Expo Legacy, Part I - David Sutton

A Personal Note: I had begun this study in the hopes of producing a guide for Expo visitors, a guide to the best real operating examples of sustainable technologies being demonstrated at the Expo for those interested in such matters. It soon became clear that such a guide would not be able to be done because of the reticence of officials to share the necessary information. I then decided to wait until the Expo opened and document, by personal observation and verification, what was actually present and accessible to the public as learning examples and a legacy of this Expo. It was my goal to document the many valuable applications being showcased at the Expo and to have them live on as an Expo legacy and serve to facilitate the technology transfer beyond the Expo and Shanghai well into the future and throughout China. The World Expo should have not only inspired and informed but also empowered the visitor with the tools to facilitate the spread of these technologies that we need for a sustainable world.

Since the Expo has closed, I am reading reports of what had occurred there. Whether these reports are true or not I can not verify but I can attest to the fact that much of what is reported was not open and accessible to the public. Notwithstanding the many lofty pronouncements about educating the public and professionals in field about sustainable design and practices it is clear that information and education programs to accomplish the task were not a priority. The “Shanghai Declaration” (see [bad link] http://expo2010.ifeng.com/english/news/detail_2010_10/31/ ) issued on the concluding day of Expo continues with these noble statements. One can only hope that it will result in more public education in the future.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

World Expo’s Legacy for More Sustainable Cities

by David B. Sutton, Ph.D.

Abstract:

The World Expo 2010 represented an unprecedented educational opportunity. Over 150 countries and 50 International organizations shared scientific and technological innovations and their experiences of urban development. The many diverse eco-city innovations showcased at the Expo and in and around Shanghai represented a unique opportunity to educate the public about what can be done to reduce the environmental impact of our development and make it more sustainable. Part I of this article will discuss the massive environmental efforts that Shanghai underwent in preparations of this World event. Part II, to appear in our next issue, will explore notable examples of sustainable design and practice demonstrated at the Expo Park itself during the event.

Part I

I have been in the environment/sustainability movement for over thirty years teaching in the University in the United States. For the past 8 years I have lived and worked in China trying to lend my voice to the growing concern here for sustainable development. You can imagine my excitement when I learned that the World Expo 2010 was to be in Shanghai and focus on Better (more sustainable) Cities so that residents can live Better Lives.

For a year, I researched the plans for what the various countries, cities and companies were proposing to do at the Expo and have spent the past six months documenting what I found that they really had done. I spent one to three days a week visiting over 150 Pavilions. It was not an easy, but a very important, task to separate the real from the talk and I was glad to see that amongst all the hype and hyperbole in the media, there were some real gems at the Expo. This article is to report on the real and meaningful examples of sustainable design and practice that I was able to discover at the World Expo 2010 (1).

A GRAND SUCCESS

By almost any measure the World Expo lived up to its grand expectations. This first World Expo held in a developing country became the largest in history attracting over 70 million visitors, as predicted. There were some truly magnificent architectural structures. The massive China National Pavilion will undoubtedly live on as a legacy of the Expo and a new icon of Shanghai and China as the Eiffel Tower has for Paris and France before it. And who can forget the unique porcupine-spined UK Pavilion, the massive purple-membrane “silkworm” Japan Pavilion, the “Moon Boat” of the Saudi Pavilion, the Finnish “Kettle”, the wonderful night time lighting of such Pavilions as Russia, South Korea and others, or, my personal favorite, the peaceful serenity of the elegantly simple natural Pavilion of Norway. These and many more will live on in our memories. Unfortunately most have already been disassembled and removed.

All of these marvelous venues and the many public performance places scattered throughout the Expo Park continually pulsated with cultural events and activities. Visitors were treated to unique and wonderful music and dance as well one-of-a-kind cultural performances from all around the World. For these things alone the World’s largest International Fair will not soon be forgotten.

A LOST OPPORTUNITY

But with its theme, “Better City, Better Life,” the Expo portended to be more than that. This catchy Chinese aphorism intended to reflect the hope that the world’s urban population will grow in harmony and happiness as it multiplies in size. Thirty-five percent of Chinese reside in cities and the figure is expected to rise to 65 % by 2030. While the US has 46 cities with populations over one million, Europe has 60 and China has an incredible 175. Shanghai is its largest metropolitan area with a population of over 19 million.

It is important for leaders in government, business and technology to find better ways for humans to live, work and play in today’s cities. “Better City, Better Life” provided a large framework for participating countries to explore new ways of keeping modern cities clean, efficient and comfortable. The Pavilions and Exhibits were to be the platform for participants to showcase their best practices. They were to use environmental friendly and energy efficient technologies and bridge the gap between urban and rural life by incorporating natural spaces and elements in urban settings.

Over 150 countries and 50 International organizations shared scientific and technological innovations and their experiences of urban development. The many diverse eco-city innovations showcased at the Expo and in and around Shanghai represented a unique opportunity to educate the public about what can be done to reduce the environmental impact of our development by experiencing first-hand true working examples of these sustainable technologies.

