ABSTRACT
Taiwan is an island country and therefore has a close relationship with water. Recently, with the growing concern about sustainability and environmental protection, the Taiwanese government started to reconsider the development of urban watercourses. For example, a national-level organisation called the ‘Water and Land Resources Working Group’ (WLRWG) was established in May 2002 by the National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD), and a nationwide policy called the ‘Water and Green Construction Plan’ has been implemented from 2002 to 2008. Even though the Taiwanese government encourages the creation of environmentally-friendly urban water spaces, such as ecological streams and waterways, concrete surfaces have dominated actual design practice and sheersided banks have hindered public access. Moreover, water pollution has diminished the value of urban watercourses. The Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) reports that the sanitary sewer system completion rate until the end of 2007 was only 17.2% inTaiwan (TEPA, 2008). A large amount of urban wastewater, therefore, drains into watercourses without proper treatment.
