Cal Poly Pomona Department of Landscape Architecture
Graduate Program
L.A. 632 Technology
Professor Ken McCown
Welcome to our design presentation. Today we will cover:
Background:
El Chorrillo is a district of Panama City, adjacent to the Panama Canal. The settlement is named after a historic creek which has long since vanished in the wake of development. El Chorrillo grew rapidly at the turn of the century when the Panama Canal was originally constructed. Single room boarding facilities were built to house workers. The area has traditionally had a mix of migrant, racially diverse residents.
The Panama Canal will be expaned, bringing another wave of workers to Panama for the construction. Panama currently is experiencing water quality issues related to deforestation, necessitating massive dredging operations in Lake Gatun. The new canal expansion will generate 14 cubic million meters of fill, some of which will contain toxic wastes from dredging and industrial pollution.
El Chorrillo, at the mouth of the canal, is in a strategic position at this pivotal moment in time. The site of former dictator Manuel Noriega's Commendancia which was bombed by Operation Just Cause in 1989, the barrio currently suffers from poverty, a high rate of unemployment, and substandard housing. Can El Chorrillo revive and become a star in Panama City now that the canal is expanding, and there are plans to place fill from the canal off shore to build high-end housing? How can development and change benefit the current and future residents? Can the pollution problems facing the ocean be addressed through sustainable design of the new El Chorrillo?
Design Goals:
Ecorevelatory Design
Vibrant Waterfront District
Economic Vitality
Waterfront Design:
Plans are currently underway to run a new freeway through El Chorrillo to the Bridge of the Americas. Our design places this freeway at the edge of the current waterfront, and proposes to cover it with a lid, seamlesly connecting the new development for the waterfront with the existing community of El Chorrillo through a series of Paseos. A new low speed road wil connect El Chorrillo to Amador Peninsula via a series of mangrove islands. A waterfront walkway will provide access to the mangrove islands and waterfront.
We had two major objectives in the design of the urban waterfront.
First, we wanted to target troubled youth by providing them with opportunities to pursue positive activities, and second, we wanted to improve the overall economy of El Chorrillo through the waterfront design.
To accomplish these goals we have created a district with a carnival atmosphere year round. Inner city youths will be able to easily access prime waterfront public land where they can show off their talents in street basketball, train for boxing, and compete in formal soccer tournaments.All of this action takes place in full view of strolling tourists, creating an informal vibrancy reminiscent of Greenwich Village in New York city or Venice Beach here in California.
Shops and cafes will line the paseo, benefiting from the vibrant waterfront and providing much needed tax dollars and jobs for the community.
Local Paseo
New local streets connect El Chorrillo to the new waterfront district. The mixed use streets provide community services such as local grocery stores, restaurants, post offices, and small scale retail. Wide sidewalks and bike lanes provide ease of use for pedestrians. Views to architectural elements and the bay provide interest for pedestrians to move towards the waterfront district.
Highway Lid
Through analysis we decided the best place for the new highway was along the existing coastline, as opposed to out in the bay. By using the fill from new expansion of the
Main Paseo
The main paseo serves as a pedestrian walkway along the main axis of the waterfront district. A retail district on one side of the paseo provides shopping for tourists as well as local residents. Park space on the other side provides space for active and passive recreation, dining, local vendors, and access to the mangrove islands. The ends of the paseo are anchored by civic space and the water treatment facility.
The paseo is a multifunctional space, letting the people of El Chorrillo and
Civic Plaza
Formal spaces occur along the waterfront between more active recreational zones. These spaces give opportunities for Panamanians to create spaces that reflect their history-including memorials to Operation Just Cause.
Waterfront Walkway
The walkway along the new coastline provides a more leisurely experience in which peole can sit on hills of grass to look over the mangrove islands and all of the activities in the bay. The non-linear paths provide tension and release with views of the bay.
The water refinery research center is intended to provide enough wastewater treatment test cells to study natural and mechanical methods of wastewater treatment. Most forms of natural treatment systems are preceded by some form of mechanical pretreatment. The design has moved pretreatment cells upstream of the center (bioswales, curb inserts, CDS units and vault filter systems). The research center is designed to analyze different treatment strategies and where the strategies should take place (upstream, downstream or in estuaries).
Another main focus of the research center is what to do with the effluent after treatment. Two areas of the design support the use and further study of the effluent: the mangrove islands and the golf course swales and lagoons.
The center is designed to attract researchers worldwide to solve the public and environmental health problems associated with wastewater.
