2 June 2004
Buro Happold Addresses United Nations Conference
Alan Travers, group manager of Buro Happold’s Rivers and Coastal Group, recently addressed the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development at their 12th annual conference (CSD12), held in New York from 14-30 April. The presentation was given at the Learning Centre, as part of the overall programme for the CSD12 Conference, with the theme of “Restoring Urban Waterways”.
More than 80 government ministers, as well as the heads of relevant UN agencies and civic society groups, attended the CSD12 conference.
A joint presentation by Travers and George Stockton, of Canadian-based architects Moriyama & Teshima, focused on their work in rehabilitating the vitally important Wadi Hanifah watercourse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Construction work on the SR2bn project commenced in September last year, so as well as giving an overview of the project – known formally as the Wadi Hanifah Comprehensive Development Plan – the two speakers also talked about the issues they are currently dealing with on site.
Explaining how the invitation to address the UN came about, Travers says: “The Wadi Hanifah project received the Top Award in the Plans Category of the 2003 Waterfront Center Awards in Montreal. It was there that it came to the attention of a UN representative, who was suitably impressed with the project and asked us to deliver a presentation to the CSD12’s conference.”
Buro Happold and Moriyama & Teshima have subsequently been requested to send a copy of their CSD presentation to be posted on the UN website.
Background information for Editors:
Wadi Hanifah is a 120km long, 4500km2 watershed that passes through the capital city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It is the most significant natural feature in the region. The wadi has become a permanent flowing river in its lower reaches due to rising groundwater and sewage effluent discharge from the city, whose population is projected to more than double from approximately five million in 2004 to over 10 million by 2021. In addition, the wadi suffers from seasonal flooding on average once every five to 10 years.
This project is intended to provide environmental remediation to the wadi and its environs, including flood and dry weather flow performance, water quality remediation, landscape restoration and enhancement, and utilities and highways upgrading and co-ordination. A key element in the project is to significantly improve the city’s sustainable use of water, by reducing its reliance on expensive desalinated water from the coast. This will be achieved by improving the water quality in the lower reaches of the wadi, using bioremediation techniques. This will make available approximately 250,000m3 of water per day for irrigation, agriculture and other non-potable uses. This quantity of water is projected to increase to 1m3 million per day by 2021.
Buro Happold has been the lead consultant throughout the project in a joint venture with architects Moriyama & Teshima.
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, infrastructure and traffic engineering, rivers and coastal engineering, geotechnical engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis, access consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
Background information for editors:
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
Elspeth Wales
Telephone 01225 320 600
Fax 0870 787 4148
Email: Elspeth.Wales@burohappold.com Elspeth.Wales@burohappold.com
