The book provides a study of sustainable development in rural China. Because of its huge population and vast land area, this is an important issue not only for China but for the whole world. The research presented is both multi aspect and systematical. It can be likened to a tree where the trunk is the three main aspects: economy, environment and rural society, and the five main branches are agricultural development, industrial pollution, energy security, labor migration and social welfare, and these are the book’s five main topics. The research methods of field survey and Sino-Japanese comparison will be of particular interest to readers. The field survey enables readers to become familiar with the environment of rural China. Survey reports and data provide readers with a more profound and vivid understanding of rural China and comparative methods benefit readers from different countries and a variety of cultural backgrounds. For Japanese readers or readers who understand Japanese well, they make China more easily understandable, while Chinese readers gain insights into the country’s future and the direction of current developments based on a Japanese frame of reference. For readers outside China and Japan, this book serves as an introduction to Chinese society and also to Japan. Finally, the author provides various paradigmatic scenarios, including default and sustainable. After reading this book, readers will be aware that the earlier and the more we pay attention to these issues, the easier it will be for rural China to achieve a sustainable situation.

Sustainable development in marginal areas, especially in those where rural poverty and environmental degradation are interwoven, is a great concern of development agencies worldwide, and much effort is put into development programmes, technology transfer schemes and so on. The problem is particularly acute in China, where increasing regional differences and inequality are eroding governmental poverty reduction efforts and exacerbating ecological crises. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the situation in China, especially in the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi Province. It explores in particular how farmers have organised themselves to initiate technical innovation, and considers communication networks and co-operative mechanisms. It discusses successful self-organisation, and how interfaces with external development agencies and with institutional innovation might be handled, highlighting the potential of farmer innovation initiatives, especially when they are linked with external development and environmental improvement programmes.

While most attention is given to the booming mega-cities in China and the associated problems of over-population, the rural areas in China are being largely ignored. Yet, a sustainable development of the rural areas is precisely that, which will be decisive for China’s future. Through its rapid development into an industrial country, China now needs to tackle far-reaching problems such as increasing population, growing income gap between the poor and the rich, rural exodus, decreased agricultural production, and environmental pollution. Rural Urban Framework is a work group at the University of Hong Kong that not only researches the far-reaching changes of the last thirty years in China’s rural areas, but has also realized concrete projects aimed at improving supply and infrastructure on site. In this publication, the authors present for the first time the results of their research as well as their built projects in the Chinese backlands, and question whether China’s only future model lies in cities.

Sustainable development is the core principle underpinning land use planning. The policies in this statement apply to the rural areas, including country towns and villages and the wider, largely undeveloped countryside up to the fringes of larger urban areas. The key principles identified are: (i) decisions on development should be based on sustainable development principles; (ii) good quality accessible development within towns and villages should be allowed where it benefits the local community; (iii) accessibility should be a key consideration, with emphasis on access by public transport, walking and cycling; (iv) new building in the open countryside away from existing settlements should be strictly controlled; (v) priority should be given to the reuse of brownfield sites. This PPS replaces PPG 7 (1997) with the exception of PPG7's Annex E, which provides further guidance on permitted development rights for agriculture and forestry and will remain extant pending a review by ODPM of the General Permitted Development Order 1995.

The urban-rural relationship in China is key to a sustainable global future. This book is particularly interested in peri-urbanization in China, the process by which fringe areas of cities develop. Recent institutional change has helped clarify property rights over collective land, facilitating peri-urban area development. Chapters in this book explore how rural industrialization has changed the landscape and rules about land use in peri-urban areas. It looks at the role of rural industrialization and provides a detailed exploration of peri-urbanization theory, policy, and its evolution in China. Leading discussions find out how fragmented bottom-up industrialization, urbanization, and lax governance have led to a series of social and environmental problems. The progress in redevelopment of peri-urban areas was initially slow due to the spatial lock-in effect. This book offers practical solutions to environmental issues and explains how policymakers have the potential to redevelop a future collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable approach to peri-urban areas. This in-depth approach to urbanization will be useful to academics in urban planning and governmental organizations. It will also be advantageous to NGOs and professionals involved in urban planning, public administration, as well as land-use work in China and other developing countries.

In the last 30 years, China’s record economic growth lifted half a billion people out of poverty, with rapid urbanization providing abundant labor, cheap land, and good infrastructure. While China has avoided some of the common ills of urbanization, strains are showing as inefficient land development leads to urban sprawl and ghost towns, pollution threatens people’s health, and farmland and water resources are becoming scarce. With China’s urban population projected to rise to about one billion – or close to 70 percent of the country’s population – by 2030, China’s leaders are seeking a more coordinated urbanization process. Urban China is a joint research report by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area. The report proposes six main areas for reform: first, amending land management institutions to foster more efficient land use, denser cities, modernized agriculture, and more equitable wealth distribution; second, adjusting the hukou household registration system to increase labor mobility and provide urban migrant workers equal access to a common standard of public services; third, placing urban finances on a more sustainable footing while fostering financial discipline among local governments; fourth, improving urban planning to enhance connectivity and encourage scale and agglomeration economies; fifth, reducing environmental pressures through more efficient resource management; and sixth, improving governance at the local level.

Author is an alumnus of Evanston Township High School, class of 1952.

Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development in Rural China is translated from the original Chinese to provide a look into how scholars in China have been assessing perceptions of poverty and reforms to improve conditions. This volume, and the others in the SSRC series, provides Western scholars with an accessible English language look at the state of current scholarship in China and, as such, does not simply provide information for the direct study of socio-political issues, but also for meta-level analysis of how the domestic scholarship in China is developing and assessing the interplay of the country's political and economic reforms with the society and daily life of its people.

Three billion people live in rural areas in developing countries. Conditions for them are worse than for their urban counterparts when measured by almost any development indicator, from extreme poverty, to child mortality and access to electricity and sanitation.

This book focuses on some of the practical actions and clever use of appropriate technologies which have been at the heart of this positive grassroots-driven change in rural Gansu Province. The real significance of this case study is that most of the approaches described are based on universal principles of sustainable development.