Research Express@NCKU - Commentary
Research Express@NCKU Volume 11 Issue 5 - November 13, 2009 [ http://research.ncku.edu.tw/re/commentary/e/20091113/1.html ]
On-site Elevation and Strengthening is Better than Relocation of the Village
Der-Her Lee1, Ming-Huang Lai2
Prof. , Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
Doctorate student, Department of Civil Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
September 28th, 2009
Prof. Der-Her Lee
Due to over-pumping of underground water to supply aquaculture industry and withdrawing coastline caused by drifting sands downstream lessened by dams on the upstream of main rivers, land sinking and land erosion are serious problems at the west costal towns and villages in Taiwan.
Prof. Hong-Yuan Lee, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, pointed out that the west coast aquaculture industry pumps as high as 6 billion tons underground water annually, equaling to more than 60 times of the capacity of the Nanhua Resevoir. Moreover, the annual social cost is a shocking NT$40 billion! The downpour of the August 8th flood led
to huge disasters in southern coastal areas such as the Linbian and Jiadung Townships in Pingtung County. The two regions are low-lying and have suffered from slashes during tides and floods during heavy rainfalls for a long time. The whole storm drain system is obstructed at ordinary times. Now facing disastrous flood brought by downpour, some people propose to relocate the village for reconstruction, but I propose on-site elevation and strengthening, which is economical, efficient, and appealing
technique to the residents. I believe this will be a more feasible solution than relocating the village, and the authority should seriously consider this alternative to reconstruction.
Mr. Ming-Huang Lai In 1512, the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan, the Portugal maritime navigator
and explorer, arrived at Brunei, a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Magellan was impressed by the beautiful natural scenery of the water village, or Kampong Ayer, of nearly 30,000 fishermen, and described it as the "Oriental Venice" in The First Voyage Round the World, a navigation log consisted of notes written by him and his crew. After 600 years, Brunei has evolved into the most affluent Asian country with 350,000 citizens exempt from paying tax. Brunei was a British protectorate from 1888 to 1984 and became a constitutional sultanate after gaining independence. Due to oil and natural gas production, it is the wealthiest kingdom in the world. About 30 years ago, the Sultan motive citizens to leave their heritage water village, where half the population reside,
and relocate to inland to preserve the beautiful environment by abolishing fishing. Leading the change of lifestyle, he built an extravagant 300-hectare The Sultan of Brunei's Palace (Istana Nurul Iman Palace) with the unique golden roof in the world. Most citizens raised the first floor of their inland villas as a parking lot to contain more than two cars. In this way, they not only have preserved the heritage water village lifestyle, but also ensured a neat city environment and smooth traffic. Brunei's water village, the
1 of 2
famous City on Water, Venice of Italy, and the Floating Market of Bangkok, Thailand, are famous models
Research Express@NCKU - Commentary
of water villages in the world.
Facing to the global warming and the rising sea level, the Taiwanese government has only come up with a village relocation and reconstruction plan, or filling low-lying lands with earth and rocks derived from digging reservoirs and rivers to prevent problems such as the August 8th flood, sinking lands and shrinking coast that will happen at the costal villages along western Taiwan to in the future. However, such projects involve huge budget and culture preservation issues, it would be better to learn from the Bruneian water village or Venice in Italy to plan a "designated town on water" for flood prone coastal land sinking areas in Linbian and Jiadung. This solution will require minor adjustments of the residents' lifestyle, and they can stay in their homeland, where their property, business, and family are rooted. The government only needs to build elevated road system to maintain communication with other regions in flood time, i.e. building an elevated road system which links to the second floor of each house. Common channels and public service pipes should be built under the elevated roads to connect with the houses.
The first floor can serve as low-intensity use parking lot and storage area, the second floor can serve as business and socializing area, and the third and forth floors are for family living. By doing so, we will not need to worry about problems such as downpours and floods caused by climate change, rising sea level and sinking lands caused by global warming. This on-site strengthening and elevation will not cause rippled issues such as re-establishment of cadastral surveys and reconstruction on a different site.
Moreover, the residents maintain their property, business, community culture and social customs.
Furthermore, this is efficient, economical, peaceful, improving the landscape and promoting industry efficiency. To conclude, on-site elevation can solve resistance to relocate and spare a budget crisis to the government while proactively preventing the unavoidable rising sea level problem caused by global warming. Therefore, the "designated town on water" plan, on-site elevated road system and public pipes seem to be good reconstruction models worth considering by the government.
Translated by Helen Chang
2 of 2
