Author: wpmaster

The Comprehensive Development Index of China’s Cities, jointly compiled by the Department of Development Planning of the National Development and Reform Commission and Cloud River Urban Research Institute, an international think tank, was issued by Japan’s NTT Publishing Co Ltd. and officially released in Japan.

Elites from China and Japan gathered in Tokyo to hold a seminar on the evening of July 19, commemorating the index officially landing in Japan. They also conducted a discussion on the importance of the index for China’s urban development and Sino-Japanese exchanges.

The Comprehensive Development Index of China’s Cities was developed by Zhou Muzhi, dean of Yunhe Metropolitan Research Institute and a professor at Tokyo Keizai University, and Xu Lin, Director of the China Center for Urban Development. Yang Weimin, former deputy director of the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group Office, served as the chief expert.

The index evaluates the sustainable development of cities from three dimensions – environment, society and economy. The data cover 295 prefecture-level cities and above. Natural ecology, environmental quality, the spatial structure, quality of life, inheritance and communication, social governance, economic quality, development vitality, and urban impact are nine secondary items. Also, there are 27 small items with pyramid structure. It fully quantified and visually analyzed complex city conditions.

Yang Weimin, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said in a written speech that the publication of the Japanese version of the index is a major event in academic research in the field of urbanization. He pointed out that the index observed China’s urbanization from the three dimensions of environment, society and economy, which are important for understanding and summarizing the results and costs in the process, and exploring the road to urbanization in China and the world in the future.

The publication of the Japanese version will provide a way for more Japanese people to understand China’s urbanization and to understand China’s development in recent decades, he added.

The Comprehensive Development Index of China’s Cities is the first comprehensive development evaluation index issued by China and recognized by the global community. It is authoritative, comprehensive and operational.

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-07-23

A seminar on China Integrated City Index 2016, with its theme of Big Pattern, Big Data and Big Analytics, was held in Beijing on Dec. 27, attracting experts from home and abroad to meet here to work out ways for China’s new-type of urbanization.

China Integrated City Index 2016, a book issued by the People’s Publishing House on Nov. 28, was jointly compiled by the Cloud River Urban Research Institute and the Department of Development Planning of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Based on the new vision of development, China Integrated City Index, the first authoritative, comprehensive and practical study of its kind, aims to analyze and evaluate the sustainable development of Chinese cities with indicators.

Tuesday’s seminar, with focus on this recently-published book, provides a platform for experts and scholars to explore ways for China’s urbanization in the future, including how to develop Chinese cities with big data and pursue high-quality urban development.

Xu Lin, director of the Department of Development Planning of the NDRC, Hu Cunzhi, former vice minister of land and resources, Du Ping, executive vice director of the State Information Center of China, Zhou Qiren, professor of the National School of Development at Peking University, and Zhou Muzhi, professor of Tokyo Keizai University delivered speeches respectively at the seminar, making interpretations and suggestions for human-centered urbanization advocated by the Central Economic Work Conference held earlier this month.

As one of the two lead authors of China Integrated City Index 2016, Professor Zhou Muzhi elaborated on the significance and characteristics of the book during his speech, and demonstrated how to use it to make analysis on Chinese cities from the multidimensional perspective.

“This book is expected to help Chinese cities improve the ability to hold their current conditions, learn advanced experience and ideas, and draw up a development strategy and overall plan, hence making contributions to the improvement of their vitality, charm and competence,” Zhou said.

Based on the analysis in the book, seminar participants also held further discussions on the development of urbanization from the perspective of the environment and population density, giving advice on how to build safe, ecological and low-carbon urban society.

The seminar was co-hosted by the Department of Development Planning of the NDRC, Xinhuanet, the People’s Publishing House and the Cloud River Urban Research Institute.

The article was published on China Net on Dec 30, 2016, and was republished by foreign media, as well as today’s headlines and other platforms.

With a sustainable and balanced growth pattern, Beijing outstripped its closest economic competitor Shanghai to rank at the top of 295 cities nationwide, in a rating from the nation’s top economic regulator.

