The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on

Cultural Context: Taking Xi'an Zao River Park as Example

Wanfei Gao

1,2,*

, Manlin Zhu

, Liu Yang

1,2

and Yingchao Hu

School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Xi’an University of Technology, Shaanxi, 710048, China

Ecological Water Conservancy and Sustainable Development Research Center, Shaanxi, 710048, China

School of Water Resources and Hydropower, Xi'an University of Technology, Shaanxi, 710048, China

Keywords: Cultural context, Historical river, Waterfront environment, Planning and design

Abstract. Urban river system is important carrier of water resources and water ecology, also a witness of urban

historical context and an important part of urban culture, especially for ancient historical capital Xi'an. The

research selects the actual site, established the base planning model, analysed and demonstrated the main

design levels of the waterfront park, made it closely related to the historical context, and obtained the

implementation path of generating effective schemes. From the perspective of context continuation, the

study puts forward that the cultural context of water is an important part of urban context, the cultural

context of water is an important content of urban heritage protection. This study proposes that in urban

planning and the design of urban river system waterfront environment, we should respect and pay attention

to the protection and continuation of historical context, fully excavating the historical information, then

generate the planning and display design scheme. Taking Xi'an Zao River Waterfront Park design as an

example, this study analysed the historical context of Zao River, excavated the elements reflecting historical

information, designed the waterfront coastline and road traffic, displayed the historical context of Zao River

in the way of historical path, and retained the cultural information of urban historical water system in a

friendly and interactive way. The research and example scheme generation process is significant to relevant

waterfront environmental planning.

1 INTRODUCTION

Xi'an is a national famous historical and cultural city，

and has glorious scenery “Eight Rivers around

Chang'an”. It is also a typical city in semi-arid areas

shortage of water resources. Therefore, for such a

situation, the river system with strong historical

attributes is extremely precious. The river flows the

epic of the city and is an integral part of the rich

historical and cultural heritage. The waterfront space

is a witness and record of the city's history and

confirms the changes of the city's development. The

planning and design of historical water system

waterfront has important meaning to highlight the

unique regional cultural characteristics of the city,

and is a method to intuitively understand the city, a

carrier to carry on the past and communicate the

future, and the support of urban civilization. Each

city's cultural construction has its own unique model,

in which it has its own structure and path. The use of

context theory can enrich the waterfront landscape

space planning and design

(Shi, 2013).

2 THE CONTEXT OF RIVER

The concept of culture context was proposed by

American postmodern architectural theorist Robert

Venturi in the field of urban research in the 1950s. It

is also the first time that the concept of context is

connected with the urban environment. In the 1960s,

the American Cornell School put forward the

concept of "contextualism", emphasizing the

corresponding context in urban construction and

reflecting the historical tradition. Context is the sum

of a dynamic and internal relationship among people,

urban environment and social and cultural

background in the process of urban historical

development (Miao, 2005).

Gao, W., Zhu, M., Yang, L. and Hu, Y.

The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on Cultural Context: Taking Xi’an Zao River Park as Example.

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Water Resource and Environment (WRE 2021), pages 88-98

ISBN: 978-989-758-560-9; ISSN: 1755-1315

Figure 1: The location of “Eight Rivers around Chang'an” and Zao River.

Urban context is the sum of all material and

spiritual wealth created by people living together in

the same area. Different natural conditions and

living conditions lead to different cultural

temperament. Only by protecting urban context will

inherit and continue the historical memory by each

generation (Gao, 2016). The material form of urban

culture context is reflected in the natural

environment that natural geography and

hydrogeology are important components of urban

context. Human gave urban natural environment

humanistic connotation by using and transforming

the natural environment. For example, the historical

river and lake water system around Chang'an is an

important element of Xi'an urban culture context. As

shown in Figure 1, the location of Eight Rivers

around Chang'an and Zao River is shown.

