Global CONNECTING: UK-China exchange on sustainable cities

I was recently fortunate enough to be selected to attend the INSIGHT (integrated strategies for inclusive growth, resource-efficiency and urban resilience) workshop in Xi’an, China. Visiting a city like Xi’an and participating in the workshop was such a valuable experience for me as a researcher.

I went to this workshop with my CONNECTING Nature hat on. CONNECTING Nature is an EU Horizon 2020 project that is generating and sharing knowledge on how to up-scale the delivery of nature-based solutions in urban areas. We are working with cities on an EU and global scale. Being at this workshop really highlighted the importance of sharing experiences of city-making using nature-based solutions so that cities do not end up repeating mistakes from the past. Instead we can all learn from successful and innovative projects that have achieved high-quality sustainable development and successful urban regeneration.

The workshop was held this summer from 27th to 29th June 2018. It was coordinated and led by Professor Steffen Lehmann of the University of Portsmouth in the UK and Associate Professor Jinfeng DU of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China. Funded by the British Council and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the Newton Fund Researcher Links scheme, the joint workshop brought together Early Career Researchers from the UK and China, as well as experts from other leading institutes and representatives from Xi’an municipality, to share knowledge, experiences and innovative strategies and solutions for inclusive urban regeneration, resource-efficiency and resilience.

Photograph of the workshop participants.

Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in China and is the capital of the Shaanxi Province, a region in central China. It has a rich cultural and political history and is home to many important ancient artifacts. Possibly its most famous monument is the 2,000 year old Terracotta Army, constructed to guard the tomb of the First Emperor of China, and Xi’an also has one of the oldest and largest city walls in the world. As the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, an ancient trade route linking China to Central Asia and Europe, Xi’an was historically an important city internationally, and today it is considered one of the emerging megacities of China. The population of Xi’an has risen to 12 million in 2018, making it one of the most populous cities in north-west China. As with many parts of China, Xi’an has undergone rapid urbanisation in the past 25 years. This has resulted in severe ecological degradation problems in the past, but the Chinese government now want to shift from an industrial to an environmentally-aware ‘ecological civilisation’, and sustainable urbanisation and regeneration is seen as a research priority in China.

View of Xi’an’s 2,000 year old Terracotta Army, sculptures depicting the armies of the First Emperor of China

The first day of the workshop commenced with an opening keynote speech by Professor Lehmann, who discussed how future urban regeneration needs to aim for strategic, quality compactness that creates mixed-use, walkable cities with reduced car dependency. He recommended an ‘urban dentistry’ model for regenerating cities – an incremental strategy that involves a number of modest, carefully integrated regeneration projects, rather than large, ‘iconic vanity projects’. He ended his address by highlighting how important a people-led (rather than technology led) regeneration process is required to achieve sustainable urban development. A second keynote speech, from Mr Xijing Wang of Xi’an’s Municipal Government took us through the history of Xi’an City’s reconstruction, from when it was established in 1144 as an ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty, through to its listing as one of China’s nine ‘National Centre Cities’ in 2017. The goal of this listing is to build an international metropolis that retains its key historical and cultural assets, and Xi’an has been selected as a pilot city for implementation of the government’s strategy for urban ecological restoration and repair.

Professor Jinfeng Du of XJTU, with Dr Kiki Liang, Head of the Newton Fund in China and Professor Steffen Lehmann of Portsmouth University.

The workshop then opened up to the Early Career Researchers from the UK and China. Presentations covered a wide range of disciplines in the fields of inclusive urban regeneration and resource-efficiency. Researchers explained the value of using health as a framework for evaluating different/alternative development options and how ‘systems thinking’ can be used to unpack the complexity of urban regeneration (the talk identified that community is key – chiming with the final theme in Professor Lehmann’s keynote speech). Presentations on urban green infrastructure (GI) encouraged developers to use high quality GI to brand themselves as high quality sustainable development projects. A talk on the importance of cultural sustainability as part of urban regeneration highlighted that through sensitive and sustainable tourism, cultural heritage sites (of which Xi’an has many) can bring resources to maintain the sites and finance the city.

Also discussed were the dynamics of informal urbanisation in China, and the consequences of de-industrialising cities and whether the resulting vacant brownfield land can be brought into beneficial reuse. This presentation had particular resonances with my own PhD research and has been a focus for projects within the SRI.

Delivering my presentation to workshop participants.

