Yawen Yang

''Heart of the River'' The flowing landscape in East Stavka River

For many years, local people has expanded agriculture along the East Skaftá River, breaching the boundary between human territory and natural landscapes. This has resulted in economic losses and landscape degradation. Inspired by the deposition patterns of braided rivers, this project aims to alleviate the tension between the expansion of human territory and the erosion of sediment plains by integrating the dynamic landscape changes with the development processes of braided rivers.

The project seeks to restore the natural flow of the river, which has been cut off by levees, and use this flow to help form new sedimentary plain on the site. This requires the combination of landscape design and fluid dynamics, utilizing the power of glacial outburst floods. By intervening in the riverbed, the aim is to replenish the site with more sediment. In this context, the project also considers the human perspective, providing a space for witnesses to observe the changing landscape by establishing an observatory at the end of the modified levee.

The observatory will evolve through three stages of the sediment plain development: come from the sediments, into the sediments, and return to the sediments. Ultimately, it will become a monument to the braided river, completing the transformation from witness to witnessed.

Eastern Skaftá River

The landscape of East Skaftá river is primarily composed of braided rivers, sedimentary plains, wetlands, lava fields, and farmland. When the levee cut off the river, the wetlands lost their water supply, and the connection between salmon and inland lakes was weakened.

The geomorphology of sedimentary plain

These textures are important features of the local landscape, but they are now disappearing.

The dynamic system of the East Skaftá River

Construction process

This drawing shows the sequence of landscape interventions and approximate time nodes of events.

After increasing the density of the riverbed and planting tree buffer zones, the levee can be partially removed to properly form a new sediment plain. Floods will continuously replenish sediment and ultimately reach a stable state, later which infrastructure can be built and tourists can participate and experience.
 

Video: Landscape changes after intervention