Report on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable
Cities and Peri-Urban Communities in China
Ministry of Science and Technology of P. R. China, November 20, 2012
(submitted to UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development)
I. Status Quo
1. Policies and Programs Promoting Science, Technology and Innovation in
Urbanization and Urban Development
The Chinese government attaches importance to achieving sustainable development
through science, technology and innovation and has implemented a series of research projects
in five prioritized subjects in the “Urbanization and Urban Development” field according to
the Outline of National Program for Long- and Medium-Term Scientific and Technological
Development (2006-2020):
(1) With respect to integrated urban and rural development, the Chinese government has
promulgated a series of indicators and standards on urbanization and urban development,
developed data processing software for monitoring of urban system planning, researched the
theory and evaluation of urban need for land and the trend of land use for typical urban
construction, and carried out research on the policies, standards, construction technologies,
environmental quality protection, and disaster prevention and reduction.
(2) With respect to urban function improvement, there has been rapid development in
urban transport infrastructure, urban traffic informatization and intelligent technologies. The
first urban mass transit operation and control system of independent intellectual property
rights in China has been developed and applied to urban metro projects, spelling an end to
China’s reliance on import of urban mass transit signaling equipment. Construction and
management of municipal infrastructures such as urban gas and heating power supply and
drainage have been gradually improved. Research has been made in such fields as
earthquake-resistant building construction, short-term prediction of strong earthquake,
earthquake rescue, performance-based design and fire safety assessment.
(3) With respect to energy-efficient and green building, the technical and standard
systems of building energy efficiency have seen constant improvement. Energy-efficient
building design standards for different types of buildings in different regions have been
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formulated and promulgated for implementation, with the energy efficiency standards
covering all stages from design, construction and acceptance. The national standard
Evaluation Method for Green Building has been released and a number of representative
green buildings for demonstration have been constructed, which has expanded China’s
influence in green building development. During the 11th Five-year Period (2006-2010),
research and demonstrative projects were carried out on the policies and standards for
restructuring of existing buildings, testing and evaluation, and restructuring technologies and
products. Research and development of environmentally-friendly building materials and
products was carried out, which preliminarily solved production technology and equipment
problems of new-type walling materials.
(4) With respect to the maintenance of urban ecological and living quality, research and
development was conducted in the 11th Five-year Period on the impact assessment and
improvement of urban living environment, improvement of landscaping and heat island effect,
light and noise control in residential communities and houses, wind environment and indoor
natural ventilation in residential communities, intelligent environmental monitoring in
buildings, pollution source testing in buildings, chemical and biological pollution control in
buildings, thermal and humidity environment control in buildings, radioactive pollution
control in buildings, and pollution control and sanitation improvement in kitchen and toilet.
Relevant research was also conducted on dynamic monitoring technology for urban
ecological capacity and technologies for control of indoor air pollutants in public places.
(5) With respect to urban information platform building, research, demonstration and
application of urban management digitalization, gridding and visualization were carried out,
with improved urban management level and efficiency. The 3S technologies were integrated
and applied, which broke through the bottleneck of urban dynamic monitoring and
information sharing. The informatization of enterprise management has also played a positive
role in improving the construction industry’s management and efficiency.
Through these projects, remarkable achievements have been attained in efficient use of
urban space and land, regional urbanization monitoring technology integration, development
and application of energy-efficient building, new energy, green building technology, urban
transit hub construction and management, integrated restructuring of existing buildings,
protection and improvement of urban living environment, modern building construction in
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villages
and
towns,
harmless
treatment
of
urban
sewage
and
waste,
new
technologies/products/processes such as urban digitalization, and technology integration and
project demonstration. A number of key technological problems facing urbanization have
been preliminarily solved. However, in the face of complicated problems in a wide range of
fields such as society, economy, culture, engineering and space in the process of urbanization,
there is still a considerable gap with developed countries and more R&D investment is needed
to gradually improve technological capabilities in various fields.
2. Sustainable City Demonstration
The Chinese government has made great efforts to carry out sustainable city pilot
programs. As of the present, a total of 131 national sustainable development experimental
zones and more than 180 provincial experimental zones have been established, covering all
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.
Since the beginning of the 12th Five-year Period (2011-2015), the central and local
governments have stepped up efforts to support the development of these experimental zones.
The science and technology departments/bureaus in some provinces and municipalities have
also taken various measures to strengthen support of the experimental zones. Some provinces
and municipalities have even established special funds for their experimental zones. The
experimental zones are having a growing influence in China and in the rest of the world.
China’s National Report on Sustainable Development delivered at the just-concluded United
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in particular, included a separate section on
experimental zone development. The sustainable city experimental zone program has also
featured in events and exhibitions organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology and
the Administrative Centre for China's Agenda 21 (ACCA21) and become a window to
showcase the activities and achievements of China in promoting sustainable development.
II. Strategic Goals in the Next Stage
1. Science, Technology and Innovation
China will further improve its overall technological and industrial strength in the urban
development field and promote sound sustainable urban development.
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(1) Optimizing urban-rural structure and scientific development, organically integrating
urban development plans and regional economic plans, and coordinating urban development
plans and local capacity in resources and environment.
(2) Improving urban safety and emergency response capacity and integrating living
environment and urban safety to form an urban system with a strong response capacity.
(3) Building resource-efficient environmentally-friendly cities, making breakthroughs in
urban integrated energy efficiency and renewable energy development and utilization
technologies, and improving the efficiency of the use of urban resources and energy.
(4) Developing urban ecological living environment and green building and promoting
green building material and green construction technologies to significantly improve the
urban living environment quality.
(5) Improving the quality and market share of homemade construction engineering
equipment and key parts and components, and getting independent intellectual property rights
in large-scale/heavy construction engineering equipment and key parts and components.
(6) Strengthening application of information technologies and improving integrated
urban management to establish an integrated efficient and multifunctional urban management
system.
(7) With respect to sustainable community and living environment protection,
technological means will be used, with sustainability of city and community as the research
goal and building clusters as research objects, to break through the bottleneck between
construction and operation on the one hand and low consumption and low emission on the
other hand in the process of quality improvement, with focus on such aspects as health,
sanitation, comfort and transport convenience, in order to build and constantly improve a
technological system, standard system and monitoring & evaluation system of sustainable
living environment. Research and pilot demonstration will be integrated to effectively avoid
the old environment management pattern of “pollution followed/accompanied by treatment”
and improve urban living environment quality from the two levels of city and community.
2. Sustainable City Demonstration
During the 12th Five-year Period, the total number of national sustainable development
experimental zones will be increased to approximately 150 and that of provincial
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experimental zones to approximately 150. A number of excellent and highly representative
national experimental zones with strong demonstration significance will be selected for
sustainability demonstration. Great efforts will be made to carry out international cooperation
to establish a global cooperation network on best sustainability practices and promote the
global sharing and exchange of best practices for sustainable city planning.
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