Eco-Urbanisation: Promoting
Sustainable Development in
Metropolitan Regions of China
Xiangzheng Deng
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Cecilia Wong
The University of Manchester
Research Design

Outline of this presentation
l Context of study
l Research design
l Research plan
l Expect outputs
l Message of our projects

Context of Study
The introduction of the ‘National
New-type Urbanisation Plan’ by the
Chinese government in March 2014
signifies a shift in its urban
development strategy towards a more
human-centred and environmentally
sustainable pathway.
The ‘New-type Urbanization Plan’ will result
in the construction of 30 million units of
housing, with associated public amenities and
infrastructure, over the next seven years. As
the urban form and associated infrastructure
are not locked in yet, this rapid development
presents challenges and opportunities to move
towards a new type of urbanisation that is
financially and environmentally sustainable.

Context of Study
In order to accommodate the rapid increase in urbanisation,
the concept of a ‘new’ type of urbanisation is introduced for:
• Coordinating urban and rural development;
• Supporting an urban lifestyle for ecological production
and consumption;
• Making basic urban public services available to all
permanent urban residents;
• Optimizing macro-level city layouts;
• Integrating ‘ecological civilization’ into the urbanization
process.

Context of Study
• There are however inherent tensions among these core
principles as increasing service provision, housing and
infrastructure development will increase the built-up area
and urban land cover and could have major implications
on future energy use and emissions;
• The 2014 IPCC (p.940) report argues that the income gap
in China between urban and rural areas has caused major
differences in consumption and that there is a positive
relationship between economic growth and CO2
emissions of urban areas in China.

Context of Study
• Rapid urbanization of China is exerting environmental
impact
• Impact aggregated on population health and human well-
being in cities particularly in poor communities
• China has strict environmental codes and standards
however these are often not adhered to, and they have
sometimes been placed second to economic goals
• Whether the efficiency gains from urbanisation can offset
the scale of environmental challenges brought by the
associated growth consumption and infrastructure
construction?

Context of Study
• Chinese cities, like cities across the globe face challenges
of resource use, green space, species conservation,
biodiversity, pollution, security, public service provision,
population growth and adapting to climate change.
• There is an opportunity for Chinese policymakers to
learn from the experiments and best practices of other
urban areas in developing effective strategies to enhance
the urban environments and sustainability in future.

Relevant definitions
• Urban ecosystem：a complex artificial-socio-economic-ecosystem.
• Ecological communities: the modern ecological communities which with the
human and the nature harmonious as the core and can play an ecological
function.
• Integrated urban eco-communities management from multidimensional
and interdisciplinary research on：planning, industrial structure, resource
utilization and allocation policy, eco-environmental protection, for urban
adaptation and ecosystem sustainability.
The kernel is the relationships between human well-being and
eco-environmental sustainability which drives and be interacted
by economic production, conscience of life cycling, and
environmental conservation for green development.

Context of Study
l Avoid vicious cycle of
urbanization in future
China；
l Predict resource
utilization and
environmental capacity;
l Implicate co-design of
urban transformation and
eco-environmental
adaptation.
New-type urbanization
l Balance between high
speed of economic
growth and resource
consumption;
l Coordination on the
trade-offs and synergies
of multiple benefits
between current and
future generation.
Eco-civilization

Outline of this presentation
l Context of study
l Research design
l Research plan
l Expect outputs
l Message of our projects

Key research questions
• What kind of eco-environment can grantee a better living
standard of urban residents? How to quantitatively assess
the impacts from their changing consumption patterns?
• Where an integrated management options can be
formulated and concentrated for efficiently and effectively
allocating resources and improving using their using
efficiency as well ?
• How policy interventions can be enforced to coordinating
conflicts between resource supply and demand in urban or
potential urban area? How could we enhance our actions in
a clear order?

