都市河川引領的都市文化/風貌再造—
高雄市經驗
Urban Cultural Renovation Led by River -the Kaohsiung experience吳宏謀Hong-mo Wu

Director General of Public Works Bureau,
Kaohsiung City Government
2007.10.11

Data of Kaohsiung City••

Population : 1.52 million
Area : 178k ㎡•

Annual rainfall volume : 1780.1mm( Jun, the highest rainfall of 398mm)

I. Vision and Goal




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Clean water and vital ecology.
Safe and reliable flood control system.
Water accessible open places for recreational use.
Cultural industry of the river basin
Citizen participation in sustainable development of life, production, andecology.

II. Plan and Action(I) River Management
 General management plan of theriver basin
1. To carry out the generalmanagement plan of the river basin,
the first step is to investigate thenatural background, pollutants, andconditions of the pollution. The
data obtained will then be induced
and calculated by applicable
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2.

3.

4.

5.

formulas. The results of the calculation will go through quantitativeevaluation, and the main pollution and solutions will be figured out.
Setting reasonable goals for water quality control of different river basinsaccording to their economy and environmental functions. For example, theurban areas, spaces for recreational use, and the water resources conservation
area should have different standard of water quality control. If it has to takea long time to achieve the goal, the plan can be divided into phases.
Estimating the environmental capacity of the river basin. Environmental
capacity means the ability
to carry the pollutions,
namely, the allowed sumof the pollutions when
maintaining
theenvironmental
level.
The
environmental
capacity can be obtained
through the research in the
expectedvalue,
background value, andself-purification ability of the river basin. The environmental capacity of
the river basin is the fundamental principle of pollution control.
Making plans that take care both ecological development and environmental
quality according to the environmental
capacity of the river basin, and balancing
as much as possible between the river’s
environmental capacity and the structureand scale of production and consumption.
The sewage exceeding the environmental
capacity of the river should be excluded.
Based on the reasonable use of theself-purification ability, policies such as
improvement of production techniques,
artificial prevention in industries and theriver basin, etc. should be adopted.
Reasonably allotting the pollution
volume that needs to be eliminated to every segment of the cycle. Bysystem analysis, develop the most suitable regional pollution prevention
system .
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6.

7.

Set up the statistic models of the environmental effects and investment cost
resulted from pollution prevention, and combine the models to be a system.
By applying all kinds of approaches to find out the most applicable andsatisfying measures that benefits most and cost last.
The general management of the river basin emphasized to exert the integral
benefits of the pollution prevention. It is a way meets the needs of efficienteffects and cost-saving.

 Household Connection & Sewerage System Museum
1. After the rate of household connection to the sewers raised up to 40.66, theinterception facilities retired and transformed to be the sewerage system
exhibition group which appeals the public’s attention.
2. The rate household connection of Kaohsiung City is 47.%, and it is expected
to be 50.7% by the end of 2007.
3. Central District Sewage Treatment Plant to be the Sewerage System
Museum.

r a t e o f h o u se h o ld
c o n n e c t io n （ ％ ）

60

45.32

50.70

40
20

10.77

0
1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

YEAR

Sewerage System Museum

Exhibition wall

Retired facility3 Effects of Flood Prevention & Management Mechanism
1. Upgrade the efficiency of flood prevention by river management andincreasing the rate of rainfall sewers. By making good use of lakes, wetlands,
flood detentions ponds, and permeable surface ecological method to increase
the permeable rate of the rainfall and help the efficiency of flood prevention.
2. Adjusting the drainage areas based on the city’s real demand. The
easily-flooded areas are of highest priority.
3. The restoration covered the 53km of the main trunks and branches of therivers in Kaohsiung City and 392.5km rainfall sewers, which are 445.5 km in
total. The accumulated length of the drain pipes were 339.360km in 1999,
379.57 in 2006, which means 40.21km increase.
p re v a le n c e ra te o f ra in fa ll
s e w e rs (% )

