Wadi Hanifah Restoration

The Hanifah valley in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, rises in central Arabia and runs for 120km to southeast until the sands of the Empty Quarter desert. This watercourse is a landmark in Riyadh's landscape but it has been treated as an open sewer after the 70s when rapid growth overwhelmed the local environment.

Since 2001, the local development authority has worked with landscape architects and engineers in a project of restoration of this whole area by cleaning, landscaping and replanting native flora. It uses natural processes to improve the environmental conditions.

The landscape architects created ponds with algae that feeds fish and molluscs and the natural oxygenation system helps to diminish the pollution levels of the water. This was the first project to use this system in a large scale and now that it has been successful scientists are trying to use this technology in other cities.

By improving the environmental conditions the project also improved the economy and the health of the population with better air, water, and visual conditions, and so, creating also a place for public use, something unseen until then.

Image Source: Aga Khan Development Network, 2010, Wadi Hanifa Wetlands, Accessed 02 May 2014 <http://www.akdn.org/architecture/project.asp?id=2258>

Text Source: Environmental Management & Protection Department, 2002, Wadi Hanifah Comprehensive Development Plan - Executive Summary, accessed 02 May 2014 <http://www.unesco.org/culture/melina/arabie_saoudite/divers/2002.pdf>