Chinese cities to build 'wind corridor' to disperse smog

Several large cities in China, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan, each have intended to create a "wind corridor" to disperse severe smog, operating under the notion that high-rise buildings in a city firmly "lock" in air pollutants that should be blown away by the wind.

Earlier this year, the city of Nanjing issued a plan for the prevention of air pollution. The city scheduled to lay out as many as six ecological wind corridors by the end of 2014 and the factories that produce air-borne emissions in the area of the wind corridors will be relocated by the end of 2017.

Some experts suggest that wind corridors in a city can relax the smog and reduce the "urban island effect," make sure that the cool and fresh air from the suburbs can blow into the city, while the polluted and warm air can be blown out.

However, other experts are contesting the effectiveness of the wind corridor on city smog under the current plan. They claim that an adjustment of the entire industrial layout of the city involving various municipal entities, both public and private, need to be included to properly implement the wind corridor and reduce air pollution; simply putting a wind corridor into city planning will not have the proposed effects.

Dong Wei, vice dean of Southeast University's School of Architecture in Nanjing, says, "The concept of the wind corridor has already appeared in the city planning policy before. However, some cities always put it into consideration just in their city planning polices, while it will be completely different when they are actually carrying out the plan. Buildings end up occupying the space that was originally allocated for the wind corridor."