The Urban Environment of Shanghai, China

Located on the east coast of China, Shanghai is the largest megacity within the country with a total population of 27.058 million (2020). Accelerating in development, Shanghai has seen rapid urbanization and economic growth over the past 3 decades due to the government’s “Reform and Opening-Up Policy”, a program of economic reform. Though, as urbanization blooms in Shanghai, many flaws follow the multiplying city.  

Regarded as one of the world’s largest cargo ports, Shanghai is located on the east tip of the Yangtze River delta and halfway along China’s eastern coastline. Bordering three bodies of water, the estuary of the Yangtze River to the north, the Hangzhou Bay to the south, and the East China Sea to the east, has its advantages. Firstly, the city has sufficient water supply to facilitate transportation and irrigation as it also brings soft, loose, and rich soils to the city. The city’s proximity to the ocean also brings economic potential, trading with other parts of the world through inexpensive transportation by sea. Finally, what natural resources Shanghai lacks on land, its waters make up for. Making its first appearance on the map as a small fishing village in 5000 B.C, Shanghai’s waters (11% of the city’s total territory) is home to 700+ types of aquatic products as well as rich water resources. 

Here is a detailed map of land uses in Shanghai in 2006. The city’s main central business district is a nucleated and linear settlement along the Huangpu River concentrated with high density residential and public buildings. As we move further away from the main CBD, we are met with a suburban ring of middle-density residential and industrial buildings that surround the city centre. Agricultural and green space occupy the most area outside of the suburban ring as well as the entire city. Minor CBD’s of Shanghai’s other districts as well as small areas of public and industrial buildings are scattered throughout the rest of the city.

Below is a comparison of Shanghai’s 1995 and 2015 land use pattern. Here, we can see the huge amount of urbanization and expansion Shanghai has gone through in 20 years. In 1995, high and low density built-up areas were mostly concentrated into one area with small scatters of them among the vast agricultural land that covered most of the city. In 2015, the city centre of high-density built-up areas have expanded outwards and low-density built-up areas now cover a much thicker ring outside Shanghai’s CBD and can even be seen commonly present in the outskirts of the city. Scatters of the CBDs of Shanghai’s other districts as well as urban forests have also greatly grown in size and area since 1995. It is interesting to correlate observations made from this image to urbanization statistics in Shanghai throughout the years; in 1995, the population of the urban area of Shanghai was 11.07 million while it was 23.48 million in 2015, doubling in two decades. 

The city of Shanghai is industry-focused with the manufacturing sector bringing in the biggest GDP of 26.6% (US$129.3 billion). Recently, Shanghai has been developing its manufacturing in six advanced high-tech industries (high-order goods) that include electronic informative products, cars, petrochemicals, fine steel, equipment, and bio-medicine. In 2018, these industries account for 68.5% of the city’s gross industrial output.

In Shanghai, residential areas surrounding the city’s main CBD are separated into 3 main areas: inner, middle, and outer ring, each defined by their distance from the city's centre. With the inner ring being the closest and the outer ring being the furthest away, land values greatly differentiate throughout these areas. In a research conducted in 2019, it is found that land value doubles within every closer ring to the CBD, eventually reaching the price of 110.48 thousand yuan (~22.02 thousand CND) per square meter on average in the inner ring.

As Shanghai goes through its rapid urbanization, job opportunities, infrastructural advancement, and improved standards of living come to light. Though, as people fill up the city’s streets, problems arise with its overpopulation. 

Being the third most populous city in the world, Shanghai does a fine job avoiding economic and social deprivation indicators such high unemployment rates, keeping its own rates at 3.57% and within range of a city’s ideal and natural unemployment rate. Though, Shanghai faces major problems and challenges as it meets many physical indicators of deprivation that include high pollution levels and transportation congestion. 

In 2013, Shanghai saw a record high amount of PM2.5, pollution particles that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, 9 times higher than the World Health Organization recommended exposure levels. In 2018, the air pollution problem continues with medium-levels of pollution near its east coast and high-levels reaching up to 186 µg/m3 in severe areas in the west. The whole city with the exception of small areas on the east coast is submerged under hazardous levels of air. Since January 1st, 2020, air pollution is responsible for an estimated 27,000 premature deaths in Shanghai alone. 

