Urban Environmental Management in China
Mr. Zhao Hualin, Department of Pollution Control, SEPA, Beijing 100035
I. Introduction
The Chinese government has always considered the cities as key components in
environmental protection work. In the past two decades, China has speeded up
urbanization. The urban population in China totaled 191.4 million in 1980, a figure
which rose to 388.92 million in 1999, accounts for proportion of 19.39% and 30.89%
in the total population, respectively. In 1980 China had 223 administratively
designated cities, which went up to 663 in 2000. The urbanization level has been
increased by 11.5 percentages in the past 20 years. Just like other countries, the issue
of environmental pollution has also appeared in the course of China’s urbanization.
Therefore the Chinese government has adopted effective measures to environmental
pollution control and done its best to improve the quality of the urban environment.
These effective measures could be listed as follows:
 Drawing up overall city plans and readjusting the layout of urban
functions. In accordance with the Law on City Planning, while working out an
overall city plan, the city must include in the plan details of environmental
protection, such as protecting and improving the city’s ecological environment,
and preventing and controlling pollution and other public hazards. In light of the
requirements of the overall planning, many cities, while transforming the old
areas and developing new ones, have, in accordance with the city’s function
zoning, readjusted the industrial layout, strengthened the prevention and control
of industrial pollution, changed the situation in which factories and residents
share the same areas, controlled urban environmental pollution caused by
production and in people’s daily lives, and constructed a large number of
residential quarters with reasonable layout and complete social services.
 Strengthening the construction of infrastructure and improving the
capability to prevent and control pollution. In 2000, 84.1% of urban residents
in China use gas for fuel and heating; the rate of municipal waste water treatment
was 34.2%; the green coverage in cities was 28.1% and the area per capita of the
green land was 6.8 square meters. The municipal and human wastes in big and
medium-sized cities were cleaned away on the day when they were generated.
 Comprehensive improvement of the urban environment and improving
the quality of the urban environment. Since 1989 the Chinese government has
promoted the urban environment comprehensive improvement quantitative
examination system (UECIQES) throughout the country. The state and the
governments at the provincial level have carried out examinations in 46 key cities
and other 560-plus cities. The implementation of this system has enhanced the
sense of responsibility of leaders at all levels for urban environmental protection,
1
and such examinations have been included in the governments’ work agendas.
Hence a management system and operation mechanism for the comprehensive
improvement of the urban environment under the unified leadership of mayors,
carried out by different departments according to their respective divisions of
responsibility and actively participated in by broad masses of the people have
taken initial shape.
 Launching the program of creating national environmental model cities
and national environmental model districts. Since 1997 the National
Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA is former SEPA) has launched the
program of creating national environmental model cities (CNEMC) all over the
country. In 1999 the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)
initiated the program of creating national environmental model districts within
the jurisdiction of 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, such
as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. Currently, SEPA awarded 19
national environmental model cities and 2 national environmental model districts,
one is the Dagang district located in Tianjin and the other one is the Minhang
district located in Shanghai.
Among these effective measures mentioned above, QESUECI and CNEMC have
been implemented as the principal instruments for urban environmental management
in China.
II. Principal Instruments
(I) Urban Environment Comprehensive Improvement Quantitative Examination
System (UECIQES)
1. Definition
UECIQES, the program, is an important target-based means of environmental
protection in urban area. It is also an effective measure of promoting the integrated
management of urban environmental quality. The system created adheres to urban
environmental planning with a set of scientifically designed indicators, and relies on
the leadership assumed by the municipal government for its implementation. To
successfully implement the system, the municipal government must bring together the
participation of various sectors and departments, with the objectives of unifying the
social, economic and environmental benefits through quantifiable improvement made
in environmental protection, urban infrastructure development and economic
progress.
2. Scope of examination
From 1989 to 1991, NEPA has been undertaking UECIQES program of 3
municipalities directly under the Central Government, 26 provincial capitals and 3
2
other cities like Dalian, Suzhou and Guilin, totaling 32. In 1992, five more cities, such
as Chongqing, Ningbo, Xiamen, Qingdao and Shenzhen, were added, with the total
number of the cities involving the program reaching 37. In 1996, nine more cities like
Qinhuangdao, Yantai, Lianyungang, Nantong, Wenzhou, Shantou, Zhuhai, Zhanjiang,
and Beihai, were involved, totaling the 46 cities under the program. At the same time,
various provinces and autonomous regions carried out their own UECIQES programs
targeting the cities within their jurisdiction, thus increasing more and more cities
participating the program year by year, and the total number of the cities went up to
610 in 2000.
