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[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Ying Tanga, Robert J. Masonb, Ping Sun Paru dans : Habitat International, Volume 36, Issue 3, July 2012, Pages 388-395 Abstract Since the onset of rapid economic development and urbanization, China's land resources-rather than capital, technology and human resources-have become the lead limiting factor in constraining economic growth. Coordination of urban and rural construction land (CURCL) can be a very effective means for reducing conflicts between economic development and land protection. This research examines the roles of stakeholders involved in the CURCL process. The reasons why the interests of legitimated stakeholders were encroached upon are analyzed and countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders are proposed. Ambiguously defined property rights for owners of rural construction land, unclear conceptions of the public interest, and overlap of power and interest among multiple levels of authority are the reasons why legitimated stakeholders' interests were encroached upon. Legitimizing construction land ownership clearly, better defining the multiple conceptions of public interest, opening up express channels for expression of the public interest, and clarifying governments' functions in land interest adjustment are the countermeasures to protect the interests of legitimated stakeholders. Highlights ► We examine roles of key stakeholders involved with urban and rural construction land in China. ► Agricultural protection measures notwithstanding, farmers' interests frequently are neglected. ► Local governments seek to maximize profits at the expense of public interests. ► Profit maximization is inherent to private enterprises. ► Government roles and express channel for farmers are important for fair interest distribution.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.habitatint.2011.05.006 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Terry H.Y. Li, S. Thomas Ng, Martin Skitmore Paru dans : Habitat International, Volume 36, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 47-56 Abstract Many governments world-wide are increasingly encouraging the involvement of interested individuals, groups and organisations in their public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects as a means of improving the openness, transparency and accountability of the decision-making process and help improve the projects' long-term viability and benefits to the community. In China, however, the current participatory mechanism at the project level exists only as part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. With an increasing demand for PIC projects and social equality in China, this suggests a need to bring the participatory process into line with international practice. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to identify the weaknesses of EIA-based public participation in China and the means by which it may be improved for the whole lifecycle of PIC schemes. To do this, the results of a series of interviews with a diverse group of experts is reported which analyse the nature and extent of existing problems of public participation in EIA and suggestions for improvement. These indicate that the current level of participation in PIC projects is quite limited, particularly in the crucial earlier stages, primarily due to traditional culture and values, uneven progress in the adoption of participatory mechanisms, the risk of not meeting targets and lack of confidence in public competence. Finally, a process flowchart is proposed to guide construction practitioners and the community in general. Highlights ► We examine China's environmental impact assessment (EIA) based public participation. ► The interview findings reveal that China's EIA-based participation is weak. ► We identify

DOI: http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.proenv.2012.01.107 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : M.R. Su, B. Chen, T. Xing [et al.] Paru dans : Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 13, 2012, Pages 1143-1148 18th Biennial ISEM Conference on Ecological Modelling for Global Change and Coupled Human and Natural System Abstract It is undoubted that low-carbon city has become a vital development trend for Chinese cities in the new century. Many Chinese cities have been devoted to the upsurge of low-carbon city construction in recent years. Focusing on these problems - What measures has been adopted to construct low-carbon city in China? How is the effect of low-carbon city construction? Are there some issues needing attention in the future - this paper summarizes the situation of low-carbon city development in China and clarifies a few viewpoints that need be paid attention to in the subsequent development. It is expected that the discussion in this paper can help promote the construction of low-carbon city in China.

LESLIE L. SHIEH Ph.D. THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2011 China's nationwide Shequ (Community) Construction project aims to strengthen neighbourhoodbased governance, particularly as cities wrestle with pressing social issues accompanying the country's economic reforms. This policy has produced astounding outcomes, even though it is implemented through experimentation programs and the interbureaucratic document system rather than through legislation. It has professionalized the socialist residents' committees and strengthened their capacity to carry out administrative functions and deliver social care. Thousands of service centres have been built, offering a range of cultural and social services to local residents. This research addresses how the centrally promulgated policy is being implemented locally and what its impacts are in various neighbourhoods. The lens of community building is used to explore how the grass roots organize themselves and how they are defined and governed by the state. The research thus seeks to analyze the impact of Shequ Construction, not through measuring outcomes against the intentions set out in policy documents, but through considering the wider, sometimes unforeseen, implications for other processes going on in the city. Based on fieldwork in Nanjing, the chapters explore the meaning Shequ Construction has in four areas of urban governance: 1) fiscal reform and decentralization of public services, 2) suburban village redevelopment, 3) community-based social service provisioning through the emergent nonprofit sector, and 4) role of homeowners' association under housing privatization and neighbourhood inequality. By examining the interaction of Shequ Construction with a diverse set of policies, this research demonstrates how policy becomes interpreted during the course of implementation by local agencies as they contend with realities on the ground; and conversely how the Shequ pol

