 Landscape prototypes: the seaward type A
76 77 This is the outer buffer of the seaport, which completely seaward. Mangroves, marshes and mudflats constitute the dominant landscape. It interacts direct- ly with the main water body of the estu- ary. It will be the paradise for the coast- al birds and more kinds of fish than the seaward type A. This type has the least infrastructure. The design courage people to have wild- er recreation and try to appreciate the wild nature of this type of landscape. By doing so, it also causes less impact on the habitats. It leaves room for the ben- thos to grow and flourish by restricting human access. Longer sticks are used in this type for the shellfish reef establishment. It will have a better effect on slowing down the nearby water speed and accelerat- ing the sedimentation at the spot and surroundings.
long sticks
Figure 86 Landscape prototypes: the seaward type B
78 79 Open space system Waterborne transportation and recreation
In the design, the new estuary nature connects all the Waterborne transportation has a long history in the current heritages and create public spaces alongside the study region. Based on the through-scale regional land- waterways. scape planning and design, the waterborne transporta- Tan-Tou Mangroves tion system in the region also shares the benefits. In the urban zone, the public space serves more for public events and festivals, families and friends meeting, leisure- In the EPRE landscape structure design, the deep-water ly strolling and water sports. All these together create an navigation routes are optimised. In Hu-Men Outlet area, Wei-Yuan Fort abundance of healthy urban lifestyles for future residents the deep-water vessels mainly berth at the Nansha New and office workers. In the aquaculture zone, suburban Port. Except for the inbound way of the Nansha New recreation dominates the public open spaces. The pro- Port, other navigation routes in this area will become sec- posed mangroves reserve can enhance the effectiveness ondary navigation routes with water depth no more than of the Chinese Bahaba fish protection zone through di- 15m (based on navigation map datum). Nansha Golf Club rectly improving the quality of the habitat. The seaport zone has the least public spaces. However, the open mud- In the regional landscape casco design, waterways go flat spaces it provides is new in the region. The design through the urban areas. It provides opportunity and also aims to promote such ecology aesthetics to the mass space for not only public outdoor waterborne sports bu of the region. Regional public events related to this theme also the traditional waterborne transportation. The plan can be held in this spot. left these further zoomed-in design open to retain the flexibility of the design. Tin-Hau Temple In all, on the seaport island, the design proposes a port museum. Such a museum provides an opportunity for the citizens to know more about the seaport culture and industry. The public boat tour, which takes off from the museum spot, travels around the Hu-Men water area. During this tour, visitors can have a quick but full glance of the natural, cultural and industrial landscape of the Hu-Men Outlet.
Local waterways Shan-Ban Light Tower
Regional boat tour
Normal navigation route
Deep-water navigation route
Ancient forts Port museum Figure 87 Reference of waterfront public open space (Urbanisten) Mazu Temple
Ecological reserves
Navigation culture
Sport clubs N Urban parks
Regional boat tour
Figure 88 Reference of local waterborne transportation (internet) Figure 89 (right) The system improvement through the design
80 81 Figure 90 The new estuarine-coastal landscape for fostering ecology aesthetics
82 83 EVALUATION The alternative design puts the ecological environment in the first prioritised place. Hu-Men Outlet, named by its 0 8 E V A L U A T I O N geographical position, was studied as a whole one land- scape unit in this project. The design reintroduces and en- hances the long lost natural estuarine-coastal landscape in the region. And from that also improves the quality of life for the regional inhabitants, both human and the wild- life. It creates an opportunity for local people to live with Comparison real nature, which may raise the ecology aesthetics of the public to a higher level. As mentioned before, the project is objectives orient- ed. And the actual evaluation went through the whole Therefore, there are not many quantitative indicators we ‘research through designing’ process. A lot of small iter- can compare between the current plans and the alter- ative interim research and design questions popped up native design. Through calculation, there is 369 ha area in the middle of the process, and it would be too lengthy reduced for urban construction but 450 ha area increase to present them all. Here in this chapter, therefore, only for natural estuarine coast in the exact same design area. assess the final result of the project by the main project Besides, the alternative design improves extra 964 ha of objectives, which are: Figure 93 The comparison of the port plans shallow water area next to Long-Xue Island.