It is here where the Expo could have played such a vital role in providing ideas and solutions. As China’s cities develop, their enduring success will come because they are places in which people can enjoy diverse, healthy cultured and fulfilled lives. The Expo has gathered together a unique range of presentations of what countries from all parts of the globe and the economic development scale are most proud of in their solutions to urban living. For Chinese city dwellers and those that plan their cities, it was a truly unique opportunity to see, all in one place, what could be. It was this hope that the Expo would provide inspiration and options so that the people of China can build better cities and have better lives living in them.

It is in this area of public information and education that I am sorry to report that, in my estimation, the Expo fell far short of its potential.

Notwithstanding the many lofty pronouncements about educating the public and professionals in field about sustainable design and practices it is clear that information and education programs to accomplish the task were not a priority.

Many of the most notable examples of sustainable design and practice were invisible to the public. There was no information provided on site and most of the innovations and went essentially unreported. Information was even inaccessible to those who specifically sought it.

The media, like most media everywhere, focused on image, celebrity and special events rather than the everyday substance of urban living that could have been learned at the Expo.

The many academic and professional conferences exploring the cross-cultural responses to urban living (many of which I personally attended) were rather elitist in their attendance and poorly covered by the media contributing little to informing the public.

The height of technical substance reporting was represented by the ICS’s charming yet essentially clueless “Tech Angels.” While the bubbly Barbies might have been good TV, a few less attractive well-informed technicians might have better served the task of educating the public.

The notable exceptions reported here prove the rule that in general many of the best examples of sustainable design and operation were never accessible to nor reported to the public — the great opportunity for public education was lost!

UNEXTOLLED VIRTUES

There were masterful things done at the Expo and in preparation for it. While there were too many to report on in detail here, I would now like to give a brief overview of some of the best examples. While severely under-reported and barely noticed by the public, they do show us the way toward more sustainable cities. In this Part I, I will discuss the extensive efforts that Shanghai underwent in preparation for the World event.

GREENING SHANGHAI

Shanghai’s commitment to a Green Expo went beyond the fair itself. Since 2000, the municipal government has scaled up and accelerated its environmental initiatives. The hundred-year old city is being modernized to become a green example for urban development in the future. Extensive efforts have been initiated to upgrade urban infrastructure, strengthen pollution control measures, utilize cleaner and more energy-efficient technologies and promote renewable energies.

Air Quality

The 2010 Expo accelerated Shanghai’s long-term efforts in improving air quality and provided additional momentum to strengthen various environmental initiatives. Shanghai started to tackle its pollution problem in the 1980s. But it was not until 2000, and especially after the Expo bid was won, that the Government demonstrated unprecedented political determination, matched with impressive nancial investment and backed up by scientic and technological capacity.

The City has shown continued leadership in: a) the persistence in enforcing the car- license auctioning mechanism which effectively controlled the growth of vehicles, b) the ambitious construction of one of the world’s most modern subway systems in less than a decade, which required extensive urban renewal, c) the swift upgrading of automobile emission standards to Euro IV, as well as the 100 per cent desulphurization of the city’s coal-re capacities in a matter of just three years.

The cutting edge 100MW offshore wind farm and the various solar PV power plants resulted due to the visionary policy and nancial support of the government. The removal of all coal boilers in the urban centre, the city-wide upgrading of factories, the rehabilitation of the old industrial zones and the promotion of circular economy and clean production all resulted from these polices and support. It was clear that Expo 2010 provided an opportunity for Shanghai to speed up and scale up its environmental initiatives and as a result visitors generally experienced clear blues skies at the Expo.

Transportation

In order to meet the long-term transport demand of its citizens, Shanghai used Expo 2010 as an opportunity to fundamentally transform its transport infrastructure and to curb emissions from its motor vehicles. The priority was the development of environment-friendly public transportation, an extensive network of rapid transit, strengthened public bus services.

Steps were taken to control the growth in the number of motor vehicles and to tighten emission standards and improve their enforcement for motor vehicles as well as speeding up the phasing out of obsolete vehicles.

The concept of “prioritizing public transportation” was introduced in government documents in the 1990s. But it was only in the last few years that clear political determination and substantial policy support were guaranteed. The city authority learnt a hard lesson from the failure of the car-growth strategy (2) and quickly reprioritized the development of the public transport system. The experience of Shanghai in shifting its policy towards providing efficient, comfortable, affordable, and sustainable transport for all of its citizens has showcased a success story for other rapidly developing cities.

The Shanghai metro is among the most rapidly expanding in the world. In a mere 15 years (the first line opened in 1995) it has gained the title as the world’s longest. Now the Shanghai system has 420 km of lines (282 stations) compared to 408 km in London and 368 km in New York, which now have the world’s second and third-largest rapid transit networks. Unlike those cities, which have only minor line extensions planned, Shanghai’s expansion plans are only half complete: not only does the city have 140 km of more lines currently under construction and intended for service by 2012, but it has an additional 300 km planned to be ready for operations by 2020, by which time this city alone will have more rapid transit mileage than the entire country of Japan (3).

The Shanghai Metro is now capable of handling about five million passengers a day; the system is likely to become the world’s most-used, passing Tokyo and Moscow, by the time the full construction program is complete.

