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Sur le site "The Urban China Initiaitve" 4/05/2012 By Li Jing ( China Daily) Urban leaders do more to safeguard environment, conserve resources Small and medium-sized cities are more livable than big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai gauged by their air quality, waste treatment capacity and built environment, according to newly published research by Urban China Initiative. A woman rides a bicycle on a windy day in Beijing. According to recently published research by Urban China Initiative, Beijing and Shanghai were absent from a ranking of the top 10 Chinese cities gauged by their environmental sustainability. [Photo/China Daily] UCI, a think tank launched by Tsinghua University, McKinsey & Co and Columbia University, gauged the sustainability of 112 major Chinese cities using 17 indicators in four categories - society, economy, environment and resources. Beijing ranked first in sustainability thanks to its heavy investment in social welfare - including social security, education and healthcare - and its economic achievements. The top 10 cities in overall score - including Xiamen, Fujian province, Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, Dalian in Liaoning province, and Shanghai - are all medium and large-sized cities. However, small and medium-sized cities are taking the lead in environmental sustainability. Both Beijing and Shanghai were absent from the top 10 in this category. According to the research, Haikou has the best air quality, while Hefei, capital of Anhui province, took the lead in waste treatment facilities. And Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, boasts the best built environment - man-made surroundings that serve as the setting for human activity. "Such a result shows that small cities have a better quality of life, though people living in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai have better access to medical and educational resources," said Jonathan Woetzel, co-chair of UCI, as well as a senior global dir

For more than three decades China has achieved remarkable success in economic development, but its rapid growth has resulted in considerable damage to the natural environment. In 1998, the World Health Organization reported that seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world were in China. Sulfur dioxide and soot produced by coal combustion fall as acid rain on approximately 30 percent of China's land area. Industrial boilers and furnaces consume almost half of China's coal and are the largest sources of urban air pollution. In many cities, the burning of coal for cooking and heating accounts for the rest. At the same time, since the beginning of economic reform in the late 1970s, the government has paid considerable attention to environmental problems, particularly in terms of regulatory responsibility and enforcement at the local government level. China passed the Environmental Protection Law for trial implementation in 1979, and in 1982 the constitution included important environmental protection provisions. Since then, various laws and policies have been put in place to address China's current and future urban environment. The 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai provided evidence that the Chinese government views its environmental problems as a priority. The green construction of the facilities for the Expo and particularly of the Chinese Pavilion reflected the emphasis the government has placed on protecting and improving the environment through new technologies. In addition, China's "eco cities" have also been recognized worldwide for advances in urban sustainability, such as Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Wuxi.

Abstract This paper investigates the process of tourism-driven urbanization as a local strategy of town development in China. Existing literature has highlighted the role of industrialization in the urbanization process of China's small towns, but here it is suggested that tourism - a development initiative based on the creation of space for consumption, rather than production - can also foster significant expansion of urbanized built environment and remarkable transformation of local socio-economic structures. The case study suggests that, in contrast to the recent process of industrialization-based urbanization in China's small towns, tourism urbanization in Zhapo Town, Guangdong Province has been a highly localized development initiative characterized by the absence of foreign capital investment. Tourism-driven urbanization in Zhapo has involved several processes whose joint effect has reproduced the local socio-spatial organization: the rapid of expansion of urbanized built environment; a unique pattern of land use and land development; the booming of tertiary economic sectors; and the emergence of a flexible regime of labor force. In the meantime, the research also contests Mullins' (1991) classical theorization of tourism urbanization, and suggests that recent tourism-driven urbanization process in Zhapo Town is not the product of the post-modernization of urban cultural manifestations, but is situated within the context-specific space of China's modernity and is based on relatively standardized provision of tourism-related service and the mass consumption of nature. Highlights ► The research investigates town development in China with the perspective of tourism urbanization. ► Tourism in Zhapo town has triggered significant changes in urbanized built environment. ► Tourism urbanization is accompanied with local socio-economic restructuring. ► Tourism urbanization in Zhapo is situated within the space of China's modernization.

China is facing ecological revolution now. The basis of the revolution is establishing the ecological consciousness. Different level of ecological consciousness in urban and rural area raised our attention. According to different environment conditions and based on pollution theory, we try to find out the cornerstone of setting ecological consciousness during this changing time. Since China is on the fast urbanization period, environmental awareness change on rural-urban migrants can be this key. This paper focused on which factor(s) have significant effect to ecological consciousness. Urban and Rural residents were interviewed for data collecting, and for deep research, three groups (Urban Residents Group, Rural residents Group and Migrants Group) are split based on responders' migration experience. In this paper, ANOVA analysis and regression analysis are used. Based on pollution-driven theory, two models are given to compare the explanation strengths between within and without theory variables. We found that pollution experience and relative pollute have important effect on eco-consciousness. So Ecological Consciousness is not straight influenced by environment condition, but people think about the deterioration. We considered that, the cornerstone of setting ecological consciousness is recognizing the crisis and disruption of ecological environment.

