Landscape Swap
Landscape Swap Type:Academic Work Individual Work 2015 Professor: Jesse Volgler
The MRGCD(Middle Rio Grande Conservative District) boundary--- which comes physically as levees, drains, fences etc., and legally as the easement of MRGCD---has set a fine line between human community and riverside bosque for nearly a century.
It is like a besieged city, what's inside wants to flee out, and what's outside wants to sneak in.
Landscape Swap Type:Academic Work Individual Work 2015 Professor: Jesse Volgler
The MRGCD(Middle Rio Grande Conservative District) boundary--- which comes physically as levees, drains, fences etc., and legally as the easement of MRGCD---has set a fine line between human community and riverside bosque for nearly a century.
It is like a besieged city, what's inside wants to flee out, and what's outside wants to sneak in.
RIVER CORRIDOR HISTORY VERSUS PRESENT 100th meridian
<20 inches of rainfall/year 20+ inches of rainfall/year
“The primary unity of the west is the shortage of water.” - Walter Prescott Webb
100th MERIDIAN The 100th Meridian is a line of longitude that demarcates the line between the well-watered praries to the east and the arid plains to the west. Most of the land west of the line is above 2000 ft, and most land to the east is below 2000 ft.
The entire Rio Grande is a main artery or system that feeds several different canals for farm irrigation
RIO GRANDE WATERSHED The entire Rio Grande is a main artery or system that feeds several different canals for farm irrigation, supports urban areas, and sustains vegetation and wildlife.
desert
farm
urban
tree stands
river
buffer
HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL The hydrologic interaction between surface water and groundwater is a vital component of functioning water systems.
This project tries to discuss a very fundamental but involved problem which exist between an engineered and managed river right-of-way area and urban fabric. In Albuquerque along the Rio Grande, Bosque areas –whose width ranges from 1200 ft. to 2800 ft.HISTORIC in Albuquerque section----within RIVER CORRIDOR OCCUPATION two levees managed by MRGCD was originally occupied by dwellers living alongside the river. Even though flood kept causing their loss occasionally, the old dwellers lived a harmonious life with their mother river. Since MRGCD was formed in 1925 to manage the irrigation systems and control floods in the Albuquerque Basin, land was claimed from the dwellers living along the river for a engineered bosque area----levee was built to limit the flood plain, dams and weirs were built to control the CORRIDOR VERSUS water flow, side RIVER drainage wasHISTORY built to drainPRESENT the exceeded water, and jetty jacks were put there to claim more land…… However, this system which originally mainly aimed to control flood seems to control the flood “too well”. Because water gage is declining every year, and surface water is shrinking gradually, the value of “cache space” drops low. Without flooding, cottonwoods stop propagating, wetlands for wildlife shrinks. What is more important, those engineered boundaries---levees, drainage, jetty jacks etc.---stopped people from entering the space, which departs the nature from human. I came up with the idea called “swap”---simply put, what’s inside(water and landscape) comes out, in exchange of what’s outside( residential land and people) gets in. With two passways overlapping with each other----one is a ditch which draw water directly from the river, though the bosque, finally reaches to the urban fabric; another is a walking corridor above the ditch, introducing people from the city to the bosque as well as sandbars in the river.
RIVER CORRIDOR HISTORY VERSUS PRESENT 100th meridian
<20 inches of rainfall/year 20+ inches of rainfall/year
“The primary unity of the west is the shortage of water.” - Walter Prescott Webb
100th MERIDIAN The 100th Meridian is a line of longitude that demarcates the line between the well-watered praries to the east and the arid plains to the west. Most of the land west of the line is above 2000 ft, and most land to the east is below 2000 ft.
The entire Rio Grande is a main artery or system that feeds several different canals for farm irrigation
RIO GRANDE WATERSHED The entire Rio Grande is a main artery or system that feeds several different canals for farm irrigation, supports urban areas, and sustains vegetation and wildlife.
desert
farm
urban
tree stands
river
buffer
HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL The hydrologic interaction between surface water and groundwater is a vital component of functioning water systems.
This project tries to discuss a very fundamental but involved problem which exist between an engineered and managed river right-of-way area and urban fabric. In Albuquerque along the Rio Grande, Bosque areas –whose width ranges from 1200 ft. to 2800 ft.HISTORIC in Albuquerque section----within RIVER CORRIDOR OCCUPATION two levees managed by MRGCD was originally occupied by dwellers living alongside the river. Even though flood kept causing their loss occasionally, the old dwellers lived a harmonious life with their mother river. Since MRGCD was formed in 1925 to manage the irrigation systems and control floods in the Albuquerque Basin, land was claimed from the dwellers living along the river for a engineered bosque area----levee was built to limit the flood plain, dams and weirs were built to control the CORRIDOR VERSUS water flow, side RIVER drainage wasHISTORY built to drainPRESENT the exceeded water, and jetty jacks were put there to claim more land…… However, this system which originally mainly aimed to control flood seems to control the flood “too well”. Because water gage is declining every year, and surface water is shrinking gradually, the value of “cache space” drops low. Without flooding, cottonwoods stop propagating, wetlands for wildlife shrinks. What is more important, those engineered boundaries---levees, drainage, jetty jacks etc.---stopped people from entering the space, which departs the nature from human. I came up with the idea called “swap”---simply put, what’s inside(water and landscape) comes out, in exchange of what’s outside( residential land and people) gets in. With two passways overlapping with each other----one is a ditch which draw water directly from the river, though the bosque, finally reaches to the urban fabric; another is a walking corridor above the ditch, introducing people from the city to the bosque as well as sandbars in the river.
To look at the long river-bosqueurban section more closely, there are three main elements that actually work together to make the bigger swap mentioned above happen. 1.sandbars (newly created in the river) 2.sinks in the bosque, and 3. oasis( open green area supported by water) In the urban texture. These three elements form 6 smaller swaps, which finally lead to the bigger swap. Those swaps allow resources in the three areas effect part of the landscape materiality of each single area. A fascinating human-nature co-exist scenario could be pictured in the future.
To look at the long river-bosqueurban section more closely, there are three main elements that actually work together to make the bigger swap mentioned above happen. 1.sandbars (newly created in the river) 2.sinks in the bosque, and 3. oasis( open green area supported by water) In the urban texture. These three elements form 6 smaller swaps, which finally lead to the bigger swap. Those swaps allow resources in the three areas effect part of the landscape materiality of each single area. A fascinating human-nature co-exist scenario could be pictured in the future.
Summer
Spring
Formation of Sandbars
Fall
Winter
Summer
Spring
Formation of Sandbars
Fall
Winter
Ebb and Flow
FLOOD
SEEPAGE
DROUGHT
Ebb and Flow
FLOOD
SEEPAGE
DROUGHT