Historical water system is a natural river and lake

system or artificial canal system which has great

historical significance to the formation and

development of a city, plays a decisive role in the

city location and relates to the historical changes of

the city (Guo, 2010) (Wu & Liu, 2017). Historical

water system is the result of human long-term

practice of urban water conservancy, which directly

affects the location, shape and pattern of the city. It

has rich historical and cultural landscape view,

contains a large amount of historical and cultural

information, witnessing the process of urban

development and decline, and is the carrier of urban

history and culture (Han, 2019), and also affects the

spatial layout, flood safety, open space, residents'

activities ecological security and other aspects. It is

an important way to inherit the city culture to protect

the culture of historical water system and explore the

characteristics of waterfront landscape. Water

management is a traditional method in ancient China

and people have a deep understanding of water in the

construction of environment. Only by correctly

interpreting the water culture can we inherit and

continue it. Water and city are constantly changing

and creating historical culture together (Duan, 2013).

Water culture has its own characteristics, so it is

necessary to protect and create unique water culture

to keep the cultural context of the city inherit.

Some waterfront landscapes in China lack of

systematic planning. Existing planning lacks of the

overall concept and design theme, just stacking the

elements of each landscape, lack of landscape

continuity. Some ignore the local climate,

environment, history and local characteristics in the

design process, resulting in the cultural deficiency

(Diao, 2020). The current situation of river

landscape development in China can be summarized

as follows (Yang, 2014): the awareness of

"ecological construction" is enhanced, but there are

still some practices which violate ecological

principles, such as "cutting the bend and

straightening", "cement lining"; The design of

waterfront green space and open space does not fully

consider the user's needs, and the utilization rate is

not high; Lack of consciousness of protection of

historical landscape, insufficient excavation of

historical culture and regional characteristics, and

The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on Cultural Context: Taking Xi’an Zao River Park as Example

serious assimilation of design; The waterfront

features were not highlighted. The successful river

landscape can be used by designers to utilize the

original historical and cultural resources along the

river, retain the special nature of existing places, and

have enough respect for the local cultural

connotation, so as to make the waterfront landscape

show strong regional characteristics and historical

and cultural atmosphere (Yang, 2014). There are

cases in foreign countries that classify historical

waterfront areas into the heritage corridor system for

overall protection. For example, some canal

heritages include waterfront areas in the protection

and display of heritage corridors, such as the MIDI

canal in France, the central canal in Belgium and the

Lido canal in Canada.

Urban waterfront landscape is the recorder of

urban changes, which has important cultural value,

and could reflect the characteristics of local water

system, displaying urban history and culture,

establishing the sense of belonging of urban residents,

meeting their spiritual needs and stimulate creativity.

Figure 2: The location of Zao River and its tributaries.

3 THE CULTURE CONTEXT OF

ZAO RIVER

3.1 The History of Zao River

Zao River is one of the important rivers in Xi'an, and

is also the primary tributary of Wei River. It

originates the northern slope of Qinling Mountains

in Shuizhai Village of Chang 'an district in Xi'an,

flows through Shendian and Weiqu of Chang 'an

district, enters the urban area of Xi'an at Xiatapo,

and enters Wei River from Ducheng, Zhangbagou,

Yuhuazhai, Beishiqiao, Sanqiao Town, Yanquemen,

Liucunbao to Caotan Farm, with a total length of

about 30km. The length in urban area of Xi'an is

about 27km and the basin area is about 300km

(Dong et al., 2012). Zao River passes through

Zhangbagou and Yuhua area in Xi'an, leaving

different characteristic and historical legends. The

river location is shown in Figure 2.

Zao River has a long history with natural and

human geography characteristics and is one of the

historical symbols in Xi'an. Zao River was the

ancient channel of Jue River, which was excavated

as a canal for transporting wood for government. Jue

River is divided into two branches near Niutou

Temple. The north is Zao River and joins with Hao

River in the west.

