Where Industry Meets the Tide: A New Horizon for Huangshi Bay

The Huangshi Bay shoreline, where the Yellow Sea meets cliffs, beaches, and estuaries, is a cradle of marine biodiversity energized by nutrient-rich currents and mild temperatures. The generations-old fishing culture that emerged from these conditions has been vital in shaping the character of the region. 

Yet in recent decades, the uncontrolled expansion of aquaculture in Huangshi Bay has disrupted these natural ecosystems, blocked public access, and increased the coastline’s vulnerability to natural disasters.

This coastal park masterplan for a 988-acre site relocates aquaculture operations inland to reclaim the shoreline for ecological and community uses while maintaining economic output and building resilience. Coastal ecosystems will be rebuilt through landscape restoration and shelterbelt forest plantings, creating a multi-layered defense against coastal hazards while maximizing carbon sequestration. 

The plan also introduces models for enabling modernized marine nurseries to operate on-site while minimizing environmental and visual impact. Strategies like attaching urban interfaces of public programs to nurseries, encasing nurseries in sand dunes, and integrating production operations with public-facing services help make use of natural assets while creating a productive, sensitively blended industrial edge.

Conversations with local villagers revealed their complicated relationship to aquaculture–a practice that at once holds cultural significance, and yet has divided communities from the sea. Informed by these interviews, the plan rebuilds connections to the sea through slow traffic systems and trail networks that reopen access to the waterfront, and the repurposing of industrial structures into heritage landmarks that celebrate shared memory while creating new programming opportunities. 

By transforming a fragmented coastal barrier into a resilient waterfront park, this initiative creates a scalable model for coastal restoration blending economic viability, ecological resilience, and community wellbeing.

Congratulations to the design team for their hard work and recognition! Learn more about the 2026 ASLA National Awards and recipients here.