Unsuccessful Urban Governance of Brownfield Land Redevelopment: A Lesson from the Toxic Soil Event in Changzhou, China

Abstract

Abstract:A public health crisis in the process of brownfield land redevelopment (BLR) has frequently appeared in the context of promoting industrial upgrading and de-industrialization in China. Recent discussions on the reasons for this problem centered on the lack of laws, standards, and policies needed to secure the process of BLR. However, we argue that an urban governance approach to BLR can identify the sources of the problem. This paper discusses a case study of a toxic soil event in Changzhou, China, based on the theoretical framework-the Institutional Industry Complex (IIC). Under the pressure of fiscal distress as well as the requirements of economic growth and urbanization, local governments in China are bound with fiscal revenue from land development and land urbanization and have formed a pro-growth alliance with enterprises, property developers, and even the public. The alliance is defined as the pro-growth IIC of land finance regime in this paper. Due to the path-dependence of the IIC, the conventional pro-growth IIC of land finance regime in China has been circulated, and then transformed into a pro-growth IIC of BLR. As a result, the goal of the pro-growth IIC of BLR is maximizing profit in the process of land development, a goal that is the same as the pro-growth IIC of land finance regime Thus, as the pivotal stockholders of the pro-growth IIC of BLR, local governments, enterprises, and property developers hesitate to pursue a prudent and secure BLR process, which effectively attenuates a series of serious environmental issues and public health crises. That is the root cause of the problem. This study suggests a positive interaction between central and local government, as well as between enterprise and the public to create a sustainable IIC of BLR in future.

Re-reuse of regenerated brownfields: Lessons from an Eastern European post-industrial city

“…It has to be taken into account that contemporary brownfields have been intensively utilized for decades, thus relations of stakeholders to the phenomena of abandoned (possibly contaminated) spaces or buildings are relatively limited and the sophisticated managerial tools for the decision making are still not widespread (Alexandrescu et al, 2017;Limasset et al, 2018;Pizzol et al, 2016;Reisinger et al, 2017). This can lead to faulty decisions and the failure of regeneration (Liu et al, 2017;Medda et al, 2012;Wedding and Crawford-Brown, 2007). Even though attention is often paid to successful regenerations detailed analyses confirm that the costs of regeneration, especially in commerce, are inefficient (Kim and Jang, 2017) and analyses of such failed regenerations can help in the decision making in other areas (Dixon, 2007).…”

The Sustainable Development of Land-Lost Peasants’ Citizenization: A Case Study of Dongbang Town, China

“…The government also lacks necessary financial capacity to provide adequate help for land-lost peasants, which has led to the phenomenon that "the urbanization of land is faster than the urbanization of the population" in some parts of China [2]. Some studies show that "under the pressure of financial distress, as well as the requirements of economic growth and urbanization, local governments in China are bound with fiscal revenue from land development and land urbanization and have formed a pro-growth alliance with enterprises, property developers" [32].…”

A Two-Stage Decision Framework for Resolving Brownfield Conflicts

“…The Changzhou Foreign Language School Figure 6. Location of the Research Target (adapted from [48]) (CFLS) is a prestigious high school situated in Changzhou, a southeastern city in China (shown in Figure 6). In December 2015, only three months after moving to a new campus, more than 400 students showed special pathological manifestations.…”

“…A dispute in Elmira, Ontario, Canada, was induced from the aquifer pollution by a chemical plant [10]. The collective poisoning incident of students in Changzhou, which arose from an explosion of second hand pollution during the remediation of brownfields, was reported by the most famous channel (China Central Television, CCTV) in China [11]. These brownfield-related crises have led to numerous and intense conflicts among multiple stakeholders.…”