- Siting Green Infrastructure: Synthetical Solutions for Leading the Oasis City’s Sustainable Development in Wuyi New Town   click here to open paper content2963 kb
by    Ren, Jie | jieren.tsinghua@gmail.com    click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
Owing to the particular conditions of oasis cities, the stability and
security of the ecological environment seem to be quite crucial especially
when dealing with urban sustainable development. This study showcases how
Wuyi new town constructed its sustainable developing strategy by the
solution of green infrastructure.
Abstract
Wuyi new town is located in the north foot of Tianshan Mountain in the
western arid land of China. Owning to the difference of topographic slope
and the distribution of rainfall, the north foot of Tianshan Mountain forms
a special MODS (mountain-oasis-desert system) ecological pattern, and Wuyi
new town is just in the core region of the oasis. As some other oasis
cities, Wuyi new town is exposed to a multitude of conundrums on natural
environment deterioration, such as dry weather, dust storm, water scarcity,
inadequate green areas, soil depletion, vegetation degradation, etc. In
addition, because of the convenient regional traffic conditions and
abundant resource superiorities, in the future, Wuyi new town will also
undertake a pivotal role in regional development.

The ecology, security and sustainability of oasis city are emphasized
during the planning progress of Wuyi new town from government decision-
making, innovative planning conceptions, and technological means to
practical approaches. Basing on the core idea of maintaining and enhancing
the regional ecological environment mostly, the conception of green
infrastructure was presented to guide Wuyi new town’s sustainable
development. As a city’s natural service system, Wuyi new town’s green
infrastructure aims at exploring a planning and design operation mechanism,
and forming the “Wuyi Model” that features rational and efficient oasis
city development.

In the case of Wuyi new town, in order to improve the veracity and
comprehensiveness of the planning, the research prospect of green
infrastructure was expanded to a larger medium-level of Wuyi Farm and a
macro-level of Xijiao Farm, and those three different spatial levels
corresponded to the microscopic specific design methods, the formation of
medium planning countermeasures and the construction of macroscopic
strategic guidelines, respectively. The macro-level research determined the
idea of using green infrastructure to guide urban development and five
basic principles about valuing the ecological benefits, advocating green
infrastructure advance, combining the passive protection and positive
development, realizing the economic value of green space, and compromising
the urban public space and green space. Under this planning conception and
principle, the macroscopic green infrastructure system was constructed
through collecting and analyzing the oasis’s special natural conditions and
the other social, economic and cultural elements, And this system offered a
strategic framework for the whole Xijiao Farm’s spatial development and
land layout. Meanwhile, the overall strategy about green space, urban
development and urban infrastructure were defined in the meantime. Then,
the medium-level confirmed the specific countermeasures, like specific
location, control range and main function of green infrastructure system of
Wiyi Farm. In the micro-level of Wuyi new town, green infrastructure system
became not only green space system but also a basic functional carrier
which could coordinate multiple urban infrastructure, such as open space
system, transportation system, water supply and drainage system, under the
principle of “green”. When facing the particular environmental conditions
of oasis, the green infrastructure of Wuyi new town turned out to be an
effective planning strategy to ease environmental pressure, adjust the
ecological benefit of urban vegetation and balance the environmental
capacity and city’s sustainable development.
Keywords
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2013: Frontiers of Planning - Evolving and declining models of city planning practice
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