The capital’s No 1 position is based on economic growth, social development and environment in the China Integrated City Index, co-compiled by the National Development and Reform Commission and Cloud River Urban Research Institute and released last week.

Shenzhen, which ranked top in the environment category, was No 3 overall in the index, following Beijing and Shanghai.

Zhou Muzhi, a professor of urban planning at Tokyo Keizai University and one of lead authors of the study, said that openness and cultural legacy help Beijing stand out from other outstanding economic performers.

“But Beijing needs to make a lot more efforts to improve its environmental situation if it wants to keep its top ranking,” said Zhou, adding that surrounding regions need to improve pollution control, especially Hebei province, which relies heavily on natural resources.

“Coal-fired plants located only several hours drive from Beijing remain a major regional source of polluted air in the capital,” he said.

Ultimately, only cities with sustainable growth patterns will be able to attract and retain residents, Zhou said, noting that cities located in China’s three major urban clusters – the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Pearl River Delta – currently attract huge population inflows.

Seventeen of the top 30 cities where immigrants exceed permanent residents are located in one of those three clusters, the study showed.

Zhang Xueliang, an economics professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said future city development is able to take advantage of resources provided by the dominant city in these clusters.

Hebei has challenges to overcome with its heavy industries, but it might face fewer difficulties than other provinces – for example in Northeast China, which grapples with overcapacity – by integrating resources from the capital and taking advantage of convenient waterways in Tianjin, which has the largest artificial harbor in north China, Zhang said.

As for the rust belt Northeast, Xue Lan, dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, said the major problem for the old industrial bases is that local officials may sacrifice economic transformation and continue to support industrial overcapacity to maintain short-term growth.

“It could even be possible for the Northeast to exchange a slowdown in short-term growth for healthy development in the long-run,” Xue said. “More soft infrastructure investment, say, in education, may be more helpful for the region to retain talented people.”

The article was published on China net on Dec 5, 2016, and was republished by foreign media.

Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen top the city rankings based on economic, social and environmental dimensions, followed by Guangzhou, Tianjin, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing and Wuhan, according to China Integrated City Index 2016, issued by the People’s Publishing House on Nov. 28.

Specifically, Beijing surpasses Shanghai in the social dimension — inheritance and exchanges in particular, while Shanghai is superior to Beijing in the economic and environmental dimensions.

From the environmental point of view, Shenzhen ranks first and Guangzhou outperforms Tianjin. The five cities of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing and Wuhan receive relatively lower environmental rankings, although they account for five of the top 10 cities in the social and economic rankings. Suzhou, despite the best environmental performance among the five cities, ranks only twentieth.

According to the report, cities with higher overall rankings often perform badly in the environmental dimension.

Zhou Muzhi, a professor at Tokyo Keizai University and head of the expert panel for China Integrated City Index, explained that the Index included the environment as one of the three dimensions in line with the implementation of the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020) and put into practice the idea of integrating ecological civilization into the process of urbanization.

Evaluating a city from the “green” perspective in an all-around way is a guide for value orientation, he said.

China Integrated City Index, the first authoritative, comprehensive and practical study of its kind, aims to analyze and evaluate the sustainable development of Chinese cities with indicators. Based on an advanced idea, it uses quantitative and visual means to set indicators, collect data, analyze it and make an evaluation.

Firstly, the index system is composed of three dimensions, namely society, economy and the environment. Each dimension has three second-level indicators, and each second-level indicator includes three third-level indicators. All together, these 27 indicators are supported by 133 specific ones, hence forming a simple and clear pyramid structure. Based on this structure, quantitative and visual analysis is carried out to make clear complex urban conditions.

Secondly, the data used in this study encompasses statistics from governments at various levels, big data from the internet and satellite remote sensing data. The study covers all 295 Chinese mainland cities at the prefecture level and above.