100

96.7

97
94
91

89.2

88
85

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

YEAR

4. The prevalence rate of the rainfall sewers were 89.2% in 1999 and 96.7% in
2006. It is 7.50% increase.
5. Establishing interception system in the mountains by increasing plants andgreening and constructing silt basin to prevention mudflows and landslides.
6. Before the flood prevention period of every year, the drainage system will be
examined. The easily-flooded areas, thecommunicating drains, tide-affected areasand plain waterway will be checked withmore serious standard.
7. Coordinated with the pump station andwater gate controlled by specially-assigned
staff,
Centralmanagement
systemsupervises the tide and water level all day
long in order to deal with emergency intime.
8. To carefully control the resources of rescue

4and recovery after the natural disaster, there is SOP for rescue and recovery.
The flood drill is held before the flood prevention period in order to exert thebest effect of the rescue mechanism.
(II) Art and CultureIntegration plan of the cultural industries and recreational resources of
the river basin

 Revitalization of the Historical Spots
A- Reuse of the Vacant Spaces in Port Areas- Pier-2 Art District
1. Pier-2, built in 1973, was the former
connection pier and warehouse in Dock No. 3
of Kaohsiung Port. When the government wasseeking for the place for fireworks show of the
National Day, the space was discovered
accidentally.
2. It is an unique open space for Art next to the sea. Under the enthusiastic
artists’ promotion and the project of vacant spaces reuse held by Council of
Cultural Affair, the Pier-2 was opened.
3. Workshop and Creativity Center: The space of art is full of sense ofavant-garde, experimental spirit, and creativity. It also records Kaohsiung’s
history and make new Kaohsiung at the same time.

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B- Reuse of the Vacant Spaces in Port Areas-True Love Wharf
1. Past: wharf for cargo ship
2. Now: It is renamed “True Love Wharf” and the former warehouse wastransformed to be the tourist service center. It won the FAIBCI Taiwan
Real Estate Excellence 2006.
3. Future: Aiming to be a international tourist wharf.

Before the transformation

Present

C- Former British consulate
1. The consulate was appraised as the 2nd-level
historical spot in1987.
Since 2003, theKaohsiung Ciry Government authorized
private sector to restore and manage thebuilding.
2. The repair of the consulate was to revitalize theold building bur maintain the original appearance. By introducing art
activities such as music instrument playing, painting, and dancing, thebeautiful building was surrounded by the atmosphere of art.

D- Former Tangrong Brick Kiln
Located in the middle stream, the former
Tangrong Kiln, which won the first Hoffmann
Chamber Kiln and stopped operation 20 years
ago, was now restored by the Kaohsiung City
Government. The beauty of the old time wasback again.

E- Kaohsiung Museum of History
Kaohsiung Museum of History was built in 1938 and was the “高雄市役所”
during the Japanese reign.

After Taiwan was turned back to Chinese reign, the6place was called “Kaohsiung City Government.”
The New City Hall was completed in 1992, and thegovernment moved to the new city hall.
The old city hall has Imperial-Crown top, and thedesign of the whole building was “modern style” ofearly time. Because of the old city hall was ahistorically-important and unique building, the government announced it as ahistorical architecture on February 26th, 2003, and was used as the Kaohsiung
Museum of History.
F- Vision of Kaohsiung
Vision of Kaohsiung is the former train station of Kaohsiung City. By creative
measure, it is transformed to be a museum.The purpose of this museum was toassemble the citizens’ memory of the city and show the future blue to them.
Hopefully it can strengthen the citizens’ sense of belonging to the city.

 The Show of the Waterfront Spaces with Culture
A- Kaohsiung Lantern Festival
1. The main lantern of 2001 Lantern Festival taken place in Kaohsiung,“Leaping Dragon-fish,” standing beside Love River is now one of thelandmarks of Kaohsiung2. The main lantern of 2002, “Speed to the World,” is in shape of a speeding
horse symbolizing that Kaohsiung has been moving toward the prosperous
future.
3. In 2003, Love River itself is the main lantern to show the beauty of thewater and the fireworks.
4. The theme of 2004 is to lighten Kaohsiung and show the city to the world.
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5.

6.
7.

