Integrating Surface Water Management in Urban and Regional Planning
Case Study of Wuhan in China
Abstract of Ningrui DU's PhD thesis
In the case of cities located in alluvial river plains, surface water systems are facing significant disturbances via reclamation, alteration and pollution due to the increasing pressures from urban expansion and urban land use change. In one way or another, many water related problems (e.g. flooding or drought disasters, and serious water pollution) are the outcome of disordered or ill-conceived land use development. However, the linkage between land and water resource management in the urban area has long been ignored. Under the circumstances of extensive urbanization and industrialization in China, many cities are experiencing the serious impacts of rapid urban land use expansion on surface water systems.
The central issues of this study are to explore the water-land relationship for spatial planning in both theory and practice, and to emphasize the need for better cooperation between spatial planning and water management in rapidly urbanizing regions. The main goal of the study is to examine and develop a spatial planning methodology that would enhance the sustainability of urban development by integrating the surface water system in the urban and regional planning process. Several research questions concerning the spatial concept of surface water systems in urban regions, the integration of surface water management and spatial planning, and information for planning support, have been examined. Extensive literature review, quantitative and qualitative analysis based on the primary and secondary data collection, and comparative analysis have been applied to answer these questions.
Based on the theoretical considerations, surface water systems possess three spatial forms, i.e. surface water bodies, riparian buffers and watersheds, all of which need to be integrated into spatial planning. The status of surface water bodies is closely related with the land use conditions of riparian buffer zones and watersheds. In order to mitigate the negative impacts and exert the positive ones, land use planning in watersheds must consider proper spatial organization and measures to integrate water as a determinant of good quality of space. Only through the cooperation between spatial planning and water management can these measures become effective. This study proposes that proactive-integrated policy and approaches need to be promoted in order to gain enough capacity to organize and preserve the space for water systems along with spatial requirement of urban development. Spatial requirements for water systems should be considered in advance and therefore it is important to have a paradigm shift both in water management and Summary 198 spatial planning and design.
In the Chinese context, urban planning and water management are both undergoing a complex transformation process in concepts, contents, working approaches and institutionalization. The city of Wuhan is the main case study. It has abundant surface water bodies and is experiencing such a process. Wuhan urban development process presented in chapter 4 shows that the impacts on the surface water systems from urban activities have not been adequately reflected in the urban planning system. A multi-disciplinary approach to deal with the conflicts of water system protection and land use impacts in the urbanizing areas has not yet been fully developed. With the rapid urbanization and industrialization of recent decades, urban land use conversion has become faster than ever and this reality is reflected in planning’s failure, to some extent, in protecting the natural environment and in regulating proper land use. A common spatial concept for surface water is not fully shared among urban planners and water managers, nor has a spatial policy framework for surface water systems been established. Even though since 2000, various policy efforts from urban planning and water management have gradually converged on environmental and ecological issues, institutional segmentation has brought about low efficiency of policy implementation.
Since the 1990s, Wuhan’s urban expansion has massively encroached upon the water rich surroundings of the city. Because lakes and shallow water bodies occupy more than two-thirds of the total water surface area, the impacts from urban development and land use conversion on these water bodies and their riparian buffer zones based on quantitative spatial data analysis from 1993 to 2004 is examined. Imperviousness analysis on land use coverage is also done. The results show that urban development has had a significant impact on the surface water bodies and their riparian zones either by size reduction or complete reclamation. The process of water-to-land conversions for urban construction has been intensified under the pressure of the geographically outwardly expanding pattern and hierarchical-concentric urban form. The loss of surface water bodies and the increase of impervious areas are both contributing to qualitative and quantitative water problems in Wuhan. In the meantime, the time-lag between the two policy processes for water and urban development has made it difficult for urban planners and water managers to adopt effective measures to address the waterrelated problems in an integrated and coordinated manner. Water issues in Wuhan’s urban region have so far not been tackled in an integrated way due to the lack of systematic policy arrangements at Summary 199 the strategic and local level, the lack of effective mechanism for institutional cooperation and the lack of approaches to incorporating water issues into spatial planning.
The case studies from the Netherlands are presented. These show how a cooperative approach in spatial planning and water management is helpful to link the water system with spatial issues. The experience of Dutch spatial planning and water management offers many valuable lessons not only in planning content, but also planning process for Wuhan or other cities in China. Some concepts in the national spatial water policy, i.e. ‘space for nature’, ‘space for water’, ‘green-blue network’, ‘climate-proof city’ may be a good practice for Chinese urban planners and water managers. Good horizontal and hierarchical cooperation is important for spatial planning and water management to work together to establish the spatial requirement for water systems. In the meantime, a positive implementation instrument, such as Water Assessment, was regarded as a useful tool to effectively stimulate the dialogue between water managers and spatial planners. These experiences show that integrating water issues in spatial planning could bring opportunities for making an attractive city with good quality of space.
The trend of urban development in Wuhan shows that the size of the urban expansion will be larger in the coming decades and the pressure on water systems from rapid economic development will remain high. Several new problems which may emerge on an even larger scale will make the situation more serious and complicated especially when an integrated solution of water-related problems has not been fully realized. Therefore it is urgent to have integrated planning options from the strategic level to the local action level. This is the key point of the conceptual model for integrated plan-making process for surface water systems presented in this study.
At the strategic level, proactive land use planning for urban development should consider water issues at the initial stage before negative impacts occur. Clear lines of responsibility between different departments should be demarcated so as to harmonize the fragmented and dispersed local efforts dealing with the water-land related problems regionally and locally. Public participation is encouraged during the process in order to achieve consensus among the different stakeholders. At the local level, an on-site watersensitive design approach should be advocated so as to eliminate the negative cumulative effect by local incremental construction. The measures of zoning to control construction and land use in and around the surface water bodies can be used but should reflect the Summary 200 consensus of views from various agents such as urban planners, water managers and the public at large. Useful information and knowledge is crucial during this process and therefore spatial data infrastructure is urgent to be promoted.
PhD defence cermony.
PhD Thesis
| Curriculum Vitae Ningrui Du | |
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Ningrui Du was born in Zhenning, China, on 3 May 1966. After high school (Anshun No. High School) in 1984, she commenced her study in urban and regional planning at Nanjing University and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 1988.She joined and worked as a lecturer (and later as Associate Professor) in Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (WTUSM), now merged in Wuhan University.From 1995 to 1997, she came to ITC to pursue her higher education and finished her MSc Degree on Human Settlement Analysis. After returning WTUSM, she continued her teaching and research work and has been involved more than ten planning projects in China. Since August 2005, she has pursued her PhD study in ITC / Utrecht University and in January 2010 she got her PhD Degree. |
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