Creating Sustainable Cities in China

A podcast released today form a website tuned into renewable resources, aims to link Chinese history with the new Dongtan development, the World’s first eco-city that is leading the way in urban sustainability. The Chinese civilisation is one of the oldest, generations spanning 5000years. Before the modern era set in, China was the host of some of the world’s largest, most advanced cities, e.g. Beijing was home to 2million people by the 17th Century. However, the vast country was also covered by land villages and farms set in a rural lifestyle. This society was common under Mao, with prominent village industries, collective farms and local self-sufficiency. However, in 1978, Xiaoping set a focus on rapid economic growth with big ideas for markets and foreign trade.
Following industrialisation and urbanisation lead China to a booming economy. Western style consumerism was forefront and the environment certainly soon felt this impact. Pollution problems amounted and CO2 emissions will soon be comparable to those of the US. However, it must be noted that China is learning the lesson of the ‘limits of growth’ very quickly in a world where climate change gains so much attention in the media and with the public and scientists. Doubts for the current population of Chongming island are recognized, but residents are assured that attractive new business opportunities await them.
Hu Jintao became president in 2003, rhetoric of his policies showing an emphasis on ‘harmony between humanity and nature’, ‘building a conservation-orientated, environmentally friendly society’ and ‘economic development must consider its impact on the environment’. Developers of Dongtan, the purpose built new eco-city, have clearly been influenced by these messages somewhere along the line. The success of Dongtan is today recognized as crucial owing to China’s plans of 400 other new cities within the next 20 years.
It is ironic however that the site chosen for Dongtan is the result of an environmental catastrophe itself. The alluvial island of Chongming and its associated wetlands in the Yangtze Delta only grew due to deposition of eroded soil from the deforestation practices at the Yangtze headwaters. These wetlands are nonetheless foreseen as a major visitor attraction.
Dongtan is due to be constructed in time for the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010. It is a local project with a global perspective, planners and engineers being contracted from around the world. Dongtan will demonstrate that environmental sustainability and access to nature are very much part of new development in China. China, as well as many other nations, have recognised that our planet will not be able to cope with 1.3bn Chinese extracting and consuming resources that continue to pollute the Earth. Leaders behind Dongtan’s development hope that this will be a model of how to build for sustained urban life that could be too compelling to ignore.

Lacey, S., 2008.
Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/podcast?id=52138

Tunnelling To Dongtan: Engineering Ahead of Schedule

The new eco-city of Dongtan is being made more readily accessible, in preparation for future commuting once Dongtan has been established. Currently, it takes travellers an hour to drive and then be ferried over to Chongming Island. The Island and mainland will now be connected by a bridge and tunnel, to reduce journey time to 20minutes. The current ferry service is used by 30,000 passengers everyday, highlighting the route’s popularity. Nonetheless, authorities blame the lower economic development of the three islands surrounding Shanghai - Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha – on the poor transportation options. The municipal Government hopes that the bridge and tunnel crossing the Yangtze River will boost economic growth of outlying regions.

Dongtan, ultimately will be more accessible, but it could be argued that is this a benefit to a region that is supposed to be based on low emissions and environmentally friendly development? The projects have however, been given approval and today a Chinese engineers, Huixia, has announced that the two projects are well ahead of schedule and will be completed by the end of this year, not by 2010 as planned. On completion, the bridge will be 10km long and the fifth widest suspension bridge in the world, achieved at an estimated cost of US$1.5bn.

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/6388860.html

BBC News: China Plans Eco-City

This video, a news report from the BBC on 24th March 2007, reports on China's plans to create a zero carbon development.

China's Green Race Against Urban Surge

The term ‘sustainable’ is heralded as commonly used eco-jargon that has renewed vigour since Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Olympics. In a nation struggling with air and water quality, it’s a young term, with many obstacles to overcome as it fully industrializes. Its popularity, however, has taken off, with sustainability embedded into many new town developments; simultaneous economic development, social progress and environmental protection are promoted in a unified way.

Dongtan, an example of such a sustainable new town, currently has a virtually pristine ecosystem, a factor driving healthy development. Plans have been released by ARUP to return land that is currently cultivated back to its original wetland state. This creates a ‘buffer zone’ between the population, which is expected to rocket, and nature. It will also confirm a zone of increased biodiversity with the large range of native and migratory faunal species currently habitating the region. A total of 181 species of flora and fauna were witnessed at this site alone between 1997 and 2001, this study promoting the area for RAMSAR status. Migratory species are also common with birds on the Asia-Pacific migration route passing through Dongtan on their way from their winter habitat in Australia to their nesting grounds in Siberia.
Overall, the popularity of sustainable design and living must be realised in its entirety. Protection of land and animal and plant species plays a key role in such developments.

Adams, J., 2008. China's Green Race Against Urban Surge.