Scholars have previously predicted that Shanghai could hold a population of 16 million at maximum. Now almost at twice the predicted number, Shanghai suffers from severe transportation congestion with overpopulation and a lack of efficient roads. In one recent year, traffic is the cause behind over 265,000 road accidents and over 73,000 deaths in Shanghai alone. The graph below shows the hourly distribution of traffic accidents in Shanghai as numbers peak during the rush hours of 8:00-9:00 a.m and 5:00-6:00 p.m.

During the past few decades, the majority of Shanghai’s slums have been removed except for the few in existence on the city’s outskirts. This is due to the government’s urge to quickly urbanize and redevelop. Though, behind this demolition is the intention of chasing thousands of people out of their homes. This process included the government offering them unfair compensations and a relocation that was expensive to settle in and distant from the city centre. The government would also make claims that the residents had no legal proof of ownership of their slums, that their houses were illegally constructed, and that it posed a danger to the neighborhood even before plans of redevelopment. This was the dark side of Shanghai's rapid urbanization; the "move or be demolished" passive-agressive threat to slum dwellers.

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Since China’s economic reform that started in the 1970s, Shanghai has experienced urbanization at an accelerated speed, multiplying in its total urban population nearly every 2 decades. (Our World in Data, n.d.) With waves of new people coming to live and work in the city, the construction and expansion of “built-up” areas, and along with it heat retentive materials and heterogeneous surface characteristics, are inevitable. Therefore, as physical change spreads rapidly throughout Shanghai, so does the thermal environment that surrounds it. 

Below shows the spatial distribution of Shanghai’s LST (land surface temperature) in 1989 (a), 2000 (b), and 2013 (c) in 5 levels from low to very high in LST value. What remains the same throughout the years is high LST occurring in the CBD as low LST occurs throughout the outskirts of the city. High LST in areas outside the city center source from point sources such as factories in the north of Baoshan and south of Minhang. Though, a major noticeable difference of LSTs throughout the years is the significant expansion of areas with very high LST from the urban center. Though, in contrast with the observations made, statistics found that areas with very high LSTs have kept a stable proportion of land over the years: 12.57%(1989), 16.56% (2000) and 16.54%(2014). On the other hand, areas of very low and low LST have dramatically increased in proportion of area from 1.34% (1989) to 8.43% (2000) to 17.74% (2013). This would suggest that the LST scale has expanded itself as there is no definitive value for each category of LST. It would suggest that differences of two extremes have enlarged. For example, the Dianshan Lake in the west of Qingpu district was categorized as “low” in 1989 because the LST was not significantly lower than the city center’s LST. However from the 2000s, it had shifted to “very low” because its LST difference from the city centre had increased. Numerous examples of similar patterns can be observed throughout the city as we can conclude that today's very high LSTs in Shanghai are a lot hotter than the very high LSTs 2 decades ago. This is evidence of the heat increase in Shanghai throughout its growth and urbanizaiton. (Jiang and Xiang, 2015)

It can also be noticed that there has been a large decrease in LST value in the city center as this phenomenon can be explained by many actions the Shanghai Municipal Government has implemented to prevent urban sprawl. In 1999, Shanghai's municipal government issued the “Shanghai City Master Plan 1999-2020” in order to restrict development, control population density, and improve sustainability. Plot ratio, the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the area of the site (city of South Perth, n.d.), were to not exceed 2.5 for residential buildings and 4.0 for commercial buildings. Four years later, the “Shanghai City Centre Public Green Space Plan” was later issued to reach the goal of 35% green coverage by 2020, resulting in the jump of green coverage ratio in the city centre from 19.1% to 38.36% in 6 years (1998-2014). However in suburban areas, sustainability was less cared for. From 2010 to 2013, as the CBD had only experienced a 10% floor area increase, suburban districts such as Baoshan, Jinshan, and Fengxian had experienced increases from 21.2% to 155.5%. Along with suburban areas’ tendency to have higher temperatures, they are the areas with the largest LST increase throughout Shanghai's urbanization. (Jiang and Xiang, 2015)

Although specific values of temperature increases could not be found, it is apparent Shanghai has seen major increases in its LSTs, especially in its suburban areas, throughout its urbanization.