The earliest record of “Zao River” in the

literature was during the Qianlong period, “Cao

River” flowed to the vicinity of Yong Gate of the

Han Chang’an City site and turned northwest, which

was locally called “Zao River Bend”. It was

recorded in “Continued records of Xianning and

Chang’an Counties”: “Zao River is the downstream

section of Jue River, and it enters from Huangzipo of

Xianning County and flows 7.5km northwestward

into the moat. 15km away is the site of Han

Chang’an City, which is called Zao River bend and

flows 30Li northeastward into Wei River.”

The “Xijing Planning” (1941) written by the

Xijing Preparatory Committee stated: “The eighth is

Zao River, also known as Algae River. Its upstream

is Jue River, flow northwest to Zhangba Gou water

gate, divided into two: one flow northeast into city

known as Xilong canal, or named Tongji canal;

another one discharges water from the gate to south

turning from the west to the north, which is the main

form of Zao River, and enters Wei River through the

ancient city of Han Dynasty. The downstream often

silt because of the irrigation in the upstream.”

3.2 Development of River System

Context

As an important part of urban water systems, the

historical water system has been gradually

transformed into ditches, landfilled into dark

channels or disappeared due to urban construction in

the urban development process. The water surface

rate in the urban built-up area has gradually

WRE 2021 - The International Conference on Water Resource and Environment

decreased, water pollution is serious, the ecological

function of rivers is lost, and the water network

structure is broken (Wang, 2020), which affects the

connectivity of water system and the display of

historical culture of water system.

Xi'an is a national historical and cultural city, and

the historical water system is closely related to Xi'an

urban development and pattern, which is an

important part of Xi'an culture context. Although it

has such rich cultural heritage, some historical water

systems are gradually losing their cultural value due

to the lack of planning integration and display, so the

context of urban water systems is difficult to

continue. Zao River is also one of the representatives

of such historical water systems, as shown in Figure

3. Due to the lack of planning integration and display,

the ecological function of Zao River is basically lost,

the excavation of water culture is not enough, and

the lack of ecological landscape construction, the

current construction of water culture cannot meet the

needs of urban quality improvement and residents'

living entertainment.

Figure 3: Status of Zao River.

With the increasing attention from the protection

and inheritance of urban historical culture context,

the historical heritage protection objects have

gradually evolved into the sustainable protection of

the overall historical environment in recent years. At

the same time, the protection of water cultural

heritage has received more attention from society,

such as the Grand Canal heritage corridor protection

(Xi, 2012), the construction of Beijing water system

heritage corridor (Wang, 2012) and so on. As part of

urban water cultural heritage, historical water

systems should be given corresponding protection.

At present, the urban master planning and

various special planning are combined with urban

green spaces, integrating the land use, giving space

to waterfront areas, planning landscape for the

historical water system and the space along it, so as

to carry the historical culture and local

characteristics. The master plan of Xi'an proposes to

coordinate the urban water system with the river

basin and regional water system under the full

consideration of the requirements of urban flood

control and drainage and tourism landscape, taking

into account the requirements of water safety, water

resources, water environment and water culture.

In view of the current situation of Zao River site,

the ecological method is used to supplement water,

so as to realize the water cycle of urban landscape

and improve the water quality of urban landscape,

and to create the original ecological leisure

sightseeing wetland park, to make it an urban

waterfront open space that shows and maintains the

natural ecology, and inherits the historical water

system context, and respects humanity. The park site

is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Planning range of the ecological park of Zao

River.

4 PLANNING CONCEPT AND

EARLY CONTROL

4.1 Regional Background and Planning

Concept

As an important part of urban spatial system, the

urban historical water system has a significant

impact on the overall layout, form, site selection and

characteristic style of the city (Han, 2019). Due to

the rapid development and spread of the city, the

river water system space was occupied by urban

space, and the urban historical water system is

seriously damaged, and the hard treatment of the

coastline is based on the impermeable paving

method around, which also seriously destroys the

ecology of the water system. The urban master plan

has adjusted the land use in this area to optimize the

function of the park and its relationship with the

surrounding lands, as shown in Table 1 below.

