Labelled as the world’s first sustainable city, the Dongtan Eco-city project will be used by the Chinese government as a template for future urban sustainable planning. Strategically situated on the island of Chongming, 15km north of Shangai, Dongtan Eco-city will be home to 500,000 citizens by the year 2040. China is currently immersed in a complex rural-urban transition, 400 cities are expected to be built over the next 20 years. With this in mind, it is no surprise that Chinese authorities are concerned with the development of dynamic, liveable and eco-friendly cities as a means to maintain economic and social vitality in the long term.

Dongtan is planned so citizens live near their workplace, while efficient clean public transportation makes every area accessible. Energy will be generated through a combination of heat and power systems linked to the use of renewables. Buildings will have photovoltaic solar panel cells and small wind turbines. Additionally, community waste management recycling will generate clean energy from organic waste, such as the millions of rice husks that are thrown away each day, reducing in this way land fills that severely damage the environment. The city’s sewage will fertilise the surrounding farmland and rainwater will be captured in canals for future recycling and consumption.

Ultimately, the initiative will set the right conditions to achieve incremental changes in the social, economic and environmental infrastructures, which act as operational supports for sustainability and that will allow the city to adjust to the demographic changes expected in the coming years. The social infrastructure facilitates social inclusion, mobility and competitiveness; the economic infrastructure acts as a means to create the right incentives to promote sustainable and competitive economic growth and the environment infrastructure as a means to improve the quality of life.