It symbolized Kaohsiung’s vision to be a international city.
The theme of 2005 is “the Healthy Kaohsiung,” showing the friendliness ofKaohsiung and promoting the World Games 2009 that will be held in
Kaoshiung.
The theme of 2006 is “Healthy city, fragrant waterfronts” showing thecharacteristics of Kaohsiung as the maritime capital of Taiwan.
The main lantern of 2007, “Eternal Light,” is in the shape of an aborigine of
Makattao. It symbolizes that Kaohsiung respects the original owners of
the city.

B- Dragon Boat Racing
The dragon boat racing of 2006 also introduced
the international dragon boat racing. In order toencourage the teams, the government offered thegreat reward, 2.5 million NT dollars, to thechampion.

C- Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival
1. Wannian Folklore Festival is held in October every year. It has been thesixth time since 2001.
2. Wannian Folklore Festival is an activity full of folkways pleasure. Zouying
was Wannian County of old time, and there were lots of temples andreligious activities. It is like the place for religion carnival.
3. After the government’s restoration during
these years, the Lotus Pond reveals new
attraction.
Combined with the folklore
8activities such as chest, firecrackers attack, and fire-lion attack. It is theone and only festival of southern Taiwan.
D- All Kinds of Cultural Activity
Container Arts Festival, Christmas, New Year’s Eve
Party, etc. all took place in the waterfronts, showing thevitality of Taiwan’s maritime capital, Kaohsiung.

Unique Aesthetics of the Waterfronts — the Beauty of the Bridges
1. Strengthen the characteristics of every bridge.
2. Arrange different lighting according to the variety of every bridges. The
combination of the lightings and the railings, the beauty of the bridge and theriver is revealed.
3. Create all different kinds of effects by dots, beams, and belt of lights toimprove the visual space and beautify the portrait of the city.

Ci-si Bridges downstream the Love River -- Lightings of the bridges over Love River

Overview of the 7 bridges

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Where people meet--- natural, ecological and user-friendly route of
movement
A-Blue Waterway--Ru-yi Lake, the Heart of Love River

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Love Boats travel back and forth from Love River basin to Kaohsiung Port,
which is 50Km in total. Coordinated with the KMRT, the land and sea
transportation is connected.

B-Green Transport – Cycle Path
There are about 70km of planed cycle paths and boulevards in the city.By
connecting with commercial districts, schools, MRT stops, commuting way toschools, the cycle paths are expected to go through every pedestrian spaces.The
total length of the cycle paths is
expected to be 100 km before theWorld Games 2009.

Traveling along the waterfronts--Cycle path connecting Love River and Lotus
Pond：Transformed the flood prevention alleys into the 20.5km cycle path. The cycle
path goes from Jhong-du Brridge, Jhong-du Wetlands, San-ming Park, He-ti Park,
Smile Park, and ended at Sin-jhuang 1st Rd.The wooded path crosses over the water
caltrop field and green 7 Park. The cycle path is an green transport obtaining
functions of ecology, environmental protection, and sight-seeing.
C- Plan of Boulevard Connection
The important boulevards(Vertical＆ Horizontal) of Kaohsiung City.

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D- Dynamic, creative, efficient participation of private sector – authorizedmanagement（A）PAST:
Self-governance of Park management of Kaoshiung City Principles ofPark Adoption and Authorized Management of Kaohsiung City. Promotion of
Public Use of Open Space Beside the Parks and Roads in Urban Planning.
（B）NOW:
Promotions of Private Participation in Public Works.Make use of private
sectors’ resources to do the maintenance of the parks. In that way the publictreasury is greatly saved. Under private sectors’ management, the parks
became the places providing art activities and recreation to the citizens. Someof the private sectors were given the rights of operation, thus also bloomed thecity’s economy.

(III) Natural Ecology
A. Fragrant Waterfronts, the symphony of water and green(A)Fragrant Waterfronts – Plant-growing
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Making new appearance for the waterfronts and the wetlands
Accelerate the development of green fields in the park.
Reinforce the greenings of the streets
Decorate special or important spots
Reinforce the greening of the vacant spaces
Promote the concept of greening to the public sectors and shcools(B) Improvement plans for parks along MRT routes

B.

