Balancing urban growth and ecological conservation: A challenge for planning and governance in China

Abstract

China has high biodiversity and is rapidly urbanizing. However, there is limited understanding of how urban expansion in the country is likely to affect its habitats and biodiversity. In this study, we examine urban expansion patterns and their likely impacts on biodiversity in China by 2030. Our analysis shows that most provinces are expected to experience urban expansion either near their protected areas or in biodiversity hotspots. In a few provinces such as Guangdong in the south, urban expansion is likely to impinge on both protected areas and biodiversity hotspots. We show that policies that could facilitate the integration of natural resource protection into urban planning exist on paper, but the prevailing incentives and institutional arrangements between the central and local governments prevent this kind of integration. Removing these obstacles will be necessary in order to safeguard the country's rich biodiversity in light of the scale of urbanization underway.

Trends in urban land expansion, density, and land transitions from 1970 to 2010: a global synthesis

“…of these initiatives, poor oversight and economic prerogatives of local governments that rely on large-scale land transfers as a major revenue source [9], precluded an orderly, coordinated, and realistic planning effort [41] resulting in conversion of large expanses of agricultural and natural land cover to underutilized brand new infrastructure [42][43][44]. Hence, integral to an anticipatory planning strategy is more effective coordination of the relevant governance structures -in the form of cross-agency collaboration within urban and peri-urban jurisdictions [26,45] but also across the governance hierarchy, regionally and nationally [44,45]. Such advance planning strategies in anticipation of future urban expansion may be more effective in small and medium-sized cities in developing regions where decreasing trends in urban population densities are more evident and where the competition for land may be less intense compared to larger urban centers [45].…”

A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

“…A sense of connection with nature through the formation of an affective and/or cognitive relationship is believed to create an appreciation and value for all life, transcending a utilitarian view of nature (Lumber et al 2017). With increasing urbanisation, however, these direct experiences of nature are becoming less common, a disconnect that is particularly concerning considering the rapid urbanisation in biodiversity hotspots (Kellert 2002;Cohen 2006;Güneralp et al 2015). Although there is increasing effort to make urban environments less harmful to wildlife, species are still being lost at an alarming rate and it is vital that we use every tool at our disposal to foster connections between people and wildlife in aid of conservation (Wachsmuth, Cohen and Angelo 2016;Dirzo et al 2014).…”

Dynamics of Tradeoffs between Economic Benefits and Ecosystem Services due to Urban Expansion

“…China's economic development benefits from urban expansion, but the obvious enclosed negative impact of urban expansion on ecosystem structure and function makes the whole ecosystem service vulnerable, in result obstructs economic progress [22]. Therefore, how to optimize the allocation of limited land resources to realize the coordinated development of urban expansion, economic development and ecological conservation is a challenge for decision-makers and urban planning [23]. Making a sustainable land use planning in consideration of economic development and ecosystem services become an important and urgent task for sustainable development.…”