Longmen Wetlands Park Planning and Design - 8a Biennal 2014

Binyi Liu

PROJECT SUMMARY
1.Description of Project
(1) Brief Description
With an area of 3.06 km2, this special project, Longmen wetlands Park, presents the principles as: (1) creating the religious wetland of history and culture to recur the historical landscape in terms of existing Longmen Grottoes; (2) time to space conversion of poems and paintings in Tang Dynasty to express the wetland of Chinese traditional landscape; and (3) taking the opportunity of flood control engineering to restore the wetlands.
Longmen wetlands park, the major part of Longmen Grottoes World Cultural Heritage Park, located in 12 km (7.46 miles) south of downtown Luoyang City and on The Yihe River, is an important ecological shelter zone of Luoyang city. Longmen Grottoes have located there for over 1500 years. The experienced Vairocana (Lushena)Buddha is still smiling there today. Where does the Buddha have ideal of "landscape kingdom" gone? Longmen Grottoes were prosperous because of its surrounding ecological landscape, famous for its grotto culture and art, and was kept in people’s mind because of the idea of Buddhism that all living creatures from torment in the past. However, nowadays, the reasons for the prosperity have not been so strong anymore, so the landscape architects need to do more on environmental protection and ecological construction, which could be the basic idea of Longmen landscape of 31.7km2. Longmen Wetlands Park is the first step to realize this idea. And, the wetlands should play the important role in flood management, habitat restoration and scenic quality improvement as the multiple benefits of green urban infrastructure.
2)Project Objectives
Within the gifts of rich cultural deposits and long history of Longmen Grottoes and natural endowments, in reference of the landscape poems and paintings in Tang Dynasty, this planning is based on the green urban infrastructure and inheritability of history and culture of the heritage site, expansion of flood embankments for flood control; restoration and development of wetland plants, birds, fishes and other plants and animals and its spatial scale. Also, with the principles of landscape ecology and GI technology, as well as the theory of “time-space transformation of landscape perception”, this project aims at restoring and expanding the cultural sceneries, with the improvement of scenic quality so as to reappear the landscape with Tang Dynasty characteristics. Hence, finally, create a natural landscape garden with a wider range and more cultural elements.
3)Background, History, Procedure
Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, the construction of which began in AD 493, combining the profound Buddhist Culture and the excellent stone-carving art, were enlisted into the "World Heritage List" by UNESCO in 2000. Longmen Grottoes were culminated in Tang Dynasty, with the figures of Buddha (of which tens of thousands still remain today) and the exuberant natural landscape and resources, to become the famous outskirt (Yijiao) landscape spot. Nowadays,60 Tang poetries depicting the local landscape are still well-known by people..
In the end of December, 2012, Longmen Grottoes World Cultural Heritage Park was established. This world cultural heritage park comprised of Longmen Grottoes of 1500 year history and is the treasure of Buddhist art. 8 rural settlements and 2 rural communities are nearby.
In July 2011, the administration authorized the project team to compiling the master planning of Longmen Grottoes World Cultural Heritage Park, covering the area of 3,170 hm2 (7,833 acres), and detail planning and design of Longmen wetlands park with an area of 309.6 hm2 (758.4 acres，one tenth of the total area), so as to solve the contradictions and problems between protection and development of the heritage site.
In May 2012, the City Council approved the Master Planning of Longmen Grottoes World Cultural Heritage Park, making it clear to rediscover the residential idea pursued by Chinese people in the past thousand years, and to create a 21-century system of natural and cultural landscape architecture with Tang characteristics. In August 2012, Longmen wetlands park project, the important ecological shelter zone of Luoyang city, has become one of the core projects in the first phase of construction.
Longmen Wetlands Park project has 3 phases for construction cycle with in totally 3years.

2.Multiple Benefits
1)Scenic Quality Improvement
Planning concept (modern and contemporary), landscape paintings (ancient + modern) and landscape poetry (ancient) mutually enlightens each other, and arouse the comprehensive landscape perception. With interrelating and mutually conversing landscape perception of time and space, project team establishes the time and space of landscape perception transformation theory. When people immersed in the landscape environment, it’s just like opening a book full of cultural and historical landscape painting.
With the research of Long-men poets and their works, restoring their tour tracks, understanding their poetries, stories, pursuits and feelings and their relationship with the proposed planning of landscape and garden, studying the clues of Tang Dynasty landscape painting and landscape murals, the poetry, landscape paintings and landscape and gardens can be implemented into one specific site design, construction detail and mood. According to the description of Tang poetries and paintings, ten sceneries of Tang Dynasty characteristics will be built.
2) Flooding Management
By expanding embankment and increasing effective wetland, the instantaneous discharge pressure of flood can be eased, with the function of existing hydraulic projects, on Longmen Canyon.
■ Extend the field of the old dam and increase the areas to keep the flood stay
■ Keep the original fishpond and connect the river system.
■ Combine the road and river embankment into one, and reduce the visual impact of river embankment.
■ Place the artificial facilities on the outboard of the new flood-control embankment.

3) Vegetation and Birds Habitat Restoration
Through various measures, Southern Wetland Park’s vegetation and ecological habitat for birds have been restored. In appropriate field, elm, maple, locust trees and other seedling and wetland plants would be planted. After 8-12 years, the mature poplars are cut to allow development of mixed woodland. Wetland and low beach plant community begin to grow. The cycle would continuously repeat until the poplars with mature mixed woodland be replaced in the future. After 20-40 years, biotic community with relatively stable microorganism biomass and microbial activity would be gradually developed in wetland environment.

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