3. Means of implementation
UECIQES program is administered by different levels of government. SEPA is
responsible for the examination of the municipality directly under the Central
Government, provincial capitals, planned individual cities, key tourism cities, coastal
open cities and economic special zones, with the total number coming up to 46. The
governments of each province, autonomous region and province-level municipality
are responsible for the examination of the cities under their administration.
Implementation of UECIQES program could be separated into three phases, namely,
preliminary examination, collective examination and panel examination. For those
cities subject to examination by the Central Government, they should furnish the
result of examination for last year no later than the end of February this year after
preliminarily examined by the environmental department of each province,
autonomous region and province-level city and submitted to SEPA for examination.
Then SEPA will organize a collective examination by bringing together relevant
people from the environmental departments both at the province level and at the city
level. And a panel examination and on-site sampling survey follow up. The final
results of examination will be publicized after examination and approval by SEPA
Board of Ministers before the World Environment Day on 5 June every year.
4. Indicators of UECIQES
The series of indicators being currently implemented includes 24 individual indicators,
covering the ambient environmental quality, pollution control, environmental
infrastructure and environmental management, scoring a total of 100 points. Among
them, there are 7 indicators for ambient environmental quality, scoring 30 points, 6
indicators for pollution control, scoring 31 points, 6 indicators for environmental
infrastructure, scoring 20 points and 5 indicators for environmental management,
scoring 16 points and the working quality of examination scoring 3 points.
The seven indicators for ambient environmental quality include the annual average
value per day of TSP, SO2 and NOx, drinking water, surface water quality, average
value of noise and traffic noise.
3
The six indicators for pollution control include smog control coverage, noise control
coverage, industrial wastewater treatment, vehicle emission control, industrial solid
waste disposal and reutilization and hazardous waste disposal.
The six indicators for environmental infrastructure include the municipal waste
treatment, central heat supply, gas use proportion, municipal waste disposal, urban
green area coverage and nature reserve coverage.
The five indicators for environmental management include environmental institutional
capacity, environmental investment, implementation of the rule of Simultaneous
design, construction and operation of new project and its associated environmental
facility, collection of pollutant discharging fees and operation of pollution abatement
facilities.
(II) Creation of National Environmental Model Cities
1. Purpose
To create environmental model cities is a specific embodiment of the implementation
of the urban sustainable development. This program aims to create a group of model
cities where the economy, society and environment are well coordinated and of which
the environmental quality is good, the urban infrastructure is complete and landscape
is clean and beautiful and urban ecology is sound, with the purpose of achieving the
sustainable development of the cities. This program has plaid role in guiding the cities
towards sustainable development.
2. Indicator cluster
The indicator cluster of environmental model cities includes key factors restraining
the sustainable development of the cities, such as economic growth, population
growth, resource consumption, environmental situation, environmental management
level and coordination between the social and economic development, infrastructure
construction and environmental protection. The current indicators employed are
divided into five categories and 27 items, including basic conditions, social and
economic development, environmental quality, environmental infrastructure and
environmental management.
3. Procedure of Implementation
With the principle of voluntary participation, various cities will examine their basic
condition and indicators of environmental quality according to the indicators for
examining the national environmental model cities, and thereafter they present an
application to SEPA. Then SEPA will organize a panel review and field examination
4
and collect comments from various sectors and the public. Based on the panel views
and the comments received, SEPA will examine the application. If the qualification of
the applying city has been proven to have met the standards, the city will be given the
title of “National Environmental Model City”. However, this title is not once for all,
SEPA will reexamine the city every three years and sometimes organize sample
examination. If the city is found unqualified, deadline will be set for improvement. If
the city is found unqualified again after the improvement, the title will be canceled.
4. Cities awarded the title of “National Environmental Model City”
Currently 20 cities have been awarded the title of “National Environmental Model
Cities”, such as Zhangjiagang, Dalian, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Zhuhai, Weihai,
Zhongshan, Kunshan, Yantai, Laizhou, Rongcheng, Suzhou, Haikou, Shantou,
Qingdao, Jiangyin, Wendeng, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Daqing. Two districts have been
awarded the title of “National Environmental Model Districts”, such as Dagang
district in Tianjin, Minhang district in Shanghai.
