Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The area had been prone to flood hazards even when it was still cultivated as
sugarcane farms before the construction of the TSP. Therefore, when China
Engineering Consultants was called to make the first official urban plan for the
park, flood risks were taken into account. The proposed solution was to create four
detention ponds, mainly located along the western side of the park. While the
proposal was to be reviewed by the concerned authorities, however, because the
''detention pond'' was a new land use category to Taiwan's mandatory urban
planning system, the detention pond sites were marked separately from parks and
other green spaces, even when some of them are located side by side is taken from
(China EngineeringConsultants
1997
).
During the process of environmental impacts assessment, considerations of
newly found archaeological traces and habitat of endangered birds Glareola
Maldivarum led to the designation of a conservation zone of 30 ha at central west
end where the site was originally proposed for the waste treatment facilities.
Because the estimated average space per Glareola Maldivarum would exceed at
least 1 ha, pro-development commentators even criticized that the ecological
conservation zone devalued human beings to the extent that even the smaller birds
can enjoy much larger space. Regardless of the arguments, the designation of the
ecological conservation zone in such a national priority industrial project is also
one of the first landmarks in Taiwan's environmental protection history, and it
clearly demonstrated that ecological value should be respected in the industrial
development process. With these adjustments, in the Detailed Plan approved in
May 1997, a central green belt consisting of detention ponds, parks, and conser-
vation zone appeared along the east-west major road; there is also a cluster of
ponds and parks in the northwest corner (Map 3). This kind of layout is unlikely to
be proposed by traditional urban and industrial planners alone without consultation
from other disciplines that have a deeper respect and understanding of ecological
values and natural processes.
While the detention pond idea was taking shape on the TSP Detailed Plan,
monsoon shower rains in May 1997 were causing floods in southern Taiwan, in
particular, the industrial parks in Kaohsiung suffered heavily. Even if the TSP was
then in the early stage of construction, they worried about the consequence of land-
use change because floods alerted local communities again. Officials also noticed
the potential threat from natural forces to this flagship project in the South, and the
existing drainage system could not effectively solve the problem. Another heavy
rain hit TSP again in July 1, pouring a historical high record of 420 mm rainfall in
one single day which caused 2000 ha of flood area and two-thirds of the TSP was
included. President T. H. Lee and Premier C. Lien immediately called for the joint
effort from Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), NSC and Tainan County
Government to prevent TSP from flood threat in July. In May 1998, NSC and
Water Resource Agency, MOEA jointly announced a two-year regional drainage
improvement project with a total budget of NT dollar 1.8 billion. Yet, before any
concrete work was done, the next monsoon on 8 June 1998 seriously flooded the
park and, in particular, caused great damage to one of the major local investment
projects—Chi Mei TFT-LCD factory, which was under construction. Owing to the
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