'IAIA11 Conference Proceedings'

Impact Assessment and Responsible Development for Infrastructure, Business and Industry
31
st
Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment
28 May- 4 June 2011, Centro de Convenciones, Puebla - Mexico (www.iaia.org)
Use of Strategic Environmental Assessment for Green City development in China
Foon-tung Chan
1

Kinche Lam
1, 2

1
Department of Geography and Resource Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
2
Center of Strategic Environmental Assessment for China, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:
Green City based on an operating system that integrates economic development and environment is the trend of urban
planning in this green era. After the financial crisis in 2008, UNEP (2009a) also suggests that it is actually a golden
opportunity for the world to develop green economy by investing in green projects and planning green cities, so that
the world can revive the economy while setting the environment on par with economic-growth. Incorporating this
development outlook in Chinas urban master planning through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can lessen
the environmental risk brought by urbanization and encourage economic growth. Since the challenges of addressing
green economy in urban master planning involve barriers beyond the technical issues and governance issues (UNEP,
2011), this paper explores different dimensions of SEA and outlines how SEAs can contribute to the development of
the green city concept in Chinas urban master planning
Keywords: Strategic Environmental Assessment, Green City, Green Economy, China Urban Master Plan, Integration

Introduction:
As a rising economic giant, China is experiencing an unprecedented process of urbanization. According to the current
trends put forth by McKinsey Global Institute (2009), the urban population of China will rise from 572 million in
2005 to 926 million in 2025. If the urbanization path of China follows the brown economy, which marginalized the
environmental consideration in the economic development, or follows the principle of pollute now and treat later,
both China and the globe will most likely be affected by the consequences of environmental phenomena such as
climate change. Developing green city based on the philosophy of green economy, which breakdowns the false
dichotomy of development or environment (UNEP, 2009a), can lead the way for a sustainable development.
Addressing the green economy concept in the key urban planning process can fundamentally facilitate the transition
(UNEP, 2011). SEA as a process to integrate environmental and sustainable objectives in the policy, plan and
programme levels (PPPs) at the early stages of decision making (Chaker et al, 2006) has the potentials to help the
address of green economy concepts into the Urban Master Plan in China city. A comprehensive framework is needed
for how SEA can contribute to the integration of environment and economic objectives for realizing the practice.

Green City and Sustainable Development:
Before investigating the framework for SEA to integrate environment and economic objectives in Urban Master Plan,
here introduces what green city and the related concepts mean in this discussion. In general, green city is a city that is
environmentally friendly and in particular, its development follows the concept of green economy. Green economy
can be defined as an economy that results in improved human well-being and reduced inequalities over the long term,
while not exposing future generations to significant environmental risks and ecological scarcities
1
. (UNEP, 2011).

1
According to UNEP (2011), attaining environmental objectives in line with economic growth can benefits social equity in most
of the cases. Since the contradiction of environmental objectives and economic growth is more distinctive, in order to simply the
2

This can be done by integrating environmental considerations into development which enables a win-win situation for
environmental objectives and economic growth and eliminates the trade-offs among the two. To a more practical term,
it can be an economy that is low carbon, resource efficiency and social inclusive (UNEP, 2011).

In China, the green economy philosophy of integrating economic development and environment is expressed under
the scientific development outlook. Under the scientific development outlook, it is proposed that simultaneous
development of economy and environment should be the development direction of the country for green economy
(Zhou, 2010). In terms of urban planning, it could be derived to the principles of resource-saving, environmentally
friendly, cost-efficiency and social harmony (Fang, 2009, p.88) which corresponds to the green economy concept.

However, although the central government has adopted the concept of simultaneous development of economy and
environment in the policy agenda, there are three main challenges in developing green city in urban planning. Firstly,
as a non-environmental sector, in the urban planning sector there is a great power of inertia for focusing on
economic objectives (UNEP, 2009a). Secondly, and especially in China, the decision-makers knowledge of how a low
carbon, resource efficient city looks like is insufficient (Liu, 2010). Many of the cities just followed standard low
carbon indicators blindly and claimed to be low carbon cities to obtain the central governments recognition (Hua et al.,
2009). Thirdly, governance and institutional weakness such as fragmented governance, poor coordination among
institutions and sectors, and insufficient public involvement can be a great barrier (UNEP, 2011) for greening a city
which is a complicated system in itself.