Xuefei Ren's work on the high-end of the building boom in China brings together the sociology of globalization with the study of architecture and the built environment. Building Globalization treats architectural production as crucial to the material and symbolic ways in which global cities are made. Based on Ren's doctoral research at the University of Chicago, the book draws on fieldwork conducted in Beijing and Shanghai between 2004 and 2008, covering the bull years leading up to the Beijing Olympics. China is now taken to exemplify the geo-demographic shift that has seen developing countries lead current processes of urbanisation. However the Chinese government's attitude towards quanqiuhua chengshi (global cities) and its support for rapid urban growth from the mid-late 1990s represented a striking reversal of official policy which had been to limit the growth of large cities and promote instead the development of small-medium centres (p.11). The re-scaling of state power to metropolitan level in the interests of enhancing urban competitiveness has been an international trend in recent decades. In China this has proved particularly effective in driving urban growth, given state ownership of land and government control over household registration, urban planning and development decisions. Metropolitan governments in China have the kind of ownership and discretionary powers of which the most boosterist western city mayors can only dream. Ren argues convincingly that the processes shaping these cities are increasingly transnational; in particular, the forces that make buildings 'operate beyond national boundaries, as seen in the circulation of investment capital, the movements of built-environment professionals, and the diffusion of new technologies' (p.6). However, while Chinese economic growth may have destabilized a global balance of power dominated by the triad of the USA, the European Union and Japan, Ren's analysis suggests that older core-peripher

Data gaps hobbling trial carbon markets Xu Nan Liu Shuang August 09, 2012 Seven Chinese regions are due to launch emissions-trading schemes next year. They will struggle to do so, write Liu Shuang and Xu Nan. Late last October, China's top economic planning body - the National Development and Reform Commission - instructed the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, plus Hubei and Guangdong provinces, to get ready to run carbon-trading trials. These are not China's first experiments with emissions trading. In fact, the country has of late seen a proliferation of exchanges: according to Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, by the time of last year's announcement, many provinces and cities were already setting up their own carbon exchanges, or "energy and environment exchanges" - which in almost all cases include trading of emissions rights. But to date, the platforms up and running are either voluntary or tied into the UN clean development mechanism. Some places, including Chengdu, Ningxia and Xinjiang, are either considering similar exchanges, or planning to host branches of the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, though these tend to mean nothing more than one employee in a single office. The seven Beijing-backed, mandatory trials kick-started last October represent a new level of ambition, however. Ten months on, how are they progressing? The short answer is: slowly. [...]

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Wanxin Li, Jieyan Liu, Duoduo Li Paru dans : Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 98, 15 May 2012, Pages 65-72 Abstract By comparing three cases of environmental activism in China, our paper answers the following three questions about public participation in environment protection in China: (1) what are the drivers for public participation, (2) who are the agents leading the participation, and (3) do existing laws facilitate public participation? We find heightened public awareness of environmental degradation and increasing anxieties over health and property values drive people to fight for more political space to influence decisions that have an impact on the environment. Despite the promises one finds in the letter of Chinese laws, Chinese society lacks a meaningful institutional framework to allow public participation, even in the area of environmental protection. The Chinese government mainly passively responds to public demands on an ad hoc basis, with no institutional commitment for engaging the public on environmental issues. This is unfortunate, because public policies without adequate public input are doomed to be clouded by illegitimacy. Highlights ► The public fights for more political space to influence environmental decisions. ► A concern for health and property values drives public environmental participation. ► Public participation has not yet been well institutionalized in China. ► The Chinese government passively responds to public demands on an ad hoc basis.

Thématiques 1 et 2 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Chunyan Shan, Tetsuo Yai Paru dans : Habitat International, Volume 35, Issue 1, January 2011, Pages 158-166 Abstract The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of the legal requirements and implementation environment of public involvement (PI) in infrastructure planning processes at the national and local levels in China. China's transportation planning is examined to understand the infrastructure planning framework stipulated in the laws and regulations on city planning. The city planning ordinances of 27 provincial capitals and 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government are investigated and their requirements for PI are classified. Factors affecting PI requirements are considered including: geographic location, population and level of economic development among others. The authors discuss the effect of the social environment, geography, economic development level and legal requirements on PI implementation. Legislative and regulatory improvements concerning planning procedures and PI are suggested, with the advanced cities to be used as models. Research highlights ► The paper examines public involvement in Chinese infrastructure planning. ► Public involvement regulations are not uniform across the country but vary among cities. ► Larger, more economically advanced Eastern coastal cities have more detailed requirements than other cities.

