ECOLOGICAL PLANNING PRACTICES OF THE YELLOW RIVER NATIONAL WETLAND PARK IN JINAN SECTION

Jinan in Shandong Province, China is a city with favorable location - the Yellow River runs through this region from southwest to northeast while the notable world heritage Mount Tai is its south background. The low reach of the Yellow River where Jinan is located is a "suspended river," which is caused by a large amount of sediments from the upper and middle reaches. Over the past decades, the levee has ensured the city and villages free from floods. However, it blocks the connection between the north bank area of the Yellow River and the urban town. The problems of ecological imbalance, deterioration of aquatic environment, and fragmented habitats have become more acute. Since 2017, the City Design Practice team of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has collaborated with the Jinan Municipal Government to envision a transformation of the riverfront from ecological, cultural, transportation, and economic aspects and further proposed the idea of building a continuous Yellow River National Wetland Park along the entire Yellow River. The design proposals address the national, watershed, regional, and city scales. From the concept proposed in the plan of the 183 km reach, to the planning strategies of the 30 km core demonstration area, and further to the specific design of the Autumn Colors on the Que and Huabuzhu Mountains Park, SOM has developed step by step from macro-planning to microdesign, to ensure the uniformity and consistency of the entire design at all scales. SOM looks forwards to presenting the Yellow River in Jinan as a proven model for other river cities to follow the construction of the Yellow River National Wetland Park, and providing a practical reference for the planning and design of the Yangtze River Basin and similar watersheds in other countries.