Landscape artist creates rooftop garden for city buses

, Rooftop gardens on moving buses

Friday September 13, 2013

Environmental awareness has risen exponentially in recent years and people have regrown a strong urge to surround themselves with anything green amidst vast concrete jungles.

Vertical gardens, urban farming, guerrilla gardening are only a few phenomena that have only recently entered our daily lives. It is surprising why nobody had thought of it much earlier. Luckily, greening the city has gained a huge fan community. Landscape artist Marc Grañén, in collaboration with Grupo IRACO, takes it to the next level by using vehicle roofs as flower beds, turning unused space into little oases.

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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“A new round of industrialization and urbanisation” symposium call for papers

中国的城市化一直以来呈现呈“东高西低”格局,然而,为了要加强中国城镇的平衡发展,近年来学界与业界都强调中西部地区城镇化的加速发展,然而,在这新一轮的发展中,政府、市场、企业、人民等各自受到不同的影响与改变,“新一轮的工业化、城市化”专题会议征稿通知 :

  • 截稿时间 : 2013年10月22-26日
  • 文章领域: 人类学、民族学、社会学、历史学、政治学、经济学、管理学、市场营销学等多学科。

 

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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Project urban mobility in China

Regulating Automobile Growth in Chinese Cities

China’s astronomical growth in automobile conceals significant variations between cities. While Shanghai and Beijing each had about 2 million motor vehicles in 2004, by 2010 Beijing has 4.8 million and Shanghai only 3.1 million. Vehicle owners made up 38% of Beijing households in 2011 in contrast to 18% in Shanghai. Crucial historical and present policy differences influence their effectiveness, revenue, efficiency, equity, and public acceptance. Two decades ago Shanghai opted for a monthly license auction to control vehicle ownership, while Beijing had little control over usage or ownership until the 2008 Olympics. Shanghai’s active and early policy intervention helps explain the difference in ownership growth.

Extraordinary growth calls for extraordinary measures. Boldness in both infrastructure development and policy design seems commonplace in China’s urban transportation arena. This project, however, aims to present some of the subtleties in these bold designs using Shanghai license auction policy and Beijing’s license lottery policy as a case. Subtleties exist in public attitude towards government policies, in the pricing mechanism and revenue consequences, in the purposeful policy leakage, and in the contrasting equity and efficiency orientations.

Related work

More information on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Car parking in China

Eeckhoff, Insa (12 August 2013). Does Beijing really need 2.5 million parking lots? GIZ China Transport Blog. (accessed 28 September 2013) [GIZ=Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit]

Parking problems are always a hot topic among Beijingers. Cruising around for a long time until you find a parking space is a daily experience for inhabitants of the Chinese capital. In Beijing you may observe pedestrians and cyclists being forced to transit along the motor lane because the cycling lane or side walk is being occupied by parked vehicles. However, can the perceived parking problem be affiliated to a parking slot shortage? Does Beijing need 2.5 Million Parking lots? It occurs quite similar to the problem with traffic congestion in Beijing. Does Beijing continuously build new roads to meet the continuously growing transport demand? Maybe not. New roads and parking spaces can also trigger new demand. Hence, new parking facilities can possibly induce more traffic.

Read more on GIZ China Transport Blog

Au, Vincent (2012). Car parking in China : issues and solutions. In Sustainable Transportation Systems, éd. Yong Bai [et al]. Reston : American Society of Civil Engineers,  p. 130-137. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/9780784412299.0016 (accessed 28 September 2013)

Car-parking has always been an unresolved issue in most municipal cities in China. Despite efforts by officials of the relevant government departments to put forth new policies and launch various solution proposals from time to time; followed by aggressive actions in the implementation of improvement action plans, their work seldom yield tangible/visible outcome, and the problem remains. This paper aims to examine what has gone wrong in the government policies and actions, and to make suggestions to resolve the long-standing entangled issues of car-parking in municipal cities in China.