My presentation at the workshop focused on the valuable habitat and biodiversity that can naturally colonise disused brownfield sites, and showed some of my research investigating novel methods to embed important features from these sites into urban greenspace. By using an ‘ecomimicry approach’ my research has demonstrated that it is possible to design multifunctional UGI that provides a locally-attuned and ecologically functioning habitat for biodiversity, as well as delivering ecosystem services such as stormwater management and urban cooling. The approach is gaining traction and has been included in the Mayor of London’s Environment Strategy as an example of good practice for designing urban greenspace for biodiversity and to meet sustainable development goals. As well as showing how ecologically important brownfield features can be embedded into new developments using ecomimicry designed green roofs and soft landscaping, the presentation also explored the potential value of biodiverse brownfields as novel greenspace in cities. This perspective remains challenging but could help cities such as Xi’an begin to understand the contribution of brownfield sites to their urban green infrastructure strategies.

After the workshop ended, I was able to extend my stay and spend some time exploring the city of Xi’an. Xi’an truly has a wealth of cultural heritage, with many beautiful ancient monuments, testimony to its rich history and a visual delight, even after dark.

View of the Drum Tower, one of the many stunning cultural monuments in Xi’an, lit up at night.

As well as providing a fascinating insight into Xi’an’s past, several of the temples contained gardens and greenspace that felt like a cool and tranquil oasis amidst the heat and bustle of the surrounding city streets.

View of the gardens surrounding the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a holy place for Buddhists.

Walking round Xi’an, it was clear that rapid urbanisation of the city had created areas of high-density, high-rise development that seemed to dwarf any nearby greenspaces.

An example of high-rise, high density development in Xi’an.

Nonetheless, as part of the regeneration of urban Xi’an, there have clearly been efforts to increase public greenspace. Examples are the transformation of the historic Daming Palace site into a National Heritage Park that provides a vast public greenspace, and Qujiang Pool Park, a major recreational complex of green and blue spaces. I only had a short time to explore Xi’an but managed to visit both parks during my stay.

A view of the greenspace in Daming Palace National Heritage Park.

A view of one of the lakes in Qujiang Pool Park.

Whilst for both these public greenspaces their scale and ambitions were admirable, when visiting I couldn’t help feeling that opportunities to maximise their multifunctionality had been missed. The main driver appeared to be creating a picturesque, highly designed landscape, something we have a long tradition of doing in the UK but are increasingly understanding comes at the expense of many potential co-benefits. As an ecologist and keen bird watcher I was looking forward to seeing some native Chinese wildlife in Xi’an’s parks, but the bird diversity was pretty limited in these two parks. One birding highlight during the trip however was seeing the hundreds of swifts that circle round the ancient Drum and Bell Towers in the city centre. During a visit to the top floor of the Drum Tower, I was intrigued to see swifts flying up and wedging themselves into the numerous crevices provided by the traditional Chinese architectural style of these buildings. I was surprised and fascinated because the swifts appeared to be resting or sleeping in these spots, something they are not notorious for doing, it being common consensus they do much of their sleeping on the wing.

A swift taking a rest wedged between the wooden rafters in the roof of the Drum Tower.

For me it was another fascinating example of how we can inadvertently provide valuable habitat niches for wildlife in the built environment. Learning from these kinds of experiences is at the heart of my ecomimicry research, developing and sharing knowledge of how we can plan and design these vital niches into the built environment. Through such an approach to design, it is possible to ensure that biodiversity rather than just ‘green’ is at the heart of nature-based solution design.

A pertinent message on a pebble in the sacred gardens of the Daci’en Buddhist temple in Xi’an

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are solutions inspired and supported by nature that simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits, helping to build resilience in cities. Whilst the multifunctional benefits of NbS have become recognised, for complex reasons widespread adoption and advancements in this approach have been slow. In CONNECTING Nature we are developing processes and practices that will enable cities to share their expertise and experience of implementing NbS solutions and strategies, to unlock barriers to successful city-making using NbS. By creating a global learning academy, CONNECTING Nature is generating a platform for supporting all cities in the process of delivering and upscaling NbS, with the objective to create resilient, greener, healthier cities worldwide. This, in turn, will lead to more sustainable living for their citizens. China is a key global partner in this initiative, and through participating in the workshop in Xi’an, I was afforded a great opportunity to share potential practical urban greening solutions from my PhD research and introduce participants to the CONNECTING Nature project. This type of knowledge exchange event and projects such as CONNECTING Nature will hopefully aid cities such as Xi’an achieve an ‘ecological transition’ towards sustainable urbanisation.

By Caroline Nash