In preparation for the Expo, Shanghai has demonstrated that with vision, political determination, the right policy support and financial incentives, a rapidly developing city can fundamentally alter the car-oriented traffic strategy which has dominated the imagination of decision-makers for so many years. Cities from the rest of China and other developing countries can benefit much from heeding Shanghai’s green transport vision.

Shanghai’s massive rapid transit expansion is symbolic of what many Chinese cities are heading towards. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, at the moment there are 36 subway lines under construction in 12 Chinese cities. By 2010, there will be 23 cities in China having metro systems (4).

To accommodate the over 70 million visitors to the Expo, clean energy vehicles were provided to ensure that all public transportation inside the Expo 2010 site was zero emission. The Metro line 13 served the Expo Park with stations on both sides of the river. Admission was free with Expo ticket and service handled 50% of the visitor traffic.

Energy

Energy has been a key area for Shanghai to modernize in its preparations for the Expo. When the city won the bid for the Expo in 2002, Shanghai was predominately dependent on coal for generating electricity for its growing population and booming industrialization.

Since then, the city has put in place a comprehensive program for improving the energy structure, reducing its reliance on coal, improving energy efficiency and introducing renewable energy. Although many of these measures were formulated with the objective of saving energy, reducing emissions and improving air quality, they also contributed to reducing greenhouse gas emission thus helping to mitigate climate change.

An over-arching objective of Shanghai’s energy strategy was to accomplish the “energy conservation and emission reduction” target laid down in the outline of the national Eleventh Five-Year Plan of National Economy and Social Development (2006-2010). By 2010, Shanghai reduced energy intensity per GDP unit by 20 per cent compared to 2005 levels, and its energy supply and consumption system had become diverse, safe, clean and highly efficient.

The Expo provided both a platform and a catalytic opportunity for Shanghai to accelerate the development of renewable energy. Faced with the pressure to diversify energy mix and reduce energy intensity, Shanghai took up the challenge and moved quickly to boost renewable energy.

All the main permanent buildings in the Expo site demonstrated how renewable energy can be integrated and utilized for future green buildings. Arrays of building-integrated photovoltaic cells generated electricity with sizeable installed capacity in the China Pavilion (0.3 MW), the Theme Pavilion (2.83 MW) and the Expo Center (1 MW).

The old coal-fired station, Nanshi Power Plant, inside the Expo site was transformed into a renewable energy exhibition center installed with 0.5 MW solar PV panels. Its smoke stack was symbolically remade into the Harmony Tower, pointing to the need for human beings to live harmoniously with nature. Altogether there was 4.7 MW functioning solar PV at the Expo site.

Innovative technology using ground- and water-source heat-pumps was also demonstrated. The Expo Axis totally relied on this new technology to run the air-conditioning and heating system. Geothermal heat pumps were used in the Expo Center and the Expo Performance Center (more details on this in Part II).

The application of renewable energy is not only limited to the Expo site. New facilities were set up to utilize landfill gas for electricity. Wind turbines and solar panels were mushrooming across the city. Like many other Chinese cities, solar thermal water heating systems and solar-powered street lamps were also widely used in Shanghai.

The first wind power station in Shanghai was introduced in 2003. Before 2007, there were only 24 MW of wind power installed capacity: 850 kW x 4 in Fengxian, 1.5 MW x 11 in Nanhui, and 1.5 MW x 3 Chongming. Given Shanghai’s geographical location, wind resources are much richer along the coast in Nanhui and Fengxian Districts and around the Chongming Island area.

Located in the wetland reserve, Chongming Dongtan Wind Farm was expanded in 2008 to have a total installed capacity of 19.5 MW. It could generate 72 million kWh yearly, meeting the power needs of 20,000 households. In a similar approach to maximize land use, another wind farm is being built on the city’s largest waste dump in the coastal Laogang Landfill. Currently 15 turbines with 1.5 MW each are being installed on the waste ground which will otherwise have no alternative use.

Shanghai has also constructed the first offshore wind park in China. The first of the 34 gigantic turbines, 3 MW each with the tower height at about 100 meters, have been installed beside the Donghai Bridge. This 102 MW offshore wind farm became operational in time for the opening of the Expo. The Donghai offshore wind farm can power the needs of 200,000 families, based on the average annual electricity consumption of 1,200 kWh per household in Shanghai.

Offshore wind farms have huge potential, as they do not take up precious land while fully utilizing the rich wind resources at sea. At present, there are about two dozens offshore wind parks in the world, but the Donghai one will be the first in Asia and in a developing country. According to Shanghai’s 2020 vision of wind energy development, four more offshore wind farms will be built in the coming decade (5).

Apart from the 4.69 MW installed on the Expo buildings, Shanghai has been promoting the development of solar PV in the city. The Energy White Paper laid out a comprehensive program encouraging the growth of the solar industry with a) economic incentives, b) demonstration projects, c) government investments, and d) setting technical specifications and standard for the industry to follow. It targeted 7 to 10 MW installed capacity and the building of at least five MW-class solar power plants by 2010.

