Rainwater Utilization Of Landscape Design For Residential Space

Apart from promoting economic development and improving people’s living conditions, urbanization also triggers a series of urban hydrologic effects, and problems like water shortage, groundwater recession, urban water logging, non-point source pollution etc. become increasingly severe due to the change of land use type and pattern. Since residential land occupies the highest proportion of urban construction land, rainwater management of the whole city is greatly affected by rainwater management model and effect of the residential land.Developed countries have already made remarkable achievements in researches on means to utilize rainwater in landscape, also including practices in various types of land use such as the residential area, as well as stormwater management theories such as low impact development, water sensitive design etc. China’s engineering technology in rainwater utilization is already mature, but rainwater utilization by landscape means is still at an initial stage, thus the paper mainly aims to explore possible approaches to combine landscape design and rainwater utilization in residential district based on characteristics of residential districts in China.First, this paper analyzes the advanced theories and practices about rainwater management in foreign countries, summarizes landscape rainwater utilization measures that can be used in landscape design for residential space, in view of the features of residential area as well as residents. These measures could be divided into three parts, that is the generation phase, transmission phase and storage phase of stormwater.Then, the overall layout and spatial organization pattern of rainwater utilization landscape in residential districts are put forward according to features of the landscape in China’s residential districts. Landscape elements of residential districts are divided into topography, building, pavement, vegetation and waterscape, then the paper summarizes how to combine rainwater utilization approaches and artful rainwater infrastructure with each kind of landscape elements. On the basis of satisfying the rainwater management function, the paper further studies how can rainwater utilization add value to landscape, and probes into its reflection in artistry, interestingness, interaction and education respectively.In conclusion, an exploration of the application of theoretical research findings is carried out with the case of Gemdale·Lake City, a residential district in Qujiang New District, Xi’an City,. According to the natural and climatic conditions in Xi’an City, the paper probes into the overall planning, design method, design details etc. of the rainwater utilization landscape design in local residential district.Based on current technological achievements of rainwater utilization, this paper explores possible approaches to optimize rainwater management facilities from the perspective of landscape architecture, hoping to provide some references for the promotion and generalization of rainwater utilization in China’s residential districts.