- Title
- Healthy waterways and ecologically sustainable cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (northern China) : challenges and future directions
- Creator
- Kattel, Giri; Reeves, Jessica; Western, Andrew; Zhang, Wenjing; Dowling, Kim
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/180081
- Identifier
- vital:15694
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1500
- Identifier
- ISBN:2049-1948 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- The cities across the northern dry region of China are exposed to multiple sustainability challenges. Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin (BTH) urban agglomeration, for example, experiences severe water shortages due to rapidly expanding urban populations, industrial use, and irrigation-intensive agriculture. Climate change has further threatened water resources security. Overuse of water resources to meet the demand of various water sectors has far-reaching health and environmental implications including ecosystem sustainability. Surface water and groundwater pollution present public health risks. Despite the extraordinary policies and efforts being made and implemented by the Government of China, the BTH region currently lacks coordination among stakeholders leading to poor water governance. Consultation among scientists, engineers and stakeholders on regional water security issues is crucial and must be frequent and inclusive. An international symposium was held in Shijiazhuang in early November 2019 to identify some of the key water security challenges and scope of an idealized future eco-city in the region by developing a sustainability framework. This work drew on experiences from across China and beyond. Scientists agree that integration of science, technology, and governance within an appropriate policy framework was particularly significant for combating the issue of water insecurity, including in the region's newly developed city, Xiong'an New Area. An emerging concept, “Healthy Waterways and Ecologically Sustainable Cities” which integrates social, ecological and hydrological systems and acts as an important pathway for sustainability in the 21st century was proposed in the symposium to tackle the problems in the region. This high level biophysical and cultural concept empowers development goals and promotes human health and wellbeing. The framework on healthy waterways and ecologically sustainable cities can overcome sustainability challenges by resolving water resource management issues in BTH in a holistic way. To implement the concept, we strongly recommend the utilization of evidence-based scientific research and institutional cooperation including national and international collaborations to achieve the Healthy Waterways and Ecologically Sustainable Cities goal in the BTH in future. This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Giri Kattel, Jessica Reeves and Kim Dowling” is provided in this record**
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons Inc
- Relation
- Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water Vol. 8, no. 2 (2021), p.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- MD Multidisciplinary; Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration; Ecologically sustainable city; Healthy waterways; Northern China; Social-ecological-and-hydrological system; Water governance; Water security
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Funder
- Hebei University of Science and Technology (HEBUST) organized a 2‐day (2–3 November 2019) international symposium on “Healthy Waterways and Ecologically Sustainable Cities” in Shijiazhuang to discuss pressing challenges of water resources in Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei urban agglomeration in northern China supported by the project “Establishment of an international cooperation platform for research and development of key technologies for ecological restoration in Xiong'an New Area” (#20181012) under the funding scheme of the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of the Hebei Administration of the Foreign Expert Affairs (HAFEA). Giri Kattel would also like to acknowledge the National Key Research of China Grant (#2016YFE0201900) at Tsinghua University (Beijing). The artwork in Figure 2 is designed by Wei Jing. We would like to thank the editorial team and the two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments. Funding text 2: International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of the Hebei Administration of the Foreign Expert Affairs (HAFEA), Grant/Award Number: 20181012; National Key Research of China Grant, Grant/Award Number: 2016YFE0201900 Funding information.
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