Also, despite specific statistics on the current effect of urban heat islands on Shanghai being not available, it is generally consistent and can be observed that the LST is higher in urban, suburban, and construction areas compared to that of rural areas in the southwestern parts of Shanghai. Generally, the current average difference of LST between urban and rural areas is 8.0°C in winter and 3.0°C in summer, proof that the urban heat island effect is, in fact, very present in Shanghai. (Cui and Shi, 2012)

Along with Shanghai’s rapid urbanization, the city has also seen the largest and fastest poverty reduction in history after launching its economic reform in the 1970s. After its launch, everything seemed to be going in a good direction...except for one major problem.

Before China’s economic reform, its urban population was covered by many benefits such as social insurance, health care, housing, education, and food assistance by their employers or the state. Though, this created major burden on state-owned and collective enterprises and generally brought down the Chinese economy. Thus, one of the major goals of China’s economic reform was to shift this burden onto individuals. However, this change left low-income and rural families vulnerable as there were minimal benefits available to them. (Giao, 2013)

Hence, to find a solution to this issue, Shanghai implemented the MLSA (Minimum Living Standard Assurance) in 1993 to create a safety net for those experiencing vulnerability to the reform. This was a public assistance program that would help families’ per capita household income lower than its set standard meet its standard. (Giao, 2013)

To measure this program’s success in Shanghai, a study was made by data collected among low-income families in Shanghai in 2009-2010. Throughout this group were commonalities of being unmarried, having major health issues, and unemployment. Poverty reduction with MLSA participation was measured using two absolute poverty lines. Using the official national poverty line of 1,196 yuan per capita per year set by the National Bureau of Statistics, MLSA lowered poverty rates from 0.14 to 0.03 (79%). Also, the poverty gap (a ratio showing the average shortfall of the total population from the poverty line) (Daniel Liberto, 2019) was lowered from 0.08 to 0.01 (90%) and poverty severity was lowered from 0.07 to 0.00 (94%). (Giao, 2013)

The Khan line set at 2,982 yan per capita per year (2.5 times more than the first line) was the second absolute poverty line used in this study. Here, the poverty rate was reduced from 0.30 to 0.16 (47%), poverty gap from 0.16 to 0.06 (64%), and poverty severity from 0.12 to 0.04 (78%). (Giao, 2013) 

Although both measuring systems demonstrated a great reduction in poverty and a larger impact when compared to other cities in China, MLSA in Shanghai was not able to completely eliminate poverty. Nevertheless, it has brought great amounts of noticeable positive impact to the poverty issue in Shanghai. 

During the past four decades after China’s economic reform, the country has experienced one of the fastest urbanizations and expansions at a global scale with infrastructure and opportunities growing at lightning speeds. This has brought great positive impacts of improved standards of living - but at what costs? In other words, what does Shanghai’s urbanization look like and what are its environmental impacts on the city?

Population and population density

From 1949 to 2010, due to Shanghai’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, its population rose from 5.03 million to 14.13 million, with another 9 million floating immigrants that reside in Shanghai for more than half a year (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, 2011). Growing at an average of 0.72 million per decade between 1981 and 2010, Shanghai was the first city in China in 2013 to have a negative fertility growth rate while increasing in population due to its high immigration rates. Similar accelerating growth trends can be observed from population density in Shanghai. From 1970-2010, the city’s population density has grown from 1734 persons per square kilometer to 3632 persons per square kilometer, with an average increasing rate of 419 persons per square kilometer per decade. Though, there are a few outliers in these results. Districts such as Jing’an, Luwan, Huangpu, and Hongkou have greatly decreased in population density (with the greatest decrease being 13,153 persons per square kilometer in Jing’an) due to the government’s relocation of its residents. Populations of these districts were placed elsewhere in suburban areas temporarily for major constructions of infrastructure. (Cui and Shi, 2012)

