Current situation and potential development of China's environmental management at the rural–urban interface

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept, status and problems of China's environmental management system at the rural–urban interface. The problems of environmental management are closely related to rapid urbanisation and the traditional rural–urban dual management system. Integrating rural and urban environmental concerns into environmental policy and management remains a challenge at the rural–urban interface because of the institutional mismatch between urban environmental policies and rural environmental issues. From the current management status, management goals, related laws and major measures the problems in terms of management process are (1) lack of clear identification of environmental issues; (2) lack of clearly defined responsibilities; (3) inappropriate policies and regulation systems; (4) ineffective implementation of environmental policies and regulations; and (5) lack of supervision in environmental management. The existing environmental management pattern leads to a lack of environmental awareness in residents and environmental quality deterioration in the rural–urban interface. This paper suggests a new environmental management pattern constituting government-led environmental management committees and environmental organisations of public participation for the rural–urban interface in China. This pattern is aimed at facilitating reform of the current rural–urban interface environmental management and promoting integrated development in China's urban and rural areas.

Keywords:

• rural–urban interface
• urbanisation
• dual management system
• environmental management
• new pattern

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Water Pollution Control and Treatment S&T Major Research Project (2008ZX07315-003) and the Research Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SKLURE 2010-1-6).