The Energy White Paper also required all government financed building projects to install solar utilization facilitates whenever conditions allow. It was also planned that 10 solar utilization and building-integrated demonstration projects were to be realized each year in Shanghai in new residential estates and industrial parks.

Chongming Solar Power Plant Demonstration Project at Qianwei Village on the island was connected to the grid in 2007. It was the first grid-connected MW-class solar PV station in China. It has been producing approximately 1 million kWh of electricity a year, saving 337 tons of coal and avoiding 643 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

As a demonstration project, it used conventional monocrystalline silicon PV modules as well as other modules composed of polycrystalline silicon. The latest HIT solar cell technology was also introduced, which was the first time it was used in China. Comparative analysis on the actual performance of different modules is being conducted in order to help further popularizing solar PV in the Yangtze River Delta area.

China uses and produces more then half of the world’s total solar thermal water heaters, with an estimate of 30 million households nationwide using them.(6)

Solar thermal heating systems are also widely used in Shanghai, especially on residential rooftops in sub-urban and rural districts. Shanghai used a state-led approach to promote solar heaters. A total of 200,000 m2 building- integrated solar thermal heating systems were installed by 2010, mostly for public buildings. By heating water by solar power rather then electricity, it is estimated that every square meter of solar heating can save 500 kWh of electricity consumption a year, saving the equivalent of 200 kg of coal.

Managing Demand

Shanghai should be applauded for its impressive achievement in improving energy intensity against a background of rapid economic development. However, the city’s dependency on coal is still relatively high. The demand for more energy in absolute terms and the increase of per capita energy consumption is still on the rise.

Shanghai needs to promote stronger demand-side management strategies, not only to government offices, factories and commercial entities, but also to the general public. Again the critical role of public education surfaces.

The public should be more informed and motivated about the need to take personal actions to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Phasing-out of obsolete inefficient products and technologies such as incandescent light-bulbs should be speeded up, while the new generation of green building, energy efficient standards should become mandatory and updated, and all of this supported by an extensive education effort to the public explaining why it is important to support these efforts.

WASTE

One of the most difficult challenges cities around the world are facing is the ever-increasing amount of municipal solid waste. Shanghai as a densely populated and rapidly growing city in China and is no exception.

It is particularly pertinent that the organizer of the Expo given that the theme is “Better City, Better Life” to be well-equipped to handle the waste generated by its citizens in a sound and sustainable way.

As Shanghai had a rather underdeveloped infrastructure in the late 1990s when it prepared its bid for the Expo, it has not been an easy task for the municipality to cope with growing domestic solid waste and other hazardous waste in such a short period. It is even more challenging for Shanghai to transform its waste strategy from one focusing on expanding treatment facilities to that of reducing waste at source and eventually moving towards a visionary zero-waste society.

Shanghai has been making major strides to modernize its waste management system in the last decade. Safe waste disposal facilities have been massively scaled up, with an increasing utilization rate for waste-to-energy and reuse. The recent trend of introducing comprehensive treatment which includes recovering useful and recyclable materials and biochemical treatment of organic waste for compost or energy represents a greener waste approach.

Without a doubt, the waste sorting, classification, transfer and disposal systems have been significantly improved in the last ten years in Shanghai. The city’s expansion in its capacity in handling hazardous waste, especially the forward-looking attitude in supporting the establishment of an electronic waste treatment facility should also be applauded.

The decade-long experience showed that the growth of waste generation outpaced the expansion of waste treatment capacity in the municipality. This is certainly not a problem unique to Shanghai. Rather, many other rapidly developing cities are facing similar challenges of reducing and handling waste sustain ably. It is therefore particularly important for Shanghai, as one of the leading metropolises and the first host of the Expo in the developing world, to further strengthen its efforts towards a visionary waste management system for the future.

Expo 2010 provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase how cities can strive towards a zero-waste goal. The waste measures for the Expo were mostly oriented towards waste separation and safe treatment. An environment friendly waste management concept should focus not only on disposal, but more importantly on avoidance and reduction at source.

Waste is one of the most important issues when it comes to major events because the visitors can directly participate in the greening program with the proper supporting educational effort. Expo 2010 could have been an opportunity to develop an example of good practice for the whole city.

It should be clear that it is not possible for Shanghai, and indeed any city in the world, to build endless treatment capacity for ever-growing municipal waste. The only sustainable solution is avoidance and reduction at source. It is also important to have separate waste collection for better recycling. While it is important to build and operate safe treatment facilities, it is perhaps equally important, if not more important, to progressively avoid and reduce waste generation.

Shanghai is developing a comprehensive waste-reduction program and considering developing a long-term program towards zero-waste vision and related policies. This is in line with the ecological and circular economy concepts the central government of China has recently been promoting.

With this ultimate goal, the municipality started to set limits and targets to gradually reduce the total volume and per capita waste generated in the city. While treatment facilities should be further developed and upgraded based on utilization principles, more emphasis should be put on waste reduction. The aim is to avoid and reduce waste at source, and to have all unavoidable refuse reused, utilized, or recycled.

