%A McGregor Coxall %T BIRD AIRPORT— TIANJIN LINGANG BIRD SANCTUARY WETLAND PARK DESIGN %0 Journal Article %D 0 %J Landsc. Archit. Front. %J Landscape Architecture Frontiers %@ 2096-336X %R 10.15302/J-LAF-20170409 %P 80-95 %V %N %U {https://journal.hep.com.cn/laf/EN/10.15302/J-LAF-20170409 %8 2017-09-26 %X

Each year more than 50 million birds make the return journey from the Antarctic reaches to the northern tip of the earth along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) seeking food and shelter. As one of the nine global north-south fly ways, the EAAF is now the world’s most threatened due to the loss of bird foraging habitat by coastal urbanization. One in five globally threatened water birds including the Black-Tailed Godwit fly the EAAF but they are suffering rapid declines in population.

In a bid to increase critical bird habitat on the shores of the Bohai Bay in China, the Asian Development Bank encouraged the Port of Tianjin to embark upon an international design competition for a wetland bird sanctuary on a degraded land fill site in Lingang. McGregor Coxall won the first prize in the competition with a proposal of establishing the world’s first migratory “Bird Airport” — a 110-hectare wetland park and bird sanctuary. With some birds flying non-stop for more than 11,000 km and up to 10 days without food or water, the airport will be a crucial re-fueling and breeding stop on the EAAF.