Preventing Environmental Risks …
749
regional risks faced by China’s ecological environment. Since the environmental
risk management system in China is still in its infancy, there are management problems like “stressing emergency handling while neglecting preventive measures” and
“tackling sudden pollution incidents while ignoring chronic risks to public health.”
Moreover, the environmental management model has yet to morph into a risk controloriented one. Compared with other aspects of environmental protection, management
of environmental risks still requires suitable systems, policies and technologies in
place, and such risks are posing a serious challenge to the development of ecological
civilization in China.
In his speech at the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection in 2018,
General Secretary Xi Jinping said that “our efforts to build an ecological civilization
are now in a crucial phase in which we must carry forward despite heavy strain
and immense pressure, a decisive stage in which we will supply more high-quality
ecological goods to meet the growing demands of the people for a pristine environment, and also a period of opportunity in which we have the conditions and abilities
necessary to resolve prominent environmental issues.” That being said, China has
yet to form a decision-making system based on environmental risks, and fully incorporate environmental risk assessment into the formulation of major strategies and
plans. What’s more, the fragmented environmental management has failed to eliminate a wide variety of environmental risks. Compared with economic construction,
environmental risk prevention is still relatively insufficient. We touch on how to
avoid environmental risks while implementing plans and strategies, but have not yet
decided whether we should, or how to, make strategies and plans through specific
methods like environmental risk assessment.
2 Territorial Space Planning in a New Era
1. The international spatial planning system
According to their political, economic and social development as well as status
quo, countries around the world adopt different approaches to create, manage and
implement their spatial planning systems and gain different results. In the national
governance system, “spatial planning” refers to the management of spatial development and/or land use in a specific country and region, and in Euro-English, it is
a collective term for “the entire system of the government’s management of spatial
development.” The EU-level spatial policies and the spatial planning of EU countries (domestic urban and rural planning management system) are closely connected
with frequent interactions, and they have been a key issue in the European planning
community. In the context of European integration, the term “spatial planning” is
widely used in the planning field, with flexible usages emerging, and each country
has a different form and term for it. For example, “regional spatial planning” appears
in the planning literature of the United Kingdom, which refers to the transition
from a top-down, goal-driven approach in the past to a more localized one. The
749
regional risks faced by China’s ecological environment. Since the environmental
risk management system in China is still in its infancy, there are management problems like “stressing emergency handling while neglecting preventive measures” and
“tackling sudden pollution incidents while ignoring chronic risks to public health.”
Moreover, the environmental management model has yet to morph into a risk controloriented one. Compared with other aspects of environmental protection, management
of environmental risks still requires suitable systems, policies and technologies in
place, and such risks are posing a serious challenge to the development of ecological
civilization in China.
In his speech at the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection in 2018,
General Secretary Xi Jinping said that “our efforts to build an ecological civilization
are now in a crucial phase in which we must carry forward despite heavy strain
and immense pressure, a decisive stage in which we will supply more high-quality
ecological goods to meet the growing demands of the people for a pristine environment, and also a period of opportunity in which we have the conditions and abilities
necessary to resolve prominent environmental issues.” That being said, China has
yet to form a decision-making system based on environmental risks, and fully incorporate environmental risk assessment into the formulation of major strategies and
plans. What’s more, the fragmented environmental management has failed to eliminate a wide variety of environmental risks. Compared with economic construction,
environmental risk prevention is still relatively insufficient. We touch on how to
avoid environmental risks while implementing plans and strategies, but have not yet
decided whether we should, or how to, make strategies and plans through specific
methods like environmental risk assessment.
2 Territorial Space Planning in a New Era
1. The international spatial planning system
According to their political, economic and social development as well as status
quo, countries around the world adopt different approaches to create, manage and
implement their spatial planning systems and gain different results. In the national
governance system, “spatial planning” refers to the management of spatial development and/or land use in a specific country and region, and in Euro-English, it is
a collective term for “the entire system of the government’s management of spatial
development.” The EU-level spatial policies and the spatial planning of EU countries (domestic urban and rural planning management system) are closely connected
with frequent interactions, and they have been a key issue in the European planning
community. In the context of European integration, the term “spatial planning” is
widely used in the planning field, with flexible usages emerging, and each country
has a different form and term for it. For example, “regional spatial planning” appears
in the planning literature of the United Kingdom, which refers to the transition
from a top-down, goal-driven approach in the past to a more localized one. The