The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on Cultural Context: Taking Xi’an Zao River Park as Example

Table 1: Comparison of district planning.

Land Usage

District

Planning

After Adjustment The Variation Quantity

Area(ha) Area(ha) Area(ha)

Residential

(

)

0 33.99 33.99

Cultural Facility(A2) 0 1.00 1.00

ort

(

)

0 5.00 5.00

Commercial Facility(B1) 10.79 41.10 30.31

Green Land for Park

(

)

103.05 24.28 -78.77

Green Land for Environmental

Protection

(

)

55.23 63.70 8.47

Transport Facility（S）

25.56 25.56 0

Total 194.63 194.63 0

The study carried out preliminary positioning and

element control started from two important elements

which are context and ecology.

From the perspective of culture context, the

design respects the inheritance of history and culture.

The design also needs to fully analyze the cultural

and historical conditions of the city, integrating

design with history and culture, and retain site

memory. Unique historical changes and cultural

development are rich in historical heritage and

cultural connotation, which are the key to construct a

cultural corridor with urban characteristics and are

important background for construction. To continue

the context, the attention should be paid to urban

characteristics and avoid homogeneous waterfront

space and landscape design. The significance of

regional culture is reflected in urban characteristics,

so the design should reflect and display the context

from multiple levels and angles such as space to

form and express the culture context with waterfront

space characteristics.

From the perspective of ecology, following the

important principles of ecological civilization is the

premise of ecological security and water security.

The waterfront area is a specific area of the city, an

area with a certain width connected between land

and water in the city. The water system and its

surrounding areas are taken as the research object to

ensure ecological continuity and ecological security.

At the same time, the water system has important

functions of urban disaster prevention and reduction,

which has great significance to urban safety pattern.

Waterfront is a green opening space close to the

water area. The planning and design aiming at

ecology, recreation and aesthetics to realize urban

waterfront spaces renew and reform. It is conducive

to the sustainable development. For the water system

with historical value, while continuing the historical

information, the design should also be given new

functional value, so as to provide high-quality

conditions for urban environment and residents' life.

For example, most of the greenways in New York

were built on the Hudson River, and each tour route

relies on natural and cultural landscape resources to

create characteristics and show urban vitality (Yu,

2012). In the planning and design, designers should

pay attention to history and the present at the same

time and pay attention to the interaction between the

historical water system and residents, rather than

forming two isolated systems, so as to maintain the

hydrophilic vitality of the urban water system.

4.2 Preliminary Control of Planning

and Design

The early control of planning and design is mainly

carried out from the perspective of things and people.

The subject of things is the historical water system

and waterfront environment, and people aspect is

mainly to control people's feelings and behavior.

The waterfront design of historical water system

needs to respect the historical attributes of water

system, including its location, function, shape, style,

etc. The basic principle of planning is not to change

the location and trend of the original river channel,

then try to make use of it locally. The design should

fully analyze the topography of the waterfront area,

skillfully use the elevation difference in combination

with the geological conditions, to carry out the plane

and vertical planning and design, so as to form a

good relationship between the road arrangement and

the contour line, which is convenient for driving and

WRE 2021 - The International Conference on Water Resource and Environment

walking. At the same time, the design should fully

analyze the waterfront section, on one hand to form

a connected and effective transportation system, on

the other hand to comply with the growth law of

waterfront vegetation and reasonably layout

ecological plants.

The waterfront environment of different

historical water systems is different. Such as the

water system with irrigation channels as the main

body. The elevation difference of terrain around the

channel is generally not as large as that of natural

water system. Topography is one of the visual

manifestations of identifying artificial channels and

natural rivers. Therefore, the elevation difference of

waterfront topography should also be respected, and

its historical real environment should be maintained.

