Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
projected growth in motorisation is avoided and public transport, cycling and walking are
positively encouraged, there will be huge increases in CO2 emissions. The environmental
stewardship of the globe is dependent on Chinese and wider Asian cities achieving low carbon
mobility, together with more progressive policy-making in the Western industrialised countries.
For Jinan, the objective must be to effectively achieve the transition to sustainable transport
at a much faster rate than has been achieved in the West, and to avoid the wasteful period
of carbon-dependent motorisation fuelled by oil. In the face of widespread aspiration for car
ownership amongst the public this is a difficult task, but there is great progress being made
and this offers us hope.
Notes
1
The early Chinese towns emerged during the Longshan period (3000-2000
BC
) in the central plain in
modern Henan province, and also the Shandong peninsula, mid-Yangzi River Valley and Inner Mongolia.
They were known as
chengbao
(walled fortresses), and included signs of state formation, urban planning
and complex societies with social stratification and product specialisation (Ma, 2009).
2
A
hukou
refers to the system of residency permits, which dates back to ancient China. A household
registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes information such as
the name, parents, spouse and date of birth. In 1958, the Chinese government modified the hukou system
to control the movement of people between urban and rural areas to ensure some structural stability.
After the Chinese economic reforms in the late 1970s, it became possible for some to unofficially migrate
and gain employment without a valid permit. The system has undergone further relaxation in the mid-
1990s and again in the early 2000s. Rural residents can buy temporary urban residency permits to work
legally. By 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture estimated that over 100 million people registered
as 'rural' were working in cities. However, these reforms have not fundamentally changed the hukou
system. Instead, reforms have only decentralised hukou control to local governments. It has been argued
that the system will have to be further relaxed in order to increase availability of skilled workers to
industries.
3
Danwei
was the name given to a place of employment in China prior to the economic reforms introduced
by Deng Xiaoping, although it is still in use today. The danwei work unit acted as part of the hierarchy,
linking each individual with the central Communist Party infrastructure, and assisted in implementing
party policy; they are typically based around a factory, state agency or university. Workers were bound
to their work unit for life, with each creating their own housing, child care, schools, clinics, shops, services,
post offices and other facilities. Work-unit housing was usually built to common space standards and
building styles. The danwei had much influence, for example permission had to be obtained for under-
taking travel, marriage or having children. The move from a socialist ideology to 'socialism with Chinese
characteristics' has weakened the danwei system - in 2003 it became possible to marry or divorce without
needing authorisation.
4
Much of the analysis reported in this chapter draws on the Visioning and Backcasting for Transport in
Jinan study (VIBAT-Jinan). This was carried out by Robin Hickman, David Banister, Jimin Zhao and
Jian Liu, at the University of Oxford's Transport Studies Unit, as part of the Future of Cities Programme,
2010-11.
5
A model of transport movements was developed for Jinan with a baseline 1990-2010 and projections to
2030 by mode distance, vehicle fleet and CO2 emissions. Different policy scenarios can be tested to 2030
and transport CO2 emissions estimated.
6
China, similar to India, is classified as a 'non-Annex I' country under the Kyoto Protocol. This means
they are not obligated to reduce emissions under the Protocol. They have only a 'monitoring' responsibility,
alongside a more general agreed 'common responsibility' recognising that all countries have a role to
play in reducing emissions.
7
A workshop was held in Oxford and used to develop the trend and uncertainty issues and scenario matrix.
This included transport planners, urban planners and other government officials from Jinan and Shandong,
and also academics from the University of Oxford and other transport planning experts from the UK.
There are many examples of persistent inefficient technologies, including the QWERTY typewriter
keyboard, video recorders, electricity supplies, railway gauges and computer programming languages, all
contradicting the expectations of neoclassical theory (Mahoney, 2000).