Thirdly, the evaluation method introduces the concept of “deviation value,” which is a common international practice. Huge, complex data were converted to comparable index data, and evaluation was made according to indicators at each level, giving a faithful and informative description of a city’s development.

China Integrated City Index will be published annually, Zhou said. This year’s report was jointly compiled by the Cloud River Urban Research Institute and the Department of Development Planning of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). It will provide an advanced cognitive orientation for values, a scientific index evaluation system and a digital tool for policy management, hence pushing forward transformation during China’s urbanization.

“It provides a scientific benchmark and frame of reference for China’s urbanization,” Zhou emphasized. “At the macro level, it can be used as the tool to help formulate policies for urbanization; at the micro level, it can be taken as an element of urban planning. Moreover, it offers criteria for evaluation of a city’s policies and planning.”

Led by Zhou and Xu Lin, director of the Department of Development Planning of the NDRC, the research involved the full participation of many experts including Yang Weimin, deputy director of the General Office of the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs of China, Zhou Qiren, professor of Peking University, Du Ping, executive vice director of the State Information Center of China, and Yoshinori Yokoyama, specially appointed professor of the University of Tokyo.

The article was published on China net on Nov 29, 2016, and was republished by foreign media.

A seminar held in Beijing on Monday focused on exploring urban construction and planning, tackling problems in China’s urban development and finding out the next step for China’s urbanization.

The seminar on “Rediscovering City: Continuity, Conflict and Sublimation,” hosted by Thinker Class, was attended by Zhou Muzhi, professor at Tokyo Keizai University, Mario Bellini, the renowned Italian architect, and Zhou Qiren, professor at Peking University’s National School of Development.

“Our city is actually in a sub-standard state of health,” said Professor Zhou Muzhi.

Over the last stage of urbanization, cities have been growing at an alarming pace, but the quality of living and life of urban citizens is still far from reaching the desired level. Congestion, haze and a series of “urban diseases” have ensued, and such problems as local financial shortage, the widening income gap between urban and rural areas is persisting. “China’s urbanization has featured a ‘barbaric growth,’ which results in a ‘low-density’ expansion.” Zhou said.

Professor Zhou Qiren from the National School of Development at Peking University shared Zhou Muzhi’s view. He revealed the status quo of how Chinese cities are ahead of “construction” by citing the metaphor that “the cups are plenty, but the water is scant – there isn’t enough to go around.” As suggested by Zhou Qiren, concepts, interests and habits are the causes of the “pie” phenomenon in urban construction.

In exploring how to eliminate financial dependence on land, and kick-start the next stage of China’s urban construction, Zhou pointed out that the next step should be to develop compact cities and increase the density of existing cities by enhancing their bearing force. “We should take gathering as the priority, population as a main concern, and convenience as an important factor. In doing so, it’s necessary to change concepts and strategies, make further use of market mechanisms, and introduce more local forces,” he said.

Mario Bellini, the well-known Italian architectural designer, dwelled on the issues of urban planning and habitat improvement from a designer’s perspective. In his view, a town is the most livable model, where people can get close to nature, integrate into the community, enjoy a variety of amenities within walking distance and have a high sense of belonging. At the same time, he suggested that a city’s development should not merely construct new buildings blindly, but build the city on the basis of its history and preserve its traditions. “When we build a city, we should not only think of the development from a purely economic and functional point of view,” Mario Bellini argued. “In Europe, many cities with thousands of years of history are not planned out, but are instead the result of people’s choices together with history.”

For Zhou Muzhi, urbanization, it seems, is a process of the “straw effect,” in which the city’s main concern for future development should lie in attracting human, financial and material resources so as to make the city bigger and stronger. He also pointed out that traffic congestion, air pollution and a series of “urban diseases” have brought about excessive tension and pressure on city dwellers. China’s urbanization in the next stage should strive for a higher standard of quality, increase a city’s density, enrich a city’s functions, define boundaries and avoid unlimited urban sprawl.

Zhou Muzhi also proposed that the current problems of urbanization stem from the absence of a defined system, rather than a technical vacancy. He advocated a modular approach to new urbanization.