Read more on ASCE Library

Wang, Rui and Yuan, Quan (2013) Parking practices and policies under rapid motorization : the case of China. Transport Policy, 30, p. 109–116 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.08.006 (accessed 28 September 2013)

With the rapid motorization in China, parking has become increasingly difficult and costly for automobile users. However, the effects of parking on the society go far beyond vehicle owners’ costs. To inform decision makers in China and cities in similar motorizing societies, this study describes the market and policy trends of automobile parking in Chinese cities. Available data show that the gap between supply and demand in parking has enlarged, while most city governments have little experience and are institutionally unprepared for the proper planning, regulation, and management of parking. International experience and the Chinese problems call for a reform in urban parking management in order to promote sustainable urban transportation and maximize social welfare. This paper offers policy and planning suggestions regarding on- and off-street parking.

Read more on ScienceDirect

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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China’s Li Keqiang about urbanization

Economy, Elizabeth C. 2013, September 10. China’s Li Keqiang on the urbanization warpath. Asia Unbound. http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2013/09/10/chinas-li-keqiang-on-the-urbanization-warpath/ (accessed 19 September 2013)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is on the urbanization warpath. For Li, urbanization—transforming rural Chinese into urban dwellers—has become perhaps the most important issue of his early months as premier. Most recently, on September 7, in advance of November’s Party Plenum to lay out the country’s economic blueprint, he met with a group of experts to discuss urbanization strategies. Scarcely a month goes by where he does not give a speech or offer some commentary on the issue. For Li, successfully urbanizing China is at the heart of the country’s ability to continue to grow economically. He notes that urban residents spend 3.6 times more than rural residents, for example, underscoring the importance of urbanization to China’s economic rebalancing from an investment and export led to   consumption-based economy. His remarks in March 2013 make clear his fears that if China does not find the correct urbanization path forward, it will fall into the trap of many Latin American countries with “dual” urban structures characterized by “urban slums” and “other social problems.”

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Urban studies in France

Anaïs Collet & Philippe Simay & translated by Oliver Waine, « Urban Studies in France », Metropolitics, 11 September 2013. URL : http://www.metropolitiques.eu/Urban-Studies-in-France.html (accessed 25 September 2013)

Can French research into cities and urban territories truly be considered “urban studies”, in the cross-disciplinary sense of the term understood in English-speaking academic circles? The history of the “urban” social sciences in France and the institutional structure in place have shaped the production of research, which remains largely confined to traditional disciplines and steered by “social demand” and objectives with a number of blind spots. What are the specificities of French urban research, and what developments could lie ahead in this field, in light of practices elsewhere in the world?

Read more

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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China by night, now and then (2010-1992)

 

China's urban lights

China‘s urbanization by night, by courtesy of the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (http://www.noaa.gov/).

1992

Both photos reflect the rapid urbanisation that has taken place in China in the last two decades. The photo taken in 2010 clearly shows the three main urbanised areas: the Bohai rim, the Yangzte delta, and the Pearl river delta. Chengdu and Chongqing have also undergone rapid urbanisation, as does Xi’an. Urumqi is the only discernible urban area West of Lanzhou.

For a time jump from 1992 to 2010 click on the link below:

http://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/data/web_data/china_movies/china/China_movie.html

 

 

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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China’s growing natural gas insecurity and the potential of Chinese shale gas

John Seaman (2013), China’s Growing Natural Gas Insecurity and the Potential of Chinese Shale Gas Asie.Visions 64.

China is poised for a dramatic increase in its demand for natural gas. As total energy demand has risen to record levels in the last five years, China has found itself in an increasingly difficult bind: the social and environmental burden from coal is becoming too heavy to bear and a growing dependence on foreign oil is becoming strategically more risky with the passage of time. China’s policy-makers and strategists continue to favor indigenous resources whenever possible, but projected increases in demand are so great and the cost of nuclear and renewable energy sources still so high that natural gas has become an increasingly natural choice. The country’s gas demand is projected to double in the next three years, reaching 260 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) by 2015 as Beijing has set a target to increase the part of natural gas from 4% of China’s energy mix today to more than 8% by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015). Further projections show that Chinese gas demand could reach 400 bcm/y in 2020 and 550 bcm/y or more in 2030.

While this growing demand for gas will help China achieve its goals of reducing the carbon intensity of its GDP and cut much of the pollution from coal, it is also leading China further down a path it has long hoped to avoid: greater dependence on strategic energy imports. A pipeline project to pump gas from Turkmenistan through Central Asia began delivering supplies in 2009 and is expected to reach 40 bcm/y in the near future and possibly even 65 bcm/y or more by 2020. Another pipeline from Myanmar is expected to enter into service in 2013 and would be capable of delivering up to 12 bcm/y. Negotiations with Russia for pipelines that could deliver anywhere from 30-70 bcm/y are deadlocked over pricing, but the construction of LNG import terminals suggests that China could be capable of importing between 40-50 bcm/y of this sea-borne gas by 2015 and possibly even 100 bcm/y or more by 2020.

