Contaminated sites in China: Countermeasures of provincial governments

Abstract

Contaminated sites have caused worldwide attention and been dealt with through a variety of policies and practices both nationally and regionally. Unlike the US, Canada, Japan, and Europe, which have accumulated rich experiences in contaminated site management, China, facing serious contaminated site issues, still lacks effective strategies on issues such as remediation standards, funding resources, accountability, and stakeholders coordination. This paper collected policies for contaminated site management from 31 regions in China. A comprehensive analysis was conducted of current policies, including policy framework, number of policies and instruments, policy types, and spatial and temporal variation. We find that most regions in China, such as Beijing and Chongqing, have taken positive measures to manage contaminated sites, and that there are similarities as well as differences in policy responses and mechanisms in different regions. A multi-level objective system, combined with diverse instruments, cooperation between different stakeholders, and a multi-sectoral joint supervision mechanism emphasized by all 31 regions, are extremely important to promote sustainable site management. Specialized policies, site-specific standards, information disclosure, public participation, remediation priority and groundwater protection are urgently needed to strengthen the local framework of contaminated site management and to promote remediation projects.

Green M&A, legitimacy and risk‐taking: evidence from China’s heavy polluters

“…External stakeholders can provide incentives and disincentives through their dynamic allocation of resources. For example, the government may provide tax incentives, government subsidies and policy loans (Lee et al , ; Li et al , ). The polluter pays principle (PPP) also supports governments taxing polluters for their negative externalities.…”

Legal measures to prevent and manage soil contamination and to increase food safety for consumer health: The case of Spain

“…Rodrigues et al (2009) reviewed and analysed several national contaminated land policy regimes that were already in place to assess common elements and to identify specific needs for developing of national soil policies. Li et al (2017) reported advanced legal strategies to prevent soil contamination in the US, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Swartjes et al (2012) reviewed the state of the art of contaminated site management in the Netherlands regarding policy framework and risk assessment tools.…”

“…Around the world, a wide range of industrial activities, waste disposal in uncontrolled landfills, mining, applications of agrochemicals, sewage sludge, and livestock waste, and environmental accidents, have left a legacy of contaminated sites (Mirsal, 2008;Li et al, 2017;Cachada et al, 2018;Gómez-Lavín et al, 2018;Gu et al, 2018;Romero-Baena et al, 2018). Contaminated soil can be found in agricultural land, forests, and urban and industrial areas (Li et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2018).…”

Ecology of industrial pollution in China

“…Contaminated sites (also referred to brownfield) are sites with pollution hazards beyond acceptable risk levels for human or ecosystem health (Lu et al 2015b;MEEPRC 2014). According to conservative estimates, over 200,000 contaminated sites were formed in China during the rapid urbanization and industrialization, and 320 of them were identified as seriously polluted with a coverage of more than 5 million hectares (Li et al 2017a). However, due to lack of relevant laws and regulations, some contaminated sites were directly redeveloped and utilized without effective risk assessment and remediation (Li et al 2018).…”