2. Rehabilitate as much as possible natural coast as en- 1. Reduce as much as possible environmental vironment compensation of the port. impact of the current port plan
2. Rehabilitate as much as possible natural We have known through the research that the regional coast as environment compensation of the environmental problem is a historical and system prob- port lem. For reaching this objective, the design proposes a landscape casco. It brings back and enhances the natural 1. Reduce as much as possible environmental impact of estuarine landscape, which further referred to the in- the current plan. tertidal zone at the coast. It is a new attempt under the Chinese context to make regional landscape planning and For addressing this question, the adjusted port plan (fig- design on this scale. ure 92) is proposed as a substitute for the current port Figure 91 The current port plan plan (figure 91). The north-east mudflat is retained. As a There is no regional landscape plan for this area or the is- trade-off, the two basins are replaced by one more ex- lands. What they have is the master plan for each sub-ar- tended basin. ea, which is economy-driven. In these current master plans, the central plan is the land-use plan. The sub-areas The design also tried to remain as more of the port func- are divided by functions, such as residential use, adminis- tion properties. The lost of the capability of the port tration office use, commercial use. There is not a concept function is little. The whole port can berth nearly 80 of landscape. Areas that for densely vegetated are called deep-water vessels. 750 m lost of berth line just means green land, as a general land-use type and is further spec- Figure 94 The master planning for Nan-Sha Island, 2018 lost of 1-2 berthing places for deep-water container ves- ified into park green land, protective green land and plaza sels, or 3 berthing places for deep-water general cargo green land. What is also coloured green are gym use, rec- vessels. Similarly, only 3.8% of the distripark area is lost. reational use and agriculture/forestry use. This planning Instead, in the middle section of the port, the function of and design method ignores the inner meaning and con- marine-riverine transition is enhanced as the barge yards nection of these green areas. It has led to an ambiguous are directly next to the deep-water yards. content meaning of these green land types and zoning.
More significant loss is the lengthening of the inbound It is very hard to evaluate the ecological value of the route into the basin, which is also the nature of the ad- green lands in the current plans. What can be sure of is justment. The prolonging of the basin will lead to a busy that the further land reclamation into the main water basin berthing. The design widens the basin 100 m for body of the inlet and the intense urban constructions will easing this issue. However, the effectiveness of adjust- do no good to the ecological environment of the region. ment needs more specialised research. And this will irreversibly turn a vast area of soft land- scape base into consolidated hard urban base. Figure 92 The design port plan Figure 95 The master planning for Wei-Yuan Island, 2019
86 87 Reflection far exceeded that the Dutch delta made in the last 400 years. And for a short future, at least, the government looks up to the higher development intensity of Tokyo This project was pulled out for addressing Nansha New and Manhattan. But years of disorder development Port related environmental problems. Through the sys- makes it totally different spatial context compared to To- tem approach, the final product resulted in a through- kyo or New York (figure 98).It is a huge challenge to pre- scale regional landscape planning and design for the East serve and rehabilitate the ecological environment while Pearl River Estuary. “The most effective way to learn adapting to this extreme context. about a system is to design it (Churchamn, 1971).” Col- lecting the summarising the interim knowledge and in- It is not only an urgent issue but also a rather tough sights from the process is also one of the objectives of the issue under the Chinese context as well. A lot of funda- project. mental monitoring data and information is missing, not appropriately recorded, or kept confidential. To gain my + The Chinese context understanding of the study area in the early phase of the project, I had to learn a lot of knowledge on other disci- From the introduction in Chapter 1, we have already plines first, and then make academic inferences with the known that the Chinese estuarine-coastal land reclama- information I had in hands. tion and development is massive, rapid, intensive and disorder in the past decades. But how massive, rapid, intensive and disorder was that that make it a unique The system approach context for studying? Figure 97 is the coast development In coincident, the nature of the system approach also comparison between Dutch delta and the study area. The requires a multi-disciplinary study. Design is a natural sites selected are on the same scale. The expansion and media for collecting and integrating knowledge from oth- intensification of the study area in the past 40 years have
CURRENT PLAN DESIGN PLAN
Economy-driven + Dissociated thinking Ecology-driven + System thinking
construction area construction area 4707 ha 4338 ha possible natural estuarine coast natural estuarine coast 582 ha 1032 + 964 ha
near-shore benthic quality near-shore benthic quality x (-) ++ near-shore water quality near-shore water quality 1568 1815 1970s 2018 x (-) ++ ecological landscape structure ecological landscape structure x ++ public recreation public recreation + +++ historical forts landscape historical forts landscape x + fostering ecology aesthetics fostering ecology aesthetics x + 1897 1973 1994 2017 Figure 96 The comparison between the integrated current plans and the alternative design plan Figure 97 The context comparison on the same spatial scale: the Dutch delta and the EPRE
88 89 Figure 98 The context comparison on the same spatial scale: the NY bay and the EPRE
er disciplines. As a powerful tool with expressive nature, to the study issue. design helps to produce transdisciplinary understandings through graphics drawing. Adopting the system approach Therefore, the alternative solution can be improved, makes the study rooted deep into the related context, while more accurate data put in. What more important which can help us explore optimised and adaptive alter- is the project used an alternative way of thinking and native solutions. problem-solving. It emphasises the ecological value of the regional landscape and calls for concerning it as a whole.
