Part of his campaign is to publish research in science journals like Nature Water. “Landscape architecture is a small profession and widely misunderstood. We must make the scientific and engineering communities aware that landscape architecture is not just about aesthetics or leisure—despite common misconceptions—but a scientific and a strategic tool for global climate action.”

“We need to highlight that widely discussed solutions like nature-based solutions have long been at the core of our discipline. Publishing in scientific journals legitimizes landscape-based, water-driven solutions and ensures they influence policy and practice. It shifts the conversation from engineered, gray infrastructure to integrated, nature-based resilience, redefining our profession as an essential force in climate adaptation and survival.”

Slowing down water flow. Haikou Meishe River Greenway, Hainan, China. 2017. © Turenscape

Yu has been explaining the inadequacies of purely gray infrastructure for decades. In Nature Water, he and his co-authors sum up that argument: “Many decision-makers call for bigger, stronger infrastructure. But that ‘gray’ infrastructure — aqueducts, dams, and levees aimed at controlling water — is part of the problem.”

“That’s because engineered approaches to water management often focus on solving a single problem at a time. Worried about flooding? Build a wall. Does water scarcity loom? Build a dam and pipeline to bring in more from somewhere else. But such singular focus ignores and damages complex natural systems and their inhabitants who keep them functioning.”

Gray infrastructure produces significant greenhouse gas emissions: “Inflexible and brittle, gray infrastructure requires ongoing maintenance and causes more carbon emissions due to the use of concrete and the destruction of natural ecosystems that store carbon.” And these water systems create new inequities: “Over 40 years, dams brought water to 20 percent of the world’s population but decreased water to 24 percent of the population.”

He thinks all landscape architects can do their part to move communities away from centralized gray infrastructure and towards decentralized, community-based green infrastructure and nature-based solutions.