KEY PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Hanzhong Xing Yuan New Town Waterway Planning
City of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China
Principal
Mr. Merkelbach is leading the design of a waterway system consisting of streams, canals, and lakes to support a tourism focused new town development in the City of Hanzhong. The project area is over 26 km2 with a total waterway area of 2.7 km2. Mr. Merkelbach is working with Terrain Studio, the project landscape architect and Herrera Environmental Consultants, the project hydraulic modeler with the site analysis of hydrology and hydraulics. Our team is determining the appropriate design water elevations, assessing flood risks, examining low and high water flow scenarios, and providing design requirements for water control structures. We are also assessing project water quality requirements to support the development programs and protect human health. This is being accomplished by providing low impact development (LID) design for stormwater generated along roadways. To address suspended solids and nutrients entering the site from upstream water courses we are designing in-stream sub-surface engineered gravel filter beds and floating biofilters.
Envision Energy Master Plan
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China
Principal
Envision Energy is a renewable energy company established in Shanghai, China in 2004. The company wants to create a mixed-use campus that will act as incubator of innovation in bringing renewable energy and digital energy management to the marketplace and solve the world’s need for clean energy. The campus will be a place to live, work, learn, play and innovate. It will be populated by Envision research enterprises from Denmark, China, Japan and the United States. Stanford University, MIT and Tsinghua Universities will locate joint graduate programs on campus as well.
Mr. Merkelbach worked with SWA Group (the landscape architect) in leading the site hydrologic analysis to determine water requirements, modeling surface water elevations, and determining flood flows. The design entailed using treated stormwater water generated from the project site to provide 100% of the surface water needs, no additional water would be needed, making this a truly sustainable water feature. Green stormwater infrastructure will be integrated into the roadway system to treat stormwater and create a green roads network to support local wildlife.
China Mobile Calling Center Green Stormwater Design
City of Huaian, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China
City of Luoyang, Henan Province, People’s Republic of China
Mr. Merkelbach is leading the green stormwater infrastructure design for two new call center campuses that China Mobile is developing in the cities of Hauian and Louyang. Each call center will house 30,000 employees. These sustainable projects will reply on the treatment and reuse of stormwater for to support water features and reduce to need for supplemental water. The low impact design strategy will also provide additional site flood protection without the need to increase the size of existing site stormwater pipes. His team prepared a hydrologic model to size the stormwater infrastructure and analyze the pre and post project stormwater overflow volumes.
Wusong River Wetland Treatment Park
City of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China
Project Manager and Lead Designer
Mr. Merkelbach worked with the Herrera Environmental Consultants design team in the creation of a 12 ha wetland treatment park for the Wusong River Waterfront Development for the City of Kunshan. The project’s design entails improving the water quality of the Wusong River, which is currently at Chinese water quality class IV standards and will be raised to Chinese water quality class III standards. The wetland park treatment approach design uses both physical processes (aeration) and biotic processes (native plants and biofilms) to remove excess nutrients and metals from the water. Mr. Merkelbach prepared a water quality basis-of-design report, which involved the development of a water quality model for the client. He then prepared the grading plans, mechanical pumping and aeration design and specifications, and wetland edge and emergent meadow design necessary to implement the treatment approach.
Ningbo Eastern New City Eco-Corridor Restoration and Water Quality Design
City of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China
Project Manager and Lead Designer
Mr. Merkelbach and Herrera Environmental Consultants collaborated with SWA Group (landscape architect) in providing schematic design and design development drawings to the Ningbo Planning Bureau. This project is part of constructing the Ningbo Eastern New City, which will be situated on 15.85 square kilometers (6 square miles) of land that is currently being used for agriculture and industrial uses. Our specific project area encompasses 68.4 hectares (169 acres) which will be the location of new city administrative buildings and public open spaces. Sustainability and green design concepts are an underlining principle that is required to resonate in all aspects of the project design. Services included water quality testing, canal, canal flow measurements, and analysis to serve as a basis for a Water Quality Management Plan. Our team designed stormwater and in-canal treatment systems, wetlands, and canals and lakes. The collaborative approach of this project involves meeting with SWA over design workshops in their Sausalito, California studio, making two site visits, and partnering with local Chinese firms to help collect and analyze water and sediment samples.
Xi Liang Tang Master Plan Sustainability Systems Analysis
Kunming, People’s Republic of China
Project Manager
Mr. Merkelbach led in the preparation of a Sustainable Systems Analysis which was part of the landscape architect’s (SWA Group) Final Master Plan. The project is a 576 hectare residential development including a golf course and hotel resort. This project will support over 70,000 residents and visitor while being supported by retail, commercial, and natural areas. The project site borders Dianchi Lake which is faced with severe water quality issues. This analysis assessed 6 key sustainability principals to enable productive, conscientious development of the site: Water Systems, Natural Systems, Material Cycles, Energy, Transportation, and Climate Change. The analysis resulted in the development of a water quality treatment strategy using the golf course wetland water features in addition to active biological water treatment technologies to treat partial treated wastewater effluent from this new development prior to it entering Dianchi Lake. We also provided guidance in developing a network of green streets and innovative landscaping approaches to collect and treat stormwater runoff.
Longmu Bay Beach Low Impact Development Design (LID) and Hydrologic Model Development
Ledong County, Hainan, People’s Republic of China
Project Manager
Mr. Merkelbach worked with Herrera’s team of stormwater team to design a network of green streets capable of infiltrating up to the 5-year storm events to protect water quality in an adjacent saltwater canal system. Traditional design methods in China would entail discharging untreated stormwater directly to the canals system creating water quality issues. This design was support by a hydrologic model developed to help determine the amount of treatment and infiltration that could be achieved at each of the low impact development (LID) facilities they designed.
Longmu Bay Beach Resort Sustainability Analysis
Ledong County, Hainan, People’s Republic of China
Project Manager
Mr. Merkelbach lead the preparation of a Sustainability Report for the landscape architect SWA Group’s Final Master Plan for this 5 km2 beach resort development. This resort will support over 40,000 tourists and residents and will include multiple 4, 5 and 6 star hotels, apartments, single family dwellings, and retail and commercial areas. The project site is bordered by the Baisha River to the north and Dancun River to the south and is faced with water quality and wildlife habitat degradation issues. His sustainability team assessed 6 key sustainability principals to enable productive, conscientious development of the site: Water Systems, Natural Systems, Material Cycles, Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Protections.