World Cities Day is here! The World Cities Day China Main Event and the Opening Ceremony of the First Global Conference on Urban Sustainability was held today in the World Conference Room on the North Bund, with a theme of "Addressing Climate Change, Building Resilient Cities", aiming to raise public awareness about climate change adaptation and urban resilience, and to encourage effective climate action at the national and local levels by sharing solutions to improve urban resilience.
After 6 years, the world cities day China's main event has returned to the "origin" of Shanghai to be held, which is of great significance. On this world-class stage, Shanghai uses its exploration and practice of the megacity governance system to tell the story of the people's city and the Chinese story of sustainable urban development. Integrating "international vision", "Chinese characteristics" and "Shanghai characteristics", two major achievements were unveiled - the "Shanghai Index" was released for the first time, and there were new changes in the Shanghai Handbook.
See the world from two perspectives
Spread the voice of China and highlight the wisdom of Shanghai. The "Shanghai Index" comprehensive indicator system framework is the world's first urban sustainable development index system based on the "five-in-one" concept of economy, society, culture, environment and governance.
The "Shanghai Index" focuses on the concept of "People's City" and consists of a comprehensive index and several thematic indexes. Among them, the composite index measures the overall level of progress of cities in the field of sustainable development; the theme index is combined with the theme of City Day, urban development hotspots and other topics, focusing on the evaluation of specific areas.
"The 'Shanghai Index' is an index of progress." Liu Qianwei, chief engineer of the Municipal Housing and Construction Commission, said that the urban sustainable development index system measures the progress and development potential of a city, not just reflects the city's capacity and level from the perspective of scale and capacity. There are some developing cities, although the level of economic development is not very high, but take the road of sustainable development, in the "Shanghai Index" has a certain growth. It is understood that the "Shanghai Index" will be combined with the United Nations sustainable development flagship project, which plans to allow 1,000 cities around the world to participate in this evaluation system by 2030.
The Shanghai Handbook, known as the Shanghai Handbook - A Guide to Urban Sustainability in the 21st Century, has been meeting with the public since 2011 in the format of "Five-Year Editor-in-Chief, Annual Report". The annual handbook is compiled around the annual theme and selects outstanding cases in the fields of economy, society, environment, culture and governance. The 2021 edition of the Shanghai Handbook is the third overall revision based on the review of the practical experience of urban sustainable development in the past five years, with the theme of "Sustainable Urban Development: Promoting Inclusive Growth with Green and Low Carbon", of which 21 classic cases are included, and three cases in Shanghai were selected.
As the most basic unit and cell of urban society, the community is the closest to people's livelihood and directly affects people's livelihood. As a case of "Governance", the Jinyang Xincun Street Community in Pudong New Area has given full play to its own initiative at different stages of development, forming an effective and targeted innovative action path. Emphasize empowerment and equality in the field of social governance, and strive to achieve inclusive growth; in the field of spatial governance, highlight spatial justice, and strive to achieve green, healthy and low-carbon growth.
Another case, "Shanghai Community Garden: Ecologically Oriented Social Space", appears in "Social Chapter", which describes the practical process of community gardens, which not only introduces ecological aesthetics in the nature of green space, but also triggers residents' participation in the social sense of community common land. In addition, in the chapter "Sustainable Urban Development in the Context of Epidemic Prevention and Control", the covid-19 epidemic prevention and control practices of Biyun International Community are recorded.
Look at Shanghai from the three "ones"
In order to effectively cope with the risks and challenges brought about by climate change, cities need to explore green and low-carbon development paths, and also need to take innovative measures to comprehensively and systematically enhance urban resilience, enhance urban disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities, and ensure urban safety and sustainable development.
Zheng Shiling, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that "resilient city" refers to a city where urban society can cope with future challenges, improve the ability of cities to cope with disasters, achieve sustainable development, cope with population growth, be more livable, and improve the quality of life. Its key elements are carbon-neutral cities, eco-cities, smart cities, sustainable cities, and cities that respond to climate change and disasters. The "Shanghai 2035" master plan proposes for the first time to build a sustainable and resilient ecological city, and the planning and construction of the "five new cities" also highlights sustainable and resilient development.
Shanghai is the first place for the concept of people's urban construction and the best practice place for urban governance cases. Feng Jingming, director of the Shanghai Urban Renewal Center, used a field, a garden and a building to summarize the major practical proposition of Shanghai's continuous exploration of megacity governance.
Yifangtian refers to the Sanlin Binjiang South Area. Yesterday, this is a depression with backward infrastructure and serious construction; today, the overall development concept of the region is being implemented here, and it has become a "test field" for improving urban resilience, developing green and low-carbon, and enhancing urban functions; in the future, it will become a natural and wild thousand-acre urban forest, with 180 species and 15,000 trees respectively, which can neutralize more than 1,400 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
A garden refers to the Expo Cultural Park covering an area of about 2 million square meters, which is planned to be fully completed by the end of 2023. Accounting for 80% of the green space, more than 1,000 species of plants, weaving a sustainable ecosystem. In addition, the park layout has many highlights. The four Expo reserved venues will be built into new spaces for cultural education and exhibition display; Shenyuan Garden is surrounded by mountains and rivers to set off the charm of classical gardens in Jiangnan; and the greenhouse garden uses sound and photoelectric technology, which is fun and beautiful.
A building refers to the Shuyin Building, the epitome of Shanghai's many historical landscape protection buildings. Thanks to the organic renewal of the city, it not only reflects the progress of the concept, but also reflects the original intention of inheriting history.
Author: Shi Bozhen
Editor: Tang Weijie
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