Eco-city Study

As the world is marching into "a century of cities" from "the century of urbanization", the city has grown into the most significant living space for human beings. However, there still exist in modern cities a great deal of " urban problems". which have become obstacles to the sustainable development of cities and even to that of the whole mankind. The concept "ecocity" with the concerned ideas is proposed just to probe a feasible path for the sustainable development of mankind, solving urban problems and building ideal " Human Settlements". " Ecocity" might be the inevitable trend of urban development.Focused on the issue of "how to build ecocities", this dissertation conducts its research in two lines: One, finding ways to improve the natural ecological environment of modern cities so that they become beautiful and pleasant; the other, finding ways to improve urban cultural environment so as to achieve social and ecological harmony and balance in modem cities. Both ways are intended to help modern cities grow into a better place for human survival. The main purposes of this article are, however, to discuss the concept of "ecocity", explore the strategical urban plan of development, and contend over civil policies on the construction of "ecocity" .For these purposes, the dissertation falls into five Chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The first Chapter mainly defines the concept and essence and important characteristics of "ecocity" . Briefly speaking, ecocity is a sort human living quarter with high economical efficiency, comfortable surroundings, and communal harmony. The essence of "ecocity"is the "harmony" and "pleasantness" of the environment, "harmony" being the epitome generalization of the features of ecocity while "pleasantness" being the principal guideline in building ecocities. Besides, this Chapter also presents a concise illustration of the economic rationality of ecocity. The second Chapter provides ideological sources and theoretical foundation for the existence of ecocity after researching into the ecological consideration in the history of urban development. Though it is difficult to exhaust the resources in these two fields, this Chapter tries to cover several major concerned facts, such as ancient Chinese idea of "combining man and nature", the idea of "ideal city", the idea of Garden city, the theory of urban eco-system, and the theory of sustainable development. As the center of the article, Chapter three attempts to establish the theoretical structure for the strategical project of setting up ecocities. On the basis of the idea of ecocity and its theoretical foundation, this Chapter analyzes the measuring criteria for the ecological city and explores the strategical project of setting up ecocity from such three aspects as spacial formation, economic development, and social development. Chapter four discusses about the problem of forcing businesses into the mode of ecologicalized, which is considered as one of the key issues in the development of ecocities. This Chapter not only discusses the essential idea of developing ecological businesses, but also stresses the significance of an ecological living pattern for the development of ecological business development and then forthat of ecocity. In the fifth Chapter, theoretical exploration switches into the field of realistic and practical orientation. With a brief review of the examples of ecocities home and abroad, this Chapter sets up the factual supporting system for the development of ecocity. and proposes some suggestions for civil policies on building ecological cities. In addition, as the project of "western exploitation" is a hot issue in theory and practice today, this Chapter makes a special effort to discuss the fact of building ecological cities in the process of western exploitation. These suggestions for civil policies are put forth from the view of the overall situation rather than referring to the details of building ecocities. The conclusion of the dissertation makes a prediction on the pr...