Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:33:37.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Designing for Nature in Cities: A Case-study of the Hill Area of the Summer Villa Estate, Chengde, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Gaoming Jiang ,
Yinxiao Huang  and
Shunhua Lin
Gaoming Jiang
Affiliation:
Respectively: Research Associate, Research Professor, and Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant Ecology, Academia Sinica Institute of Botany, 141 Xizhimenwai Tajie, 100044 Beijing, P.R. of China.
Yinxiao Huang
Affiliation:
Respectively: Research Associate, Research Professor, and Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant Ecology, Academia Sinica Institute of Botany, 141 Xizhimenwai Tajie, 100044 Beijing, P.R. of China.
Shunhua Lin
Affiliation:
Respectively: Research Associate, Research Professor, and Associate Research Professor, Department of Plant Ecology, Academia Sinica Institute of Botany, 141 Xizhimenwai Tajie, 100044 Beijing, P.R. of China.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Summer Villa estate was famous for its wildness, preservation of Nature, pleasant climate, and beautiful scenery in the Qing Dynasty when the natural ecosystems were strictly conserved by the Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong (1703–93). Plants on the estate played an important role in this embellishment, 28 out of the 72 noted scenic sites being named after plants or plant etc. materials. The estate has been seriously destroyed in the last 150 years by wars, fires, and natural disasters, before the foundation of the new China. The damage was especially serious in the Hill Area, comprising some 80% of the estate.

The present vegetation in the Hill Area is the result of reafforestion in the 1950s. Seven different plant communities, composed of natural and artificial elements, are now found there, most extensive of which is the Pinus tabulaeformis artificial forest with Vitex chinensis dominating the shrub layer. Some of these communities are unsuitable for the scenic spots on which they stand, some are not adaptable to the habitats, some have problems such as consisting of single species — so resulting in susceptibility to pests and offering little possibility for birds to make their nests and mammals to colonize.

The natural environment in the estate is becoming widely degraded, with serious SO2 and Pb pollution caused by tourism and urbanization. Plants — especially needleleaf trees — are sensitive to these pollutants.

This paper discusses the process of designing for Nature in the Hill Area of the Summer Villa estate, much of the work being concerned with problems of the present vegetation and the best approach to deal with them. To create Nature for the City of Chengde and at the same time recover the natural beauty in the Summer Villa estate, much attention is paid to the natural characteristics of suitable plants — especially those ‘historical’ natural species which can adapt to the present habitats. Five subsidary landscape areas with different plant characteristics in different habitats have been designed. Maps of the ‘historical’ natural vegetation, the present vegetation, and designs for Nature in the Hill Area, have been drawn and are here reproduced for practical use.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1992 , pp. 219 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bos, H.J. & Mol, J.L. (1979). The Dutch example: native planting in Holland. Pp. 393–416 in Nature in Cities (Ed. Laurie, I.C.). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto: xix + 428 pp., illust.Google Scholar
Cloustan, B. (1979). The development of river valley landscapes in British cities. Pp. 367–92 in Nature in Cities (Ed. Laurie, I.C.). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto: xix + 428pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Grandtner, M.M. (1977). Some aspects of vegetation studies useful in environmental protection. Pp. 220–34 in Vegetation Science and Environment Protection (Eds Miyawaki, A. & Tüxen, R.). Maruzen Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan: xv + 576 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Gruchy, G.F. de (1978). Some environmental relationships between topography, built form, landscape and microclimate in Brisbane's City centre. Urban Ecology, 3(2), pp. 155–70.Google Scholar
Iizumi, S. (1983). The urban vegetation of Tokyo and Sendai. Pp. 335–40 in Man's Impaction on Vegetation (Eds Holzner, W., Werger, M.J.A. & Ikusima, I.). London Press, Tokyo, Japan: xii + 376 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Jiang, G.M. [Gaoming] & Han, Z.X. [Zhixing] (1990). Preliminary study of the reasons for the death of old pine trees in the Summer Villa. Urban Environment and Urban Ecology, 3(1), pp. 16–21 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Jiang, G.M. [Gaoming] & Huang, Y.X. [Yinxiao] (1990 a). A study on the vegetation-ecology planning and designing for the Summer Villa, Chengde City, Hebei Province. Acta Phytoecologica et Geobotanica Sinica, 14(2), pp. 190–8, 3 figs [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Jiang, G.M. [Gaoming] & Huang, Y.X. [Yinxiao] (1990 b). The effects of tourism and urbanization on soils and plants at the Summer Villa, Chengde City. Chin. J. Environ. Sci., 11(1), pp. 35–40 [in Chinese].Google Scholar
Manning, O. (1979). Designing for nature in cities. Pp. 3–36 in Nature in Cities (Ed. Laurie, I.C.). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto: xix + 428 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
McBride, J. & Jacobs, D. (1976). Urban forest development: a case study, Menlo Park, California. Urban Ecology, 2(1), pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Sukopp, H., Blume, H.-P. & Kunick, W. (1979). The soil, flora and vegetation of Berlin's waste land. Pp. 115–32 in Nature in Cities (Ed. Laurie, I.C.). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto: xix + 428 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Wojterski, T. (1977). Importance of vegetation maps for the protection of natural environment. Pp. 45–8 in Vegetation Science and Environment Protection (Eds Miyawaki, A. & Tüxen, R.), Maruzen Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan: xv + 576 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar
Yoshioka, K. (1977). The original and actual vegetation of the Tohoku (Northeast) district of Japan. Pp. 117–22 in Vegetation Science and Environment Protection (Eds Miyawaki, A. & Tüxen, R.), Maruzen Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan: xv + 576 pp., illustr., tables, maps.Google Scholar