The National Land Management Agency, Ministry of the Interior (MOI) held the "2024 Urban and Rural Landscape Forum" today (21st). Deputy Director-General Hsu Yen-Hsing said that in order to create a unique life style and charm for each township, the central government continues to subsidize local governments to carry out urban landscape and revitalization environment development work. As extreme weather becomes more frequent, the transformation of urban and rural landscapes must keep pace with the times by incorporating concepts such as net-zero emissions, flood prevention, and disaster reduction. In addition to inviting central government agencies and local governments, experts, scholars, and non-government organizations in the field of landscape design, urban planning, and community development were also invited to participate in the forum today, in hopes that industry, government, and academia will put their heads together to transform urban and rural landscape policies, smoothly align policies with the government's transition to net zero emissions by 2050, and enhance the disaster prevention resilience and adaptability of domestic urban and rural environments.

Hsu Yen-Hsing explained that urban and rural development in Taiwan is based on counties and cities. From the urban and rural landscape transformation movement in 1997 to the current "Construction Plan of Urban and Rural Landscape and Creation Environment" overall planning of people's living space, local development history and culture, public infrastructure, road network, and the natural environment has been carried out through cross-domain collaboration based on the concept of regional revitalization. Over the past more than two decades, this has effectively gathered together the capabilities of communities, schools, and non-government organizations, and directed everyone's attention to urban and rural development. Actual implementation results have been accumulated in different aspects, including the improvement of existing green spaces in Changhua County Baguashan Park and Tainan City Hutoushan Park, and the renovation of Kaohsiung City's Qishan Sugar Factory connecting to the banks of Qishan River and Qiwei Community. The effectiveness of shaping new urban and rural landscapes is apparent, and it has changed the lives of local residents for the better.

Hsu Yen-Hsing pointed out that the MOI will commence transformation work of the urban and rural landscape policy based on the spirit of development in line with international trends. The MOI will incorporate international carbon reduction trends and disaster prevention measures into the government's policy guidance through public-private partnerships, and integrate the philosophy of diverse green lifestyles and concepts of net-zero and sustainability into landscape design. It will adopt nature-based ecological construction methods, and continue to promote green infrastructure, the use of recycled materials, design for reduction, and create environments free of barriers, implementing visual landscape, community participation, and net-zero and sustainability. The MOI will take action to provide residents with urban and rural green spaces that have diverse functions, while optimizing the adaptability of citizens to co-exist with the environment.

Distinguished guests who attended the conference today include Hsu Yen-Hsing, Deputy Director-General of the National Land Management Agency, MOI, Kuo Chiung-Ying, Professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture, Chinese Culture University, Tsai Hou-Nan, Former Associate Professor at National Quemoy University, Wang Hsiao-Lin, Former Professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture, Tunghai University, Teng Hao, Vice Chairperson of the Taiwan Institute of Landscape Architects, You Chen-Wei, Director of the Taipei Branch, Society of Wilderness, Wang Hsiu-Chuan, Chairperson of Taiwan Parks & Playgrounds for Children, and representatives of government agencies, counties/cities, non-government organizations, and academia.

Deputy Director-General Hsu Yen-Hsing of the National Land Management Agency gave a speech at the "2024 Urban and Rural Landscape Forum" today (21st)

 

Group photo at the "2024 Urban and Rural Landscape Forum"