Temporal changes in sustainable development level for Lijiang City: 2003–2008

Abstract

Sustainability assessment is an essential requirement for constructing sustainable cities. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive method to assess the sustainability level of development of cities (SLDC) in China, and use data from the China City Statistical Yearbook to calculate assessment indicators for Lijiang City between 2003 and 2008. Ten indicators covering residents' welfare, urbanisation and environment were selected. The results showed that Lijiang's SLDC experienced a ‘slow decline’ stage followed by a ‘rapid improvement’ stage, and the sustainability of Lijiang's development has been steadily enhanced during the second phase. This assessment indicator system could readily be applied to assess the SLDC of other Chinese cities.

Keywords:

• sustainable city
• urbanisation
• welfare
• assessment method

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the Innovation Projects and One Hundred Talents Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-453, D-2009-02, 08I4071D10) and the R&D Special Fund for Public Welfare of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (No. 201009055).