Designing sustainable sanitation in urban planning proposed for Changzhou, China

Abstract

China is undergoing rapid urbanization and economic development. This requires a new approach on spatial planning and environmental infrastructure. In the presented project an example of this approach is given for the city of Changzhou (China) where a new residential area (Qinglong district) will be developed for 100.000 inhabitants. Key issue within the formulation of sustainable sanitation concepts is the integration and management of water, waste and energy in such a way that they will become beneficial to the establishment of the envisaged green city. Starting point was the closing of material cycles focusing on possibilities to recover and reuse valuable resources and energy from "waste" produced in an urban setting. Four different scenarios focusing on water, nutrient and energy recovery were compared with the baseline wastewater management practice. Besides environmental benefits, the economical benefits of sustainable sanitation concepts are attractive, the break even point with the baseline scenario, is already after 5 years, provided that recovered resources will be sold for a marketable price. We believe that presented concepts are applicable for a wide range of new urban development initiatives in China and similar rapidly developing densely populated regions worldwide.