The design includes a new storm water management system that brings wastewater to the research center for study and allows for bypass in the event of inundation. The design uses the sports and athletic fields for first stage filtering and sediment removal. Treated and raw sewage are piped from the existing sewage treatment plant for study at the center.
Capturing large debris, oil and solids will take place upstream by utilizing mechanical devices.
Freeway runoff contains many pollutants and contaminants that will be filtered in large vaults equipped with specialized filters that are cleaned out periodically.
Curb inserts, CDS units, and Vault filters are located to pre-treat runoff prior to reaching the research facility. These devices will remove trash, sediments, grease, and oil. The curb inserts and vault filters can additionally remove heavy metals and larger quantities of oil.
The research center provides many secure test cells to avoid potential problems if an experiment creates a potentially ecologically harmful result. All types of bioremediation can be studied at the center and could include emergent plants, floating aquatic plants, microorganisms, invertebrates, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Pollutant specific biokidneys that can be installed at a factory or plant to treat point source pollution will also be studied.
Mangrove Islands:
Mangrove loss is a worldwide issue as coastal development intensifies in developing countries. Many international organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), World Wildlife Federation (WWF), and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) are actively involved in research on mangrove restoration and protection.
As Panama City grew, the mangroves disappeared. One population remains near El Chorrillo in Punta Mala Bay. Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Institute and Heriot-Watt University have been studying these for 22 years, and have found that they have been expanding, showing an excellent response to freshwater input from stormdrains. Our project proposes to build on this research, using the water refinery to increase existing mangroves and reintroduce a more boidiverse mangrove community.
Islas de Vida
Our design will utilize the fill from the Panama Canal expansion to build a chain of mangrove islands. What development previously destroyed, we propose to regenerate, integrating the health of the community with the health of the new mangrove system.
Our island restoration is based on ecological engineering, restoring hydrology and microtopography to restore mangroves for humand and ecological value.
The existing ocean floor reveals the presence of former creeks (chorrillo) and associated sediment deposition bars.
The proposed islands are placed on the high sediment depostion bars, deepening the tidal creeks to ensure good watermovement and level of scour necessary to keep channels between islands open.
Existing high, mean, and low tides.
The new island formation and benthic structure will retain mean tide levels in the bay, creating good habitat for a fish nursery, small fish, crabs, clams, wading birds, and shrimp. Freshwater will enter and be retained in the new ponding bay. The mangroves are highly efficient at removing nitrate and phospate, as well as sequestering heavy metals into their root structures. Stormrunoff will be treated prior to entry into the bay.
The island forms mimic nature and enhance natural processes. The shapes of the islands, which are derived from natural braided river and river delta formations, enhance water mixing. Water flows in with the rising tide, and out with the receding tide. Water movement will occur in both directions, minimizing net loss of sediments. The island will be reinforced structurally in potentially erosive locations.
The long, shallow point bars will provide excellent mangrove habitat. Phytoremediation trees can be planted in the center peaks of the islands and can assist in treating the toxic soils brought in from the canal construction, providing research opportunities for scientists. Mud from the existing seafloor can be stockpiled and used as topsoil for the new islands, effectively capping the toxic soils and providing an excellent medium for mangrove establishment. The most toxic canal fill soil can be bound into a soil cement on site using a batch concrete plant. This will serve to stabilize the island while holding in toxic element, which would release from the cement at a slower geologic rate.
The current mangrove forest consists primarily of white mangrove.
Our project proposes to reintroduce a larger diversity of species. As the islands are built and expand, scientists can study colonization, informing design and revegetation techniques for subsequent islands.
Our design will:
- Return regular freshwater input to the system through the water refinery and upgraded stormdrain system. Large quantities of freshwater will be released from the polishing ponds on the golf course at high tide to optimize water mixing.
- Use topography to establish new plants
- Use mangroves to hold sediments and treat heavy metals and toxins
- The island forms will protect the interior of the island chains and bay to promote a healty system
We have created these beautiful islands to provide a sustainable source of firewood, produce, and fish, creating jobs through research and ecotourism, and to improve water quality and habitat. Two of the larger islands will have residential and commercial development.
Island Development:
When it came time to develop a plan for connecting El Chorrillo to the new island environment, we stepped back to the regional scale and looked at our design from the perspective of incoming ships from the Pacific. The two most prominent features are the bridge of the
Our plan calls for the development of the two largest islands. This one is closer to El Chorrillo and extends the vitality of the waterfront district into
Conclusion:
In conclusion, our design reveals natural and rehabilitative processes, lifts El Chorrillo into a position of economic vitality, and results in an ecological and social attraction bringing people form around the block and around the world.
Resources:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=5
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