Establish Environmental Bottom Lines, Build New-Type Towns (Zero Distance)

—— Research Report on Actively Responding to Environmental Challenges in Urbanization

Research Group of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Ministry of Environmental Protection

Recently, the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Environmental Protection conducted a series of research activities around the theme of how to actively respond to environmental challenges in urbanization. According to the research, current urbanization development in some places has caused considerable damage to the natural ecology and resource environment. There is an urgent need to establish a strict environmental bottom-line system to reasonably guide and control the pattern, scale, and quality of urban construction, ensuring that urbanization development is truly new-type, green, and healthy.

China's urbanization development faces considerable environmental pressure

China has shortages of resources and a fragile environment. With the concentration of urban population and industries, environmental conflicts are acute. Over the years, rapid urbanization has accumulated many environmental problems. If the quality of urbanization is not improved, it will inevitably impact the environmental bottom line and bring greater environmental pressure.

The survey found that some regions still regard urban expansion, new town and new district construction, and large-scale land development as the main paths for urbanization, engaging in massive demolition and construction, cutting mountains and filling lakes, and continuously encroaching on ecological space. Many high-risk chemical industrial parks and polluting enterprises are located in urban wind corridors and upstream of water sources, posing threats to local air, drinking water, and residential safety. Therefore, it is necessary to further clarify: the urban landscape structure, wind corridors, rivers, and ecosystems are the results of natural evolution. Implementing spatial environmental control that conforms to the laws of environmental system development is the first bottom line for new-type urbanization development. Environmental resources are scarce resources, and environmental carrying capacity cannot be overdrawn indefinitely. Establishing thresholds for the development and utilization of environmental resources is the second bottom line for new-type urbanization development. A healthy and safe environmental quality and high-quality environmental public services are the foundation for people's healthy and happy lives. This is the third bottom line for new-type urbanization development.

Establish a strict spatial environmental control system

Respecting the natural landscape pattern, establishing a strict spatial environmental control system, and forming a territorial development pattern and urban pattern in which population, resources, and environment are coordinated are necessary means to optimize the urbanization development pattern. Urbanization development must respect the natural environment and natural laws, and the planned urban system must adapt to the regional ecological environment pattern. For example, Yichang City in Hubei Province has a trumpet-shaped natural terrain, with wind blowing west and water flowing east. The Minjiang River estuary outside Fuzhou City in Fujian Province is the city's main wind corridor; simple eastward or westward development layouts are not conducive to urban environmental protection. Nansha in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, is the geometric center of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration and an atmospheric sensitive area; urban development layout should be considered from the perspective of regional environmental safety. These all require the use of refined planning assessment and simulation technologies to implement mandatory protection of important red-line spatial areas, forming urban and industrial layouts conducive to pollutant dispersion and air quality improvement.

Practice has proven that implementing spatial environmental control based on regional environmental safety considerations can yield twice the result with half the effort and reduce environmental damage from the source. The "Pearl River Delta Regional Environmental Protection Plan Outline (2004-2020)" compiled by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning of the Ministry of Environmental Protection designated 12.13% of the area as red-line zones for strict protection and identified a number of atmospheric environment sensitive areas to restrict the layout of air-polluting projects. This was the earliest practice of spatial environmental control in China. Over the 10 years of plan implementation, new coal-fired power plants were prohibited, and the layout of air-polluting projects such as oil refining and chemical projects in Nansha was rejected, effectively reducing environmental risks.

Establish the bottom line for the development and utilization of environmental resources

Establishing the bottom line for the development and utilization of environmental resources and curbing unlimited extraction from nature are important contents of new-type urbanization. Currently, some places over-develop and inefficiently use environmental resources, overdrafting the vitality of urbanization development. Some water-scarce areas, however, take water-intensive agriculture as the leading industry and compete to launch coal chemical projects; some areas with severe air pollution are still developing coal and metallurgical projects; some urban and industrial development is extremely uncoordinated with environmental capacity and its distribution characteristics, with pollutant emissions and energy resource consumption chronically overloaded. There is an urgent need to implement environmental carrying capacity crisis management.

Urbanization cannot aim for unconventional development everywhere, build central cities everywhere, and consume energy resources and emit pollutants without restraint. Instead, it must truly base itself on environmental resource carrying capacity, carefully analyze the "environmental family background" that cannot be bought, establish the bottom line for environmental resource development and utilization, and set a series of thresholds such as the maximum allowable land development ratio, maximum total water resource development and utilization, environmental capacity carrying rate, total pollutant emissions, total coal consumption, and total motor vehicle ownership. It is necessary to increase pollution control and emission reduction efforts, improve the efficiency of environmental resource utilization, improve the exchange conditions of the environmental system, and make the speed and scale of urbanization match the regional environmental resource carrying capacity.

Hold the bottom line of environmental quality, health, and safety

Holding the bottom line of environmental quality, health, and safety and striving to provide high-quality ecological products are hallmarks of new-type urbanization. Towns bear the function of maintaining regional and watershed ecological environmental safety, but some places ignore or fail to clarify the environmental functions of towns, allowing environmental protection to yield to economic construction and sacrificing the environment for temporary growth, resulting in relatively serious aftereffects. At present, the improvement of urban environmental quality in China lags behind urbanization development and the rising demands of the people. Haze, black and odorous water bodies, and contaminated sites have affected people's health and quality of life. Air quality in some towns is poor, and haze has become the norm; centralized drinking water sources in some towns do not meet standards, and urban rivers have once become sewers and garbage-filled rivers.

New-type urbanization must take environmental quality and safety assurance as a necessary condition. Healthy and safe environmental quality and fairly shared environmental public services are inherent requirements of new-type urbanization. Based on human health and ecological balance, the bottom line of ecological environmental quality should be established, and providing clean air, safe drinking water, and a healthy environment should be regarded as duties the government must fulfill. Safeguard measures should be strengthened, supply should be increased, and people should see the government's efforts and be given clear expectations.