Planning for sustainability in China's urban development: Status and challenges for Dongtan eco-city project

Abstract

With the rapid urbanization in China, the country faces significant challenges in sustainable urban development and actively explores novel ways to expand urban areas while conserving natural resources. Radical changes in city planning are being made to switch to sustainable development, with new cities being designed to be ecologically friendly guided by principles like carbon neutrality and self-sufficiency. This paper introduces the development of the Dongtan eco-city project on Chongming Island, Shanghai and describes how it addresses issues including energy, water, waste, transportation, ecosystem, and social and economic development in its design. The lessons and challenges of eco-city development based on the Dongtan experience are also discussed. If the vision of a zero-carbon emissions sustainable city is successfully realized, Dongtan will serve as a model for developing similar cities across China and the rest of the developing world. Currently, the development of this project is behind schedule and whether the eco-city plan will materialize or not is in question. Even though the project remains mostly on the drawing boards, the planning and preliminary development of Dongtan eco-city have generated significant enthusiasm for green buildings and influenced plans for other sustainable urban development projects in China.

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Hefa Cheng

Hefa Cheng is currently a consulting assistant professor of environmental engineering at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University. His research is focused on understanding the dynamics and sustainability of natural and engineered systems and the development of strategies, technologies and policies to address critical environmental issues related to the quality of groundwater.

Yuanan Hu

Yuanan Hu is a research data analyst at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University, and M.S. degrees in Environmental Fluid Mechanics & Hydrology, and Statistics from Stanford University. Her principal research interests are in the integration of spatial analysis techniques with advanced computational algorithms for simulation of hydrologic and environmental processes, and statistical analysis of environmental data to support decision-making.

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Environmental impact

How to achieve sustainable urban development is a global challenge. This perspective is a timely report on a high-profile eco-city development project, Dongtan eco-city, which once claimed to be the world's first purpose-built eco-city. Fundamental principles and multidisciplinary approaches involving urban planning, transportation, housing, energy, economic development, and natural habitats for designing eco-friendly cities are illustrated using Dongtan as an example. This perspective also reflects on some of the controversies and major challenges in building Dongtan and other eco-cities, and discusses alternative development paths in China. As a global pilot for exploring the ways of becoming self-sustaining for future cities, experience and lessons from the Dongtan project are also valuable to sustainable development efforts in the rest of the world.

1. Introduction

With a population of 1.3 billion, China is the world's most populous country. It has been the fastest-growing major nation for the past two decades with an average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate above 10%. With the rapidly developing economy, China is experiencing the largest scale of rural-to-urban migration in the history of mankind. Since 1978, an estimated 150–200 million people have moved from the countryside into the cities, with the proportion of people living in cities more than doubling to the current level of 43%. It is estimated that 70% of China's population, or 1.1 billon people, will be living in urban areas by 2050, engaging in economic activities that are more energy intensive than rural activities. Already challenged with multi-faceted environmental problems including air and water pollution, water shortages, and massive energy demands,^1–3 further urbanization in China will put heavy strains on its resources and environment unless more sustainable paths of development are adopted.

The challenge for sustainable urban growth in China is unprecedented: 300 million people are expected to move from the countryside into cities, necessitating the building of over 400 new cities over the next two decades. There is no doubt that the per capita ecological footprint, which measures the amount of biologically productive land and water area required to support the demands of a population or productive activity,⁴ will be significantly increased once the rural inhabitants move into cities. Ideally, China should halt or even reverse the trend of urbanization, which brings ever-growing costs of resource depletion, pollution, and damage to ecosystem. On the other hand, the practicalities and pressure of social and industrial development will not allow for this unless alternative paths of development are taken. In the light of the foreseen rapid urbanization, the country has developed the vision that the new cities should be as sustainable as possible to accommodate the huge influx of workers without destroying the environment in the process.^5,6 Radical changes in city planning are being made to switch to sustainable development in China, with new cities being designed to be ecologically friendly guided by principles like energy neutrality and self-sufficiency.