October 19-21, Guangzhou baiyun international convention center LCES-2012 will continue to provide an alternative platform to other global conferences in related to climate change and environment protection. We will focus more on practical perspectives on green economy, promotion of sustainable or renewable energy, and exhibit technical resolutions to solve and predict the existing issues. Through the massive operations on comprehensive topics related low carbon economy and industries, we hope the summit can provide best information to exchange channels for all endeavors on low carbon fields who are working on controlling global climate changes from policy makers, NGO leaders, economists, investors, engineers, scientists, industrial leaders, carbon traders, brokers, clean emerge producers, energy consumers, toward daily low carbon life practitioners and advocators etc. Thus, LCES-2012 can provide help our society and humanity with unprecedented impacts on the world sustainable development, new economy growth and renewable energy innovation to commercialization.

Without plans to turn rural workers into urban citizens, urbanization can only become yet another round of massive land grabbing and city-building that has happened around the country for the last decade. This will create more people without roots who can neither integrate with their new urban environment nor return to their village. The next phase will no longer be only urbanization of the land, but of people.

n recent years, the steady momentum on China-EU relations has sustained strong growth in practical cooperation across all sectors on both sides. For China-EU relations, the current international economic situation and our respective development strategy mean both opportunities and challenges. To leverage strength from the international environment and to better meet the challenges, China and Europe must explore new grounds to achieve growth. Based on this principle, at the beginning of this year, the two sides have reached an important agreement to prioritize urbanization and sustainable development in our cooperation and have moved further to establish urbanization partnership between China and the EU.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.proenv.2012.01.113 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Gengyuan Liu, Zhifeng Yang, Bin Chen, Meirong Su (State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing) Paru dans : Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13, 2012, Pages 1189-1203, 18th Biennial ISEM Conference on Ecological Modelling for Global Change and Coupled Human and Natural System Abstract In this paper, a dynamic low-carbon model was developed to show a quantitative and consistent future snapshot. This study presents three scenarios for Chongqing's energy consumption and related CO2 emissions up to 2020, which includes basic development scenario, macro-policy control development scenario and low carbon development scenario. It explains the crucial technologies for Chongqing city as it leaves a business-as-usual trajectory and embarks on a low carbon pathway. A major finding from the scenario analysis is that low carbon and energy-saving policies can dramatically improve Chongqing's position. Under the low carbon scenario, several suggestions for policy making are proposed. This dynamic low-carbon model would benefit from the allocation of decision-making powers in the areas of regulation, policy-making and planning for low carbon development.

Abstract The development objective of the Gansu Qingyang Urban Infrastructure Improvement Project for China is to assist Qingyang Municipality to improve selected urban infrastructure services including urban roads and urban environmental services. There are two components to the project. The first component is urban infrastructure improvements. This component includes the following subcomponents: 1) urban bypass. This sub-component includes (i) construction of bypass roads of the southern section of Xifeng's West Ring Road and the northern section of Xifeng's East Ring Road with installation of associated pipes; (ii) construction of three connection roads to the two bypass corridors of West Ring Road and East Ring Road; 2) integrated road corridor. This sub-component includes: (i) improvement of three selected main road corridors (Nan Bei Street, Anding Dong Xi Road, West Ring Road), including road pavement, traffic channelization, and lighting and greening, along with drainage and sewage system improvements; (ii) rehabilitation of three selected backstreets and small lanes for slow traffic (Nanyuan, Tianhe and Xifeng lanes); and (iii) carrying out, as part of the design of the integrated road corridor, the parking action plan, the public transport action plan, and the traffic safety, education and enforcement action plan; 3) drainage and sewage; and 4) wastewater treatment plant. The second component is institutional strengthening and capacity building. This component includes: provision of technical assistance for: (a) carrying out of a water resource study covering, among others, for water reuse, sub-basin water environment improvements and industrial wastewater discharge licenses in Xifeng District that supports the ongoing investments of wastewater management; (b) the improvement of the operation and maintenance capabilities of Qingyang Municipal Water Supply and Sewage Company (QWSSC) and Xifeng District's Public Utility and Transportation Bureaus in the p

Hang Xiong, China's actual fiscal decentralization is one-sided: while public expenditures are largely decentralized, fiscal revenues are recentralized after 1994. One critical consequence of the actual system is the creation of significant fiscal imbalances at sub-national level. This paper investigates empirically effects of fiscal imbalances on environmental performance of Chinese provinces. First, environmental efficiency scores of Chinese provinces are calculated with SFA for the period from 2005 to 2010. Then, these scores are regressed against two fiscal imbalance indicators in a second stage model. Finally, conditional EE scores are calculated. This paper finds that effects of fiscal imbalances on EE are nonlinear and conditional on economic development level. Fiscal imbalances are more detrimental to environment in less developed provinces. These results suggest that the one-sided fiscal decentralization in China may have regressive environmental effects and contribute to regional disparity in terms of sustainable development.