Observing the river width and depth of the water

system can also distinguish whether it is a

transmission and drainage channel or a natural river.

Taking Zao River as an example, as an irrigation

channel, its width is relatively narrow and there is no

washed floodplain around. In the design, the

attributes of river water system should be respected

as much as possible. While ensuring the hydrophilic

concept, it should not be designed to broaden the

river channel and increase the types of waterfronts.

For the waterfront planning and design of urban

water system, it is also needed to pay attention to the

subject of human. Public facilities often ignore public

participation, lack of humanistic care and ignore

people's needs (Diao, 2020). In the design, we should

pay attention to the guidance of human behavior, pay

attention to the setting of stay point, affect human

behavior through the design of path and node, and

stimulate the vitality of the site by activating human

behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately

locate the path in the planning and design. Firstly, the

site landscape resources shall be defined from the

human starting point, including natural landscape,

artificial landscape, cultural landscape, etc., including

the landscape resources forming waterfront

characteristics, such as landform, water body,

shoreline, historical and cultural scenic spots, ground

markers, interactive landscape, plants, historical sites,

etc. The design should fully exploit and utilize these

contents. Secondly, the design should define the

influencing factors in the design, extract the main

influencing factors, that is, the main body of the

display, like main water body related design, and then

determine other factors, such as water surface

environment, historical and cultural nodes, etc.

Through the dual control of things and people,

the scheme shows the cultural characteristics of

cities and historical water systems, to realize the

interaction between people and historical culture. In

the waterfront design of Zao River, put human

elements in a large mountain and river environment

view, to reserve sight corridor from Qinling

Mountains to Zaohe River; Put human elements in a

small view, by displaying Zao River itself, to show

the grand scenery of “eight rivers around Chang'an”

river system.

5 SCHEME DESIGN OF ZAO

RIVER WATERFRONT PARK

5.1 Waterfront Shoreline Design

In order to meet different functional and spatial

needs, different revetment types are created through

the design by different slopes and plant communities.

The design uses the near-natural treatment method to

create natural ecological revetment, rationally utilize

the ecological environment of floodplains, and shape

the ecological natural environment, to stimulate

waterfront vitality. In the scheme generate process,

ecology arrangement, flood control, landscape and

other aspects, should be considered to achieve the

residents wishes that living in the city but yearning

and feeling the nature, providing waterfront

environment comfortable natural environment.

The waterfront environment includes water

ecology and green space ecology. Zao River is a

channel in the planning area. In the landscape

transformation and upgrading design period,

combined with the specific functional zoning of park

planning to reform the shoreline, to create natural

ecological revetments for stimulating waterfront

vitality. The natural stone beach, grass slope

revetment, aquatic plants revetment and other forms

could be used.

In addition, the southwest part of the planning site

has elevation difference. The scheme uses platform

garden to connect shoreline and the river, combined

with the concept of Low Impact Development to

design rainwater garden for stormwater management,

so that precipitation and some river runoff can be

well used in this area. In the plant disposition, the

scheme chooses both decontamination and

ornamental plants and flowers, such as Albizia juncea,

Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Photinia rubra,

Pennisetum chinense, Ceratophyllum demersum, Iris

aquaticum, etc.

For the nearshore area management, the flood

zone is set for dechannelized river part, which is

guaranteed by the upstream and downstream water

quantity control, making the flood range controllable.

The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on Cultural Context: Taking Xi’an Zao River Park as Example

The area adopts the waterlogging resistance design

to enhance the permeability, adopts the

flooding-tolerant stones, herbs and shrubs, without

arbor trees. The river bank landscape is shaped to

enhance the hydrophilicity. In order to cope with the

influence of water level change on shoreline

landscape and facilities, the plan designed the trestle

of anticorrosive wood and stone laying in this area.

Combining natural landscape with river flood

control, the original rigid flood control facilities are

partly reformed by using natural treatment methods.

