DHV to Develop Coastal City in China

The engineering consultancy DHV (Netherlands) has been commissioned, together with the Chinese planning institute Qinghua and the Arup consultancy from the UK, to carry out a prestigious coastal and urban development project in China. The coastal city is to be built on an area of 150 km² and will soon have to provide space for one million inhabitants.

The engineering consultancy DHV (Netherlands) has been commissioned, together with the Chinese planning institute Qinghua and the Arup consultancy from the UK, to carry out a prestigious coastal and urban development project in China. The coastal city is to be built on an area of 150 km² and will soon have to provide space for one million inhabitants.

DHV won the assignment by including in its concept for the area an island and lagoon structure, which reminds one of the Dutch Wadden Sea. The concept allows for the creation of fresh ground-water in a sustainable manner for use in the city's green spaces. The international jury, consisting of experts from Italy, Sweden, and China, complimented the proposal for the way it combined coastal development, energy, water, and transport into an attractive urban design.

The new coastal city will be built in Caofeidian, an industrial zone in North China on the Bohai Sea. At high tide, the outer islands off the coast form a sea defense wall that offers flood protection for the lagoon, which is located behind. The city is to be built on islands in the lagoon. The islands will be raised a number of meters above the salt water, by drawing sand from the lagoon. The lagoon design will restore part of the original tidal mud-flat coast in this area and will save those areas that still exist.

In early 2009, the city's construction will begin next to an industrial port comparable in size to that of the Port of Rotterdam. The port, which is being further developed very rapidly, is today partly operational. The Caofeidian new coastal city is the second large coastal project that DHV has designed for China recently. In the other case, the Chinese were enthusiastic about the "Delta Diamonds", a 75 km² polder land-reclamation project for the urban, economic, and ecological development of Tianjin, China's largest import harbor. This project is currently underway.

www.dhv.com/press

(Source: DHV)