Author(s): Xu Yuhui)1; Lv Yanke; HuangYing Source: ADVANCES IN CIVIL ENGINEERING, PTS 1-6 Book Series: Advanced Materials Research Volume: 255-260 Pages: 1607-1611 DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.255-260.1607 Part: Part 1-6 Published: 2011 Conference: International Conference on Civil Engineering and Building Materials (CEBM) Location: Kunming, PEOPLES R CHINA Date: JUL 29-31, 2011 Sponsor(s): Kunming Univ Sci & Technol; Int Assoc Sci & High Technol Abstract: Along with the Reform and opening-up and the establishment of Market Economy, the economy and living standards of our citizen are improving, nonetheless the gap between rich and poor is widening in the society, so the social groups is gradually getting differentiation. Especially the perspective of residential segregation with live position and live quality for represent. At the same time, the construction of the public rental housing which become the current social hot point usually neglect the social influence resulted by residential segregation. Taking the public rental housing in metropolitan area of Chongqing as an example, the paper tallies up the successful strategy of the construction of public rental housing from address and construct mode, land and funds cost, guarantee object and facilities kit in order to guide the construction of the public rental housing from residential segregation to residential introjection.

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

Scientific development is an invaluable asset to a country. Policies and development modes should be carried out based on scientific findings not only in industry, but also in transportation infrastructure construction. Building an integrated transportation system, which is in line with the national requirements of China and supports sustainable socio-economic development, is a key strategic issue related to building a moderately prosperous society and achieving realistic goals of a medium-level developed country. Based on a systematic review of the advances in China's transportation infrastructure over the last 60 years, this paper explores the main drivers of transportation development, including national policy, transportation structure, investment efficiency, and technological innovation. Analysis shows that China's comprehensive transportation infrastructure construction since 1949 can be divided into five stages initiated by these drivers, which correspond to four transition modes: policy transition, structural transition, efficiency transition, and technology transition. The transition path of China's transportation development shows that the dominant factors have changed, and the interval for each transition has shortened. With the implementation of the '12th Five-Year Plan', China's transportation infrastructure construction is showing some new characteristics and facing a new development transition. Finally, this paper analyzes the trends in transportation development in China and concludes that technological innovation will be the main driving force to increase the transportation supply and service area in the future.

Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China 27th to 28th October 2012 Ningbo, Zhejiang, China The building sector is one of the highest energy consuming sectors in China accounting for about 30% of total energy usage and also contributes to a significant proportion of pollutant emissions in China. Meanwhile, building construction activities are contributing significantly towards China's economic growth and infrastructure development under the current urbanisation programme. It is estimated that half of the world's buildings being constructed between now and 2020 are expected to be built in China and if nothing is done to control the upward energy trend, building-related energy consumption could double and have a devastating effect on the environment and the economy as a whole. The objective of this international symposium is therefore to provide a forum for academics, government officials, researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent research and demonstration projects related to low carbon buildings in China. The event will feature well known international experts in this field as Keynote speakers. General topic areas * Sustainable Energy Technologies * Energy storage technologies * Energy and Environmental Policy * Modelling and simulation of buildings * Thermal Energy Management systems * Low carbon construction materials * Eco-building design * Integration of renewable energy technologies in refurbished buildings * Life cycle analysis of low carbon buildings * Waste and water management * Energy Management Contract systems * Post occupancy evaluation of low carbon buildings * Green Architecture * Design for low impact healthcare buildings * Improving sustainability (and resilience) of healthcare facility * Sustainable Urbanism * Urban form and Energy use or Low carbon cities * Green and liveable cities Website: http://www.nottingh

This paper projects Chinese urban residential construction out to 2040.

This article considers the medium- and long-term prospects for residential construction in China and their implications for steel consumption.