Ecological Corridor---Wetlands

1.

Yuan-jhong-gang Wetlands
Under the efforts of the Navy and Kaohsiung City Government, the lastmangrove areas of 50-hectare beside Yuan-jhong port was preserved as the12conservation wetlands. The biological diversity was then maintained.
2.

Ban-ping Lake Wetlands
Without influencing the flood prevention,transformed the silt basin in Ban-Ping Mountain to
be the artificial Ban-Ping Lake for ecologicalconservation.Near
THSR
Zu-ying
Station,connecting Shou-shan, Guei-shan, Lotus Pond,
Jhou-zih Wetlands, Indigenous Garden, andNei-wei-bi to make the green corridor of Kaohsiung.
3.

Jhou-Zih Wetlands
Established grass swamp, tree swamp, floating-leaved plants, group of Typha
orientalis Presl, ect. to show the biological diversity.Appealing more kinds ofaquatic species by various swamps, making theswamps the favorable habitats of birds. The beautyof the wetlands can be viewed through the Internet
where the pictures taken by the cameras in thewetlands were put on-line. The Pheasant-tailed
Jacana has returned in 2005.
4.

Nei-wei-bi Wetlands in the Museum of Fine Art
The 41-hectare wetlands is located in the north-west part of Kaohsiung City.The
project had been planned since 1986 and completed in January 2003. It has
become one of the important recreational place for the citizens.
5.

Ban-he Village Flood Detention Pool
Concept of nature and material reductoin.Functions well to adjust the floodlevel of Golden Lion Lake, K line, and the neighborhoods. It also functions as aecological wetland.
6.

Love River Wetlands
The former lands for industrial use in Jhong-du area were reprogrammed to be awetland of Love River Basin.

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Ban-he Village Flood Detention Pool

Love River Wetlands

7.

Yen-shuei Port Wetlands
Goes through Ling-hai Industrial zone.Improve thewater quality by ecological method.Increase new
sewers to separate the water pollution according to
the levels of pollutions. Pebble waterfronts andwooden starlings increase the moisture and aerationof the wetlands.

C.

River management and water accessible environment

1. River Restoration-Love River(1) There are 11 Km main trunk of the river in the city. The restoration project isseparated into flood prevention and sewage interception. The interception rate(including household connection) is 99%. The water quality has reachedStandard D for environmental protection, and there have been 51 species offish migrate in the river.
(2) Love River been the place for Kaohsiung Lantern Festival since 2001, and has
become one of the famous tourist spot of the country.
(3) Love River Waterfronts Park (phase 1-4)：Waterfront sight-seeing path,14

wooden path, water-accessible stairs, artistic street lights, sight-seeing
platform. Cultural and water-accessible waterfronts.
(4) Love River Waterfronts Park (phase 5)：Jhong-du Bridge to Jhih-ping Bridge,
1800m for each side. The landscaping was completed in March 2006, andthe concepts of material-reduction, ecological, environmental protection wereadopted. The original plants were maintained only in a proper number to givea more beautiful scenery and provide the plants a more suitable environment.

2.

River Restoration －Cien-jen River(1) Cien-jen River was once called “Black River.”Since Feb. 1999, the restoration project wasstarted and was completed in Dec. 2002. The
project won the “Architecture Accomplishment
Award” of 2003 of Kaohsiung.
(2) The household and industrial waste water is nolonger discharged into the river, and the water quality is greatly improved.
There are now many kinds of fishes habitat in the river.
(3) Connecting with the Dock No. 5, Sin-guang Drainage, Love River, andKaohsiung Port, the waterway has become the cruise route which is a potential
tourism resources.
3.