The most publicized, if not the most significant project in China's attempts to quench the hunger for housing and energy is Dongtan, which claims to be the world's first purpose-built eco-city.^7,8 Dongtan, or East Beach, is located at near the east end of Chongming, the world's largest alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze River, where it empties into the East China Sea on the west Pacific (Fig. 1a). The east end is the island's main deposit area for silt runoff and currently expands outwards at 80–110 meters per year. Dongtan sits on an estuary tidal flat that is adjacent to the Chongming Dongtan National Nature Reserve, a wetland reserve recognized under the international Ramsar Convention, as shown in Fig. 1b. Millions of swans, geese, and shorebirds traveling along Asia's north-south migratory route use Chongming Island as a destination for staging and wintering. In the development of Dongtan, priorities will be given to the protection of the regional ecological environment, while efforts will be made to promote the coordinated development of economy and society. Dongtan eco-city is designed as the world's first sustainable, carbon-neutral city, while offering high quality living and working conditions for its inhabitants.^7,8

Fig. 1 Location of the planned Dongtan eco-city project: (a) Chongming Island, and (b) Dongtan.

Dongtan eco-city will consist of pedestrian-friendly small towns, each with their own housing, working, and service infrastructure, which will be developed in several stages in the next three to four decades. The first phase of developing Dongtan is scheduled to be completed in 2010, by then it will be a city with up to 10 000 residents living in an area of 1 square kilometre.⁷ A start-up area of 6.5 square kilometres will be fully developed by 2020, accommodating up to 80 000 people; ultimately, Dongtan will be developed into a city of 30 square kilometres with the population reaching half a million upon completion in 2050.⁷ Dongtan will be initially developed as a town consisting of three villages that merge to form a city center, it will then grow as a collection of towns connected by bike routes and public transport corridors.^7,8 Based on the project plan, the South Village containing 2500 to 3000 dwellings will be built in the first phase of development, which will become one of the main features of the 2010 World Expo hosted by Shanghai with the theme of “Better City, Better Life”.^7,8

Dongtan eco-city strives to serve as a model for cities across China and the rest of the developing world.⁷ If it succeeds, Dongtan could be used as a template for future urban design in China. After Dongtan, China has announced the plans to develop four more eco-cities in Langfang, Wuxi, Tangshan, and Tianjin, and construction has already started at some of these sites. The Dongtan experience is helpful to the planning and development of these eco-cities. Further, Dongtan eco-city is also a global pilot for exploring the ways of becoming self-sustaining for future cities.

2. Design of Dongtan eco-city

2.1. Principles of creating an eco-city

Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.⁹ There are two concepts of sustainability known as “weak sustainability” and “strong sustainability”.¹⁰ The weak sustainability model considers that the three dimensions of sustainability, economic development, social development, and environmental protection, are interwoven with one another, as illustrated in Fig. 2a. Each dimension has its own distinct driving forces and objectives: the economy is geared mainly towards improving human welfare, primarily through increases in the supply and consumption of goods and services; the environmental protection focuses on the integrity and resilience of ecological systems; and the social development emphasizes the enrichment of human relationships and achievement of individual and group aspirations.¹¹ The main criticism of this model is that it assumes natural capital is substitutable and can be expressed in monetary terms. An alternative model, known as strong sustainability, has emerged as a more-promising approach (Fig. 2b). Strong sustainability is defined in terms of constant environmental quality, and recognizes that human society and the economic activity within it are totally constrained by the natural systems of our planet.^10,12 This approach fails to address the conflict between social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Thus, an integrated approach is necessary to overcome the gap between the schools of weak and strong sustainability.¹²

Fig. 2 Schematics illustrating the two concepts of sustainability: (a) weak sustainability (adapted from Munasinghe¹¹ and Adams¹³), and (b) strong sustainability.