In Invisible Cities, the novel by the great Italian writer Italo Calvino, Marco Polo dazzles the emperor of China, Kublai Khan, with 55 stories of cities he has visited, places where "the buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells," a city of "zigzag" where the inhabitants "are spared the boredom of following the same streets every day," and another with the option to "sleep, make tools, cook, accumulate gold, disrobe, reign, sell, question oracles." The trick, it turns out, is that Polo's Venice is so richly textured and dense that all his stories are about just one city. A modern European ruler listening to a visitor from China describe the country's fabled rise would be better served with the opposite approach: As the traveler exits a train station, a woman hawks instant noodles and packaged chicken feet from a dingy metal cart, in front of concrete steps emptying out into a square flanked by ramshackle hotels and massed with peasants sitting on artificial cobblestones and chewing watermelon seeds. The air smells of coal. Then the buildings appear: Boxlike structures, so gray as to appear colorless, line the road. If the city is poor, the Bank of China tower will be made with hideous blue glass; if it's wealthy, our traveler will marvel at monstrous prestige projects of glass and copper. The station bisects Shanghai Road or Peace Avenue, which then leads to Yat-sen Street, named for the Republic of China's first president, eventually intersecting with Ancient Building Avenue. Our traveler does not know whether he is in Changsha, Xiamen, or Hefei -- he is in the city Calvino describes as so unremarkable that "only the name of the airport changes." Or, as China's vice minister of construction, Qiu Baoxing, lamented in 2007, "It's like a thousand cities having the same appearance." Why are Chinese cities so monolithic? The answer lies in the country's fractured history. In the 1930s, China was a failed state: Warlords controlled large swath

Abstract: Threatened by the huge pressure caused by climate change, low-carbon cities have become an inevitable part of urban evolution. It is essential to evaluate urban low-carbon development levels to smoothly promote the construction of low-carbon cities. This paper proposes an evaluation index system for urban low-carbon development from the points of view of economic development and social progress, energy structure and usage efficiency, living consumption, and development surroundings. A weighted sum model was also established. Selecting 12 typical Chinese cities as cases studies, an integrated evaluation was conducted based on the index system and the assessment model. The development speed and limiting factors of different cities were also analyzed. The 12 cities were ultimately classified into three groups in terms of their low-carbon development patterns by integrating all of the analysis results. Furthermore, suitable regulation and management for different patterns were suggested. This study both aids in assessing the executive effect of low-carbon city construction and helps to determine existing problems and suggest effective solutions.

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

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Zhang Xianchun, Shan Zhuoran Paru dans : Energy Procedia Volume 16, Part A, 2012, Pages 353-358 2012 International Conference on Future Energy, Environment, and Materials Abstract The urbanization level of china will exceed fifty percent in 2011. At the present stage, the urban-rural dual structure is more and more prominent. Due to the urban-rural dual management,many problems were found in the joint of urban and rural in the process of urbanization. This article summarizes the related achievements of land-use and management of Chinese joint of urban and rural for the last two decades. It introduces case-study in three aspects of cognitive, methodology and space planning, and discourses the achievements of different land-use types in the points of construction land, non-construction land.At the same time, this article elaborates the researches in landmanagement and points out the current excellent processes and the main problems.Finally, this article proposes the anticipation and prospect of study in the future.

UCI delegation participated in first annual NCF summit in Paris 25/05/2012 The Chinese delegation takes a group photo with Lady Barbara, Judge, Chairman of the UK Pension Protection Fund. The first annual New Cities Foundation (NCF) Summit was held in Paris on May 14-16. The summit brought together more than 500 urban policy makers and thought leaders to a three-day conference on global urbanization, with China as one of the core focuses. The mayor of Paris delivered a welcome speech. Other speakers including Gregor Robertson, Mayor of Vancouver; Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv; Khalifa Sall, Mayor of Dakar; Greg Clark, UK Minister of State for Decentralisation and Cities; as well as the CEOs of General Motors, Ericsson, Cisco, and Suez gas. The Urban China Initiative (UCI), a partner of the NCF, assisted in organizing the summit by inviting and organizing 16 government delegates, enterprise leaders, and academics from China, as well as designing the plenary session "A Closer Look at Urban China: Towards the Urban Billion." Chinese delegates shared their insights as speakers at plenary and breakout sessions, including: "Securing Investments for the Urban Century: How do we Pay for the Urban Boom," which featured Li Dongming, General Manager of the Urban Fund at China Development Bank Capital, as a speaker. "Hard and Software City," which featured Jonathan Woetzel, Co-Chair of the Urban China Initiative, Senior Director at McKinsey & Co., as a speaker. "A Closer Look at Urban China: Towards the Urban Billion," which featured five speakers from the UCI delegation, including Yuan Yue, CEO and Chairman of Horizon Research Consultancy Group; James Lee, AIA LEED-AP, President of iContinuum Group; Jonathan Woetzel; Xiao Jincheng, Deputy Director of the Land Economy and Regional Research Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission; and Xie Chengxiang, Deputy Mayor of Huangshi in Hubei Province. "Modern Urban

"Building local ties and creating a long-term future in Chongqing is the goal of BritCham's development forum, notes Thomas Vincent. Chongqing is urbanising at a tremendous rate. Two thousand people a day are moving into built up areas across the Municipality, maintaining a steady stream of demand for the construction of residential and commercial property. It could be said that Chongqing is currently at the forefront of urbanisation in the entire world, and so there is nowhere more fitting to educate and inform people about the need for sustainability."