China’s increasing reliance on imports is creating a deepening sense of energy insecurity among many policymakers and strategists in Beijing. While there is an element of supply security in the diversification of sources, each of these options comes with its own risks: increasing vulnerability to various geopolitical interests, price volatility and instability in supply regions or along transit routes.

Read the full article on the Institut français des relations internationales website.

 

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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UrbaChina Newsletter 2013-38 (September)

 

The UrbaChina Newsletter 2013-38 (September) is now published. To subscribe to our newsletter please contact us at urbachina-edition@services.cnrs.fr

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Chinese research perspectives on the environment

Qi Ye (2013), Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment, Special Volume. Annual Review of Low-Carbon Development in China (2011-12), Leiden, Brill. xvi, 362 p.

A special volume in the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series, this English-language volume is an edited collection of articles from the Chinese-language volume of The Annual Review of Low-Carbon Development in China (2011-2012). This is a pioneering volume on China’s low-carbon development efforts, challenges, plans, trends, and policy recommendations, all based on research conducted by the Climate Policy Initiative at Tsinghua University, China. In this work, key results in China’s 11th Five-Year Plan are explored by reviewing China’s performance against targets, while the implementation of key policies and institutions are described with a focus on the effectiveness of low-carbon development policies in China during the period of 2005-2010. In addition, focus is placed on key indicators of low-carbon development such as energy consumption, CO2 emission, and low-carbon technologies. It discusses issues ranging from the low-carbon transformation of China’s economy to innovative low-carbon technologies, from low-carbon financing and incentive policies to changes in the business sector and consumer behaviors. The compilation offers not only insights on facts, but also introduces discussion on some of the more controversial issues China faces as it works to meet climate and energy challenges up through 2020.

More information

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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An underground city in Paris – The parisian sewer system

雨果曾在他的小说《悲惨世界》 里曾提到,下水道是一座城市的见证 (L’égout c’est la conscience de la ville),下水道系统的建立,不仅体现了一个城市发展程度,同时也关系市民的生活质量。巴黎的下水道系统是全世界唯一可以参观游览的下水道,也许可以提供中国城镇化发展时的一个参考。

巴黎的下水道系统是在1854年左右才开始大规模兴建,在此时期以前,大部分的废水都是直接排入塞纳河中,不仅造成了塞纳河的严重污染,还导致了1832年巴黎传染病的发生。因此在拿破仑三世时期,为了解决巴黎的水污染问题,委托乔治-欧仁·奥斯曼 (Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann) 执行巴黎改造计划,下水道工程师欧金·贝尔格兰德(Eugène Belgrand) 受命于奥斯曼,结合卫生学的理论开始将巴黎的污水管线进行改造。贝尔格兰德利用巴黎地势北方较低的特点,为了把污水排出巴黎市内,他将巴黎左岸的下水道管线聚集在爱而玛桥 (pont de l’Alma),并在塞纳河底建立一条水管,让污水引流到巴黎地势较低的克利希(Clichy)并且将污水净化。到了1895年,污水引流管线延长到更西北方的安歇尔(Achères),巴黎所有的污水也都排到的该地的污水处理场。为了确保塞纳河回归原来的洁净,政府在1894年立法规定禁止倾倒废水到下水道系统與塞纳河中,巴黎的水污染问题因此得到大幅的改善。

 由于巴黎污水的排放,是按照「水往低处流」的原理,把污水引到巴黎郊区,故了避免该排污水管堵塞,清淤球,清淤车等设备因此负责下水道水管系统的水流顺畅。

巴黎的下水道从1878年总长600公里发展至今约总长2400公里1,虽然已经拥有相当规模的地下排水系统,然而,却仍在1910年1月遭遇了大淹水,这场淹水使得当时20万巴黎人受到影响,2万间房间浸在水中,总长40公里的道路被水淹没。根据塞纳河上奥斯特利茨大桥 (pont d’Austerlitz)上水位标尺的记录,当时水位最高达8.62 m,超过正常水位6 m多。这场大淹水倒灌入巴黎地下的排水系统,并通过下水道、地铁等地下网络,进入了巴黎城区。因此,现阶段的巴黎下水道备有关闭水道闸口的设计,也因此可以防止海水倒灌。

