Thesis supervisor: Olivier Coutard Since 2006, the Chinese authorities have been committed to
making the country's development more environmentally friendly without significantly changing the pace of economic and urban growth. This is in response to the growing pressure on natural environments and the severe environmental degradation caused by rapid development. China is probably the only country in the world where energy and environmental efficiency in the provision of essential urban services (water, sanitation, electricity, gas, heating, solid waste management) is so vigorously pursued in circular economy policies and eco-industrial parks and eco-cities operations in the context of sustained and prolonged economic and urban development. Based on an investigation conducted in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Tianjin, three cities at the forefront of transformation in China, combined with a study of the national framework and the overall situation in the country, the thesis aims to analyze the substance and forms of the environmentalization of essential urban services implemented in China. Our research shows that China's ambitious policies for the environmentalization of essential services are translating into a partial improvement in the environmental quality of their provision in cities, while the horizon of sobriety and the circular economy remains distant. The prevalence of developmentalist urban planning is a structural obstacle to the emergence of technical systems for reusing resources that offer alternatives to conventional networks. The path to environmentalization of essential services taken in Chinese cities remains too techno-centric and too exogenous to urban planning for environmentalization, and in particular the quest for sustainability, to be more substantial. At the operational level, these lessons invite greater integration of issues related to the provision of essential services into urban planning and development in China and beyond.
Keywords:
China – essential services – networks – urban planning – urban fabric – water – energy – waste – environment – sobriety
– circular economy – eco-cities – eco-industrial parks – decentralization – symbiosis
Defense on Friday, November 21, 2014
Thesis registration:
September 30, 2011
Doctoral school:
VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories