<<Course Name and Number>>, Urban Planning
<<LNAME, Fname>>, <<University #>>
<<Date>>, Word count: 1996
As Shanghai embraces the 21st century, it faces more challenges – environmental, social and economic. Rapid urbanization and economic growth has led to a high growth in population in urban areas with deleterious effects on sustainability and environment.
All the factors are really interconnected and though this growth has benefited Shanghai and its people – by reducing poverty and increasing home incomes; one needs to evaluate the other effects of this development.
Old problems typically have led to new problems. Although the growth has been phenomenal, it has only helped certain parts of society. Living standards in Shanghai are different and vary from area to area.
The other factor to be considered in relation to the influx of people is the displacement of labor. Manufacturing practices have largely evolved and moved towards automation, resulting in the surplus of labor.
This has led to urban unemployment. So the problem of rural unemployment has in essence, evolved into a problem of urban unemployment or under-employment. Both these are harmful to the economic growth and development.
Higher unemployment or under-employment leads to lower wages and living standards. Increase in urban poverty is rising in Shanghai and this in turn puts a tremendous pressure on the infrastructure and systems which support the city.
Though initiatives like State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have been launched, it needs to be seen if these will help bring down the level of urban unemployment or under-employment (Yin and Wang, 2006).
Policies like the household-registration system have helped in migration from rural to urban areas and many rural people have moved to Shanghai in search of work. This mass movement has lead to an increase in slum areas and urban poverty.
Such economic growth is unsustainable in the long run. In addition to economic effects, the environment and sustainability initiatives in Shanghai are under threat. With a limited natural resource base, rapid industrialization and urbanization, the consequent environmental damage remains a huge challenge.
Shanghai has also changed physically from a real estate sense. Housing reforms have changed the way property development was planned. From a government controlled sector, the land and property sector has become a consumer good, dependent on market forces and growth, leading to widespread growth in mass living spaces and sky scrapers (Lorrain, 2014).
The pressure on the land area is increasing, leading to loss of agricultural land, congestion in traffic and related issues which were discussed in the earlier memo.
The fact remains that Shanghai is the most important economic and industrial centre in China and will remain attractive to the aspiring rural people who want to get ahead in life.
According to Abelson (n.d.), Shanghai remains one of the world’s biggest business cities. However in the mid 19th century, it was called often as a third class town. Slowly, by 1936, it became the 7th largest in the world with a population of 3.8 million. The economic structure changed in 1949 with the communist takeover, with the central government determining allocation of investments.
Though it controlled urbanization to some extent, the population growth of Shanghai continued unabated, rising from 6.2 million in 1953 to 11.8 million in 1985.
Many of the economic reforms which have been implemented have helped people derive higher incomes and access to better health and social services. Many of the rural people migrate or work in cities like Shanghai.
These floating populations result in slum areas and rapid decline of natural resources and environmental problems. Also cities like Shanghai get their natural resources from rural areas and the western style of development is being implemented.
There is an emphasis on building highways, promoting single homes, color TVs, air conditioners, wastage of water, and so on. More than 13 million residents of Shanghai are cramped in an area of 6340 sq km (Yin and Wang, 2006).
If we add to this the floating population and tourists, the issues relating to sustainability are further impacted. It is therefore clear that the impact on sustainability and the environment stems from the core issue of population growth.
Population growth in urban zones is the crux of the problem that needs to be tackled. Government needs to frame policies which would help provide all services to citizens of Shanghai and also look at how it can deliver the same considering future growth.
Future growth of the city will put pressure on systems like water and sewerage management, health hazards from effluents, air and water pollution and garbage disposal.
Energy consumption will also increase dramatically, resulting in more environmental damage. The other issues that have emerged include increase in crime, drugs and other social problems.
Chinese culture is being eroded and respect for the elderly and caring for the young, is declining. Therefore, the rise in population is the crux of the problem and the resultant symptoms are environmental, economic and social unsustainability.
All these three need to be solved not in isolation but in an integrated manner.
If we look at the population growth in Shanghai, with the one-child policy program, the growth rate has dropped from 1.02% in 1990 to 0.49 in 1997 and to a negative number in 1998.
The life expectancy has gone up from 73 years to 77 years. But, this again puts pressure on the management of the ageing population. It is estimated that the growth of old people will rise from 1.47% to 1.71% in 2025, leading to old people comprising 25% of the population of Shanghai.
This will really impact sustainability (Yin and Wang, 2006). With the increasing population, the consumption of food and lifestyles are changing. People have begun to use their high income to consume more, buy more cars, travel by air, and so on.
Therefore the per capita consumption of energy and resources utilized in Shanghai is very high than that in rural region, leading to environmental damage. With the growth in property came the growth in other areas like shopping, banks, trading, hotels, restaurants and so on.
Many foreign investors were attracted by this growth and new reforms and did invest heavily in Shanghai (Lorrain, 2014).
All these factors have lead to the rapid urbanization and declining sustainability in Shanghai.
So what has been done before and what can be done now. Over the years, China adopted the City Planning Law in 1989 and wanted to curb how large cities grew (Yuan, 2013).