WP_001664

为了要防止污染与洪水入侵城市,下水道扮演着很重要的角色,然而,没有任何一个城市能够百分之一百确定城市发展中不会因为天灾或人祸使人民生活遭受威胁,巴黎从19世纪开始就重视下水道工程的建设与水污染的治理,该经验也许可以提供中国城镇化发展时的一个参考。

  1. Bali shi zhengfu wangzhan, http://www.paris.fr/pratique/musees-expos/musee-des-egouts/visite-publique-des-egouts-de-paris/rub_9691_stand_5943_port_23931, accessed on 24 september []

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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Who is in charge of waste?

Trash can in Kunming, Goulard SébastienAs a result of economic growth and new consumer habits, Shanghai inhabitants are producing larger amounts of waste. The city is trying to reduce its municipal solid waste (hereafter referred to as MSW) and encourages MSW source separation. A recent article published in “Waste Management & Research” highlighted the importance of public awareness in reducing MSW1. In order to study recycling habits, the authors conducted surveys in several areas of Shanghai. Their study shows that inhabitants are willing to further separate their waste (including glass, batteries) in order to increase recycling efficiency in Shanghai,  but are not well informed regarding kitchen waste. The authors call for several types of educational campaigns, designed to target every segment of the population in Shanghai.  They also support the introduction of market-based incentives to reduce households waste: the more waste you produce, the more you pay.

At first sight, this principle seems quite fair. However, we also need to consider the problem of  “future waste” producers. Consumers are not the only ones responsible for waste; companies need to be strongly encouraged to make their packaging more environmental-friendly.  The waste “issue” should be addressed during the early stages of product development.

Another point is that waste is only one aspect of pollution and environmental protection.  This study shows that respondents were influenced by the “neighbour effect”, meaning that households tend not to recycle if their neighbours do not do so. The same principle needs to be applied to the whole city. Inhabitants will be more likely to separate their waste if they see that the local government and companies are making an effort to reduce air pollution, and to make the city greener; otherwise they tend to feel that separating their plastic bottles from their yoghurt pots is a drop in the bucket.

  1. Zhang W, Che Y, Yang K, Ren X, Tai J. (2012, December) Public opinion about the source separation of municipal solid waste in Shanghai, China. Waste Management & Research 30(12), pp.1261-71 []

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Urban China on screen: the postsocialist cinematic city

Berra, J.1 (2013) Urban China on screen: the sixth generation and the postsocialist cinematic city. Geography Compass. 7 (8) pp.588–596. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12061

This article will consider the relationship between the city and the cinema with regard to the films of China’s ‘Sixth Generation’, a group of filmmakers who mostly graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in the late 1980s and proceeded to make films on the subject of their nation’s urban fabric. These are films which utilise city narrative to comment on social–economic change, but largely observe such conditions, rather than to take apolitical stance. To explore the urban representation of the Sixth Generation, this article will provide analysis of three works that depict life in top-tier or second-tier mainland China cities: Biandan, guniang/So Close to Paradise (1999), Suzhou he/Suzhou River (2000) and Xiari nuanyangyang/I Love Beijing (2001). The manner in which urban space is represented will be considered, alongside the social positioning of the characters, in order to address arguments made by scholars that these films focus on the plight of the individual rather than considering the wider implications of urban planning.

