NEW GREAT WALL AGAINST SAND

NEW GREAT WALL AGAINST SAND

Thesis Statement

In the past, the Great Wall of China has acted as a defense mechanism for the people within the city. In time, it incubated small businesses beside it. Today, the major threat is no longer the foreign enemies, but the force of nature, namely decertification. Decertification is a type of land degradation, caused by deforestation, drought or heavy agriculture; as a result, the degraded land becomes inhabitable for neither plants or humans.

Over 1/3 of the Chinese continent is now undergoing the processes of desertification; it is increasing at a rate of 2500 square miles every year; causing famine, transportation and living problems. This leads to mass migration and transportation problem at the border of China, terminating some of the export mechanise route. Additionally, desertification strengthening sandstorms’ effects, affecting civilians miles away. Forming a barrier to stop the sand shifting is a method to stop the expansion.

This thesis would like to investigate the possibility of forming sand barrier that could through time to evolve from a barrier system to a transportation infrastructure for future development of satellite stations.

Project Intension

While the plantation system has been used in the Sahara desert to serve as a method to reduce the expansion rate of desert; trees has been cut down by the civilians to burning or to build shelter to gain warmth; maybe there is an alternative cheap material that could be use to form barrier, e.g. printing with sand.

To identify the climate condition at these deserts, the living condition of the civilians at those location, to gain an understanding of the programs that would be required. The historical urban fabric grains including the scale and traffic route would be further study to help framing the future Infrastructure. To then use these data to identify the possible locations to situate these barriers.