Despite these improvements in infrastructure, the issue of domestic solid waste continues to haunt Shanghai. Although “Reduction, Utilization, and Safe Disposal” have been repeated as the three pillars of the overall waste strategy, the focus of the government seems to be an imbalanced reverse of the sequence. Most of the effort has been centered on safe disposal, as translated into the massive expansion of facilities. However, not much attention has been given to the reduction track, which is probably the most fundamental aspect of a sustainable waste strategy and I might add totally reliant on an effective public information and education effort.

Public engagement for waste reduction

Urban waste is not just the responsibility of government planners and environmental regulators. Every citizen contributes to it and is affected by it. Citizens should be encouraged and motivated to share this responsibility by minimizing their individual waste generation by consuming less, in a smarter and greener way. Consequently, this is an area needing a massive public education campaign.

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) and polluter pays principles should be established in the overall waste reduction program so as to encourage producers to reduce packaging materials, design-out harmful and un-recyclable materials in products, take full responsibility of the product’s life-cycle, and eventually develop more durable and sustainable consumer products. Economic measures, such as progressively differentiated pricing system of garbage fees based on weight, could be utilized to provide incentives and disincentives to guide actions. A comprehensive program of public education and awareness raising should also be developed.

The plastic bag ban announced by the Chinese government in 2008 was a small but very concrete step towards this zero-waste vision. With this regulation, retail outlet chains such as supermarkets and drugstores were not allowed to hand out free plastic bags. It is estimated that about 60 per cent of the consumers were thus motivated to bring their own bags. This smartly designed intervention had not only sharply reduced plastic bag usage and disposal, but also had a ripple effect on the environmental awareness of consumers.

The traditional government-led top-down mode of education in China may not be the most effective way of engaging the public. It needs to be accompanied by massive public education; emerging NGOs, social groups, as well as online social networks, should be encouraged and supported to initiate creative and motivating campaigns to engage citizens (7).

Shanghai has committed to ensure that the water within the Expo Park is drinkable. With the increasing popularization of bottled water in China, the Shanghai authorities could have prohibited the selling of such products and encourage visitors to bring their own bottles. If all visitors were encouraged and join this campaign, at least 70 million non-biodegradable plastic bottles could be saved during the Expo. It will also provide an excellent opportunity to the organizers to promote public awareness on both the water and waste issue in China.

WATER

Hosting Expo 2010 presents an opportunity as well as a challenge for Shanghai to improve its water planning and management.

The water systems in the Yangtze delta area have been under great environmental stress in recent years. This densely populated region is rapidly urbanizing and industrializing. While the local governments of the region have been making great efforts to regulate industrial and municipal waste water, non-point source pollution from agriculture and aquaculture remains a persistent problem.

The challenge for ensuring a clean and stable water supply for Shanghai, involves improving infrastructure and implementing policies with a goal to reduce and treat industrial, municipal and agricultural discharges, as well as regional cooperation with neighboring provinces.

While Shanghai’s geographical location provides an abundance of water, the challenge for the municipality is more on water quality rather than water scarcity. Pollution and seawater intrusion have posed major threats to the drinking water security of Shanghai.

In the last decade, Shanghai has greatly improved a safe and stable drinking water supply, stepping up its measures in treating sewage (8) and cleaning up its polluted waterways. Impressive results can be confirmed by: the increased percentage of municipal sewage being treated and the resulting sludge being safely treated; the number of industrial point sources being controlled; the length of waterways being treated; the improvement in COD intensity and total discharge.

The building of advanced municipal sewage treatment facilities, the application of ecologically- principled constructed wetland systems for decentralized rural wastewater treatment and the comprehensive efforts in rehabilitating Suzhou Creek are all impressive measures. In addition the symbolic transformation of polluting riverbanks into a leisure park capable of purifying water, as well as moves to educate the public about the far-reaching consequence of water pollution and the importance of environmental protection are all achievements of the municipality.

890

It is clear that Shanghai faces serious challenges in addressing water pollution. The municipal government put water pollution as one of the priorities in the consecutive Three-year Environmental Action Plans. Apart from the measures mentioned about ensuring drinking water supply in the source water area, the government has also invested heavily in cleaning up waterways and treating waste water across the city.

Constructed Wetlands

Apart from building sewer networks and smaller size treatment plants, Shanghai has in recent years also introduced constructed wetland systems to the rural areas as a new and environment- friendly way to treat sewage (9).

Constructed wetlands and other ecologically-based rural sewerage treatment technologies have multiple benefits. Not only is sewage treated and environmental impact minimized, villagers also benefit from the greening of the landscape. These park-like wetlands could also be excellent ecological education sites for citizens and students.

River Clean Up

UNEP Environmental Assessment

Water pollution has long been a problem in Shanghai. Since 1998, Shanghai has made a huge effort to clean up its rivers. By 2008, this decade-long rehabilitation program had covered more then 18,000 km of waterways with a massive investment totaling RMB 25.5 billion (approximately US$3.5 billion). Suzhou Creek, along which early-day industrialization started in 1910, was the main focus of the clean-up effort.