Read full article on Wiley online library (restricted access or purchase options)

  1. School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University, China

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Housing, urban renewal and socio-spatial integration in Beijing

Hui, Xiaoxi (2013) Housing, urban renewal and socio-spatial integration: a study on rehabilitating the former socialistic public housing areas in Beijing. A+BE : Architecture and the Built Environment. 3(2) pp.1-796. doi:10.7480/abe.2013.2. (accessed 20 September 2013)

Based on the background of privatization, the former socialistic public housing areas in Beijing confront the ambiguity of their housing stock and the confusion of housing management. While they still accommodate the majority of urban residents and are identified by their good places, (social and programmatic) mixed communities, vibrant local life, and diversified housing types, they are facing the serious challenges of physical deterioration and social decline. Therefore, urban renewal was thought as an effective solution seeking to improve the living conditions in those neighborhoods. Nevertheless, urban renewal in itself is also a controversial issue. In order to solve the housing problem, the large-scale urban renewal in Beijing started at the beginning of the 1990s. The radical housing reform further boosted urban renewal, often in the form of wholesale reconstruction and linked to real estate development. The market-driven urban reconstruction resulted in the resident displacement, community destruction, disappearance of historical images and, more threatening, socio-spatial segregation. It encountered the rising criticism from scholars and activists and resistance from the residents. As a result, many housing renewal projects, including the reconstruction projects of former public housing areas, had to be stopped or suspended in Beijing after 2004. Nowadays there is a dilemma for the urban renewal of Beijing’s former public housing areas.

Read full text on A+BE

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Informal sector – Xiao Wang (小王)

Informal sector - Xiao Wang (小王), Elosua Miguel

 

This photo was taken in Shanghai in September 2013. Motorbike drivers wait for customers at the entrance of the Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau. A ride to the nearest subway usually takes five minutes and costs between 8 and 15 RMB, depending on the negotiation skills of the client.

Xiao Wang (left) has been doing this job for seven years already. In one day he can make more than 150RMB, around 4500RMB per month, well above the average salary of a migrant worker (in 2009, 30% of migrant workers did not earn more than 1100 RMB per month)1, and the equivalent of a taxi driver’s average income, although net of taxes. He came to Shanghai from the neighbouring Anhui province 10 years ago with his wife, who works as a domestic helper (baomu – 保姆,or ayi  阿姨,which means “aunt”, a common term for domestic helpers in China).  Xiao Wang worked in a factory first, only to become an entrepreneur when he made enough savings to buy a motorbike. Since he could not afford to buy a Shanghai licence plate (the Government of Shanghai runs auction sales and the auction price of a plate reached more than 90,000RMB in 2013), he bought and registered the motorbike in Anhui (vehicles registered elsewhere cannot circulate on elevated highways during peak hours). Among his fellows, there are also many Shanghai locals who joined the informal sector after the massive layoffs that took place as a consequence of the restructuring of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the mid-1990s.

The couple have a daughter, who is eight years old now and lives with Xiao Wang’s parents in Anhui. They send money every month to pay for her education. For a long time they could only travel back home for the Chinese New Year, but they can afford to do it twice a year now. Communication with their daughter is done through weekly telephone calls. New technologies and smart phones are still absent from their lives.

Back in Anhui, they had land to cultivate, but income from land was meagre. The agricultural tax had not been abolished yet, and agricultural allowances were paltry. Therefore, they decided to leave the land idle and migrate to the booming coastal city of Shanghai, like many other farmers from this province. After a few years, they rented out the land to another villager for 300RMB per mu (1 mu = 1/15 ha.) a year. This does not represent an important sum to the household economy but its significance is tied to the interest in keeping the land. Leaving land idle may cause them to lose it in the next round of land distribution in the village, something they cannot accept. As it is often the case with migrants in China, their heart still belongs to their hometowns. There is no sense of identity with the host city. This mentality contrasts with other inflow cities like New York, where migrants tend to identify with the city almost instantly. One of the main reasons for this lack of identification with the big city lies in the hukou system, which remains as a stumbling block to the full integration of rural citizens. Since migrant workers do not have access to urban welfare benefits, they are trapped mid-transition from rural to urban.

Xiao Wang is part of this group of migrant workers – approximately 150 million – who work in the informal sector: they lack a formal job, formal housing, and formal citizenship. They have to prepare for any eventuality, something that has made them China’s biggest savers group. Granting full citizenship to migrant workers would remove an important obstacle for upward social mobility and respectability. It would also increase tax revenues and would help the country stabilise the economy, encouraging migrant workers like Xiao Wang to reduce savings and increase spending.

  1. 2009 Nian nongmin gong jiance diaocha baogao, National bureau of statistics of China, http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t20100319_402628281.htm (accessed 3 September 2013 []

Miguel Elosua

Spanish qualified lawyer; PhD in Chinese Law. UrbaChina Research Officer. Has lived in China since 2006.

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