China's carbon markets push: Huge potential, but daunting challenges A domestic cap-and-trade system could more effectively curb emissions than command-and-control, a new report from SEI and FORES shows, but the process is still in its infancy. China observers have rightfully called attention to the country's new interest in market-based approaches to reducing the energy- and carbon-intensity of its economy. It is a major policy shift, and given that China is the world's top carbon emitter, it has potentially huge implications for global efforts to slow climate change. But can carbon trading succeed without a mature free-market economy? That is a key question raised in the report, China's Carbon Emission Trading: An Overview of Current Development, by SEI's Guoyi Han, Marie Olsson and Karl Hallding, and David Lunsford, founder of the Hong Kong-based consultancy Energy Environment Solutions. The report was released today in Brussels at a seminar with several Members of the European Parliament. "If China's carbon markets experiment succeeds, it could be decisive," says Martin Ådahl, director of FORES, which co-sponsored the report. "Not only could it slow China's rapid emissions growth, but it would be an important step towards global carbon pricing. A great deal is at stake."

Thématiques 2 et 3 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Heiko J. Jahn Paru dans : Public Health Forum, Volume 20, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 27.e1-27.e4 Public Health und Stadtentwicklung Summary Chinese megacities pass through rapid change, coined by fast economical and population growth. This leads to impaired governability and the necessary infrastructural measures, to protect the environment, cannot keep up with this developments. This results in substantial health threatening pollution. Existing laws and regulations should be implemented of all governmental levels from the central government down to the city sub-district level to improve urban health.

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Nesru H. Koroso, Paul van der Molen, Arbind. M. Tuladhar, Jaap A. Zevenbergen Paru dans : Land Use Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 417-426 Abstract This research investigates whether the process of transfers of urban land use rights in China, particularly where the state plays a major role in the transfer of urban land, complies with basic principles of good governance. In order to assess market, an assessment framework is developed. A critical analysis of secondary data from official and non-official sources is done. Major changes since late 1980s in the institutional environment and subsequent results have been assessed. The findings reveal that the transfer of urban land use rights in China is gradually responding to an improved governance system. Institutional reforms have led to a steady improvement in indicators such as transparency, efficiency, and access to information. Nonetheless, the market has significant weaknesses in addressing equity issues, engaging stakeholders, tackling corruption and dealing with expropriations. In general, the paper finds that the efficiency and effectiveness of the urban land market largely depends not on the type of tenure regime per sé, but rather on the system of governance in place. Highlights ► Based on existing data sources, this paper analyses the performance of the market for urban land use rights in China. ► The assessment framework is based on governance principles like equity, participation, access to information, efficiency, and transparency. ► The result is that the market needs improvements regarding governance principles. ► However, a positive impact of the efforts of the government to improve can be observed.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.foar.2012.02.013 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : GU Chaolin, WU Liya, Ian Cook Paru dans : Frontiers of Architectural Research, Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 101-149 Abstract This paper is a comprehensive study on the progress in research on Chinese urbanization. On the basis of the concept and connotation of Chinese urbanization defined by Chinese scholars, the paper systematically collects the research results on the issues concerning urbanization in China from the different approaches of demography, geography, city planning, economics and history, reviewing the process of research on Chinese urbanization made both domestically and internationally. In this paper, the domestic studies fall into five periods as follows: the initial period of research on urbanization in China (1978-1983); the period with both domestically constructed and borrowed theories on urbanization (1984-1988); the period of research on leading urbanization factors and localization (1989-1997); the period with the research greatly promoted by the government (1998-2004); and the period featuring flourishing studies on the science of urbanization in China (2005 till today). In contrast, the overseas research on Chinese urbanization can be divided into three periods: the period studying the history of urbanization in China (before the 1970s); the systematic research on Chinese urbanization (1970-1999); and the comprehensive research on Chinese urbanization (2000 till today). The paper focuses on the key results of research on Chinese urbanization, including nine issues as follows: the guidelines and road for urban development in China, the features of Chinese urbanization, the mechanism driving the growth of Chinese urbanization, the process of Chinese urbanization, the spatial patterns of Chinese urbanization, the urbanization in rural areas in China, the comparison of urbanization in China and other co