On the other hand, adopting the system approach also consistency through-scale leads to an extensive research and design process. To make complete and comprehensive system research Conclusion through design on this case, it requires studies on the policy environment, social environment, more in-depth This project is a multi-scale regional landscape planning industry-related technologies, and so on as well, which and design research for reducing the environmental at least needs a team of experts and years. This project impact of the Nansha New Port and making environ- focused more on the spatial transformation, like how ment compensation for the related region. It is also an hydrology dynamics and human activities contribute to experiment attempt of regional landscape planning and the regional landscape shaping. These aspects more lie design on this scale through a system approach under in the field of landscape architecture, where I have more the Chinese context. With this mind, the project studied strengths through my study at Wageningen University to a broader context for addressing the exact project ques- solve the question. Even so, the workload is overwhelmed tions. The interim question “how to rehabilitate the nat- and plenty of works is not directly reflected on the final ural coast system of the East Pearl River Estuary while thesis products. accommodating the Nansha New Port?” was introduced Limitation to solve the systemic problem. Through research for de- signing, I believe the project questions can be addressed As mentioned before, plenty of fundamental data and with better longterm effectiveness and cost-efficiency by information needed is not accessible for abroad student. answering this interim question. For gaining essential understandings, I used study results in some out-dated but wide-acknowledged papers and The final product results in the through-scale regional some recent but not directly related papers and relied a landscape design, which including the ecological land- lot on the local monitoring information from Hong Kong. scape structure of the East Pearl River Estuary, the re- These instances may have influences on some of the de- gional landscape casco for the Hu-Men Outlet area, the sign steps to different extents. And as this is a time-limit- structural prototypes for the casco in urban, aquaculture ed project, the project left no study or discussion on the and seaport development areas in the region, and the Figure 99 The final through-scale regional landscape design policy-making and other social aspects which also critical landscape prototypes of the casco in Hu- Men Outlet
90 91 area. The design based on lots of information in other dis- ciplines, especially in hydrology. It is dedicatedly tailored for the case within the context.
The project provides an alternative regional landscape system as an answer to the original question. In this way, it not only improves the longterm effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the design but also brings plenty of sys- tem benefits. For example, it provides extra opportunities for outdoor recreation and sports and, more importantly, fostering ecology aesthetics in public.
Relevance
Chinese estuarine-coastal areas experienced uniquely aggressive development in the past decades. And it has a unique cultural and social environment. The project is an attempt to make through scales regional landscape planning and design under this context, and through this to look for solutions for tackling the environmental prob- lems of the estuarine-coastal metropolitan areas in China and easing the contradiction between the economic de- velopment and ecological restoration in these areas.
The significance of the project not only lies in exploring an alternative solution but also in providing insights on applying large scale regional landscape study and design under the Chinese context.
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94 95 Figure 21 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal Figure 53 Analysis on Long-Xue Island Figure 89 (right) The system improvement through the landscape Figure 54 Analysis on Wei-Yuan Island design Figure 22 Dike-based villages (Source from Internet) Figure 55 The evolution pattern of the islands: becoming Figure 90 The new estuarine-coastal landscape for fos- Figure 23 Island tourism (Source from Internet) a solid pan tering ecology aesthetics Figure 24 Coastal greenway (Source from Internet) Figure 56 Two models: Room for the estuary Figure 91 The current port plan Figure 25 Regional coastal recreation system Figure 57 Regional application of the two models Figure 92 The design port plan Figure 26 Changes on the basin section and coastline Figure 58 The current port plan Figure 93 The comparison of the port plans edge Figure 59 The adjusted port plan Figure 94 The master planning for Nan-Sha Island, 2018 Figure 27 The influence on the basin morphology Figure 95 The master planning for Wei-Yuan Island, 2019 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 60 (left top) Tide flooding currents on the new Figure 28 The chain effect through food chain port plan Figure 96 The comparison between the integrated cur- Figure 29 The critical habitats in