River Restoration －Hou-jin Creek(1) There is 11km of the main trunk of Hou-jin
Creek lies in Kaohsiung City. It is a typicalurban river. The restoration plan were divided
into 4 phases.
(2) The 1st phase (De-Huei Bridge to Yi-Chuan Rd.)
was about 1400 meters, and was completed in Nov. 2003. The 2nd phase(Yi-Chuan Rd. to the flood prevention water gate) is 80 meter and wascomplete in Oct. 2005. The project broke through the bottleneck of flood
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drainage at the boundary of the city and the county, and the ability of flood
prevention has been raised. The 3rd and 4th phases are now underconstruction.
(3) Adopting ecological engineering to set up riverside shoals, waterfronts
pedestrian path. Coordinating with the plants and greening, the riverprovides a natural water-accessible place.
River Restoration －Dock No. 5

4.

(1) From Jhong-shan Rd. to the port area, that is
1300 meters in total. The project was divided
into 2 phases and started in 2004.
(2) The 1st phase, from Cheng-gong Rd. toJhong-hua Rd. (435m in length and 80 meterin width,) was completed in June 2006. The
2nd phase (Jhong-hua Rd. to Jhong-shang Rd.) was completed, too.
(3) The goal of the restoration project is to make the area function well in
ecological conservation and flood prevention. It is now the new popular
recreational waterfront area for the important construction neighborhood, suchas Multi-functional Economy and Trade Zone.
5.

Link between Water and the Green Ecology
Drawing the water of the fresh water basins such as Cao-Gong Ditch,
Cien-jen River, and Hou-jin Creek to link with Love River, Lotus Pond, Golden
Lion Lake, Cycle Paths, and Boulevards. Thus the complete ecological wetlands
are constructed.

III.

Citizen participation & sustainable development（I）Environment and Landscapes – New look of the Town
 Plan of Communities Style Development ：1. Through every resources of assistant mechanism, let the citizens reshape
the style of their community by themselves.
2. Through the government and the 3rd sector’s operation, the“residents-authorized mechanism” was established
3. “Community designer” was assigned to help the community reshape thefashion of their home. The space-design-relative departments of thecolleges near by also cooperated in the project. That make theconnection between professionals and the community and become the“Partners of Community Development.” The concept of “Small16government, Big Community” was adopted to do the regional governance.
4. Through the assistance of experts in administrative practice the regional
learning is promoted.

1.
2.

3.
4.

Environmental Protection & Ecology
River restoration and establishment of the complete river basin achieve
the goal of water management and water-accessible environment.
Build up the ecological corridor, artificial wetlands and lakes to increase
the ability of flood prevention and to improve the ecologicalenvironment.
Combination of boulevards, parks, green fields, and greened vacant
spaces make the city a ecological place with water and green.
River Pollution Prevention Patrols － reinforces the pollution prevention
in the communities.

（II）Environmental Supervision
Investigate, trace, conserve the plants, insects, birds, fishes living in the rivers,
lakes, waters, ecological corridor, parks, green fields, and boulevard.
（III）Industrial development
Integrate the cultural and tourism-potential
industries with the tourism industry of the city.
Combine the concepts of customer’s-needs-oriented,
material reduction, environmental and ecologicalprotection, international standard, and sustainable
development , and integrate the efficient resources
based on the different demands of every community to develop the local industry.
（IV）Community Participation, Schools, Volunteer Patrol and NGO
1.
2.

3.

By developing the citizens’ ability and rights to make them healthier.
Make healthy commitment to the citizens, and encourage the citizens toparticipate the activities initially through cooperation of different
departments and sectors
Integrated with the resources of communities, the policy of developing
healthy communities will go more smoothly and efficiently.

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IV. Conclusion
1.

2.

3.

A River is a treasure containing culture, history, ecology, landscapes, and
it is also the cradle of civilization and the crucial element of a maritime
city. Although it once had hard time, the efforts of the public and private
sectors can bring it back to life again.
River restoration, water pollution prevention, and water resources
conservation cover different and complicated levels. The pollution
prevention of different countries are based on different subjective andobjective conditions. It is hard to compare one to another. However,
the water restorations all over the world share the same goal ofsustainable development. It also requires citizens’ participation to makethe job succeed in improving the living environment and the competitionof the country.
Clean and beautiful river make our city a vital place rich in life,
production, and ecology and a habitat of sustainable development that issuitable for the humans and creatures.

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