New riparian protection measures, such as widening

river beds, are adopted to improve flood control

capacity and provide safety assurance for activities.

Wide riverbanks create a hydrophilic space for

people to relax and entertain, so that the distance

between people and rivers closed, and the natural

interaction increased.

5.2 Waterfront Transport Planning

The setting of transportation system is divided into

static transportation and dynamic transportation.

The static traffic system (Figure 5) includes

entrances and exits planning and parking lots

planning to solve the bus travel problems， and also

transfer and parking problems. The entrance and exit

are combined with the location of the pedestrian

crosswalk of the urban road around the site and the

location of the public transport station, which is

convenient for residents to identify and reach. More

than ten primary and secondary entrances are

designed to improve the accessibility to the park.

Figure 5: Schematic diagram of static traffic system.

Zao River Ecological Park planning and design

has two ways to meet the residents' demand for

parking: centralized ecological parking and linear

decentralized ecological parking. Taking into

account the nature of the ecological park, all parking

lots put on the ground. The centralized parking space

is set near the main entrance of the park, which is

convenient for residents to park as soon as possible

after entering the park, reducing the driving distance

in the park and the interference of walking residents

and sightseeing vehicles in the park. The linear

decentralized ecological parking space is mainly set

at each open secondary entrance, combined with the

internal tourist routes of the site, integrated into the

ecological landscape to minimize the impact to the

park.

A three-level road network system is set up in the

dynamic traffic system (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Schematic diagram of dynamic traffic system.

Firstly, the primary road network is a lane

connecting urban roads inside and outside the site,

which is used to meet the driving functions of the

site, such as the connection of the main areas in the

garden and the driving of sightseeing vehicles.

Secondly, the secondary road network breaks

through the block limit, adopts special connection

WRE 2021 - The International Conference on Water Resource and Environment

mode, and combines several block areas of land to

form a continuous trail to avoid crossing urban roads.

The continuous trail is a jogging system in the park,

which is used as the runway and bicycle trail for

sports. It realizes the penetration and continuity of

the internal road system (Deng, 2020), which has the

total mileage about 7.28km.

Finally, the third level is walking waterfront

landscape loop and garden path. The road network

at this level bears the responsibility of connecting

cultural nodes and ecological units to ensure the

accessibility of the park. In terms of cultural function,

it is used as the carrier of Zao River culture path

design, showing different culture content, historical

and cultural elements, so that residents can walk and

learn while appreciating.

In addition, for the management of important

intersections, according to the current situation of

the site and the terrain elevation difference, the

elevation difference space is formed below the plot

passed by the Xifeng 1st Road and the Xifeng 3rd

Road. The roads in the site pass under the urban

roads, which ensure the continuity of the roads inner

the park. The Shenjiaqiao 2nd Road separated two

plots in the northern part of the site, connected the

slow walkways of the two plots by adding pedestrian

overpasses, which played a role in connecting the

plots and ensured the safety of residents walking.

The design refers to Minneapolis Park in the

United States and introduces a multi-level composite

transportation system (Yang et al., 2020). Firstly, the

continuous shade road runs through the whole park

system to form 88.5km shade roads. Secondly, the

continuous vehicle lane and walking road are created.

Three types of roads in design form the traffic system

according to the slow speed of 5, 15 and 40km/h, and

are effectively connected urban transportation.

5.3 Waterfront Ecological Design

The river system is an important part of urban

ecological environment. In the process of shaping

waterfront landscape, we should pay attention to

follow the principles of integrity and rationality of

river system ecosystem and the diversity and

dominant dominance of river function (Zhang, 2020),

to create waterfront space symbiotic with urban

natural ecology.