East Pearl River Estuary Figure 61 (left bottom) Tide ebbing currents on the new rent plans and the alternative design plan Figure 1 Evolution of Chinese coastline types (Hou et al., Figure 30 The problem-forming dynamics of the region port plan Figure 97 The context comparison on the same spatial 2016) scale: the Dutch delta and the EPRE Figure 31 The system tweak to the problem-forming Figure 62 (right top) Sedimentation on the new port plan Figure 2 The location and constitution of the Pearl River dynamics Figure 63 (right bottom) Design intervention for plan Figure 98 The context comparison on the same spatial Estuary scale: the NY bay and the EPRE Figure 32 The selection of the reference cases refinement Figure 3 The expansion of the Long-Xue (aka. Lankit I.) Figure 99 The final through-scale regional landscape Figure 33 Ecological landscape structure plan of the Figure 64 The effect of the sedimentation enhancement Island design Netherlands Figure 65 Public open space integration Figure 4 The system impact of the Nansha New Port Figure 34 Water types and dynamics behind the ecologi- Figure 66 Master plan of Long-Xue Island Figure 5 (top) The massive reclamation and rapid urbani- cal landscape structure plan Figure 67 Water system zation in the recent decades (Google earth) Figure 35 Currets modelling in project Sand Engine Figure 68 Infrastructures Figure 6 (bottom) The remaining natural coast in the (Deltares) Figure 69 Land reclamation region Figure 36 Depoldering plan in progress: before and after Figure 70 Heritages Figure 7 (right) The study area (Google earth) Figure 71 Public open space integration Figure 8 The research and designing process Figure 37 The regional recreation system in Noordwaard Figure 72 Public open space integration Figure 9 Shift from thinking objects to thinking relation- region (Nationaal Park De Biesbosch) Figure 73 Master plan of Nan-Sha Island ships (based on Capra, 1996) Figure 38 Five considerations in the eight strategies of Figure 10 Procedure of regional landscape planning and the New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan Figure 74 Integration and reopening, let nature do the work design process under system approach Figure 39 Port plan alternatives in design process (Exper- Figure 11 Spatial water flux and sediment distribution tisecentrum Mainportontwikkeling Rotterdam) Figure 75 Adaptation to uncertain future development and dynamics at upstream and down stream of the estu- Figure 40 Regional relationship of Maasvlakte 2 (Port of Figure 76 Regional purification system for aquaculture ary Rotterdam) development Figure 12 Spatial tidal water dynamics at the estuary Figure 41 Maasvlakte 2 as a part of the coastal dune Figure 77 Master plan of Wei-Yuan Island Figure 13 General geology structure of the estuary landscape (H+N+S) Figure 78 Master plan of regional design (Based on Zhao, 1982) Figure 42 Conclusion from reference cases study Figure 79 The structural prototypes in the design Figure 14 Spatial distribution of the sedimentation types Figure 43 The system tweak in context scale Figure 80 Life cycle of oyster (Wallace, Waters & Rikard, Figure 15 Six types of sedimentation (Based on descrip- Figure 44 More room on the coastline 2008) tion in Yuan, 1984 and Zhao, 1989) Figure 45 Rebuild connectivity between the upper and Figure 81 Hong Kong oyster farm (Kyle Obermann) Figure 16 Spatial sediment deposition velocity change lower bay Figure 82 Hong Kong oyster restoration (Kyle Obermann) (Based on He et al., 2018) Figure 46 Ragionalization of the local ports Figure 83 Landscape types in the design Figure 17 Remained natural coastline Figure 47 Regional landscape structure plan on the con- Figure 84 Landscape prototypes: the landward type Figure 18 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal text scale Figure 85 Landscape prototypes: the seaward type A landscape Figure 48 Hu-Men Outlet areaHu-Men Outlet area Figure 86 Landscape prototypes: the seaward type B Figure 19 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal Figure 49 Nan-Sha Island Figure 87 Reference of waterfront public open space landscape Figure 50 Wei-Yuan Island (Urbanisten) Figure 20 Main types of the natural estuarine coastal Figure 51 Long-Xue Island Figure 88 Reference of local waterborne transportation landscape Figure 52 Analysis on Nan-Sha Island (internet)
96 97 PORT PLAN ADJUSTMENT OPTIONS
ATTACHMENT
1. Port plan adjustment options 2. Chart datums
Berth line: 26659.56 m Berth line: 28105.03 m Berth line: 28548.79 m
Deep-water port area: 2378.23 ha Deep-water port area: 2516.40 ha Deep-water port area: 2561.40 ha
Distripark area: 1161.90 ha Distripark area: 864.47 ha Distripark area: 864.47 ha
Green area: 417.14 ha Green area: 575.78 ha Green area: 453.87 ha
Public area: 60.17 ha Public area: 74.01 ha Public area: 91.10 ha
CHART DATUMS
In this project, I use the average sea level of East Pearl Mean higher high water: 3.1 m -> 1.2m River Estuary (Shanban Island) as chart datum. Mean lower low water: 0.6 m -> -1.3 m In this case, relevant datums and some important water level are exchanged as follows: Extream high water: 4 m -> 2.1 m
Bathymetric chart datum: 0 m -> -1.9 m (in the project) Sea dyke height: 5.9 m -> 4 m
98 99