Professor Zhou Muzhi believes that a comprehensive approach is more effective than technology in coping with the many problems that arise in cities. Thus, he proposes a new approach to “new urbanization” – the “Modular City.” Under such a design, the city is divided into a number of “modular regions” that are mixed by their various functions, including zones for residence, work, business, recreation, education, and medical care. Public transportation, communication, energy, greenway and waterway “city networks” connect all the modular regions of a city organically into a whole. Each modular region develops its own distinctive characteristics for its main functions. The concept of the “Modular City” represents Professor Zhou Muzhi’s efforts in upgrading Chinese cities.

The seminar was jointly hosted by Thinker Class of Xinhuanet, Cloud River Urban Research Institute, and the Doctor Forum of the National School of Development at Peking University.

The article was published on China net on Dec 17, 2015, and was republished by foreign media.

Cloud River Urban Research Institute officially issued the China Integrated City Index at the Fourth Global Think Tank Summit held in Beijing on June 27, and released the city rankings on environment, society, economy and overall sections.

The index project helmsman, Professor Zhou Muzhi of Tokyo Keizai University, released the China Integrated City Index, also known as the China Green Urbanization Index, first. Then, he announced the 2015 China Integrated City Index city ranking at a press conference in Beijing’s China World Hotel.

Among the overall city ranking – which was above prefecture-level in this release – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Suzhou were placed from number one to number five. Shenzhen City ranked number one in the environment section, with Xiamen, Haikou, Sanya and Beijing following in spots two through five. The top five in the society section are Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Nanjing, while in the economy section the top five are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Suzhou.

“Urbanization is a tempestuous and rapid social and economic transformation that Chinese society has never experienced, but it is also inevitable,” Zhou said. “Urbanization needs a suit of benchmark and frame of reference, which can be a tool for urbanization policies making in macro way, and be a key point for city’s planning in micro perspective, as well as being a measurement to rate the policies and city planning.”

At the conference, the professor said that the China Integrated City Index measures three characteristics, including examining a city from a three-dimension perspective, quantifying it as a “green” development by using laconic structure and advance cognition of the value orientation.

The first characteristic means judging a city’s green urbanization not just by ecology and the environment but from a national perspective and a dimension of pursuing modernization. The three sections of environment, society and economy of the index tried to illustrate the “green” in a wider angle from three-dimensional perspectives of the three sections concerning quality of economy, quality of life, spatial structure and humanity and cultural society, Zhou said.

The second characteristic is using digital and index approaches to sum up problems, subjects and ideals faced among China’s urbanization as well as domestic and foreign experience. Chinese and foreign experts studied and developed a laconic three-three-three structure, which means three sections of environment, society and economy, three medium indexes in each section, and three small indexes to sustain each medium index. Meanwhile, more data supports the small indexes. After two years, Cloud River Urban Research Institute has woven together an integrated index system covering 289 cities above prefecture-level by collecting publicly available data from society.

The third characteristic means an index system is being perfected and evolved. It is an important factor that knowledge and cognition constantly vary, so the index value has the responsibility of guiding people to know something in advance for the future.

It is reported that this project was done by many foreign and domestic experts who put in great effort and repeated study and discussions for two years. It was put forward based on the gathering of in-depth knowledge about China’s urbanization issue, a great amount of experience and lessons learned from domestic and overseas experiences, as well as new conceptions.

“As a benchmark and frame of reference to judge and guide China’s urbanization, the significance of the China Integrated City Index is to build a framework structure to multi-dimensionally analyze a city’s spatial structure and connotation, and provide scientific policies and planning approaches for the green, intensive and sustainable development for China’s urbanization,” Professor Zhou Muzhi said. He is hoping the index will solidly contribute to implementing “digital management” with advanced conception on China’s urbanization.

The article was published on China net on Jun 30, 2015, and was republished by foreign media.