Role of SEA:
Urban Master Plans, which determine the citys nature and its development direction, are strategic, comprehensive,
integrated and long-termed plans for Chinas urban development (Kong et al., 2010; Yun et al., 2009). As urban master
planning works on a strategic basis and set the directions and principles for lower-tier sector plans, Urban Master
Plans are policy-oriented (Bao et al., 2009). According to the new regulation of the Plan Environmental Impact
Assessment Ordinance (PEIA Ordinance) in 2009, Urban Master Plans are subject to PEIA, which is a form of SEA in
China (Xu and Wang, 2010).

In this paper, SEA is regarded as one of the decision-making tools having a high potential of integrating environmental
objectives into the planning process on par with the economic development for Green Economy. In general, SEA is a
tool as well as a process to integrate environmental and sustainable objectives into the policy, plan and programme
levels (PPPs) at earlier stages of decision making (Chaker et al, 2006). Besides, it has the ability to provide decision
makers a broader range of alternative scenarios and help to take the cumulative effects from different projects into
account. After years of discussion, SEA has been also identified as key tool for sustainable development (OECD,
2006).

SEA has also developed into a diverse concept having a wide spectrum of potentials to contribute to the integration of
environment and economic objectives. According to UNEP (2009b), there are three types of SEAs. These are
classified according to their focus, and they are: are impact-centred SEAs, policy centred SEAs, and

discussion, this paper will focus on environment and economy.
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institution-centred SEAs. However, these types or dimensions of SEAs are not mutually exclusive and each SEA
approach can comprise of different elements.. With the impact-centred SEA approach the effects of plans are
analyzed and mitigation measures proposed. In the policy-centred SEA approach environmental and sustainability
objectives are integrated into the decision-making processes through a proactively involvement in planning processes.
And, the institution-centred SEA approach enables the conditions for the integration of environment and economic
objectives by capacity building and institutional strengthening. Figure 1 presents the mentioned dimensions of SEA.


Figure 1: Three Dimensions of SEA
Source: Derived from UNEP, 2009b

This specific model of SEA shows that SEA could address the green economy concept in urban master planning
processes as it addresses a wide range of interests, supports technical assessment, advocates for a proactive integration
of environment and economic objectives in planning processes, and even takes a role in facing the governance
challenges of the transition.

Integrating China Urban Master Plans, SEA and Green Economy:
In China SEAs on Urban Master Plans are official named as PEIAs. According to the People Republic of China
environmental Impact Assessment Law Article 1, PEIA Ordinance Article 1 emphasizes the coordination between
environmental, social and economic development. PEIA also focuses on the implementation of strategies to prevent
the damage of the environment and promote the coordination between environmental, social and economic
development. Thus, by coordinating the relationship between environmental and economy, PEIA can increase the
possibility of a mutual beneficial relationship between the environment and economy, creating a win-win situation that
is the premise of a green economy. Further, PEIA Ordinance Article 8 (3) suggests that PEIA should analyze, predict
and assess the relationship among the economic, social and environmental benefits, and the relationship between the
immediate interests and long-term interests. This reflects a strong preference on the technical assessment dimension of
SEA, which assesses the potential impacts and mitigates environmental impacts at a strategic level.

After reviewing the Technical Guidelines of Environmental Impact Assessment for Urban Master Plans, it was found
that PEIA focuses on environmental impact prediction and analysis of urban functions, urban development directions,
development Scale, industry planning, urban spatial structure and setting, and layout of major infrastructure. Assessing
these contents and providing low carbon and resource efficiency alternatives can lead to the development of a green
economy. The focuses of the assessment and possible development directions for a green economy is summarized in
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Table 1.

