A Multiple-Indicators Approach to Monitoring Urban Sustainable Development

In June 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm) issued the Declaration on the Human Environment, which proposed the following: “Planning must be applied to human settlements and urbanization with a view to avoiding adverse effects on the environment and obtaining maximum social, economic and environmental benefits for all.” Since then, the construction of ecocities to promote sustainable development gradually became a hot topic worldwide. The concept of an eco-city originated from the Garden City design of Howard in 1903 (Huang and Chen, 2002). In 1975, United States environmentalist and urban designer Richard Register and others created the organization Eco-City Builders (Register, 1996, 2002). During the past two decades, great progress has been made in the theory of the eco-city due to the efforts of many scholars, such as Ma Shijun in China; Oleg Yanitsky, a former Soviet ecologist; and David Engwicht, an Australian community activist. More recently, a number of pioneer eco-cities have appeared, including Bangalore in India, Curitiba and Santos in Brazil, Whyalla in Australia, Whitaker in New Zealand, Copenhagen in Denmark, Alberta in Canada, and, in the United States, Berkeley, California, Cleveland, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon (Zhang et al., 2003a). Much attention has also been paid to the eco-city concept and movement in China. Many cities have begun eco-city planning, research, or construction (Luo and Zeng, 1999; Zhang et al., 2000; Zhang and Wen, 2001; Zhang, 2001), including Yichun in Jiangxi Province, Ma’anshan in Anhui Province, Yantai and Rizhao in Shandong Province, Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, and Shanghai and Guangzhou. Many international organizations (e.g., the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, the Asian and the Pacific Economic Cooperation) have also conducted projects and research on urban sustainable development. However, so far there has not been any commonly accepted definition of an eco-city, not to mention an established and internationally acknowledged eco-city (Zhanget al., 2003a; Wen et al., 2005a). Through academic research and case study descriptions, it has become recognized that the construction of a sustainable eco-city is a step-by-step process. An eco-city is closely linked to the sustainability of the local-to-national state of the economy, society, and the environment, and can be gradually established through the efforts of its stakeholders. As cities adopt policies intended to promote sustainability, the development of