Using ecotechnology to redirect Taiwan's construction work away from conventional method

In order to reverse the trend of deteriorating ecological environment, Taiwan launched a movement to use ecotechnology to redirect construction. This policy requires that in addition to meeting function and safety requirements, all infrastructure constructions must minimize their impact on the ecology. This paper describes how this policy is implemented and gives the guidelines for ecological construction. It also used two types of infrastructure construction—slope stabilization and debris flow mitigation; and river flow management—to illustrate how the ecotechnology principle was applied to infrastructure construction. Observation so far indicates that this is the right approach for Taiwan: these new constructions endure the test of typhoons and heavy rains and reduce natural disasters; ecology recovers very well; the cost is lower than the conventional methods; and by hiring local people to do local construction, we have observed some positive change in people's attitude about their communities.