Building local ties and creating a long-term future in Chongqing is the goal of BritCham's development forum, notes Thomas Vincent. Chongqing is urbanising at a tremendous rate. Two thousand people a day are moving into built up areas across the Municipality, maintaining a steady stream of demand for the construction of residential and commercial property. It could be said that Chongqing is currently at the forefront of urbanisation in the entire world, and so there is nowhere more fitting to educate and inform people about the need for sustainability.

[From: Scientific.net] Author(s): Cai Gui Zheng et al. Source: Advanced Materials Research. Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 472-475, p. 231-238, 2012. DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.472-475.231 ABSTRACT: This paper, based on the current state and problems of saving and intensive land use system of urban-rural integration in Chongqing, in which methods of theoretical approach and system analysis are applied, brings up three mechanisms as: (1) the connecting of the increase of urban construction and the decrease of rural residential area; (2) the connecting of sprawling and farmland consolidation; (3) the connecting of intensive land-use in urban-rural area. At last, the paper builds up the saving and intensive land use system of urban-rural integration follow as: (1) perfecting land surveying system; (2) strengthening land statistics system; (3) perfecting land evaluation system; (4) clearing land property right system; (5) improving land registration system; (6) refining land use system; (7) building land tax system; (8) explicating land consolidation system.

[From: Scientific.net] Author(s): Cai Gui Zheng et al. Source: Advanced Materials Research. Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 472-475, p. 231-238, 2012. DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.472-475.231 ABSTRACT: This paper, based on the current state and problems of saving and intensive land use system of urban-rural integration in Chongqing, in which methods of theoretical approach and system analysis are applied, brings up three mechanisms as: (1) the connecting of the increase of urban construction and the decrease of rural residential area; (2) the connecting of sprawling and farmland consolidation; (3) the connecting of intensive land-use in urban-rural area. At last, the paper builds up the saving and intensive land use system of urban-rural integration follow as: (1) perfecting land surveying system; (2) strengthening land statistics system; (3) perfecting land evaluation system; (4) clearing land property right system; (5) improving land registration system; (6) refining land use system; (7) building land tax system; (8) explicating land consolidation system.

Construction and Real Estate Hinder China's Growth By KEITH BRADSHER Published: September 9, 2012 CHENGDU, China - With more than 100 tall cranes on the skyline, this metropolis in western China looks vibrant at first glance despite the country's sharp economic slowdown.

Ngeow, Chow Bing, "Democratic development in China's urban communities" (2010). Public and International Affairs Dissertations. Paper 7. http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20000145 ABSTRACT Since mid-1990s, the Chinese government has been promoting a policy of community construction (shequ) in urban areas. One of the main focuses of this policy is to build up the democratic infrastructure and institutions at the grassroots level in the cities. As a result, political and institutional reforms to make grassroots governance more democratic have been experimented and implemented in many cities. Members of the residents' committee, the "mass-organization" entrusted to governance the communities (shequ), are now to be democratically elected. The administration of the communities has to adhere to the principles of democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic supervision. The grassroots organs of the ruling Chinese Communist Party have to adapt to the democratic institutions, while non-governmental organizations, especially in the form of the homeowners' committee, also emerges as another channel for urban residents to participate in public affairs. The major aim of this study is to document and analyze these institutional designs and reforms. It also provides an interpretive perspective for these grassroots democratic reforms, arguing that these reforms embody a Chinese model of democratic development.

A 108-meter high Eiffel Tower rises above Champs Elysées Square in Hangzhou. A Chengdu residential complex for 200,000 recreates Dorchester, England. An ersatz Queen's Guard patrols Shanghai's Thames Town, where pubs and statues of Winston Churchill abound. Gleaming replicas of the White House dot Chinese cities from Fuyang to Shenzhen. These examples are but a sampling of China's most popular and startling architectural movement: the construction of monumental themed communities that replicate towns and cities in the West.