Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian dies in plane crash in Brazil

(ECNS) -- The 62-year-old Chinese landscape architect Yu Kongjian died in a plane crash late on Tuesday while filming in Brazilian wetlands.

Brazilian authorities confirmed that Yu and three other people, the pilot Marcelo Pereira de Barros and two local filmmakers, Luiz Ferraz and Rubens Crispim Junior, were killed when the aircraft they were taking crashed in a rural area near the town of Aquidauana, in the Pantanal wetlands.

Yu is well known for proposing the concept of "sponge cities," which utilizes nature-based solutions to absorb and retain water rather than relying on concrete infrastructure to channel it away. The concept was widely adopted in China.

After finishing his studies overseas, Yu returned to China and founded Peking University's College of Architecture and Landscape.

"It was with sadness and dismay that I received the news of the plane crash," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a statement.

"In times of climate change, Kongjian Yu became a global reference with the sponge cities, which combine quality of life and environmental protection," he added.

(By Zhang Dongfang)