Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies

Despite China's significant progress in energy saving renovations, during the past 10 years, problems about inefficiencies remain. In the Netherlands, the energy labeling system (ELS) effectively linked policy objectives and market forces, combined with the stepped tariffs aimed at the performance of energy-saving renovation, generating a virtuous cycle of housing energy efficiency upgrading. China may draw the experience from Netherlands. In this regard, the authors probe the market effect and operating mechanism of the Dutch ELS and the stepped tariffs. The theory of multi-level governance (MLG) is introduced to the filed investigations both in China and the Netherlands. Based on the group-interviews and depth-interviews with the officials in related agencies and the residents of retrofitting housing, the authors obtained first-hand information to ensure a close case study on Netherlands' housing ELS and its implementation, in order to provide some enlightenment for China's existing housing renovation and low carbon development.

Promoting low-carbon development (LCD) is one of the basic requirements of building new-type urbanization with Chinese characteristics. Research on the formulation of low-carbon city development roadmap (hereinafter referred to as the “Roadmap”) is a necessity for systematic control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and the construction of low-carbon cities. Based on the actual conditions of cities as well as the regional and national development strategies, the Roadmap panoramically describes the strategic objectives, development plans, and key sectors' initiatives for the transformation of city development through planning techniques and solutions. Generally, the formulation of a low-carbon roadmap involves six steps: understanding the present situation of GHG emissions; analyzing the future emission scenarios; setting LCD targets; developing action plans for key sectors; assessing mitigation potential of low-carbon technologies/projects; and proposing measures for implementation. This paper, based on the practical experience in low-carbon city roadmap development and the needs of divisional management, establishes an analytical structure of GHG inventory for seven sectors, so as to link the key sectors for LCD, namely the seven major sectors for emissions reduction proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Moreover, this paper integrates sectorial (industrial) low-carbon technology needs assessment (TNA) into the formulation of the Roadmap. It also provides several recommendations for better incorporating the two methods into the Roadmap: firstly, to strengthen the core function of GHG inventory by enhanced accounting quality and scientific and systematic analysis of the temporal and sectorial distribution of GHG emissions so as to serve the Roadmap formulation and decision-making. Secondly, to reinforce the derivative function of GHG inventory that serves the LCD planning, assessment, and decision-making by improving the quality and continuity of GHG inventory. Thirdly, to develop the derivative function of GHG inventory by integrating the improved GHG inventory and TNA into the formulation of the Roadmap.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the integration of ecological civilization construction with the development of economy, politics, culture, and society has not only been an established strategy of deepening and consolidating the “five-sphere integrated plan” of socialism with Chinese characteristics, but it has also been an important approach to achieve ecological civilization. In order to realize it, “integration” is the living soul. Integration means that on one hand, ecological civilization construction should be in step with economic and social development; on the other hand, it is inherent with the strategic thinking that priority should be given to ecology and environmental protection. This paper explains how ecological civilization construction is integrated with economic development and also discusses its strategies and paths. The findings are as follows: The first is to cling to the bottom line that no major ecological disasters should happen. This requires adherence to the basic state policy of environmental protection, restructuring of conventional industries and transformation of development patterns. The second is to adhere to the philosophy that industrialization, urbanization, informatization, agricultural modernization and greenization be promoted simultaneously, so that they can complement with the “five-sphere integrated plan”. This requires that a green, low carbon, and recyclable path should be pursued. The third is to stay open and forward-looking. In the new era of ecological civilization with new fashion and trends, active measures should be taken to build a modern ecological and industrial development system in order to lay a solid foundation for ecological civilization construction.

The rapid growth and development of Ahwaz city has many problems, such as the formation of marginal areas without a waste-water treatment system, the existence of industrial, agricultural and domestic waste water sources around Karun and the presence of undesirable dust deposits. Paying attention to the development of Ahvaz city is an inevitable necessity. Accordingly, this study aims to measure, analyze and prioritize the urban areas of Ahvaz in terms of prosperity components, including productivity, development infrastructure, quality of life, equality and social inclusion, environmental sustainability and urban governance, which are very important for the realization of urban development. The data required in this research are collected from organizations and statistics of 2015. The weight of the criteria and the incompatibility ratio are calculated by the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this research, ELECTRE I method is used to prioritize options. After calculating the standardized matrix, the matrix of compatibility and incompatibility, the difference between the values of mastery and failure was calculated. ArcGis 10.4 software is used to draw the map.

Considering rapid development and emerging new challenges of China's wind energy development, this paper summarizes and analyzes five critical problems. First, according to an economic potential assessment, if the feed-in tariff is set 0.60 Yuan/kWh, the economic potential of wind electricity of China will reach 6.63PWh, it could meet as much as 2/3 of total power demand by 2030, thus the targeted wind power proportion in future high renewable energy penetration can be achieved. Second, wind energy is abundant but little consumed in Northwest, Northeast and North China while it is insufficient in South and East of China, where grid-connection condition is well. Due to this reverse distribution pattern of wind power endowment and consumption in China, grid-connection transmission must be strengthened in the future, particularly the West–East and North–South power transmission projects must be pushed forward. Third, to address the issue of increasing wind energy curtailment in Northeast, Northwest and North China, stimulating local consumption of wind power by multiple ways is a possible solution in the short term, however, in the medium and long run, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of Ultra-High Voltage power grid in order to expand power transmission to other provinces and regions. Fourth, a new electricity market mechanism should be established as the fundamental measure of promoting new energy development, while green certificate trading market and carbon trading market will form the basis for such market mechanism in the long run. Fifth, though wind power development can bring multiple benefits to economy, employment, and environment, large-scale wind power development will, to some extent, affect local and regional climate. As global warming continues, the wind power resource distribution of China and the world may experience significant changes.

Since the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, its real estate has closely followed reforms in economic, land and housing systems. There have been two critical junctures since the advent of the Reform and Opening-Up policy in 1978: the introduction of housing monetization in 1998 and the reinstatement of low-income housing in 2007. Those two junctures divide the development of China's real estate industry into three stages, namely the embryonic period of housing marketization (1978–1997), rapid development period (1998–2006) and integrated development period (2007–2016). Report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017 affirms that “housing is for living in, not for speculation,” marking a new development stage for China's real estate industry. It is expected that innovations in land system, housing system and macro-control will promote the development of China's real estate in the future.

This study examines urbanization in Xichang city administration (XCA) and its implications on rural livelihoods. Time series data on population size and land use (1990–2010) of Xichang city administration were gathered from population censuses and revenue records. The data were analyzed to observe changes in population size and land use/cover during the recorded period. Along with this, a case study of seven villages that are highly influenced by urban expansion in close proximity to Xichang city was carried out. We surveyed 110 households of selected villages using purposive-random sampling method and framed a structured questionnaire on urbanization implications for them. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression model was employed to analyze the data. From 1990 to 2010, the authors observed an enormous transformation in urban landscapes as the urban area has increased by 14.02km² (111%) and about 20.65km² (16 times) increase in public transit construction land. On the other hand, paddy fields and grasslands of the selected villages have decreased by 16.6km² (4.9%) and 35.43km² (8.4%), respectively. Along with urbanization, out-migration as well as medical and educational facilities has increased while agriculture and livestock activities have decreased. The study suggested that to lessen the impact of urbanization in rural areas, agricultural and its allied practices should be intensified so as to augment employment and reduce out-migration from the rural areas.