“What is achieved in the Wadi Hanifa project serves as a successful model for locations that are exposed to vast environmental destruction as a result of an inundation of developmental projects. The project proves that environmentally threatened areas could be restored to locations that enrich the environment of the surrounding regions on the one hand, and on the other, they could be converted to centers of urban development steeped in the local cultural heritage,” the prince said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency on Friday.

The Wadi Hanifa Development project seeks to revitalize the 120-km green desert valley that cuts through Riyadh. The project was inaugurated by Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman, who is also chairman of the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA), in April. It was one of five projects selected for the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture announced at a ceremony at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha on Nov. 24.

The major aim of the ambitious project undertaken by ADA is to restore and protect the wetlands, that are fed by the desert aquifer that comes close to the surface in the wadi.

The Aga Khan Award, bestowed every three years, recognizes exemplary projects in communities where Muslims have a notable presence.

The ADA said in an earlier statement that it devised a system involving three levels of running water along Wadi Hanifa as part of efforts to rehabilitate it.

“The first one is the level for permanently running water, which is replenished with groundwater networks in the city, treated water at reprocessing water stations and flood-draining networks,” said an ADA statement.

The second level is for seasonal floods that pour into Wadi Hanifa when the winter rainy season comes. The third level is for water brought about by floods that take place every climate cycle, or every 50 years. The ADA said that the three levels of running water are intended to solve the stagnant water problem that has afflicted Wadi Hanifa for a long time.

“For many decades, the wadi suffered from a stagnant water, necessitating its rehabilitation by controlling the sources of that water, halting the polluted industrial use, introducing a bio-treatment system and establishing a canal that guarantees a permanent pouring of water into the valley,” the ADA said.