How can chemical factory-contaminated plots become the "ceiling" for soil remediation?

It is not uncommon to repair contaminated land, but in soil remediation, how to achieve green and low-carbon remediation? This is a story about the rebirth of soil and a case of building a "negative carbon park"-building an "urban green lung" on land contaminated by a chemical factory in the past. When the relevant responsible comrades of the Soil Ecology and Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment answered reporters 'questions on the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Soil Pollution Risk Management and Green and Low-Carbon Restoration", they mentioned the name of this case: Urban Green Heart Forest Park.

At the recently held results conference of "New Productivity Empowering Green Development", Urban Green Heart Forest Park won the "2023 Green Design International Award". So, what is the transformation story of Urban Green Heart Forest Park?

Increasing carbon consumption,"urban green lungs" are accelerating

In 2024, when Urban Green Heart Park was selected as one of the first batch of 23 typical cases of energy green and low-carbon transformation by the National Energy Administration, Liu Mingxing, director of the Urban Greening Division of the Beijing City Landscaping Bureau, said in an interview with the media,"Urban Green Heart Forest Park adds 6200 tons of carbon every year and consumes 3300 tons of carbon. It is a standard 'carbon-negative' park."

Whether it is the initial planning and design, or the subsequent construction, construction, operation and management, the builders of Green Heart Forest Park have always implemented the concept of "low-carbon" throughout the construction.

Since the beginning of its construction, the Urban Green Heart Forest Park has targeted near-zero carbon emission urban clusters and carried out energy system planning, focusing on the development of new energy utilization methods such as ground source heat pumps and solar photovoltaic power generation, and implementing energy complementarity. At the same time, the urban green heart low-carbon energy smart operation and management platform was launched to provide real-time monitoring of energy system operation, energy consumption, energy conservation analysis and remote control.

According to public statistics, the renewable energy utilization rate of the urban Green Heart Forest Park reaches 41.2%, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11556 tons per year, equivalent to the annual carbon sink of about 20 square kilometers of forest (about two Green Heart Parks).

Certified by Zhonghuan United (Beijing) Certification Center, in the first year of opening of the Urban Green Heart Forest Park constructed and operated by BITIC Group, the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions generated by the park were offset by the carbon sinks generated by the arbor vegetation in the park, achieving Carbon neutrality.

When solving the soil pollution problem left behind, the Urban Green Heart Forest Park effectively integrates green management and landscaping of industrial vacated sites, and implements "ecological barrier, ecological restoration, green assessment, and Incident Response Service" with a scientific and prudent attitude."3+1" green and sustainable ecological environment management and control measures ensure the safe reuse of land after urban renewal and achieve green return to the people.

Yun Xiangjie, deputy director of the Tourist Service Department of Beitou Green Heart Company, told reporters: "We carry out protective updates to inefficient resources such as old factories in the periphery, implant urban functions, trace the context of the place, retain the memory of the site, sort out and integrate the memory of the site, identify the value of the old factories, retain the distinctive architectural forms, main structures, spaces, etc., and update and reuse them, implant urban service functions such as public services, sports culture, leisure and entertainment, and continue the memory of the place and rejuvenate the new vitality of the old factories."

For example, three groups of factory buildings and their structures will be mainly transformed and utilized: the Dongya Aluminum Factory will be transformed into a sports hall, sports-themed hotel, catering and supporting service functions; the Dongguang Industrial Factory will be transformed into a tennis themed hotel and equipped with a tennis center; The six buildings of the No. 7 Paper Mill will be preserved to create the "Capital Public Art Creation Base".

Today, the forest enters the city, and the city is in the forest. The Urban Green Heart Forest Park, covering an area of 10,000 acres, made green and low-carbon the undeserved "background" at that time.

Focusing on ecology, the "conservation core" plays a big role

"One window, one tree, and one scene, we carefully selected 24 kinds of plants that 'know the season'and planted them in 24 solar terms forest windows, allowing citizens to appreciate the natural ecological landscape while also enhancing their sense of traditional Chinese culture." Yun Xiangjie said.

Green Heart Urban Forest Park has both ecological and humanistic beauty. It also adopts a near-natural landscape shaping method and large-scale plant group configuration. Nearly one million trees and shrubs of various types are planted in the park, allowing the park to have peaches and plums in spring, admire sycamore in summer, view ginkgo in autumn, and pine trees in winter.

Since its opening, the diversity, stability and sustainability of the soil ecological environment in the park have been continuously improved.

Yun Xiangjie introduced,"Urban Green Heart Forest Park solves ecological problems with ecological methods, innovatively proposes the concept of building an 'ecological conservation core', and sets up soft isolation ecological buffers around the area slightly polluted by the original Dongfang Chemical Plant., create a rich variety of plant community habitats and high-quality animal habitat space."

As the ecological environment in the region has recovered well, the biodiversity in the park has become increasingly rich, and the previously disappeared plant communities and wild animals have begun to thrive here. Yun Xiangjie took out his mobile phone and showed reporters a video of the hatching of young mandarin ducks some time ago."When the park opened in 2021, we released 24 mandarin ducks in Fuze Lake. This year, a litter of young mandarin ducks was just hatched. There are 18 in total. Recently, the green-headed diving duck, known as the 'giant panda among waterbirds', has also come to our Fuze Lake."

"In addition to common animals like magpies and sparrows, protected animals such as black-winged kites and owls have also settled in our conservation center." Yun Xiangjie said. The "Ecological Conservation Core" is like an ecological island, where wild animals and plants settle down. Using the power of nature to restore nature, the succession of ecological communities enters a virtuous cycle.

Environmental monitoring results show that the annual average value of negative oxygen ions in the air in the urban Green Heart Forest Park can reach 3700 per cubic centimeter, which is higher than the standard concentration of negative oxygen ions in fresh air stipulated by the World Health Organization and the average value of negative oxygen ions in urban Beijing.

Millions of trees and shrubs, hundreds of native plants, four-season landscape roads... Today's Urban Green Heart Forest Park connects the pulse of modern metropolitan development with green veins. Every beat is full of vitality and momentum, and it also provides new insights into high-quality development in the new era.

--Contribution from China Environmental News Media Youth Theoretical Study Group