Younger workers want to live and work in the city to earn more wages. The Hukou system is discriminatory towards migrants because it restricts availability of medical services, education, housing etc., for unregistered people.
This is not a sustainable policy and will result in removal of curbs in future, reducing its own efficacy. Some cities have resorted to increased subway pricing to curb rush hour congestion. According to Shen and Luo (2008), “the new age of globalization”, requires that central and regional or local governments resort to city and region plans, in order to ensure coordinated development.
There is a crying need for interaction and integration. The current top down planning process is not helpful in keeping an integrated view of the overall development of the region and that too in a sustainable manner.
It is evident that most of the problems that Shanghai is facing are due to lack of right coordination process, conflicting objectives among governments and lack of implementation.
“Population and environmental problems are principal constraints to the sustained and integrated socioeconomic development of China (Geping et al., 1994)”.
Two key policies – the family planning and environmental policies have shown some progress but have not helped in solving the problem. The future growth of Shanghai and the economic growth of China will depend on these factors and the implementation of an integrated policy.
According to Seto (2012), all aspects of population growth and urban planning need to be looked at in a cohesive way. This is needed to ensure that a coordinated effort is made keeping in mind the various challenges that persist.
Aspects of urban planning like land use, spatial planning, regional planning all need to be scaled up to national or global levels. Urbanization and lifestyles are closely linked and connected, not only at a regional level but a global level.
According to Abelson (n.d.), Shanghai’s economic strength lies in its location, industrial base, educated workforce and its large skilled labor. More than 50% of the top 100 multinationals have offices in Shanghai. There is very low unemployment as compared to other regions and there is a good climate and supply of land.
However there are weaknesses due to population growth. So how can we look at solving population growth and influx in to Shanghai?
Housing: The population density in Shanghai has grown four times in two decades. Many of the 1.8 million households live in very crowded dwellings (Abelson, n.d.).
Though 1.5 million people have been rehoused in ten years, the per capita space is only 8 sq metres. This has to be improved to at least 10 sq metres, if the future influx of population is considered.
Water quality: Population increase is also putting pressure on the water supplies in Shanghai. Although the Huangpu River is the main source of water, it also serves as a port and a sink for the municipal system.
Water quality is not as good and the depth is only about a meter below the surface. Ammonia-Nitrogen is the main pollutants in the water bodies and also some toxic substances like phenol, cyanide, mercury and arsenic (Kinhill et al., 1994).
Many industries like leather and other chemical industries do not comply with the regulations on pollution. New policy is needed to control this.
An integrated sewerage system to collect many sources of domestic and industrial waste water can be treated and then discharged in to the East China Sea. All industrial actions should be considered and approved based on environmental impact.
Air quality: This is a very big challenge in Shanghai and will be more deleterious in future due to impending population growth. Although monitoring of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide is done regularly, many other industrial gases are not measured (MacDonald et al., 1996).
Lead and other suspended particulate matter are very high and will need to be controlled. The primary reason is the use of coal for energy, which increases levels of sulphur (Jingchun, 1998).
According to The World Bank (1997), the health impact of air pollution, premature death and loss of productive days are higher than that caused by water pollution.
The transport system also adds more to the already high air pollution. Impetus should be given to electric cars and mass rapid systems which can help move the population to its work places efficiently.
Solid waste management: As the population grows, domestic and industrial waste will increase. Waste disposal will be a big problem in Shanghai. Technical innovation and pollution controls will need to be strictly enforced.
Transport: Building a number of roads, bridges, systems to keep up to demand will remain a challenge due to increased population.
Peak hour restrictions will help bring efficiency in the system. One-way roads and division by transport segment – bikes, cars, and pedestrians is needed.
Land use planning: Effective Land use planning is needed to take care of rapid influx of people. Although the urban system with 230 centers is required to plan for its growth, the key is in dividing the objectives of industry and housing. Closing down of polluting industries and movement remains important.
Conclusion: An integrated strategy is required to manage the growth of population. Though national level policies will keep evolving, the influx of people in to Shanghai will not reduce despite policy implementation; unless core industries are set up in rural areas and agriculture is given its due importance.
It will be impossible to restrict people coming in to Shanghai, but actions are needed to scale up to meet the increased demand.
This can be achieved by removing silos among local government departments and by working collaboratively, to build a sustainable future for Shanghai.
References
Abelson. P. n.d. ‘Economic and Environmental Sustainability in Shanghai’, AppliedEconomics, [Online], Retrieved 1 April 2016 from http://www.appliedeconomics.com.au/pubs/papers/pa99_shanghai.htm
Geping. Q., Jinchang. L., Boardman. R., Baozhong. J. and Ran. G., ‘Population and the Environment in China’, [Online], Retrieved 1 April 2016 from https://www.questia.com/library/104771802/population-and-the-environment-in-china
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MacDonald. M.1996. ‘Environmental Resources Management, Support Programme for the Urban Rehabilitation of Shanghai, Part 2, Monitoring Activities, Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau, Shanghai
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Yin Y. and Wang G. 2006. ‘Shanghai: Population Planning and Urban Sustainability’,
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