Cities are major consumers and distributors of goods and services, and typically drain resources from surrounding regions on which they depend. Consequently, the ecological impact of cities goes beyond their geographic locations. With about half of the world's population now living in cities and urban areas, the sustainability of cities is an important component in the overall scheme of sustainable development. Whether cities can truly become sustainable is debatable, but this does not prevent steps being taken towards sustainability by various types of communities.¹⁴

One of the most significant efforts made towards sustainable urban development is eco-city, an ecologically healthy city designed to minimize ecological footprint.¹⁵ An eco-city aims to achieve sustainable development within the carrying capacity of local ecosystems through changing the production mode, consumption behavior and decision instruments based on ecological economics and systems engineering.^5,6 The following ten principles have been proposed to create eco-cities:¹⁶

(1) revise land-use priorities to create compact, diverse, green, and safe mixed-use communities around public transportation facilities;

(2) revise transportation priorities to discourage driving and to emphasize “access by proximity”;

(3) restore damaged urban environments;

(4) create affordable, safe, convenient, and economically mixed housing;

(5) nurture social justice and create improved opportunities for the underprivileged people;

(6) support local agriculture, urban greening, and community gardening;

(7) promote recycling and resource conservation while reducing pollution and hazardous wastes;

(8) support ecologically sound economic activity while discouraging pollution, waste, and the use and production of hazardous materials;

(9) promote simple lifestyles and discourage excessive consumption of material goods;

(10) increase public awareness of the local environment and bioregion through educational and outreach activities.

2.2. Master plan of Dongtan eco-city

With over 20 million people, Shanghai is the largest Chinese city in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Chongming is the most rural area of Shanghai with little manufacturing industry. During the development of Chongming, Shanghai municipal government conceived the idea of transforming it into an ecological island to serve as a national model for sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental awareness. Chongming has a unique wetland landscape, rich biological resources, and an ideal environment for harvesting solar and wind power. The developer of Dongtan aimed to develop the 86 square kilometres land next to the natural preserve into a model integrated ecological area. This project is expected to become a showcase for technologies and urban design that help to protect the environment while maintaining economic growth and social development. Dongtan eco-city was designed following an “integrated urbanism” approach that considers the environment, social, and economic aspects to create sustainable communities.^7,17,18 To achieve the goals of being self-sustaining in energy, water and food, with no greenhouse gas emissions in transportation, overall plans were made for the layout, environment, transportation, and infrastructure of Dongtan. In addition, Dongtan was designed to have energy efficiency and minimum waste and pollutant generation, and to be a green city with plenty of green spaces and biodiversity. According to the master plan, Dongtan eco-city will have a 60% smaller ecological footprint (2.6 global hectares per person) than conventional Chinese cities, a 66% reduction in energy demand, 40% energy from bio-energy, 100% renewable energy in buildings and on-site transportation, reduction of waste to landfills by 83%, and almost no CO₂ emissions.^7,8,17Table 1 lists the functional zones planned in Dongtan, and Table 2 summarizes the key design features of Dongtan eco-city in building, energy, water, waste, transportation, food, ecosystem, and social and economic development. Most of the eco-city design features are overlapping and interlinked, and should not be examined separately. At Dongtan, seemingly disconnected ideas from disciplines including urban planning, transportation, housing, energy, economic development, and natural habitats are all unified under the single framework of the eco-city.¹⁹ The ten principles of creating eco-cities are clearly embedded in many of these design features.

Table 1 Summary of the functional zones planned at Dongtan.²⁰

Functional zone	Area/km^2	Plan details
Residential zone	2.80	Mixed use buildings will be constructed to accommodate up to 20 000 residents.
Artificial lakes	7.40	Three artificial lakes will be developed, serving as buffers between the urban and the natural environment. They will also play important roles in water storage, flood control, recreation, and landscaping.
Wetland park	18.50	The wetland park will consist of existing wetlands and wetland created by returning agricultural land to a wetland state. It will serve as a wildlife sanctuary and a staging post for migratory birds.
Bird protection and education zone	1.70	This zone will serve the functions of migratory bird protection, eco-tourism, and eco-environmental education.
Education and research park	5.90	The park will be dedicated to education and research activities in ecology, environmental sciences, and information technology.
Research and development park	2.30	It will serve as a research and development base for information technology, software development, and biotechnology.
Land recreation area	13.75	Sports and recreation facilities, including an equestrian area, an artificial beach, and a golf course, will be developed in this zone.
Water recreation area	0.78	A port for tour boats and water recreation facilities will be developed in this area.
Transit center	0.45	A parking lot, a port for water taxi, bus stops, and shops will be developed in the center.
Organic farm and experimental zone	17.00	The area will include plots for developing and testing of organic farming and modern agricultural technology.
Eco-industry zone	4.80	It will be dedicated to development and production of eco-industrial products and services, as well as information technology products.
Aquatic farm and hatchery	9.50	Freshwater fishes will be raised in the pounds within the area.
Landscaping and urban forestry	54.55	The land will be used for growing trees and other landscaping plants.
Modern agricultural area	11.70	Eco-farms will be developed to grow grains and vegetables.
Reserved land	3.66	The land reserved for municipal facilities and future development. In the short-term, it will be developed as landscaping land.
Others	9.01	Land for streets, canals, mass transit stops, light rail route, and other miscellaneous uses.

