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Hebei Province to build first ecological city
The city of Tangshan lies southeast of Beijing and northeast of the port city of Tianjin. The project named “Nanhu Eco-City Conceptual Planning” is located between East Lake and the Caopo Reservoir so is very rich with natural water resources as well as the vegetation and wildlife associated with such regions.
The entire site consists of approximately 104 sq km, of which, 32 km sq will be developed and 72 sq km will be kept in its natural state with Eco-friendly pedestrian paths as well as expansion of its natural water resources.
The architects' major task was to design a whole new section of the city while not destroying its natural and pristine environment. To accomplish this task they had to create a plan that was also economically feasible to the developers. To keep the area pristine and natural FAR was increased in nodes in close proximity to each other to limit the cost of infrastructure. The plan relies heavily on the encouragement of so-called “green transportation” methods. In addition to the high-speed railway linking Beijing and the beach resort of Qinhuangdao local light rail, bus and most of all pedestrian and bicycle use will be greatly promoted.
Major use of green building technologies with a large emphasis on green roofs, rain water storage and re-use, filtration of run-off by use of indigenous plants and recycling of waste products using a modern subsurface vacuum-type apparatus. This project was completed in August 2009 and has been awarded the UN-Habitat Award in India for Sustainable Urbanisation.
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