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JB23Cb01.html

Dongtan's Waste Management

Climate change is a debated prospect in the global media. Approaches to combating changes on monumental scales are regularly discussed at both broad and specific conferences. A second conference, reporting on how waste is linked to climate change was held yesterday in London, the head of ARUP, the company behind the eco city of Dongtan, invited to speak. ACR+ and London Remade, two key companies governing waste management in Europe outlined the importance of reducing municipal waste and the positive effect this will have on the reduction in carbon dioxide emission. A European campaign to reduce municipal waste by 100Kg per person per year will reduce a personal emission by 160Kg per year. The future of waste management lies in waste prevention, remanufacture and improved legislation. However, it must be noted from accounts of this conference that recycling must be viewed as a step towards sustainable development rather than a solution. Remanufacture alone cannot solely reduce greenhouse emissions enough to meet current global targets.
Peter Head highlighted Dongtan’s control plan. The eco-city aims to use resource management to reduce the areas ecological footprint to 2.6 global hectares per person, compared to a current 5.5. global hectares per person witnessed in Shanghai.
In addition, The Asia Times has reported further plans, revealing that Dongtan City is expected to recover, recycle and reuse 90% of its generated waste.

Source: http://www.morethanwaste.com/Site/Default.aspx/03B85065EE1DA7F81C19

Systems, Cities and Sustainable Mobility

A conference: “Systems, cities and Sustainable Mobility” was held this week, summarising development proposals for the Pasadena region of Los Angeles, USA. Gary Lawrence, the Urban Strategies spokesman for ARUP introduced ideas for Dongtan into the discussion. Sustainability was an ongoing theme, the idea that it must be promoted as a political concept with technical challenges was predominant. The discussion continued to whether sustainability must be based on an educational model, focusing on changing behaviour and attitudes, or on a design model, centred on overcoming technical hitches and increasing the efficiency with which systems work. On relieving this debate, it must be noted that technology can only provide directions for change and that these must be coupled with conscious human choice.
Materialization of Dongtan as an eco-city is amidst flourishing new concepts. New examples of how the development will work have come to light today, within this conference. Dongtan is designed for a scenario in which sea level will rise by 3m, rice husks from local agricultural practices will be used to fuel a huge combined heat and power station and although cars are not excluded, we are continually reminded how they will become the least attractive transportation option.

Stewart, J., 2008. Art Centre Mobility Summit: A field report.

Source: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007837.html

Upending the Traditional Farm

An evolution in greenhouse technology is suggested today, accompanying the creation of ‘vertical farms’ aiming to bring farms to the city. Proponents believe that food could be produced within urban limits using a fraction of the resources of traditional methods, thereby removing strains from the countryside. Heat and lighting would be powered by geothermal, tidal, solar, or other renewable energy sources and nitrogen and other nutrients retrieved from animal waste and perhaps even the city sewage system.
The viability of such major green schemes is highly debated, being an extremely ambitious concept. Nevertheless urban farms are beginning to be accepted in plans for several cities, the biggest project being part of Dongtan Eco-city. A fundamental goal of Dongtan’s development is to grow enough food to replace lost productivity as farmland is urbanized in surrounding regions. Could this be manifested in ‘Urban Farming’ as the cost and harm caused by cheap transportation, water and need for space are limited?

Vogel, G., 2008. Upending the Traditional Farm. Science, 319, 752-753.

Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5864/752

Carbon-Free Living: China's Great Leap Forward

An article published in The Independent, a UK based newspaper, today discusses the changes that the Chinese nation is experiencing in relation to green living. ‘Grim apocalyptic nightmares’ are said to characterise previous environmental reports from China, especially developed areas where citizens who do not want to slow down economic growth to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions live.
Planners behind the development of Dongtan are not naive, they recognize the impact China has on the planet’s environment, and this project is simply a search for a new way forward. A sustainable way. A way in which renewable energy sources are utilized and a brand new coal power station isn’t being erected somewhere in the country every week.
This is possibly the single largest building project ever to be undertaken, building a city to house 500,000 in an ecologically positive way. Chinese are optimistic however, as are the media, and it is undoubted that China has recognized its contribution to global warming and understands the need for sustainable action. Plans to build a ‘holistic, systemic view of a city’ is underway just outside Shanghai and developers believe such sustainable city living is possible and truly within our grasp.
In the next decade 400million Chinese will move to urban areas and companies are targeted as Dongtan is encouraged as their choice of a place to live and work.
Life in Dongtan will be different. Self-sufficient buildings will exist, with local and organic produce consumed. All houses are guaranteed to be within seven minutes walk of public transport and conventional cars will be banned from the streets. These are a few, among many, of the green proposals to be out into action in Dongtan.
Peter Head, the director of ARUP, the company behind Dongtans’s development has commented on how the city may look like something from a science fiction movie, but he insists on trying and testing the underlying principles, eventually hoping to develop Dongtan as a blueprint for new developments and changes to existing cities.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/carbonfree-living-chinas-green-leap-forward-435208.html

Dongtan Eco-City “Shouldn’t be a Marketing Tool”, Top Planners Warn.