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Table 2 Key design features of Dongtan eco-city.^7,8,17,18

Design aspect	Key features
Building	• Dongtan is designed as a compact city to reduce infrastructure costs, and to improve amenity and energy efficiency to public transportation systems;
	• Four to eight story buildings in a mix of prices, sizes and styles will be built;
	• The density of buildings will allow for pedestrian neighborhoods and efficient heating and cooling systems, without overburdening the island's soft soil;
	• Local labor and materials will be used for construction when possible;
	• Low-cost apartments will be built using sustainable materials, such as wood from replenished sources;
	• Special building materials will be used and streets and homes will be laid out for the best use of sun and shade.
Energy	• Dongtan aims to reduce energy demand by 64% and have zero emissions for energy production, which will save 350 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year;
	• The city will be self-sufficient in energy, meeting all its requirements with renewable sources: solar, wind, and biomass;
	• CO2 emissions will be cut as much as possible with the remaining emissions offset by planting trees and using environmentally friendly technologies to generate energy to maintain overall carbon neutrality;
	• Buildings will be fitted with photovoltaic cells and micro wind turbines to generate electricity;
	• Giant wind turbines will be installed on the outskirts of the city to generate electricity;
	• A combined heat and power plant will be fueled by rice husks;
	• Biogas will be produced from the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) and sewage;
	• All buildings will be highly efficient in energy, and their energy use will be 2/3 less than is typical;
	• Buildings will be naturally ventilated and properly insulated, with turf and vegetation covering their roofs, which will serve as a natural form of insulation;
	• Low-energy lighting and appliances will be used in buildings;
	• Special building materials and streets and homes designed for the best use of sun and shade will help to reduce their energy use;
	• Meters will display energy consumption and generation in each house to allow residents to monitor their real-time energy use.
Water	• Dongtan's water consumption will be reduced by 43% and water discharge will be reduced by 88%;
	• A dual piping system will provide water for potable use and reclaimed water for toilet flushing and farm irrigation;
	• Green rooftops will play an important role in meeting the city's water demand through collecting and storing rainwater;
	• Sewage will be treated in biological treatment systems;
	• A network of canals is designed to help with flood controls in the city.
Waste	• Dongtan is conceptualized as a zero waste city with most of its solid waste recycled and remanufactured;
	• MSW will be sorted and up to 80% of solid waste will be recycled, with <10% of MSW landfilled;
	• Organic waste and human waste will be composted, with the biogas and the compost used as an energy resource and fertilizer for local farmland.
Transportation	• Dongtan will have zero CO2 emissions from energy for vehicles;
	• The city will be connected to Shanghai by a 19 km bridge-tunnel in early 2010;
	• Visitors will park their cars outside the city and use public transportation systems within the city;
	• The city will be connected by bike routes and public transport corridors, allowing residents to access different parts of the city by tram, bus, bicycle, and on foot;
	• The streets of the city will be laid out such that walking or cycling to work is quicker than driving;
	• It will take <7 min to walk from any part of the city to a public transportation stop/station (i.e., within 500 m);
	• Shared zero-emission commercial delivery trucks will be used for transporting goods throughout the city;
	• Gas and diesel vehicles will be banned in the city, and all vehicles and boats used within the city will be powered by battery or hydrogen fuel cell;
	• Motorcycles will be banned and replaced by electric scooters or bicycles;
	• Hydrogen filling stations are planned in the city.
Food	• Food will be supplied by local farming and fishing communities;
	• Sophisticated organic farming techniques linked to the waste and sewage recycling systems are designed to create a sustainable cycle of local food production;
	• Composted organic wastes from Dongtan will be returned to the local farmland to maintain the long-term soil fertility and production capacity;
	• Growing organic vegetables in “plant factories” with hydroponic techniques is also planned.
Ecosystem	• The existing wetlands will be enhanced by returning agricultural land to a wetland state to create a >3.5 km buffer zone between the city and the mudflats;
	• Only around 40% of the land area of the Dongtan site will be developed to urban areas, with the rest dedicated to farms, parks, and wetlands, preventing pollutants (light, sound, emissions and water discharges) from reaching the adjacent wetland areas;
	• Dongtan is designed to have a per-capita green area of 27 m^2;
	• A variety of native vegetation will be introduced to line canals, streets, and rooftops, which will attract butterflies, insects and birds into the city.
Social and economic development	• Dongtan will have a diverse population, affordable housing, at least 30 000 jobs on the spot, schools and a hospital, to ensure it is not dependent on Shanghai;
	• The eco-city will be partly a tourist attraction, and up to 50 000 jobs in tourism and research will be generated around Dongtan;
	• There will be employment opportunity for the majority of people who live in the city across all social and economic demographics;
	• There will be policy incentives to attract companies to Dongtan and to encourage people to live and work in the city;
	• Eco-industry (waste management, wind and solar technology) will be a major component of Dongtan's economy.