Table 1: Focuses on assessment and their possible development directions for Green Economy
Sources: Concluded from UNEP 2011.
Assessment focuses Possible Development Directions for a green economy
City nature and development strategy Considering the transition of Green Economy instead of following the
brown economy development path
Urban scale and development density

Promoting a more compact, resource efficient urban development by
managing the growth of urban boundary with a higher density for
development and providing sufficient green space to avoid over
crowding
Transportation

Providing green transport with a strategic planning includes the
provision of public transport and slowing the growth of car use
Sectors development & spatial setting

Assisting the development of green industry by spatial planning
which can enable urban synergy
Residential development Providing higher proximity of residential, commercial, retail and
leisure services and increasing the accessibility of public transport for
a walkable neighborhood, providing higher density type of settlement
to increase resource efficiency and avoid urban sprawl
Infrastructure, building and Utilities service
system

Planning infrastructure in accordance with the strategy of low carbon
development and the investment of green industry can boost the
transition from brown to green economy, highway and roads projects
such be avoid to encourage the growth of car usage, waste
management system should be planned in favor of recycle, reuse,
reduce strategy, the use of renewable energy can be explored to
increase its share in providing electricity
District development and Urban
redevelopment

Eco-district or eco-industrial village can be planned and the urban
redevelopment projects should be planned with the elements of Green
Economy

According to the process of urban master planning in China, generally five stages are included. These are the
pre-planning research, objectives formulation in the Outline Urban Master Plan, Urban Master Plan formulation, plan
enforcement and the plan adjustment or modification (Levy, 2006). A proactive SEA approach is required to integrate
the environmental considerations into the development objectives for a green economy as early as possible. By up
streaming the environmental considerations to the development objectives formulation stage, environmental
considerations can be fully included and appropriately addressed and more windows of opportunity can be identified
(Bina et al., 2004). This approach is expending the potential of SEA from impact assessment base to a proactive
integration for sustainable development, which is the second dimension of SEA. In the Technical Guidelines of
Environmental Impact Assessment for Urban Master Plans, the principle of early intervention is also emphasized. It
suggests that PEIA should be applied before the formulation of the outline of the Urban Master Plan takes place. This
should be carried out to maximize the integration of environmental objectives into the planning process, and to
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upstream the possible development directions stated in Table 1. into a development objective.

Beyond the impact assessment and proactive policy integration dimension, SEA can also contribute to the
development of a green economy by governance enhancement, the third dimension of the model discussed. This can
be done by providing mechanisms for institution coordination and public involvement, and abating, to a certain degree,
governance barriers. In the Technical Guidelines of Environmental Impact Assessment for Urban Master Plans, it is
suggested that compatibility and coordination analysis can improve policy coordination on both horizontal level and
vertical level. In addition, the analysis can ensure coordination among sectors policy in terms of spatial compatibility
and increase the urban synergy, and PEIAs for Urban Master Plans also include a public involvement mechanism,
which considers the involvement of expertise from different fields and other interested stakeholders. However, these
mechanisms are only some basic approaches to enhance the governance dimension of SEA as mechanisms for
assessing the institutions regulatory and institutional capacity of law enforcement or the capacity of dealing with the
undesirable outcomes of policies are not included. There is also a lack of platform for the coordination between
different sectors (Xu and Wang, 2010). Besides, no supporting evidence can be found in the EIA law or PEIA
Ordinance that PEIA in China is perceived as a mean for facilitates social capacity and institutional strengthening.
Thus, according to the technical guidance, the influence of PEIA on a green economy is limited.

Conclusion:
In short, by reviewing the related documents of Urban Master Plan PEIAs, PEIA in China can serve as a tool for
integrating environmental objectives into the urban master planning for a green economy. The integration can be
supported by PEIA in three dimensions. Firstly, it can assess, predict and analyze the plan with the focus on: city
nature and development strategy, urban scale and development density, transportation, sectors development and spatial
setting, residential development, infrastructure, building and utilities service system and the district development and
urban redevelopment. The principle of low carbon and resource efficiency can also be applied. Secondly, PEIA can
integrate the environmental objectives into development through a proactive intervention in the plans pre-research
and objectives formulation stages, so that the environmental objectives can be further up streamed into planning.
Lastly, in respect to the governance challenges, PEIA can provides mechanism for policy coordination analysis and
public involvement to abate some key barriers for a green economy Transition in cities. However, the influence of
PEIA on governance enhancement is limited. Based on this analysis, it can be stated that in principle PEIAs of Urban
Master Plans in China have a great potential for integrating environmental objectives in development. However, in
practice, there is a tendency of PEIAs to be restricted by institutional contexts. Further research or case studies on the
application of PEIA are suggested to deepen the discussion.

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