Houguan Lake Eco Demonstration Park

Wuhan, the largest city in central China, is located at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han rivers. Known as the City of a Thousand Lakes, the settlement emerged in the waterlogged floodplain, historically known as the Yunmeng Marsh. Today, Wuhan is recognized for its efforts to conserve and restore its wetland heritage, having been designated as a Ramsar Wetland City. Our project demonstrates solutions to the technical and aesthetic challenges to realizing conservation in landscapes that have been degraded by rapid industrialization and development.

The Houguan Lake Eco Demonstration Park project is part of a planned aquatic-biological corridor spanning six lakes in the Sino-French Ecological City. It serves as a pilot project for the ecological remediation of abandoned aquaculture, wet agriculture, and orchards surrounding the region’s lakes. Our aim is to regenerate functional wetland ecology, expand habitats, improve soil and water quality, and restore lost ecosystem services, such as flood protection and runoff filtration. Fishponds, such as those occupying most of the original project site, typically consist of flat-bottomed, closed water cells separated by narrow, steeply sloped “bunds”. Reinforced by debris, concrete or compacted soils, they cannot support riparian or emergent habitats. Poor vertical or horizontal water circulation creates overheated, hypoxic conditions that are suitable only for invasive aquatic species.

Our design strategy was straightforward: to sculpt a new topography from the existing framework of steep embankments and shallow ponds in carefully selected areas across the site. This new topography preserves healthy habitat fragments and improves water quality by reconnecting formerly isolated ponds. The resulting terraced wetlands are now reconnected to the surrounding lake, expanding native habitat and serving as a flood buffer and filtering runoff from nearby developments.

In each pond and along key embankments, we developed a concept of ‘ecological engines’. These ‘engines’ are low-cost, independent interventions that reshape the earthen bunds into precisely-sloped finger-shaped extensions, mixing degraded soils with muds from the re-contoured pond basins. The fingers initiate new topographic and hydrological dynamics, establishing a full sequence of habitats from dry meadows to emergent wetlands and underwater forests. The new interdigitated terrain significantly increases the overall edge length of each pond, regenerating the wetland interface and increasing opportunities for species diversity and re-initiating seasonal water exchanges with Houguan Lake.

Planting was achieved through matrices developed based on soil type, wetness, slope, and existing habitat. Within the constraints typical of central China landscape projects, we devised a sequential approach for ordering, delivering, and planting that allows natural plant distributions to develop over time and adapt to unforeseen environmental changes.

While the primary focus was ecological restoration, the project also aimed to promote environmental education and showcase wetlands as a public asset. Newly designed bridges, paths, and platforms provide access to the site and engage visitors with each habitat restoration area. Overall, this project successfully integrates ecological restoration with public engagement, creating a sustainable and dynamic landscape that benefits both the environment and the community