Conceptual framework
- explore spatial
distribution
- analyze
driving indicators
or impact factors
-integrated
modelling
- management and
policy implication in
hierarchical
frameworks

Key research issues
1. Eco-community construction constrained by supply and demand of
resources
o Eco-environmental indicators assessment
o Comprehensive life cycle assessment
2. Urban management for decision making
o Urban resource and ecosystem assessment
o Eco-asset valuation and assessment
3. Eco-efficiency and environmental effects
o Data Envelopment Analysis on eco-environmental effects
o Modelling eco-efficiency of environmental effects
4. Urban adaptation and policy implication
o Stochastic frontier approach for eco-environmental management
o Integrated modelling of urban eco-environmental optimization process for ecologically
adaptive management strategies

1. Eco-community construction given resource
supply and demand
• An overview of the evolving contexts of urban development in terms of
the interactions among the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental
aspects, and the changing institutional and legal frameworks that have
evolved in response to the challenges brought by globalization, climate
change and rapid urbanization.
• A meta-analysis of the literature review will be produced; and the
conceptual framework will be refined by adapting relevant theories and
methods to the rapid development context of China to examine the
relationship between urban development, lifestyles, resource
consumption, and environmental impacts and to identify the key
characteristics of a ‘well-being’ oriented urban future.
Eco-environmental indicators assessment

1. Eco-community construction given resource
supply and demand
Life cycle assessment
Analysis of lifestyle and consumption patterns in
typical eco-cities and their impacts on the urban and
regional environment by conducting integrated life
cycle assessment.

2. Urban management for decision making
Urban resource and ecosystem assessment
In-depth quantitative study on the efficiency of urban
ecology, environment, and resource utilisation for
sustainable development and the selected local communities
to identify key impact factors of environmental changes
brought by regional economic development and urbanisation.

2. Urban management for decision making
Eco-asset valuation and assessment
Identifying formal legislation and regulations, financial and
other incentives, investment and strategies in relation to
economic growth, service and infrastructure provisions and
environmental management in Chinese cities.

3. Eco-efficiency and environmental effects
Data Envelopment Analysis on eco-
environmental effects
Evaluate the comprehensive efficiency of ecological
community by conducting a data envelopment analysis.

3. Eco-efficiency and environmental effects
Modelling eco-efficiency of environmental effects
• Based on the literature review and field research, the research parameters such
as urban size, spatial scale, study period, etc. will be chosen to finalize the data
collection methodologies and analytical framework of the trend patterns of
eco-management.
• Undertaking a compilation of secondary statistics to construct sector-based
indices and performing an analysis (e.g. shift-share analysis to ascertain the
relationship between innovation-economic-environmental performance to
contextualize and benchmark the state of sustainable development) that can be
used in the integrated model.
• Analysis of lifestyle and consumption patterns in typical eco-cities and their
impacts on the urban and regional environment by using methods such as
index decomposition method and DEA.

4. Urban adaptation and policy implication
Stochastic frontier approach for eco-environmental management
Applying SFA to calculate eco-efficiency and to assess the ecological adaption management
patterns to figure out a series of adaptive and feasible measurement strategies. The findings
can then inform the development of eco-city policy and urban land use planning to meet the
objectives of sustainable urbanization.
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4. Urban adaptation and policy implication
Integrated modelling of urban eco-
environmental optimization process for
updating managerial strategies
Synthesizing the findings to provide insights to inform the
design of institutional frameworks, governance structures,
and policy and monitoring measures on the planning and
management of ecological environmental performance of
rapid urban growth, including beyond the Chinese context.

Outline of this presentation
l Context of study
l Research design
l Research plan
l Expect outputs
l Message of our projects

Research plan

Outline of this presentation
l Context of study
l Research design
l Research plan
l Expect outputs
l Message of our projects

Expect outputs
• Integrated approach：
§ Comprehensive life cycle assessment methods
§ Input-Output methods
§ Stochastic frontier approach
• Optimized management:
§ Community planning, industrial structure, resources and policy
§ Community ecology management control path
§ Community ecological integrated management method
• Scientific decision-making:
§ Data, parameters, models
§ Research results
§ Expert knowledge

Expect outputs
• Web-based platform to visualize the research
findings
Tables (3)
• Input-Output table
• Urban’s eco-efficiency
• Resource use and environmental efficiency
Criterions (4) Spatial planning Industrial structure
Resource management Adjustment measures
Platform (1)

Impacts
1. Knowledge exchange via accessible methods
and media;
2. Active engagement with policy elites;
3.Research capacity building with key eco-
urbanization stakeholders;
4. Dialogue between academics and local and
national stakeholders.