The determination and investment of the city authority in restoring the Suzhou Creek should be recognized. It is a good example of the heavy price later generations will bear if they follow the “develop first and then clean up later” development mode. The huge amount of money spent on the rehabilitation proved that it was easy and cheap to pollute, but took much more time, energy and money to clean up (10).

With the massive expansion of modern water treatment plants and sewer networks, the application of ecologically-based decentralized rural treatments, the closing down of animal and poultry farms, persistent and city-wide waterway clean ups, tighter monitoring and legal enforcement of industrial discharge, and more thoughtful urban planning, Shanghai has reduced the pollution of its waters (11).

Both Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek are connected to upstream water systems in neighboring provinces. It seemed that the efforts of sewage treatment, discharge reduction and clean-up were significantly neutralized by continuous pollution upstream, especially from agricultural sources.

Eutrophication is a major problem facing the aquatic systems in Shanghai, as across the country (12). In many of the waterways, NH3-N and TP are consistently excessive. The increasingly rampant blooms of choking aquatic vegetation in Shanghai’s waters further proved this (13).

Factories should be required to evolve towards clean production in order to avoid the use and production of toxic chemicals during the product life-cycle, from product design, raw material sourcing, manufacturing and processing, consumer use and disposal. More emphasis should be put into avoidance-at-source rather than end-of-pipe treatment of pollutants.

The availability of water and its quality affects everyone. Citizens should be encouraged to take up their responsibilities in reducing water consumption and improving water quality. Individual actions such as saving water on a daily basis, recycling and reusing kitchen and bathtub waters, changing to water-efficient toilet systems, buying local and organic vegetables, avoiding chemical products and using phosphorus-free detergents might be trivial but are most effective when taken together. Again these are all public education tasks that need to be specifically addressed. A more active citizenry, concerned about the environment and willing to report illegal discharges, will also help the regulators to monitor the polluting factories more effectively.

Green Coverage

The Master Plan of Shanghai Municipality 1999 to 2020 established that urban zoning of the municipality should be based on harmonious development with nature. As a result, it outlined that the land use for urban development, agriculture, ecological green coverage and forests would each account for one third of the total.

In preparation for the Expo, an ambitious plan was carried out to increase green coverage in urban centers and forests in rural areas. Ecologically valuable and sensitive areas were protected and efforts were further enhanced to maintain and improve their ecological functions. Millions of trees were also planted in the last decade by the city government and fellow citizens. Since 2000, Shanghai put in great efforts to improve the green coverage in urban centers, reflecting the municipality’s will to protect the environment. This coincided with the large-scale urban renewal of the hundred-year old city. Urban landscaping and ecological corridors were created along the Hunagpu River, Suzhou Creek and cross-city Yanan Highway.

In the central areas of the city, where land was most costly, a series of public parks were established, including Yanzhong Green Area, Xujiahui Park, Xinjiangwan City Green Area, Changfeng Green Area, Minhang Sports Park and North Bund Green Area. All these added up to a total of 33,000 hectares of green areas and parks for the city. This meant there would be a green area less than 500 meters from anywhere within the Inner Ring Road. The municipal government also strengthened its regulation on urban construction in various areas based on their zoning functions so as to prevent overdevelopment.

Shanghai municipality’s continuous efforts to provide more urban green areas for its citizens, increasing forest coverage and conserving ecologically sensitive and highly valuable natural areas should be applauded. Between 2000 and 2008, in less than a decade, the city enjoyed three times more urban green areas per capita and four times more total forest coverage. These were not easy achievements given the concurrent economic development of the city. With these impressive achievements, Shanghai was awarded the title “National Garden City” by the central government in 2004. By the opening of the Expo, the urban greening rate had reached 40 per cent.

Creative gardening is showing up around Shanghai as well. The number of green rooftops has expanded rapidly over 10 years in the city.

”Three-dimensional gardening” is not new in Shanghai.

Green walls, green spaces around buildings, green elevated road edges, as well as green roofs have improved the city, making it more attractive and healthy.

Roof greenery, which is relatively new, covered around 900,000 square meters of roofs in Shanghai by the end of 2009, while a survey conducted by the Shanghai Landscaping Bureau estimates that around 19 million square meters of roof areas can be turned into lawns and gardens (14).

Expanding greenery in three dimensions can improve urban living in many ways.

In addition to benefits such as pollution and noise reduction, roof gardens reduce indoor temperatures, combat the “heat island” effect, prolong roof life and retain rainwater, reducing runoff (15).

Given that domestic waste challenges Shanghai faced, community composting based in residential estates and schools could provide a clean and sustainable way of waste utilization and an opportunity of participatory environmental education. By encouraging citizens to take responsibility and be more environmentally aware Shanghai could achieve even more in its overall greening campaign.

As a result of these efforts after 2000, citizens of Shanghai and visitors coming for the Expo will be able to benefit from a greener city with more parks in the urban districts and more forest coverage in the countryside. Within half a day of travel, they can also experience and learn from some of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. The experience of Shanghai in raising the living standards of its people while also improving the ecological robustness is of great value to other rapidly developing cities around the world. It is also a simple message and complements the Expo: A better city has to step up its conservation efforts in order to provide better lives for its citizens and other living organisms.

