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A Tale of Two Sustainable Cities in China Soon to Unfold

What does it take for a city to become sustainable? Perhaps, just one simple element - the people's desire to make their city sustainable. The rest of the ingredients to support this desire - the social, economic and physical resources - will follow. Even the "political will" to pursue sustainability, which may be quite elusive and difficult to obtain, can be nurtured if popular desire for sustainability is present and remains steadfast. Indeed, those who wield "political will" in a city are strategic to providing the leadership necessary for maintaining the broad-based desire necessary for a city's sustainability. Shenyang and Wuhan are two cities in China that are presently demonstrating a high degree of interest in and desire to become sustainable cities. The municipal authorities of both cities through Mr. Wang Wei Zhong, Deputy Secretary General of the Municipal Government of Shenyang, and Mr. Yin Zengtao, Vice-Mayor of the Municipal Government of Wuhan, have expressed their desire to make their cities Demonstration "Sustainable City" Projects within the framework of the SCP (Sustainable City Programme) process which is under the joint guidance and assistance of IETC and SCP of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). With the assistance of IETC and SCP, these two cities are currently finalizing their project proposals for submission to the proper authorities in China and to the relevant UN agencies to secure the necessary technical and financial resources needed to get their sustainable development initiatives underway. They are also in the final phase of completing their Environmental Profiles. These profiles will provide a sound base from which to identify environmental issues and problems, an essential step in the continuing process of environmental planning and management.

Shenyang is a key industrial center in the highly industrialized region of Northeastern China. With a population of 6.7 million, it is China's fourth largest city and is considered to be an economic and scientific powerhouse. Wuhan, located in South central China, has a population almost as large as Shenyang's and is also a centre of economic development. Wuhan is an important port city and is one corner of a triangular economic development zone along with Shanghai and Guangzhou. But unlike Shenyang which has a vast land area, Wuhan is surrounded by large freshwater bodies, including a number of lakes and major tributaries of the Yangtze and Hanshui rivers. As in most developing cities where urbanization arrived without the benefit of planning and management infrastructure, Shenyang and Wuhan are confronted with serious environmental problems of air and water pollution, land degradation, a lack of a proper solid waste management systems and other problems of environmental quality. These problems are all generally the result of limited know-how and a lack of skills necessary for managing urbanization and the environment.

IETC's support to "Sustainable Shenyang" and "Sustainable Wuhan" will focus on the transfer of urban environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) through capacity building. Concerning soft technologies, this will include environmental planning and management tools (for example, environmental profiles, environmental risk assessment, environmental technology assessment, and others); information and information systems on ESTs; policies, regulatory systems, guidelines and software related to the management of urban wastes.

Through these projects, IETC envisions a sustainably developing Shenyang and Wuhan where the basic elements for urban environmental management shall have become a part of each city's overall administrative system. These elements include bottom-up problem solving rather than top-down decision making processes and multisectoral, stakeholder- based participatory approaches to consultation for development planning and management. IETC also visualises the future in Shenyang and Wuhan where local capacities for applying specialised technologies and tools for environmental planning and management have been developed.

Demonstration "Sustainable Shenyang" and "Sustainable Wuhan" Projects are expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 1996 when the main assistance phase of the projects begins. The projects are vehicles for IETC and UNCHS (Habitat) to implement, at the city level, a primary mandate of UNCED 1992 - development of an Urban Agenda 21. In time, the projects are expected to offer numerous local examples of sustainable development initiatives worth replicating in other parts of China. The projects will also mark the unfolding of Shenyang and Wuhan as two Chinese sustainable cities with tales to tell.

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