Roundtable:
La Quebradora Hydric Park - A Step Toward a Water Sensitive City?
(Environmental Sustainability)
Friday, July 20, 2018: 1:45 PM-3:15 PM
Building 3, Room 211 (ITAM)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Roundtable Moderators: Peter M. Ward, University of Texas, Austin
Speakers: Maria-Elena Giner1, Loreta Castro-Reguera2, Manuel Perló-Cohen2 and Regina M Buono1, (1)University of Texas, Austin(2)UNAM
Over the past 400 years Mexico City has suffered one of the world’s most drastic landscape transformations as the original basin holding a 1100 km
2 lake system has been overtaken by the dense urban grid, where water occupies less than 50 km
2. This situation has become the cause of four major water related issues affecting the city’s dynamics: Lack of drinking water, urban flooding, ground subsidence, and reduced aquifer recharge. Parque Hídrico Quebradora introduces a contemporary waterscape that seeks to reconfigure the hydraulic system by capturing an intense runoff into an infiltration basin, thereby reducing urban flooding. In addition the venue treats a given volume of wastewater through a joint water treatment plant and wetland system. Parque Hídrico Quebradora introduces a contemporary waterscape, one of a kind in Mexico City, that aims to begin the reconfiguration of its hydraulic system by capturing an intense runoff, and drawing it into an infiltration basin, and therefore, reducing urban floods in the area. In addition the venue treats a given volume of wastewater through a joint water treatment plant and wetland system. La Quebradora directly impacts 28,000 inhabitants that lack recreational areas and regular access to water. This project won first place in the Latin American region Lafargeholcim Sustainable Architecture Prize in 2017 and recently also took overall Global Prize:
https://www.lafargeholcim-foundation.org/awards/5th-cycle.
The lead speakers of this roundtable will address and discuss the overall design and development project as well as provide an update on its implementation.
