Location: UNESCO Headquarters Paris

Date March 3 & 4, 2014

Time 9.30 – 10.45 am

CHINESE ECO-CITIES, Creative technologies &

infrastructure for sustainable city development?

Meine Pieter van Dijk

Professor UNESCO-IHE & EUR in the Netherlands

m.vandijk@unesco-ihe.org

International conference Creative design

for sustainable urban development

Definitions of an eco city emphasize

• A city accessible for everyone

• In balance with nature

• Reducing, re-using and recycling waste

• Contributing to a closed water cycle and integrated into

the surrounding region

More visions are possible, but an effort should be made to

list the most important criteria and then to classify which

cities would score high on these criteria

Research Question(s)

• What were key urban policies that contributed to the

success of eco city initiatives and which lessons can be

drawn from successful examples of eco-cities or eco-

neighborhoods that can inform rapidly urbanizing cities in

developing countries on how to achieve sustainability?

• How does the city deal with different pollution issues?

• What does climate change mean for water & waste

management?

• How is energy managed in a more ecological city?

• What is the role of infrastructure and transportation?

• Are the sectoral issues implemented with stakeholders?

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Methodology

• Comparing number of case studies selected on 4 criteria

• Looking for indicators of the performance on dimensions

• Field visits & cross case analysis

Sources:

• World bank paper: Dalian, Tianjin, Shenzhen harbor

• Van Dijk (2011): Three ecological cities, examples of

different approaches in Asia and Europe. In: T.-C. Wong

and B. Yuen (eds., 2011): Eco city planning. Berlin:

Springer: Beijing, Shenzhen, Dongtan, Wuhan

• Nanjing (2008): Nanjing eco-city, proposals for further

development

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Cities will have to change their policies

• because of climate change and higher energy prices , traffic congestion and waste collection

• increased pollution: increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)

Policies:

1. Go for climate mitigation, or

2. For adaptation activities

3. Become ecological cities, but no non-ambiguous definition of ecological cities

4. Creative technologies & infrastructure for sustainable city development

My approach: a more ecological

approach combines:

1. Integrated water resources management: closing the water cycle

2. Energy management, reducing the greenhouse gases

3. Waste minimization and integrated waste management

4. Integrated transport policies

5. Objectives concerning justice: equality

6. Integration in framework of urban management, while also managing the urban risks

Kenworthy considers that a

sustainable city is characterized by: 1. The natural environment permeates the city’s spaces

and embraces the city, while the city and its hinterland provide a major proportion of its food needs

2. Freeway and road infrastructure is de-emphasized in favour of transit, walking and cycling infrastructure, with a special emphasis on rail. Car and motorcycle use are minimized.

3. There is extensive use of environmental technologies for water, energy and waste management – the city’s life support systems become closed loop systems

4. The central city and sub-centres within the city are human centres that emphasize access and circulation by modes of transport other than the automobile

Kenworthy sustainable city II

5. Physical structure and urban design of the city are highly legible, permeable, robust, varied, rich, visually appropriate and personalized for human needs

6. The city has a high quality public culture, community, and equity and good governance

7. The economic performance of the city and employment creation is maximized through innovation, creativity and uniqueness of local environment, culture and history

8. Planning for the future of the city is a visionary debate and decide process, not a predict and provide computer-driven process.

9. Decision-making is sustainability-based, integrating social, economic, environmental &cultural considerations

10. Decision-making processes are democratic, inclusive, empowering and engendering of hope

The Switch approach

• A sustainable urban water system is a basic feature of an ecological city, but is it enough?

• Switch is seeking a paradigm shift in urban water management: a more ecological attitude towards water and environmental issues

• Its purpose is to make water treatment more sustainable and protect the quality of drinking water sources

• It also wants to reduce risks such as water related diseases, droughts and flooding

• Through learning alliance platform barriers to information sharing are broken down and the process of technological and institutional innovation is speeded up

Ecological cities? Three levels

• Many initiatives are taken at level of the city. In China the real promotion of ecological neighbourhoods comes from the national level through subsidies

• Secondly we note all kinds of ecological neighborhoods. Even provinces want to get the label eco province and take all kids of initiatives to achieve this

• Individual initiatives are spontaneously or triggered by incentives of price increases

• People save energy & use less water than in developed countries, but partially this is a question of the level of development and partially of the availability and the price

• Water heaters on the roofs of houses are usually installed by individual households

• Environmental awareness not very much developed

Different ecological initiatives in China

• Isolation measures

• Reuse of treated grey water in Beijing and the project

studied in Wuhan

• Alternative building methods

• Other sources of energy are used, such as

• Sun heated boilers

• Hainan & Fujian develop into an ecological province

• Initiatives in Zhejiang and Shandong provinces

• Conference Shenzhen on eco-cities in 2010

• Other eco cities are Qunli, close to Harbin, etc.

However, very disjoint initiatives. Is it enough to really make

a difference?