The water conservancy and hydrological process

of river and its waterfront is the decisive factor of

river ecosystem and other surrounding ecosystems

(Zhang, 2020). Zao River used to be an ancient road

of Jue River. Jue River is divided into two branches

near Niutou Temple. The current Zao River is to the

north, and its tributaries include Dahuan River, Feng

2nd Canal and Taiping River. As one of the five

major drainage systems (Ba River, Chan River, Zao

River, Caoyun Open Channel and Happiness

Channel) in Xi'an City, Zao River has long been

mainly receiving urban rainwater from the southern,

western and northern suburbs of city, as well as

reclaimed water from nine sewage treatment plants

along the line, with a daily discharge of about 1.3

million tons. In order to further improve the water

quality of Zao River and the landscape features

along it, corresponding ecological treatment is

needed.

The construction of water system space in

waterfront should avoid the destruction and

interference of artificial construction (Zhang, 2020).

Waterfront greening should adopt natural design,

paying attention to the organic connection between

river water system and surrounding ecosystem, and

select the appropriate location to create ecological

space based on artificial channels. Based on the

concept of landscape ecology, the ecological

landscape structure of “patch-corridor-matrix” is

constructed. Firstly, on the basis of the current land

use of Zao River, local plants are used to carry out

ecological bottoming to form an ecological matrix.

Then the landscape along the waterfront is shaped to

form a water ecological corridor. Finally, multiple

ecological landscape nodes are designed to complete

the decoration of ecological patches, so as to erect

the landscape structure.

The planning firstly naturalizes the river bank,

selects the corresponding river section to broaden the

water surface. Some are used for shaping the

waterfront landscape, and some are used for

ecological maintenance and improvement. The

influence of ecological factors is considered in plant

planting collocation, landscape sketch and facility

material selection, and the concept of low impact

development is followed by setting rainwater

gardens, ecological parking lots and

waterlogging-resistant structures in combination

with terrain.

For the ecologically sensitive areas of Zao River,

ecological islands are added locally for maintenance

and restoration (Liu et al., 2016). On the one hand,

the self-purification capacity of ecological islands

can prevent eutrophication and improve water

quality of Zao River. On the other hand, the park

water system with good ecological environment will

attract bird activities and stops, enriching the animal

ecological environment in the park. In addition,

island landscape is also an important part of

waterfront space.

The Waterfront Space Planning of Urban Historical River based on Cultural Context: Taking Xi’an Zao River Park as Example

5.4 Cultural Routes Planning

Zao River has a long history. It was originally the

Jue River ancient road, and in ancient times it was a

river channel excavated as a palace canal for

transporting wood. However, due to the lack of

construction investment and maintenance for a long

time, the ecological function of Zao River has been

basically lost, excavation of water culture is

insufficient, and the construction of ecological

landscape is missing, so that the current construction

of water culture cannot meet the needs of quality

improvement and residents’ living and entertainment

in cities along the river line.

Human landscape is the symbol of the city, and

rivers are the carrier of cultural expression. Based on

the excavation of Zao River and its related urban

context, the ideological culture is expressed by

means of material entities, and the entities are

displayed in planning and design in the form of

buildings and landscapes, so that people are easy to

contact and perceive (Cao, 2018).

In the space landscape design of the site

containing cultural context, the original natural

resources should be protected and utilized as much

as possible, and the original space texture should be

maintained so as not to be destroyed in a wide range

(Cao, 2018). Therefore, in the landscape design of

Zao River District, we should firstly respect its

history and culture. The program highlights the

cultural characteristics of the area through the

display of natural characteristics such as canals and

raw timber use. The specific principles are as

follows.

Rely on natural linear conditions. Inland river is

a natural resource for the city, and its limited

waterfront space is important landscape and public

place of the city. The development track of the city

in time is depicted in the spatial sequence of the

waterfront area and becomes an important' cultural

line' for reading the city (Wang et al., 2010).

Implant regional cultural themes. The scheme

organizes the cultural space of whole region in

culture routes way, strengthened the cognition by

using space nodes. By establishing humanistic space

nodes, while forming a clear infrastructure, we can

build the order and integrity of space in cultural

representation. In the construction process of the

cultural nature of the urban leading space, taking

local culture as the background, extracting regional

cultural themes and implanting them into the

construction process of line space, which is an

important method for unifying and connecting

various humanistic nodes.