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3. Current status of Dongtan eco-city

Despite the grand master plan and high expectations, it is unlikely for an eco-city to appear at Dongtan any time soon. According to the original plan, the first phase of the city development would be completed by 2010 for the Shanghai World Expo, when up to 10 000 people would be living in the city.^7,8 As of April 2009, none of the housing, water taxis, and sewage treatment plant outlined in the development plan had materialized at Dongtan. The site planned for the first phase of development of the eco-city remained as flat fields of vegetables and swampy rice paddies (Fig. 3). Dongtan eco-city was no longer listed under the agenda of the Shanghai World Expo. One of the key driving factors of Dongtan's design is the preservation of wildlife and agriculture. As a piece of recently reclaimed land, 24.5%, 49.9%, and 25.6% of Dongtan's lands are cultivated, semi-cultivated, and uncultivated, respectively. Eco-farming and other agricultural activities have been making steady progress at Dongtan. In 2007, the total sales of agricultural products from Dongtan reached nearly USD 2.5 million. Organic grains, vegetables, and fruits produced from Dongtan are expected to be on the market before the opening of the Shanghai World Expo.

Fig. 3 Agricultural field at the site planned for the first phase of development of Dongtan eco-city.

Besides the agricultural development, a wetland park and a wind farm are also being developed at Dongtan. With the second phase of construction completed in the end of 2007, a total area of 1.3 square kilometres has been developed in the wetland park. Former man-made ditches and pounds were converted into lakes, and various native benthophyte and floating plants flourish throughout the park (Fig. 4). Over 100 wild bird species, including many endangered ones, have been attracted to the park. The first phase of Dongtan wind farm composed of 13 wind turbines (Fig. 5) went into full operation in June 2008. These 1.5-megawatt (MW) variable speed variable pitch wind turbines are equipped with three blades, with rated power produced at wind speeds above 3.4 m s⁻¹ (annual mean wind speed at Dongtan is greater than 6.7 m s⁻¹). Annual electricity generation from these wind turbines is 39 million kWh, which offsets the combustion of 1.95 × 10⁴ tonnes of coal and the release of 2.73 × 10⁴ tonnes of CO₂ each year. The power output from the wind farm is sufficient to power 26 000 households (with an average electricity consumption of 1500 kWh/yr) in Shanghai.

Fig. 4 Wetland park developed at Dongtan.

Fig. 5 Wind turbines in operation at Dongtan.

