[sustran] China's eco-city faces growth challenge

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6756289.stm>

*China's plans to build an "eco-city" of 500,000 people on a huge island 
in the Yangtze Delta have been widely heralded. But local planners seem 
to have different priorities from the world leaders who have flocked to 
see the project. *

The sleepy island of Chongming lies across the Yangtze Delta from the 
dynamic metropolis of Shanghai, the centre of China's global ambitions.

It takes an hour's ride on a slow ferry across the river - with inland 
cargo boats slipping by in the fog - to reach the island, which is 
criss-crossed with canals and fields where peasant agriculture still 
takes place.

Chongming is the size of Manhattan, and its wetlands form one of the 
most important migratory bird sanctuaries in China, known as Dongtan.

Currently this section of the island is deserted, except for a few 
visitors who make their way to the isolated nature reserve.

*Demonstration city*

It is here that Shanghai plans to build a demonstration eco-city which 
will ultimately house 500,000 people, designed by the UK engineering 
consultancy firm Arup.

Peter Head, Arup's project director, says that the project can be a 
model for the world.

"Significant global climate change, environmental issues, water 
shortages and the need for the use of cleaner and renewable energy 
demand the creation of a new approach to urban development," he 
explained in his office in Shanghai.

The eco-city, to be linked to the mainland by an 18-mile long 
bridge-tunnel which also spans two smaller islands, will initially house 
between 20,000 and 50,000 people.

Conventional cars will be banned in the city centre, while the plans 
include capturing and purifying water, waste management recycling, 
reducing landfills that damage the environment, and creating combined 
heat and power systems.

Mr Head says he has been impressed by the speed and determination of the 
Chinese authorities, who moved at "three times the speed" of Western 
planning departments.

China's centralised planning system has been behind the extraordinary 
transformation of Shanghai in the last decade into a Western-style 
metropolis.

*Development boom*

Dongtan is just one of nine new towns planned by the city of Shanghai to 
relieve overcrowding in a city of more than 20 million people.

Shanghai also plans to relocate much of its shipbuilding industry - the 
largest in China - on one of these islands, making space for the 
WorldExpo 2010 site, while providing employment for many of the island's 
residents.

And it plans to rehouse many of the 650,000 inhabitants of the island in 
modern housing, to make room for eco-tourism and eco-farming.

But some observers, such as Professor Chen of Tongji University, think 
that the local planners are more concerned with raising the income and 
standard of living of the region than ensuring ecological development.

They say that the new ecologically-sound housing developments may not be 
affordable by locals and could become suburban housing for the rich.


Already many have been purchased by overseas Chinese.

And they are concerned that the development of shipyards, power plants 
and bridge- tunnel systems may stimulate rather than retard the 
over-development of the region.

Certainly in a tour of the project run by Shanghai's planners, growth 
and expansion of this quiet backwater seemed to be the central theme.

*Final obstacle*

But ultimately, the development of Dongtan Eco-city is dependent not on 
ecology but politics.

After the rapid development of the master plan for the city, final 
authorisation of the funds for the project has stalled.

Arup's Peter Head says the problem is that all big projects are now 
awaiting approval from the new boss of Shanghai, who was only appointed 
in March, following the sacking of the former Shanghai Chinese communist 
party chief in October on corruption charges.

With China's high-profile commitment to showing it is serious about 
tackling environmental issues, it would be surprising if the project did 
not go through.

But its contribution to global warming is likely to remain controversial.


-- 
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Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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