Creative technologies & infrastructure for

sustainable city development

• Rain water harvesting technologies (Liang, X. and M.P. van Dijk (2011). Economic and financial analysis on rainwater harvesting for agricultural irrigation in the rural areas of Beijing. In: Resources, conservation and recycling, Vol. 55, pp 1100-1109)

• Separating grey & brown water (Liang, X. and Dijk, M.P. van (2010). Financial and economic feasibility of decentralized waste water reuse systems in Beijing. In: Water science and technology, 61(8) pp. 1965-1974)

• Stop using ground water (Liang, Xiao; Dijk, Meine Pieter van (2011). "Optimal Level of Groundwater Charge to Promote Rainwater Usage for Irrigation in Rural Beijing." Water 3, no. 4: 1077-1091, an open access journal)

• Different water governance structures (Van Dijk, M. P. and Liang, X. (2012). Beijing, managing water for the eco city of the future. In: International Journal of Water, Vol. 6, Nos. 3/4, pp. 270-290)

Ecological neighborhood

• Case of ecological initiative at neighbourhood

level in Wuhan

• Objective isolation and meant 30 percent

reduction of construction cost in case of Wuhan

• Also efforts to recuperate grey water

• However, no money of the treatment charge will

be repaid to the inhabitants

• Consequently limited motivation of inhabitants to

improve aquatic environment!

Problems ecological cities in China

• Not one definition what an ecological city would really be

• Stating that it requires an integrated approach is not enough, because one could integrate the analysis of the issue (look at them in relation to each other), the approach chosen to deal with the issues and finally the activities undertaken to solve the problems

• In Beijing there are many ecological initiatives and other Chinese cities also try their best. Is it enough to counter a looming environmental crisis?

• Sustainable development is a beginning, but not enough

• Private developers are looking for new ideas, but they are mainly interested in cost savings and attractive alternative options for their projects

An ecological neighborhood in

Wuhan • Wuhan: project of about 10 buildings of 8 floors

• Project received a 30% subsidy because energy saving techniques were used, but part of the conditions was to also recycle the grey water

• During field work in October 2007 houses were almost finished (to be occupied in December), but grey water treatment facility was not yet built

• Energy saving is based on double glazing and the use of ground source heat pumps

• Geothermal heat pump uses a system of pipes absorbing the latent heat from the ground and transferring it to the heating & hot water systems

Do disjoint initiatives contributed to

building the ecological city of the future

These are steps in the right direction, but:

• Not really a priority if it comes to spending

• Not important for the people living in these

buildings

• Project developers are motivated by savings and

giving an additional touch to their project

• Financial support is not enough, also

campaigning is necessary and political support

• Is it possible to coordinate activities?

Issues

• Integration of the different sectoral interests

• The role of planning and management

• The importance of economic, financial, social and environmental criteria (an how to combine them)

• Who are the decision makers and how do we deal with the strict and the loose meaning of sustainable urbanization

• Ecological cities in China, what are we heading for, just more ecological urban water systems?

No real score on ten dimensions of

Kenworthy • Is it a possible theoretical framework to decide whether

certain initiatives qualify for the ecological city label?

• The principles are quite broad and typically come from someone with a transport background (the numbers 3, 5, 6 and 10)

• However, there is really a vision and integrated strategy necessary to formulate them and eventually implement these dimensions

• Integration for Kenworthy seems to be mainly looking at the world from a transport sector perspective

• The importance of appropriate technologies for water and sanitation is only mentioned under point 4.

Conclusions

• Ecological cities imply integration of different approaches or sectors

• Integration could take place in the framework of urban management

• One finds idealistic, sectoral or issue based definitions of ecological cities (values play role)

• Should the Chinese be denied the level of energy consumption of average US citizens?

• Improvements in eco-efficiency require institutions & technology and fundamental change in culture

Conclusions concluded In China the initiatives are at the three

distinguished levels, but there is no real integrated approach at the provincial or city level

The institutional framework of Provinces taking the initiative, provincial capitals trying to do something and a State level ministry of Construction that need to approve projects while the state level Environmental Protection Agency regulation does not work at the moment

Consultancy firms claim that sustainable urban development start with integrated design (DHV)

Most important thing is convincing the people that it is important to do something to improve the environment. As Dutch government claimed in a campaign: the environment starts at home!

Key Findings Dimensions Beijing Dalian Dongtan

Shanghai

Nan

Jing

2008

Shenzhen

city

Shenzhen

port

Tianjin Wuhan

Level

a. City level

b. Neighborhood

c. Building

d. Household

C

C

N

C

C

N

N

B

Eco & pollution (E

& P)

P E P E

Water & waste

(Wat & w)

Wat Ww Wat Wat

Energy aspects (E) E E E E

Infrastructure &

Transportation

I&T

Integrated/sectoral N Y Y Y N Y Y N

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Conclusions from the table

• The challenge is to achieve integration in framework of

an urban strategy & plan, but in many cities the initiatives

are mainly sectoral, focusing on energy saving, water

related issues, pollution abatement or ecological features

• Sometimes only on one or two levels below the city level

• The approach is often not integrated nor based on a

strategic vision document

• Integration could take place in the framework of urban

management, but the emphasis should be on involving

stakeholders in implementing sectoral initiatives,

facilitating their initiatives at the city, neighborhood,

building and household level

•

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Conclusions 2

• Separating different sectoral interventions allows a

comparison or benchmarking on these dimensions

• Initiatives do not have to come from governments,

project developers and private individuals can also take

the initiative and these activities should be incentivized

• Objectives concerning justice such as equality are

important, while also managing the urban risks

• Decision making should be sustainability-based,

integrating social, economic, environmental & cultural

considerations & transit-oriented urban form principles

• Such decision making processes would be democratic,

inclusive, empowering and engendering hope

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Implications for Policy & Practice

• Eco cities can be seen as a new life style and type of

urban management, which is more in harmony with the

natural environment and predicated on the objective of

long term sustainability

• The focus is on the urban metabolism or a different way

of dealing with the cycles of energy, water, waste and

pollution

• Some authors emphasize the different life styles and the

importance of community values

• A challenge is to keep up and expand existing initiatives

and to compare their effectiveness & efficiency

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