With the Dongtan eco-city project falling significantly behind schedule, Masdar City in United Arab Emirates has overtaken Dongtan in the race to become the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste eco-city. Masdar City, a USD 22 billion initiative to build a brand new, zero-emissions city for 50 000 residents from scratch in Abu Dhabi, broke ground in early 2008.²¹ Building work is well underway, and the city has linked its first 10 MW solar array to the country's electricity grid in June 2009.²²

4. Challenges for Dongtan eco-city project

If Dongtan eco-city is successfully built, it will be a compelling model for sustainable urban development. Currently, the visions and the master plan are in place, but there are also several significant challenges laying ahead for completion of this project. Some of them are unique to Dongtan, while others also apply to other similar projects in China and the rest of the world.

4.1. Stringent land conservation policy

With significant economic development in China, urban land has increasingly expanded and encroached upon arable land in the past decades. To meet the land demand during industrial and urban growth while maintaining enough agricultural land for food self-sufficiency, the Chinese government established a compensation system, which requires that the requisition of cultivated land must be compensated by land users reclaiming the same acreage of agricultural land.²³ The vision of an eco-city at Dongtan had not been in compliance with the country's land use policy from the very beginning. Dongtan was a piece of land reclaimed from estuarine marsh wetland with no permanent population before Shanghai municipal government transferred its ownership to the developer in 1998. Essentially this land was intended for compensating the agricultural land lost to urbanization in Shanghai, thus the primary usage of the Dongtan site should be for agricultural production instead of urban development. The Chinese Land Management Law stipulates that any requisition of agricultural land over 0.7 square kilometres requires the approval of the State Council,²⁴ while the land area to be converted into urban zone at Dongtan is well above this limit. Therefore, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the developer to get the construction permit (for the urban zone) at Dongtan under the current agricultural land protection regulations in China.

4.2. Lack of government financial incentives

The development of eco-cities in China is gaining momentum and has attracted the interests of both the public and the private sectors.^6,25 Although the Chinese government encourages eco-city development, there is no strong economic incentive for businesses to invest in developing eco-cities. Despite the green image, financial interest was one of the major drivers of the Dongtan eco-city project. The city's profit potential was a primary concern for the developer, which some time conflicted with the priority on its ecological footprint. Dongtan was planned with the hope of attracting residents from Shanghai instead of serving as a city for the former farmers who lost their land to urbanization. Even for the 20% of projected dwellings designated as affordable housing, they would be too expensive for the local farmers. The government needs to provide financial incentives to encourage eco-city development, which is critical for the developers to stay focused on the environmental and social considerations.

4.3. Costs of eco-cities

Due to its many special features (e.g., energy-saving, green construction), the development cost of an eco-city can be much higher than a conventional city of the same size. The tremendous development costs may keep eco-cities a distant dream. At an estimated cost of USD 1.3 billion, the Dongtan eco-city project is not affordable by the developer alone. Besides the significant development cost, living in an eco-city may also cost more to its residents. It is expected that housing and services in eco-cities are going to be more expensive than in comparable cities: renewable energies cost more than conventional sources, electric and hydrogen fuel cell-power vehicles are more expensive than gasoline- or diesel-fueled vehicles. Some of the extra capital costs (e.g., for energy-saving measures) may be recouped by lower operational costs in the long-term. Still, people must be able to afford the technologies in the first place, and they would not move in if the cost of eco-living does not come at an affordable price. How to keep the ecologically-sound housing and the sustainable city living affordable by the inhabitants must be addressed before eco-cities can become successful in China. Ideally, an eco-city aims to attract a diverse population, while the high living cost will inhibit the ready expansion of the socio-economic spectrum in the city.

4.4. Lack of public participation

One of the main characteristics of the conventional planning process is a top-down approach in decision-making and lack of participation. In contrast, sustainable planning as a bottom-up process is based on the involvement of all actors and stakeholders from the beginning and throughout the planning process, and public participation is an important aspect.²⁶ Participation of stakeholders and users, who possess richer and more diverse knowledge than an expert or team of experts, and the consensus among the different actors and stakeholders in decision-making will help avoid possible conflicts and generally be rewarded by greater commitment to the final results from everyone.²⁶ Eco-cities are designed to enhance the health and quality of life of their inhabitants and to maintain the ecosystems that they depend on. This requires careful ecological planning and management and participation of citizens and stakeholders in the planning and management processes; however, public participation has been inadequate in eco-city development in China.⁶ For eco-cities built from scratch, like Dongtan, there is essentially no public involvement as the users are not there yet. How to get sufficient public involvement in the planning and development of such projects can be a major challenge for the developers.