The road plays a role of connecting nodes,

connecting sites and spaces, guiding people to

experience and perceive the site, and it is also the

carrier of site culture display, has a natural linear

guiding role. The planning scheme combines the

historical context of Zao River to create a number of

thematic cultural routes. Through buildings, sketch

facilities, sculptures, inscriptions, pavements and

other forms, the design popularizes science to park

residents and displays urban history and culture

related to Zao River Area.

The planning scheme designs four main cultural

theme tour routes according to the theme, which are

the cultural routes with the theme of Xingsheng

culture, Chang' an river system culture, Zao River

classical culture and Cannel culture.

The topographical advantages cultural theme

route: Xi'an faces Qinling Mountains in the south

and eight rivers in the north, forming a special form

of scenic spots. This cultural route mainly shows the

landscape pattern of Xi'an, through small volume of

landscape sketches represent the landscape of Xi'an,

so that residents can intuitively feel the landscape

pattern of Xi'an city.

The eight river culture theme route: "the eight

rivers are scattered, different from each other". From

eight river flowed around Chang'an city in the Han

and Tang dynasties to Xi'an city today, there are

eight rivers, namely, Wei River, Jing River, Feng

River, Lao River, Jue River, Hao River, Chan River

and Ba River, flowing through Xi'an city and are

indispensable part in the urban history of Xi'an. This

cultural route mainly carries out the popularization

of basic information of eight rivers, historical

changes of rivers, and the popularization and display

of water conservancy planning and engineering

achievements of “Eight Rivers around Xi'an” in the

new era. The scheme designed the eight rivers

sculpture model, through the interaction of water

injection let residents experience the fun to make

eight rivers alive.

The canal culture theme route: the canal flowed

over 300 miles in Xi’an, from Kunming Lake to the

north, and then passed through Chanba to form a

large water transport platform, Guangyuntan, and

then from the canal to the east to form water wharf,

which is an important part of human canal

civilization. The cultural route mainly displays the

history and culture of the artificial channels, and

displays the contents of the historical documents in

stone carving, so that the residents can understand

the relevant channel culture deeply.

The Zao River allusions theme route: Zao River

flows through the site, which is the most important

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context in the site. This theme path mainly shows the

historical changes of Zao River, the poems and

songs related to Zao River, and the current special

governance plan. By engraving poems on facilities

such as lampposts, ground lamps and water

guardrails, the cultural atmosphere of the site is

enhanced and the cultural impression of Zao River is

strengthened.

6 CONCLUSION

The river system is the foundation of the

establishment and development of a city, witnessing

the prosperous and decline of a city. The historical

water system that has been used so far is also a

symbol of urban civilization. The history and culture

of urban river systems determines that the design

should respect history, retain place memory and

people's basic cognition, to stimulate the affinity of

history and the vitality of waterfront, and to make the

waterfront area a symbol of urban history. Relevant

planning involves the design of urban planning land

layout, hydrology and water conservancy

demonstration and design, landscape design, heritage

protection and so on, should be studied and

implemented based on comprehensive demonstration.

To meet the contemporary functions of the river and

ensure its water transmission and flood control

capacity, it is also necessary to carry out elastic and

ecological design of the water system, combining the

layout of planned land with urban green space, to

create an open space with reasonable scale and

provide a site for residents' activities. The layout of

the site needs to strengthen the display design of

shoreline, road and context, so as to continue the

water system context of the historical city.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study has been supported by Shaanxi Provincial

Department of Education Key Scientific Research

Project (Grant number 20JT054), Project of National

Natural Foundation of China (Grant number

71774132), Shaanxi Water Conservancy Science and

Technology Project (Grant number 2020SLKJ-22).

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