INTRODUCTION

Air pollution

Fine particles can be dispersed due to wind in the surrounding environment affecting human health i.e., they provoke irritation in eyes, skin, noise, throat and respiratory system leading to anemia, asthma, bronchitis and cancer diseases (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).

POST-INDUSTRIAL PHENOMENON

In a post-industrial social context, there are many cities and districts develop the economy by extracting and primary processing of natural resource (minerals, energy, forest), which are called Resource-based cities. Most of these resources are non-renewable, so cities that rely on extractive economies are also developing unsustainable economies. Most resource-based cities will face the problem of recession. This recession is not only the exhaustion of resources, but is also accompanied by ecological deterioration, environmental pollution, threats to residents’ health, increasing unemployment, stagnation of economic development, dropping living standard and population loss.

Remote, resource-based cities are more like energy supply stations for the development of large cities. When such a mission is over, these small stations will be abandoned by a rapidly developing society. The remaining problems can hard be solved.

When I start looking at this

As a landscape architect, one of the essential tasks is to no more extended place of the natural environment on the opposite of human society but to consider the balance between the two when designing. First of all, we do not deny the benefits of social and economic development to human beings, but we must also acknowledge that human activities have devastated the ecological environment. Regarding all existing positives and negatives as a condition, what the landscape architect has to do is explore a possibility based on the existing. Pollution, industrial ruins and destroyed terrain may also become an opportunity. Landscape and ecological techniques can be used to continuously discover ways to transform all conditions in the site into assets, starting from the restoration.

In this project, the Asset-Based Design Approach will be used as a guiding theory to discover the physical and social assets of the site.

Post-industrial Belonging or relating to an economy that is no longer based on heavy industry, such as the making of large machines. (Cambridge dictionary )

Brownfield Used to refer to an area of land in a town or city that was previously used for industry and where new buildings can be built.(Cambridge dictionary )

Remediation To remedy is “to rectify, to make good”. The process of correcting a specific problem, reversing or stopping the damage to the environment.

Reclamation To reclaim is to bring back the land to a proper state, or to provide with a suitable substitute; the physical stabilization of the terrain to proper state; i.e., the sit will be hospitable to the original inhabitants, or those similar to the original ones; the pre- and post-disturbance land uses are nearly the same. Similar to restoration, but focuses on one aspect of the ecosystem service.

Rehabilitation To rehabilitate is an act of restoring close to a previous condition or status, not expected to bring the land back to perfection, not as healthy or in an original state as a restored land; the establishment of a stable and self-sustaining ecosystem. Rehabilitated land will prevent continued environment continued environmental deterioration and is consistent with the surrounding aesthetic values. More of a managerial term, measuring costs and benefits of maintaining environmental quality and optimizing local land management capacity.

Restoration To restore is to bring back the original state or to a healthy and vigorous state; the process of rebuilding the ecosystem that exist prior to disturbance; or recreating the initial structures and dynamics.

Phytoremediation Phytoremediation is a bioremediation process that uses various types of plants to remove, transfer, stabilize, and/or destroy contaminants in the soil and groundwater.

Bioremediation The use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced micro-organisms or other forms of life to consume and break down environmental pollutants, in order to clean up a polluted site.

PROJECT STRUCTURE

MULTIPLE SCALES

(XL)

City scale

is regarded as the extra-large scale. In this scale, to define the main problems in this post-industrial city- in the limiting construction site, residential areas are highly overlapped with the industrial area, which means that people live very close to the most polluted area.

Industrial scale

is the large scale in this project. This scale includes most industrial characters in Panzhihua City, such as steel mills, coal mines, limestone quarries, cement plants, etc. The main city area is close to those industrial sites, which means most residents keep suffering from heavy industrial pollution.

(L)

(M)

Mining scale

is described as medium scale, which contains three smallscale sites. On this scale, almost 90% of characteristics are related to the mining industry. This area does not include steel mill, so the mine ore keeps almost the same chemical character, meaning it has not changed into another material.

Site scale

is the smallest scale in this project. There are three different sites: Lanjian community, Midi mining processing plant, mine open pits and waste dumps. They represent the three site characteristics separately, community, industrial and natural.

(S)

PROJECT STRUCTURE

PHENOMENON QUALITY OF LIFE IN POST-MINING COMMUNITY

RESEARCH QUESTION

How to improve the life quality of residents who live in the post-mining communities?

PHENOMENON

POST-INDUSTRY

RELEVANT TO

ISSUES(S)

TRIPLE-MARGINALIZED

Geographical Marginalization Post-mining communities

ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE

Ecosystem Marginalization

TOURISM

INDUSTRY

AGRICULTURE

Industrial Structure Marginalization

Post-mining sites (open-pits & waste dump)

Mining plants

Triple-marginalized

This project starts from a phenomenon that people who live in a post-mining community in Panzhihua have a poor living condition. This phenomenon is one of the post-industrial phenomena which resulted from the decline of the mineral industry.

In mining area, the phenomenon can be described as Triple-marginalized:

1. Geographical Marginalization:

with post-mining communities located near the mines and far from urban centres, is most evident in the fact that the quality of life of the inhabitants of post-mining communities is much lower than that of urban dwellers, and also in the fact that their income levels are not as high as those of urban dwellers

2. Marginalization of industrial structure:

the economic structure, which still relies on the extraction and processing of non-renewable resources as the mainstay of the economy, is becoming obsolete and is best reflected in the old industrial production facilities and structures of the factories

3. Ecosystem Marginalization:

the mining industry has caused enormous damage to the ecosystem. The landscape production include mine open pits, waste dumps and tailings. These three types of landscape, their ability to repair themselves is far below the original level of that.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK SOLUTION

Site 01 Lanjian Community

Site 02 Mine Open Pit & Waste dump

Site 03 Midi Mining Processing Plant

PRECEDENTS

THEORY

METHOD

SITE FEATURES

Mining Industry (in process)

Waste Dump (in process)

Post-mining Community

Mining Industry (Abandoned)

Waste Dump (Abandoned)

Post-mining Community (Abandoned)

Zhujiabaobao Open-pit mining

Lanjiahuoshan open-pit mining

Wudaohe Mining Community

Jianbaobao open-pit mining

Xiaojiawan Waste Dump

Caozitian Waste Dump

Lanjian mining community

Midi mining processing plant

C A

B

G

F

E

N

500m

SITE SELECTION

These three sites are chosen based on the three phenomena of post-industrial. The area, including mine open pits and waste dumps, is defined as Site 01 “Natural“; Midi Mining Processing Plant as Site 02 “Industrial“; Lanjian community is Site 03 “Community”. The different characteristics of those sites represent various landscape type.

SITE 02

Area: 159ha

SITE 01

Area: 31ha

SITE 03

Area: 91ha