4.5. Green living style of people

An eco-city is not merely a city designed and built with considerations of environmental and ecological impact, it must be inhabited by people who are dedicated to green living, i.e., recycle, reuse, conservation, and minimization of pollution. Building design and practice can help make cities and urban areas more sustainable, but the city management and people's lifestyle must adopt sustainability thinking for an eco-city to function as planned. If managed or maintained poorly, the city's green infrastructure will not be fully functional. Also, individual's adaptation or modification of buildings, lifestyle, and consumption habits may completely upset the intended outcome of ecological design. Therefore, combination of regulations, outreach and financial incentives will be necessary to educate the residents of eco-cities and to halt excessive consumption of materials once they are developed.

5. Alternatives to eco-city development

How sustainable it is to develop an eco-city on agricultural land near an ecologically significant wetland on Chongming Island is questionable. Even with the best outcome of ecological design, the overall impact of Dongtan on the surrounding environment will surely be greater than that if it had been left untouched and kept as a nature reserve. For its inhabitants, the per capita ecological footprint will also be greater compared to that of rural living. Once Dongtan is developed into a dense urban area, local ecological systems are expected to be under stress, which will affect the populations and biodiversity of insects and wildlife. The construction phase will undoubtedly generate and release noise, emissions, wastewater, and waste into the surrounding environment and disturb the wetland ecosystem. Except for the capture of rainwater from rooftops, no special plan is available on storm runoff management at Dongtan. If left untreated, storm water carrying contaminants and nutrients from the eco-city can damage the delicate wetland ecosystem. Besides the potential negative impact on the local ecological system, the Dongtan eco-city project may offer little on improving the sustainability of the developed cities, where 43% of China's population currently lives.

Building eco-cities should not be considered as the only solution to growth; halting or even reversing the trends of urbanization can truly reduce the negative environmental impact. Connections and relationships between conservation practices and community development in relation to rural sustainability have received considerable attention in China in recent years.²⁷ Since 1980, a vigorous campaign for demonstrating eco-construction, which refers to the application of ecological principles to the development of human ecosystems in order to achieve sustainability, has appeared in China and many eco-villages have sprung up across the country.^28–30 While the Dongtan eco-city remains on the drawing board, sustainable rural development in the form of eco-village is well underway on Chongming Island. A cluster of five villages near Dongtan have been designated as eco-villages to form a model of sustainable rural living. Eco-tourism is one of the main attractions of these eco-villages, which showcase the practices of everyday sustainability and the valuable experiences of rural life. These eco-villages are not powered by renewable energy and their infrastructure is not built to any particular standards, but they play an important role in promoting ecological and socioeconomic sustainability. Eco-villages and other types of sustainable communities, which are no less significant than eco-cities in sustainable development, should also be actively explored and pursued in China.

6. Conclusion

Due to the huge demands for materials and energy, it is challenging, if not impossible, for large communities to be sustainable. An eco-city is a compromise between the need for protecting the natural environment and the pressure of urbanization in China. The Dongtan eco-city project is a bold attempt towards sustainable urban development, aiming to achieve self-sufficiency in energy, water, and food, with no CO₂ emissions. Consistent with the principles of creating eco-cities, overall plans have been made to address the building, energy, water, waste, transportation, food, ecosystem, and social and economic development issues at Dongtan. Designed with an integrated urbanism approach, Dongtan eco-city will have a 60% smaller ecological footprint (2.6 global hectares per person) than conventional Chinese cities. Even though the Dongtan eco-city project is currently stalled, it has contributed to sustainable urban development in China towards changing and rethinking urban planning principles. A series of challenges exist for developing “true” eco-cities in China, nonetheless, the country is committed to developing eco-cities and other types of sustainable communities in the face of climate change, environmental pollution, water shortage, and energy demand.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful and constructive comments of the anonymous referee.

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Footnote

† Part of a themed issue dealing with water and water related issues.

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