China Building First Carbon-Neutral City
There’s a lot of talk about China’s staggering amount of planned coal plants, and the narrowing gap between it and the U.S. for the title of Planet’s Biggest Carbon Dioxide Emitter. But China is examining at least one unique way to develop more sustainably.
Welcome to Dongtan, the world’s first CO2-free city. Developers are building this $1.3 billion eco-city just outside of Shanghai. Renewable energy will be used extensively, the layout of the city maximizes walking and biking rather than cars, and transport vehicles will run on batteries or hydrogen fuel cells. Other plans include recycling organic waste, green roofs, and rainwater capture.
Dongtan will cover an area about three-quarters the size of Manhattan on wetlands at the mouth of the Yangtze River. However, Peter Head of Arup, the London-based firm heading the planning, said the wetlands are not at risk from the development. From the Architectural Record:
“‘First of all, water usually discharged into the river will be collected, treated, and recycled within the city boundaries,” he says. ‘There will be a 2-mile buffer zone of eco-farm between city development and the wetlands.’ While farming is water intensive, relatively small amounts of water reach the plants themselves. Head says Dongtan ‘will capture and recycle water in the city and use recycled water to grow green vegetables hydroponically. This makes the whole water cycle much more efficient.’”
But what will the habitants do in this eco-utopia? City officials and consultants expect jobs in education like at the planned Institute for Sustainable Cities, and they anticipate attracting companies pursuing clean technologies, food research and production, and health care. Dongtan is also expected to rely heavily on ecotourism.
Designers hope CO2-free city will serve as a model for the rest of the urbanized world. Its first phase includes a marina village of 20,000 habitants that will be unveiled at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Nearly 80,000 people are expected to live in the city by 2020, and eventually designers hope to see 500,000 citizens living the good, green life there.
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April 21st, 2007 at 1:47 pm
If only this eco-city were more than the smallest drop in a massive bucket … The reality though is that pollution in China is escaliting and probably will continue to do so for at least another five years. It’s downright scary.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:24 am
Sorry to break the utopia. This is more likely a propaganda effort by the Shanghai government and will not do anything for China’s move towards sustainable development. It will certainly line the pockets of city officials, developers and architects.
For reasons why that is, visit this post for the background on the ‘eco-city’:
http://www.ccontact.com/Blog/2007/04/19/dongtan-eco-village-model-of-sustainability-or-simply-green-washing/trackback/
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Great Idea,
Why is it not a Global requirement for all nations to start building Eco friendly systems NOW? Have each City responsible to provide it’s own power through solar and wind and perhaps biomass or wave techknowledgy instead of this enormus grid system we now have.Start shutting down these dirty cole powered plants. I know just how dirty they are I worked at the Dave Johnson Power plant for 5 years the So2 Co2 acid rain etc. generated from one small plant is huge.
May 10th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
For anyone that bothers to click on the link provided above (it didn’t all fit, but you can hopefully find it pretty easily), there is a lot of negative talk, mostly claiming that Dongtan is a “showcase”.
Yes, it is a showcase. Yes, it is inefficient with money (they have to design things often for the first time, such as how to have the heat from power plants efficiently dispersed to heat homes, etc.). No, it ALONE will not improve the Chinese environment much. But I have two simple replies to this negative spin:
o Why are we imposing this project with the responsibility to save all of China, or all of Shanghai for that matter? This is too much to ask for just one project. It is helping much more than hurting the environment, and if all projects follow suit, then there is significant environmental impact.
o This city is economically inefficient / expensive specifically BECAUSE it is a showcase. Much of this work is being done for the first time, so everything needs to be studied and understood. Morever, contingencies and alternatives need to be considered. Once it is shown as a success the next Dongtan copycat can be made at much more reasonable costs.
Check out the following (quite detailed) article if you want more information:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_popup.html
Complaining about something not “being enough” is the lamest complaint possible. No single solution will save the environment. But an eco-friendly city (which, by its nature, must also be a pedestrian-friendly city) is certainly a welcome addition to the solutions.
August 18th, 2007 at 3:39 am
Hi to all
Great news is coming from different part of world relating to green city, carbon free city, but all country and their government got some complication in implementing them. Country like India is currently growing on its share market and real estate. If only real estate and green city or for that matter it should be mandatory for all real estate developer to contribute towards green area or say green city than it might work. We have to integrate it in the system and it will work but if it remains as a separate system than it might not work (I got my own dought)
Luv and regards
Gautam …..timeline
August 6th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
It is good to see more stories about green roofs.
I read a great series of articles about green roofs and China at http://www.cleanerairforcities.blogspot.com
They would really help the Chinese air pollution problem.