In conclusion I would like to re-emphasis the importance of public education. The many laudable efforts and results reported above are the result of wise government policy and implementation by local authorities. Any lasting effort will require the on-going support of the common citizen. In order for them to support what the government is mandating they need to understand why these things are being done and why they are important for a better city and a better life for everyone. This is a public education task.

The traditional government-led top-down approach to education in China needs to be accompanied by massive public education from all participating sectors of society; emerging NGOs, social groups, as well as online social networks, should be encouraged and supported to initiate creative and motivating campaigns to engage citizens.(16)

We will continue in Part II to explore notable examples of sustainable design and practice demonstrated at the Expo Park itself.

NOTES:

(1) A Personal Note: I had begun this study in the hopes of producing a guide for Expo visitors, a guide to the best real operating examples of sustainable technologies being demonstrated at the Expo for those interested in such matters. It soon became clear that such a guide would not be able to be done because of the reticence of officials to share the necessary information. I then decided to wait until the Expo opened and document, by personal observation and verification, what was actually present and accessible to the public as learning examples and a legacy of this Expo. It was my goal to document the many valuable applications being showcased at the Expo and to have them live on as an Expo legacy and serve to facilitate the technology transfer beyond the Expo and Shanghai well into the future and throughout China. The World Expo should have not only inspired and informed but also empowered the visitor with the tools to facilitate the spread of these technologies that we need for a sustainable world.

(2) Failed car-growth strategy: Despite the massive investment and large-scale construction of roads, highways, tunnels and yovers in the decade, traffic jams and inconvenient transport access affect the daily lives of the citizens adversely. Like many other cities which adopted the car-growth strategy, Shanghai’s citizens experience severe traffic congestion, waste more time traveling and suffer from worsening air quality.

(3) Shanghai Transit Plan: In August 2007, Shanghai officially launched “The Three-year Action Plan on Prioritizing the Development of Urban Public Transport in Shanghai, 2007-2009.”

The overall objective of this ambitious plan was to “establish public transport as the primary mode of travel for its citizens,” with the Government committed “to providing safe, punctual, convenient and reliable public transport services.” The plan outlines concrete goals for 2010: Public transportation accounts for more than 65 per cent of the motorized passenger

volume; Urban areas in Shanghai are to be fully covered by public transport stations with a service radius of less than 500 meters; All point-to-point commuting by public transportation within the inner city is to be achieved within one hour; Passengers can be connected to the rapid transit network from satellite cities and suburban areas by one additional ride.

(4) China’s investment in rapid transit: Twelve Chinese municipalities currently have rapid transit, nineteen more have systems under construction, and an additional seventeen new networks are in planning. The national government has committed $150 billion to the projects by 2015, though additional funds originate from the municipalities themselves, such as the progressive and independent City of Shanghai [bad link https://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node23919/index.html]. It’s a countrywide investment in urban transportation unparalleled in human history.

(5) Wind Energy: The Energy White Paper of Shanghai published in December 2006 proposed an ambitious target of developing up to 300 MW of wind power by 2010, representing a 10 fold increase in a matter of four years. By 2020 there will be a total of 13 wind farms with more than 2.1 GW of installed capacity, catering for the annual electricity needs of more than four million households, according to the Eleventh Five-year Planning and 2020 Vision of Wind Energy Development in Shanghai.

(6) Solar Thermal: According to the National Reform and Development Commission (NRDC), in 2006 China had more than 90 million m2 of solar thermal systems in operation, accounting for about 60 per cent of the world’s total usage. The Mid-term Development Plan of Renewable Energy (2007) issued by the NRDC projected that by 2010, there will be 150 million m2 of total collector area of solar thermal systems, saving 20 million TCE a year.

(7) The “Bring your own chopsticks” campaign organized by Greenpeace China in 2007/2008 before the Beijing Olympics successfully persuaded hundreds of restaurants in the capital to stop providing disposable chopsticks. Volunteers organized online and lobbied restaurant managers and instead brought their own chopsticks. Similar ideas could have been promoted in Shanghai especially on phasing out disposable products.

(8) Shanghai Sewage Treatment: In 2000, Shanghai’s treatment plants only treated 55 per cent of the city’s sewage. Since then, the municipality has been improving its sewage treatment infrastructure. The municipal sewer systems across the city were upgraded and extended. For the rural areas, many smaller scale sewerage treatment plants and constructed wetland systems have been built. By the end of 2008, Shanghai had constructed 50 sewerage treatment plants, with a total treatment capacity of 6.72 million m3/d. This capacity enables the municipality to treat 75.5 per cent of its sewage (see Figure 6.4). For urban areas the treatment rate is 85.8 per cent, while that of the rural areas is 52.8 per cent.