III. Progresses
1. The environmental quality has been improved in most of key cities.
The environmental monitoring data shows the atmospheric environmental quality in
key cities has been improved without stop or a little bit of fluctuation since 1989. The
annual average daily value of TSP in key cities was decreased from 399 ug/m 3 in
1989 to 222 ug/m3 in 2000, the figure for SO2 was reduced from 105 ug/m3 to 49
ug/m3, while the figure for NOx was approximately kept within the range of 50~55
ug/m3 in the same period. So is the surface water quality improvement.
2. Local actions at city level to strongly support the sustainable development
strategy at national level
The Chinese Central Government has identified the sustainable development as its
national strategy to guide its economic and social development since 1992 when the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held in Rio
Janerio. To this end, the urban sustainable development has been incorporated into the
urban environmental management. Especially, the program of creating national
environmental model cities shifts the idea of sustainable development into local
actions and practices at city level and supports national strategy of sustainable
development. The symbols of national environmental model cities should be
summarized as follows, the civilized society with stability, the sustainable economic
development with potentiality, the clean environment with beautiful landscape, the
reasonable resource utilization with benefits, the sound ecology with recycle, the
healthy infrastructure with sufficiency, and the comfortable daily life with facilities.
Consequently, the title of National Environmental Model Cities could be dubbed as
5
the sustainable development cities in China’s current stage.
3. Environmental aspects are essential in the decision making of environment
and development.
The urban environmental improvement has been set as an important responsibility of
the municipal government of one city. Hence the municipal governments pay great
attention to the environmental improvement by putting the environmental protection
on a top agenda of the governing affairs and incorporating it into the responsibility
and objective within the terms of the government. The municipal governments also
have been making great efforts to coordinate the relationship between economic
development, urban sprawl and environmental protection and take integrated
measures to address the urban environmental problems. For protecting environment
effectively, more and more the municipal environmental departments have been
authorized by the government to have the power with the first priority for approving
or disapproving any kind of construction projects. Therefore the position of urban
environmental protection has been enhanced in the decision making of environment
and development, which could return to improve the effectiveness of urban
environmental management.
4. Environmental investments soared in recent years
In 2000, the total environmental investment was 106.07 billion yuan, accounts for
1.1% of GDP, 28.8% up over the previous year. Among this, an investment of 56.13
billion yuan was made in the urban environmental infrastructure construction, 17.2%
increase over the previous year.
In 2000, the environmental investment in key cities accounted averagely for 2.18% of
GDP, went up 0.14% over the previous year. Some key cities for example, like
Shanghai and Guangzhou, the environmental investment increased quickly in recent
years. Shanghai municipal government invested more than 10 billion yuan per year to
environmental protection during the recent 3 years, and the figure will soar
environmental investment in Shanghai more than 10 billion yuan. The figure will soar
to 12 billion yuan this. The Shanghai municipal government has promulgated a
three-year-action on environmental improvement, based on this ambitious
environmental program, the environmental investment will increase yearly and keep
account for 3% of the municipal GDP, so that more and more people lives in
Shanghai will have the right to access clean air and safety drinking water. The similar
case is in Guangzhou for environmental investments. In 1999, the environmental
investments reached 4.2 billion yuan and accounted for 2.05% of the municipal GDP.
The total environmental investments in the Ninth-Five-Year-Plan period (from 1996
to 2000) accumulated more than 20 billion yuan, which exceeds than the figure of
accumulating environmental investments in the period starting from the first year of
the First-Five-Year-Plan to and ending in the last year of the Eighth-Five-Year-Plan.
6
IV. Vision
The year of 2001 is the first year to implement the Tenth-Five-Year plan. During the
tenth planning period, the urban environmental protection in China has been identified
the improvement of urban environmental quality and protection of the public health as
basic target, comprehensive capacity strengthening on urban sustainable development
as subject, enhancement of urban environment comprehensive improvement as
linkage, and employed instrument of scientific & quantitative-based examination, to
improve environmental quality obviously for most cities focuses on water and air
pollution problems solution.
The specific goals of urban environmental protection are as follows: By the end of
2005, the air quality will meet the second level of national standard in more than 50%
of cities at the prefecture level; the surface water quality will achieve the requirements
of correspondent national standards by its function zoning in more than 60% of cities
at the prefecture level; the noise value both of road and district will meet the national
standards in more than 50% cities at the prefecture level; the rate of concentrated
sewage treatment will amount to 45% in all cities, and 60% in the cities where
population exceeds 50 thousands; the rate of refuse disposition with proper manner
will reach 65% in all cities, and upgrade the proportion of refuse disposition with
harmless; the rate of residential gas use will go up to 92% in all cities; the green area
coverage within the scope of the city proper will amount to 35%, and the area of per
capita of the public green land will rise to 8 square meters.