“Symposium for Criteria and Indicators System for Green Urbanization” was convened recently in Tokyo. The Indicators System developed by Zhou Muzhi, the Professor of Tokyo Keizai University, is a vital part of “Sino-Japanese Green Urbanization Cooperation Mechanism” of the department of development planning of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Environmental Affairs of Government of Japan.

The Indicators System aims to promote the integration intelligent and the sustainable development of Urbanization in China, and providing guiding policy tool and planning tool. Previously, Chinese and Japanese experts had conducted numerous phased researches and discussions around the Indicators System. The aim of this Symposium is to validate the Indicators System.

Hideki Minamikawa, the Minister of the Environmental Affairs of Government of Japan, Du Ping, Executive Vice-Director of State Information Center, and Nakai Tokutaro, the Cabinet Officer of Government of Japan elaborated the necessity of the Criteria and Indicators System, and underlining the strategic importance of Sino-Japan Cooperation in the field of urban and the environment.

Yoshinori Yokoyama, distinguished professor of Tokyo University illustrated the concept and structure of the Indicators System and the meaning of the indicators at each levels. As the research and development team of the Indicators System, the researchers of Cloud River Japan Co.,Ltd presented the Indicators System.

Akinori Morimoto, a professor at Waseda University, Kazuhiko Yamamoto, the Deputy Director of MORI Urban Planning Corporation ( Japan), and Masaaki Sugita, the Research Director of Cloud River Japan Co., and Japanese experts participating the developing indicators appended the illustrations to the features of construction and the technique of analysis and suggested researching and developing a common indicators of Asian cities based on this set of indicators.

Yue Xiuhu, Deputy director of the department of development planning of the National Development, Mu Rongping, Director of Innovation and Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hu Junkai, the Executive Chief Editor of Xinhua News Agency “Outlook” Weekly,

Ming Xiaodong, Chinese embassy in Japan, had a high opinion of the feature of the Indicators. They indicated that the Criteria and Indicators System not only fused the world advance principles and lessons for other developed countries, but also integrated organically multidimensional perspective of environmental, economic and social, constructing a framework of the three-dimensional analysis of city spatial structure, which is expected to provide the scientific policy and planning means for Chinese Urbanization.

Kazuhiko Takeuchi, President of Japan’s Central Environment Council, gave high expectations to the utility of the Indicators will play out, Zhou Muzhi, the Professor of Tokyo Keizai University, has presided over the symposium.

It is reported that the specific content of Criteria and Indicators System for Green Urbanization is scheduled to be officially released on the second “Green Urbanization International Symposium” hosted in China on March 29, 2015.

The article was published on China net on Feb 10, 2013, and was republished by foreign media.

“Symposium for Sino-Japan Urban and Environment” was convened recently in Tokyo. The Symposium was co-hosted by the Environmental Affairs, Government of Japan, General Japan Foundation Center for environmental health and Cloud River Japan Co.,Ltd. Du Ping, Executive Vice-Director, State Information Center, Ming Xiaodong, Chinese embassy in Japan, Hideki Minamikawa, Director of Japan’s Environmental health center, and Nakai Tokutaro, Japanese Ministry of Evironment secretary review officer attended and addressed the event.

Yue Xiuhu, Deputy director of the department of development planning of the National Development, delivered a keynote speech on Chinese current city policy and environmental policy. Representatives from Hitachi Shipbuilding, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and other Japanese companies introduced developing situation of the business in the field of China city construction, and engaged in discussion with Chinese government official.

Mu Rongping, Director of Innovation and Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hu Junkai, the Executive Chief Editor of Xinhua News Agency “Outlook” Weekly, Akinori Morimoto, a professor at Waseda University, and Zhou Muzhi, the Professor of Tokyo Keizai University also participated in the discussion.

After the meeting, the participants of the hundreds of Chinese and Japanese political, financial and academia officials, entrepreneurs and experts hosted a dinner party, made in-depth exchanges and communication.

The article was published on China net on Feb 10, 2015, and was republished by foreign media.