(9) Constructed Wetlands: Constructed wetlands for sewage treatment are based on ecological principles. Sewage water collected from nearby households is treated preliminarily, usually by physical, biological and chemical processes to reduce the concentration of organic pollutants. Then the sewage is channeled to irrigate specially designed constructed wetland to allow organic pollutants, most of which are nutrients by nature, to be taken up by the vegetation. Different kinds of plants are grown in the wetland, depending on local climatic features, the concentration of nutrients and their economic and aesthetic value. Constructed wetlands do not create any secondary pollution in theory. They require relatively low levels of investment and technological input, and are thus especially suitable for small scale and decentralized sewage treatment plants in rural areas. Nanhui is the district where constructed wetlands have been promoted the most widely since 2008. By the end of the year, there were 2,064 small-scale stand-alone treatment points being established, using various kinds of ecological or biological treatment designs. These new ecological-based facilities has a combined treatment capacity of 1.63 million tons/year, servicing more then 12,000 households in 10 villages.

(10) Shanghai initiated a comprehensive recovery program for the Suzhou Creek from 1998 to 2008 to rehabilitate the river. The program was led by a mayor-chaired task force with a total budget of RMB 14 billion. Thousands of industrial and municipal discharges were intercepted in the catchments area. Sewer networks and treatment facilities were constructed, including the sizeable Shidongkou Sewage Treatment Plant. Two dozen garbage wharfs and cargo docks were removed. The sediment of many sections was dredged and treated. Factories along the creek were closed down or relocated. Greening projects and leisure facilities were added along the river, making it more public friendly. Old factory lofts were transformed into ofce spaces, now rented out as creative industrial sites. The revenue was used to operate an eco-park open to the public with a constructed wetland treating about 10 per cent of the river discharge passing through. This eco-park also featured a multi-storey museum on the history of water pollution and its rehabilitation in Shanghai. It illustrated, and also symbolized, the transformation of the city’s attitude towards its rivers in the last hundred years.

(11) The positive impact can be measured by the changes in Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) intensity, that is by how much COD was discharged for every RMB 10,000 GDP, over the years. COD is the common indicator China uses to measure the amount of organic pollutants in surface water. It is usually measured in milligrams per liter (mg/L), indicating the mass of oxygen consumed per liter of solution. From 2001 to 2007, Shanghai’s COD intensity reduced almost 70 per cent. When compared to the rest of the country, COD intensity in Shanghai has consistently been less than half the national average in the last decade.

(12) The eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems is caused by excessive nutrients, typically nitrogen and phosphorus, from point sources such as untreated sewage, industrial discharge, runoff from livestock farms, as well as non-point sources such as fertilizer runoffs from agriculture. Productivity of waters will be enhanced by eutrophication, leading to excessive plant growth and decay, depleting the oxygen level and thus threatening to wipe out sh and other marine lives.

(13) In recent years, large-scale water hyacinth blooms in the upper stretches of Huangpu River became more extensive and frequent. For example, in the winter of 2008-2009, 166,000 tons of water hyacinth was taken out the waterways. During the summer, duckweed during the summer, duckweed blooms affected Shanghai instead. For example, in June 2008, a gigantic oating belt of duckweed 10 km long gathered in the upstream of Huangpu River. In June 2009, as this report was being written, massive duckweed reappeared again, covering an area as big as 390,000 m2 in the Jinshan area.

While algae blooms are natural in their occurrence, the increase in their intensity and frequency are clearly human-induced. Preventing excessive nutrients being concentrated in aquatic systems is not only essential to preventing further worsening of water quality; it is also the critical factor in restoring and improving their ecological balance. Given the persistence of euthrophication in Shanghai and its nearby water systems, a comprehensive program is urgently needed to reduce the reliance on synthetic fertilizers. Ecological agriculture, especially organic agriculture, which does not use and rely on synthetic fertilizers, should be promoted with more government support in Shanghai and the East China region. Subsidies and policy support for producing synthetic fertilizers especially urea fertilizer should be reduced and transferred to promote modern ecological farming methods that put emphasis on a system approach to improve soil fertility and organic matter in soil, take advantage of crop rotation measures that ensure natural nitrogen xation, nutrient recycling and the efficient use of organic fertilizers.

(14) Roof Greenery in Shanghai is relatively new, covered around 900,000 square meters of roofs in Shanghai by the end of 2009, according to Li Li, senior horticulturist of the Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Bureau. But this represents less than 5 percent of the total available space.

Most cities in developed countries have roof coverage of 15-39 percent, while in Germany it reaches 80 percent

(15) Research shows that roof with green cover lasts an average of 40 to 50 years, while that of a bare roof exposed to the elements is only 25 years. A study in Minhang District shows that indoor summer temperatures of buildings with green roofs are lower by 3-5 degrees Celsius than those of exposed roofs on days of more than 34 degrees Celsius. If six percent of the roofs in a city are covered by vegetation, the “heat-island” effect is expected to drop by 1-2 degrees Celsius, contributing to the reduction of 1.5-2.1 trillion tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Green rooftops help during frequent storms in Shanghai’s summer. Studies show they can retain up to 75 percent of the rainwater in given storm, gradually releasing it back into the atmosphere through condensation and transpiration, while retaining air pollutants in the soil.

(16) During the President Jimmy Carter years in the United States I worked for the US Department of Energy. Informing the public and professionals in the field of the renewable

energy options was considered an essential function of the agency. I was in charge of the Public Information and Education Program for the 14 Western States.