The proposed development of the World’s first eco-city, Dongtan, has come under new scrutiny with further speculation surrounding its actual ecological credentials. Dongtan is yet to be built, but already is heavily hyped. The city’s rapidly growing appreciation among many developed countries, especially Britain, is accompanied by uprising controversy of its real purpose. Slated as a marketing instrument and a push for China in the competition to get on the green ‘fast-train’, instead Dongtan should be viewed as a positive step in relieving Chinese environmental pressure. The great political and ideological intentions the project portrays have been widely recognized and its status as a potential branding strategy for Shanghai is coming to light.The future of Dongtan lies in moving away from the view of it as a marketing tool. Development costs are high as is the marketing value of such a project and its success will only show through if the new ecological running costs are sufficiently lower. Nonetheless, Dongtan remains “one of the most innovative and outstanding buildings in Asia” an award from the MIPIM in Hong Kong, last November (2007).

Bowerman, G. Dongtan Eco-City “Shouldn’t be a Marketing Tool”, Top Planners Warn.

Source: http://www.bizchina-update.com/content/view/505/2/

Changing China- China Open to UK Business

The UK’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has flown to China on a 3day visit to witness the ways in which China are planning for a more sustainable future. Highlights of his trip will include visiting a new, unopened gas-fired power station, Taiyang Gong, in a residential district of Beijing as well as becoming one of the first VIP visitors to the stadium that will host the 2008 Olympics. He will then travel to Shanghai, to meet students, discuss sustainablility and be shown plans for Dongtan eco-city, which aims to act as a blueprint for future development in the UK, especially in London. The British Prime Minister may find however, that while officials are committed to such positive change, implementation of such vision may be difficult.
China remains a poor, industrialising country and therefore fulfilling the economic needs of today’s population still gains priority over protecting the environment of tomorrow. Two new power stations are reportedly opened every week somewhere in China, with coal being used as two thirds of their energy needs, just adding to their smoke pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
There needs to be a move away from resource driven industries in order to combat much of the environmental deterioration occurring presently.
Interest from Gordon Brown has hopefully opened Chinese response to climate change as a global problem. His trip intends to bring a new vitality to Chinese relations and has ensured him that there is huge opportunity for British business in this nation. During his visit, he has also offered the country £50m from an Environmental Transformation fund to help tackle climate change by improving technological efficiency and increasing the use of clean coal, renewable sources and carbon capture systems. He does not doubt that the Chinese are aware of the impacts they currently pose on the environmental system and strategies like the development of Dongtan, are steps towards a better, cleaner future.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7194864.stm

Shanghai Plans Eco-metropolis on its Mudflats

Dongtan is hailed as the beginning of a neo-industrial revolution, a major development the Chinese are embarking on as a turning point in the country’s frenetic, unsustainable urban growth. The biggest and most ambitious project China has ever undertaken, even bigger than the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Dongtan apparently holds the potential to change the course of global economic development. Acting as a hopeful prototype for future urban development across the globe, its roots lie in China, the world’s most populous country.
Developers aim to produce a post-industrial sustainable city that poses no appreciable damage to the Earth’s environment. Self-sufficiency (utilising only renewable energy sources) will be implemented in many public sectors, buildings, food supply, medical care, and transport will be available only by hydrogen or electric cars. Employment will be light industrial and high technology.
Albeit a promising project, much criticism and controversy arises regarding Dongtan’s development on the silted estuary of the Yangtze river, Chongming Island. This is a geologically young area, growing 25 feet per year through silt deposition, currently supporting farmland and small communities of rural preasants and fishermen. Much produce cultivated in the region culminates in Shanghai, feeding the demanding population. The prospect of ruining this ecologically unspoilt area shocks many people, but directors ensure us that the developers have potential impact under control and long-term benefits will outweigh any short-term risks.
The Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation (SIIC) is developing a million dollar prospectus, inviting private investors to the new eco-city. Dongtan may be the home to many international organisations, striving to increase environmental awareness. Many of the current population disagree with the trans-national corporations that may soon be located on their doorsteps.
Dongtan must comply with Chinese authorities, however. Conforming to the Chinese Business melange of Confucianism, Daoism and communism, one of Dongtan’s ultimate priorities is to ‘create inclusive, cohesive and tolerant communities that recognize traditional and modern Chinese and other cultural values’. The reality of Dongtan also largely lies in the synthesis of economic development, environmental responsibility and financial profitability.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/jan/08/china.theobserver