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Workshop on Urban Ecology and Sustainability Held in Denmark

The Workshop on Urban Ecology and Sustainability, sponsored by the Organization Department of Hunan Province and co-organized by China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) and Danish company Grundfos, took place in Denmark from October 30 to November 12, 2016. The two-week program recruited a total of 16 officials, including vice mayors and top-ranking officials in charge of the province’s environment, housing, water resources and municipal infrastructure.


At the opening ceremony, CDRF Secretary General Lu Mai made clear training goals to all the participants. Gu Chaolin, professor at the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, Zhao Hui, chief economist of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Meng Chun, counselor of the DRC Department of Macroeconomic Research, and Zhang Bo, director of the Department of Water Environment Management of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, gave lectures on such topics as green development and changes to urban planning, coordinated urban-rural development and the building of a beautiful, livable countryside, application of the PPP mode in urban construction and environmental protection, urban water environment protection and environment improvement during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the current political and economic climate in Europe, and safety reminders for visit to Denmark.


In the first week, the workshop mainly included classroom teaching at the Technical University of Denmark. The participants studied and discussed a number of topics such as smart city construction, urban sustainability, response to climate change, indoor air and energy conservation, smart urban lighting, people-oriented development concept, intercity energy system integration, smart water supply system, sustainable facility management, recycling, transformation from waste to energy, and intelligent campus. All the topics were key areas those urban governance officials were concerned about or areas that should be improved in China. Notably, some cases of projects in China were analyzed to show what the Danish design concepts were and their role in promoting China’s urban transformation and development. All the lecturers were experienced researchers or practitioners in their respective fields. Mayors or vice mayors of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Rudersdal and Viborg were there to share with Chinese officials the progress of local urban development from the perspective of municipal administrators. Overall, the program achieved the desired effect thanks to the hard work of lecturers who spent 10 to 15 minutes at the end of each lecture answering questions from the class.


The second week was devoted to on-site teaching of best practices. The participants visited a port in Copenhagen, the library of Technical University of Denmark, an outdoor lighting laboratory, BLOX office construction site, Hellev Hospital sewage plant, Veragade (维拉盖德) recycling station, Amager Resource Center, Grundfos pump assembling shop, Bjerringbro water plant, the citizen service and information center and the light rail transit system of Aarhus, and the processing workshop of Danish Crown. During the field trips, they got hands-on experience with the people-oriented, green and sustainable urban governance concepts and the superb craftsmanship embodied in urban construction. For example, the motorways, bikeways and walkways are marked off with different subgrade heights, and dedicated traffic lights for bikes at crossroads, featuring well-designed lamp posts, bring great convenience to cyclers; at Hellev Hospital sewage plant, the visiting Chinese delegation was amazed by the  magical process of turning waste water into drinking water; a port of Copenhagen can be used as a public bath in summer; the new energy building of Amager Resource Center features innovative design that turns its exterior structure into a ski field and public place; at Copenhagen outdoor lighting laboratory, the little lamp posts can not only serve as traffic lights but also provide a variety of intelligent services such as parking, traffic accident warning, air quality monitoring and waste monitoring; at the citizen service and information center of Aarhus, the considerate design of the public library and underground automatic parking lot allows people from different backgrounds to spend a whole day there in their own way.


Participants said that the workshop was truly rewarding in that it gave them a thorough understanding of the people-oriented, innovative, green and sustainable development concepts of Denmark and the spirit of the craftsmen, motivated and inspired them to make their city a better place. The workshop was a successful attempt to implement the green development concept put forward at the fifth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and to improve the capacity of local officials to advance ecological protection.


This workshop, a move under the local government cooperation MOU signed in front of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Denmark's Queen Margrethe II during the latter’s visit to Beijing in April 2014, was designed to help with urban planning, construction and administration, based on themes of innovation, coordination and green development, actively adapt to the new normal of economic development, and promote people-oriented urbanization so as to make China a better place to live in.