Developing Indicators and Monitoring Systems for Environmentally Livable Cities in China

Abstract

While the environments of more and more Chinese cities are becoming less polluted following successful introduction of pollution control and environment renovation measures in recent years, more attention is now being given to the livability of cities. However, these successes are often not quantifiable and are not universally recognized. Based on a survey of globally- recognized urban livability indices and their monitoring systems, the paper is to develop and agree with the government counterparts on a verifiable and measurable environmental livability index system targeting the PRC cities, and find a suitable approach for investment assessments in reaching the benchmarks, i.e. the costs of producing changes in environmental livability. With the Chinese Environmental Livability Index System developed in the paper, environmental performance of 33 Chinese cities were ranked and the environmental challenges of these cities are identified with the further Pressure-State-Response analysis and trend analysis. With a comprehensive analysis with the trends of long-term environmental livability and the pollution control investment of Chinese cities, more effective and aim-oriented incentives and investment policies for urban environmental livability improvement are put forward in this paper.