7
Annex I
Indicators for UEQES in the ninth Five-Year-Plan period
Classification
Specified Points
0.02
3
Specified Points
0.10
0.05
3
Specified Points
%
100
80
6
City Districts
%
100
60
6
Specified Points
db(A)
db(A)
62
74
56
68
4
4
Specified Points
Specified Points
%
100
30
4
City Proper
%
50
10
4
City Proper
%
90
30
4
Urban Districts
%
80
30
3
Urban Districts
%
80
20
4
Urban Districts
%
100
20
4
Urban Districts
%
40
0
4
Urban Districts
%
%
40
90
0
40
3
3
Urban Districts
Urban Districts
%
90
0
4
Urban Districts
%
40
10
3
City Proper
%
8
0
3
Metropolitan
%
2
0
4
Metropolitan
%
N.A.
N.A.
3
Metropolitan
%
100
50
3
Metropolitan
%
100
50
3
Metropolitan
%
100
50
3
Metropolitan
1
Annual Daily Avg. of
TSP
mg/m3
Annual Daily Avg. of
SO2
Annual Daily Avg. of
NOx
Drinking Water Source
Quality Compliance
Surface Water Quality
Compliance
Avg. Noise Value
Avg. Traffic Noise
Smoke and Dust Control
Coverage
Ambient Noise Control
Area for Compliance
Coverage
Industrial Waster Water
Effluent Compliance
Vehicle Emission
Compliance
Industrial Solid Waste
Comprehensive
Utilization
Hazardous Waste
Disposal
Domestic Wastewater
Treatment
Centralized Heating
Urban Gas Supply
Urban Domestic
Garbage Treatment
Green Areas Coverage
Natural Conservation
Area Coverage
Index of Environmental
Investment
Environmental
Institution Building
Compliance with Rule of
“Three Simultaneity”
Pollution Levy
Operation Rate of
Wastewater Treatment
Facilities
mg/m3
0.10
mg/m3
3
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Envionmental
Management
4
Unit
5
Environmental
Infrastructure
Scope of
Examination
Indicators
4
Pollution
Control
Weighted
No.
2
Environmental
Quality
Limit Value
Max
Min
North
North
0.6
0.18
South
South
0.5
0.08
22
23
24
(from 1996 to 2000)
8
Annex II
Indicators for Examining National Environmental Model Cities
I. Basic Conditions
II. Indicators for Examination
1.social and economic development
1.For applications of
those cities ranking top
in nation or province in
the UEQES program
and those cities not
included in the national
UEQES，examination
must be conducted by
provincial or
autonomous region
EPB as required by the
UEQES program two
years in advance.
2.Examination of
national clean city must
be passed.
3. The index of
environmental
investment exceeds
1.5%.
(1) GDP per capita  10,000 yuan/per capita
(2) Rate of economic growth higher than the national
Average
(3) population growth rate  the national limit
(4) energy consumption per GDP unit  the national average level
(5) water use per GDP unit  the national average level
2. Environmental quality
(1) air pollution indices 100, adoption of continuous automatic
monitoring of air quality
(2) rate of standard compliance of central supply of drinking water
96%
(3) rate of standard compliance for water function areas reaches 100%
and no water body in the cities with the water quality worsen than Grade
V(including coastal part)
3. Environmental construction
(1) nature reserve coverage  5%(including scenic spots, forest spark)
(2) green area coverage  30%
(3) Domestic wastewater treatment rate  50%
(4) Rate of standard compliance of industrial wastewater discharging
reaches 100%
(5) Urban gas supply rate  90%
(6) Centralized Heating rate  30%(northern cities only)
(7) Domestic garbage treatment  80%
(8) Industrial Solid Waste Comprehensive Utilization  70%, no
discharging of industrial hazardous wastes
(9) Smoke and Dust Coverage  90%
4. Environmental management
(1) regular meeting and discussion of environmental protection by the
municipal government and party committee  one time/year;
(2) environmental institution building;
(3) rate of public satisfaction with the environmental quality  60%;
(4) adoption of veto power by the environment department for new
projects while implementing the total-amount control plan and State
Council Decisions on Environmental Issues and incorporation Of the
environmental protection into the municipal Programs for social and
economic development and completion of pollutant reduction in time.
Note 1. The national average means the average of the cities; 2. The examination of social and
economic development covers all the areas of the city.
9