Ain Dara's Hidden Ecological Potential: The Quarry Park

Abstract

Despite being located within the Shouf Biosphere Reserve’s buffer zone, the illegal quarrying activity has been affecting the village of Ain Dara since the end of the civil war. Starting from 2009, these quarries (16 out of 17 of them) have been shutting down, however have left the village to deal with significant ecological damage, an overall change in its landscape character and identity, and have been putting locals’ health in danger, leading to countless locally-led protests. There are two quarry typologies in the village: stone and sand. It is important to note that the sand quarries are situated in the middle of a pine forest, causing immense ecological damage, whereas the stone quarries are situated at a mountain top, mostly affecting water flow and Ain Dara’s natural landform. Locals have found beauty in the abandoned quarries however and have consequently made hiking within the abandoned sand quarries a common activity. They are mostly attracted to the unique rock patterns and sporadic spontaneous vegetation. The stone quarries on the other hand have had no signs of succession whatsoever, due to the extent of groundwater contamination and lack of suitable soil on site. The Quarry Park is a design proposal which aims to emphasize the necessity of a design intervention that suggests proposing water management and vegetation techniques to trigger a rehabilitation process within a landscape ecological context. This project in particular responds directly to the ecological and natural needs of the region due to its aim to reclaim disturbed ecosystems as a result of mineral extraction through introducing constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment, rainwater harvesting, nutrient recovery and quarry re-naturalization.