Outline of this presentation
l Context of study
l Research design
l Research plan
l Expect outputs
l Message of our projects

Message of our projects
(Dataset)
Socioeconomic
indicators: 6
types and 140
sub-types
城市社会经济
国民经济
人口
就业人员和工资
能源
资源和环境
人民生活
产业
科技、文化、教育
城市概况
……
国民生产总值、三大产业构成、居民消费水平、投入产出消耗系数
人口普查数据、人口抽样调查数据
经济活动人口、分产业就业人数、城镇就业人数、城乡就业人数
能源弹性系数、能源消费总量、综合能源平衡表
水资源分布、森林资源、自然灾害、环境污染治理投资
城市居民家庭收入、居民收入恩格尔系数、城市居民家庭基本情况
城市农产品产量、工业产品产量、建筑业总产值等
科技教育基本情况、城市高等院校数量、文化机构数量、医疗保障情况等
城市供水、城市燃气、城市公共交通、城市绿地与园林、城市设施水平等
土地利用
全球土地覆盖数据
我国土地覆盖数据
……
全球地表覆盖5套LUCC数据（USGS、UMD、BU、GLC2000、ESA）
1988、1995、2000、2005、2010年5期土地利用转移数据，主要地类包括（耕地、林/草地、
建设用地）1km、10km县域内面积占比数据
气候参数
气温
降水
日照时数
相对湿度
……
1961~2010气温空间数据
1961~2010降水空间数据
1961~2010日照时数数据
1961~2010相对湿度数据
生态参数
潜热
显热
……
站点潜热数据
站点显热数据
社区社会经济
生态参数数据产品
城市环保协会
城市产业结构及资源利用
社区生态管理模式
家庭对政策的相应行为
社区自然资源禀赋
社区经济地理指标
……
多传感器模拟或记录的生态参数数据产品
基础地理环境、
城市支柱产业、产业结构
生态环境管理制度、法律制度、社区管理方式
家庭对生态管理的反应行为
劳动力投入、土地投入、技术投入、资本投入、自然禀赋
农地流转数据、产业组织形式、产品流通、作物生产结构
社区管理
社会系统
经济系统
交通系统
设施系统
土地系统
管理系统
社会结构与人口健康、社会经济发展规划、政府工作报告
活力、经济结构与效率、社会经济统计数据、
服务功能和交通压力、交通发展规划
服务功能、能源和资源利用效率
景观恢复力、土地利用工体规划
管理与监管效率、生态保护规划
已
收
集
待
调
研
Data collection

Message of our projects
(Dataset)
The classification of urban land is based on remote sensing
data, land use data, and analysis and modelling of
correlativity of industrial structure.

We have extensive experience in household survey and
empirical study.
Message of our projects
(Survey)

Message of our projects
(Model and methods)
Intermediate inputs Final demand
output Land use Water supply
sector 1 sector…
sector
N
residents export
sector 1
sector…
sector N
Primary
factors
import
input
Land use
Water
resource
Input-output table
Industry instruction
Resource
utilization
Environment
factors
Planning and
allocation
We developed a type of input-output table with
extensive accounts.

Crude Oil Gas Electricity
This model (REEE) is used as a tool to
analyze household production and
consumption.
Local resource-environmental-ecological-economic model
Message of our projects
(Model and methods)

Models for assessing
urban ecosystem
health.
Models for assessing
unobserved pollution
among cities.
Message of our projects
(Publications)

Dynamics, features and
impacts of urban land
use in different models of
urbanization.
Urbanization, lifestyle and consumption
The importance of
urban’s production and
consumption system for
sustainable development.
Message of our projects
(Publications)

The impact of ecological
management model on
resource utilization.
Review of ecological management model of communities and
cities
Interaction between
residents’ behavior and
ecological environment
of communities.
Message of our projects
(Publications)

Urbanization and its ecological impact
Message of our projects
(Publications)

Urbanization and resource utilization
Message of our projects
(Publications)

Thank You!
Xiangzheng Deng and Cecilia Wong
on behalf of the team
Research Design