The Pinglu Canal project received the International Green Design Award on October 13. As the first strategic canal connecting rivers to the sea since the founding of New China, the project stood out among major global infrastructure projects by relying on systematic green innovation design throughout its entire life cycle. The project vividly practices the concept of coordinated coexistence between engineering construction and ecological protection, showcasing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for major engineering construction in the context of Chinese-style modernization, and demonstrating China's responsibility in promoting global sustainable development and building a shared future for all life on Earth.
The Pinglu Canal is a backbone project of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. It connects to the Xijiang River system in the north and reaches the Beibu Gulf in the south, with a total length of 134.2 kilometers, forming the most convenient river-sea intermodal transport artery in the southwestern region. The route passes through multiple ecologically sensitive areas including mangrove wetlands, rivers, and bays, with complex geological conditions and arduous ecological protection tasks. Since the planning stage, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has established the core positioning of "ecological priority and green development," placing green design at the top of the project's overarching design. It abandoned the old approach of "build first, restore later" typical of traditional major projects, embedded ecological protection requirements into the entire chain of route planning, engineering design, construction, and operation and maintenance management, and painted the ecological foundation of this century project with high-standard green design.
Innovating the Green Design System to Create a Model of Coexistence Between Engineering and Nature
The project adhered to ecological route selection, repeatedly optimizing the waterway alignment and compressing the route from 140 kilometers to 134.2 kilometers, significantly reducing permanent land occupation and directly decreasing mangrove occupation by 3.13 hectares, practicing the construction philosophy of "make way for the trees first, then open the navigation." In the hydraulic engineering field, the project implemented world-class water-saving ship lock technology: the Madao and Qishi hubs adopted the world's first three-tier water-saving chamber stacked layout, and the Qingnian hub built a mutual irrigation and discharge water-saving ship lock, achieving circular and intensive utilization of water resources. Meanwhile, the hubs are equipped with distributed photovoltaics and small hydropower stations, tapping the clean energy potential of the canal, helping the waterway project reduce carbon and improve efficiency, and empowering dual-carbon economic practices.
For aquatic and terrestrial wildlife protection, the project carried out specialized innovative designs and built a three-dimensional biological protection network. It constructed the world's first river-sea connected composite "dual fishway" to meet the migration and reproduction needs of fish, eels, crabs, and other river-sea migratory organisms; built China's first canal-exclusive wildlife ecological bridge to restore mountain forest habitats and ensure the free migration of terrestrial wildlife such as leopard cats and banded linsangs; and implemented "one tree, one policy" protective relocation and replanting for ancient trees along the route, comprehensively safeguarding native biodiversity. Facing the challenge of coastal mangrove protection, it innovatively built a four-stage protection system of "active avoidance, in-situ protection, nearby transplantation, and off-site restoration," implementing off-site mangrove restoration at a scale exceeding the occupied area, achieving quality improvement and quantity increase of mangrove resources, and forming a complete technical model for mangrove protection and restoration in major coastal projects. The project adhered to circular and low-carbon resource utilization, with a comprehensive utilization rate of excavated earth and rock exceeding 98% along the entire line. Massive engineering spoil was resourcefully reused for land reclamation, ecological restoration, and industrial land, minimizing spoil ground occupation and ecological disturbance. The waterway revetment abandoned traditional hard lining and adopted ecological slope protection, balancing waterway safety with biological habitat space, creating a hundred-li ecological corridor where "fish swim underwater, forests grow on the banks, and birds fly in the sky." Long-term ecological monitoring shows that the number of bird species along the canal has steadily increased, achieving continuous ecological improvement driven by engineering construction.
Institutional and Technological Synergy Delivers High-Level Ecological Practice
This international honor embodies the sustained exploration and solid practice of multi-party collaboration in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The autonomous region adhered to legislation-first principles, issuing regulations related to the protection and management of the Pinglu Canal, solidifying mandatory requirements for ecological corridor construction through legal means; established a cross-disciplinary green engineering expert group and built a "one system, two lists" whole-process green management and control mechanism, setting strict "green standards" for the project and ensuring that green design is effectively implemented. The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region coordinated multi-department collaboration among transportation, ecological environment, natural resources, ocean, and forestry sectors, joined forces with research institutes and engineering construction teams to stay rooted on the front lines, and conducted sustained scientific research on world-class topics such as mangrove transplantation, ecological management in brackish-freshwater transition zones, and cross-basin ecological impact assessment, overcoming a series of key technical challenges. The vast number of builders strictly adhered to ecological bottom lines, implementing ecological management and control in every procedure and at every construction site, transforming the green design blueprint into reality, and delivering Guangxi's green answer sheet for a major river-sea canal project.
Contributing Chinese Engineering Ecological Wisdom and Building a Global Reference Model for Green Development
The Pinglu Canal winning the International Green Design Award is high recognition from the international community for China's major infrastructure ecological civilization practices. Looking back at history, the ancient Lingqu Canal embodied water management wisdom of leveraging natural conditions and harmony between heaven and humanity; looking at the present, the Pinglu Canal relies on modern engineering technology to practice the concept of a shared future for all life on Earth, achieving deep integration of traditional Chinese ecological wisdom with contemporary ecological civilization concepts. The project has explored a feasible path for large-scale transportation and water conservancy projects to balance development and protection, breaking the inherent perception that "major projects necessarily come with ecological destruction," and providing a referenceable and replicable Chinese model for global major infrastructure construction across river basins and land-sea boundaries. Currently, climate change and biodiversity loss are common challenges for all humanity. How to balance development needs and ecological protection in major infrastructure construction is a common issue for countries around the world. The practice of the Pinglu Canal proves that high-quality development and high-level ecological protection can absolutely advance together. As a river-sea connectivity hub oriented toward ASEAN, the Pinglu Canal is not only a logistics channel connecting domestic and international markets but also a practical window for spreading green development concepts. It is reported that the International Green Design Award and the International Green Design Contribution Award were established by the World Green Design Organization (WGDO) in 2011, selecting and commending projects, technologies, products, and individual institutions worldwide that have outstanding performance in green design and sustainable development, and are known as the "Oscars" of the green design field. The World Green Design Organization was established in Brussels, Belgium in 2013 and is the world's first international non-profit organization promoting sustainable development through green design, holding special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Next, the Pinglu Canal will continue to improve its full-cycle ecological operation and maintenance system and continuously export China's practical experience in sustainable transportation, biodiversity protection, and green low-carbon engineering. China is willing to share its green construction experience in major projects with countries around the world, jointly implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, push global infrastructure toward a greener, more inclusive, and more sustainable direction, and contribute to building a shared future for all life on Earth.
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