THE CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO CIVILIZATIONS: ON NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Conflicts, upon the author’s four experiences, exist between the methods, technologies, and world views of ecological and industrial civilizations. The movement against the channelization of the Shuangyuan Stream in Dali City, Yunnan Province failed to rescue the loss of natural assets that have accumulated for tens of thousands of years. Due to the indifference to the protest from environmentalists and scholars, Beijing’s river channelization projects resulted in severe damages to the city’s ecological resilience. A same conflict occurred over the anti-seepage project of Yuanmingyuan Park in Beijing, which marked a beginning of China’s “nature-based solutions.” Moreover, the heavy storm attacked Beijing on July 21, 2012, urged municipal managers to reflect on urban drainage system design, and promoted the spread of “Green Sponge,” a nature-based solution, to the problem of urban waterlogging nationwide. Only by taking the tough journey to utilize nature-based solutions can China tackle ecological and environmental problems caused by urbanization and industrialization, and contribute to the world. Natural forces, instead of the engineering approaches praised by industrial civilization, may help improve urban resilience in their ingenuity addressing environmental crises and for a greater social advance.

Keywords

Ecological Civilization / Industrial Civilization / Nature-Based Solutions / Civilization Conflict / Urban Resilience / Non-Engineering Measures

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