Land use and land cover 

In 1955, cultivated/farming land had the largest area in Shanghai with a total of 388.7 thousands hectares. Only 15 years later, it had reached the smallest area of 201.0 thousand hectares, decreasing with an average rate of 26.7 thousand hectares per decade before 1980, and with an average rate of 53.5 thousand hectares after. On the other hand, building land (including CBD, residential areas, and other buildings) had increased by 1419.5 square kilometers (221.5%). In recent years, there has also been increases of green space and bodies of water as Shanghai is becoming more aware of the importance of city sustainability. Land use change during urbanization is noticeably great, accounting for 48.8% of the total area of Shanghai. (Cui and Shi, 2012)

Changes in other urbanization indicators:

These dramatic increases from sources used in everyday life is concrete proof of Shanghai’s booming urbanization throughout the past decades.

Watch Shanghai’s rapid infrastructural urbanization in action from 1978 to 2019 with a timelapse!:

Impacts of urbanization on the environment 

Urbanization has brought many impacts to Shanghai, most of them positive. Though, the city’s environment and overall health has taken some hits with the rapid rise of population and infrastructure happening around it. Due to the huge increase of garbage production, Shanghai has the largest refuse landfill in Asia, the Laogang landfill. It covers around 14.67 square kilometers and keeps more than 70 percent of the household garbage produced in Shanghai (Times, 2016)

Pollution is also a major issue in Shanghai caused by its rapid urbanization. In only a decade in Shanghai (2000-2010), total patients treated in medical institutions have increased from 5.4 person-times (an estimate of the actual time-at-risk that all participants contributed to a study) (Alexander, Lopes, Yeatts, Ricchetti-Masterson, n.d) per year-end resident to 9.1 person-times per year-end resident (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, 2011).

In response to the negative impacts of urbanization, Shanghai has made many efforts and policies throughout recent years to come up with solutions to lessen the damage on its environment. As awareness of sustainability becomes increasingly prevalent, the city works hard to ensure the safety of its people as it shifts its focus from growth alone to sustainable development. Here are some of the measures and steps Shanghai has already taken to better their environment.

Challenges in reaching sustainability

Although Shanghai is increasingly working towards building a more sustainable city, many challenges arise along the way. The major challenges can be summarized as the result of environmental degradation and the misuse of urban spaces (Zhou, n.d.). More specifically, these major challenges can be summarized as: 

• Environmental pollution 
• High carbon energy use 
• Decentralized utility of space and limited ecological space 
• Fragmentation of climate, energy and environment policies

(Kwan, 2016)

Goals

To promote sustainable urbanization, Shanghai created the Shanghai Master Plan 2017-2035, aiming to develop into an “excellent global city” by 2035 (SHINE, 2019). Here are some of the main aspects and goals of this plan: 

Sustainable Development: 

• To expore new growth models that fit sustainable development in densely populated megacities. 
• To limit its population to 25 million by 2035.
• To limit the total land area put aside for construction to 3,200 square kilometers.

Innovation: 

• To deepen reform of the free trade zone 
• To give Zhangjiang National Science Center a core role in technology and innovation
• To build Hongqiao, Budong, and Yangshan’s deep-water ports into international hubs 
• To reach 1000-km of total length in the city's metro system by 2035

Humanism:

• To make 99% of public services within a 15-minute walk radius for all residents 
• To introduce a new housing system that encourages both buying and renting will be introduced 
• To construct more high-quality cultural, educational, sports and wellness facilities

Ecology:

• To increase forest coverage to 23 percent by 2035
• To exceed 13 square meters of public parks or greenland for each resident on average 
• To make endeavors to protect the city's oceans, air, water, and soil 
• To reduce the annual average density of PM2.5 to 25 micrograms per cubic meter by 2035

(SHINE, 2019)

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