Digital Environmental Monitoring in Urban China

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors examine new technology as an integrative mechanism in environmental urban governance in China. The added value of this approach lies in its focus on how ICT (information and communication technology) affects administration from both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective. The main finding is that digital environmental monitoring serves to level out some of the information asymmetry between central government principals and local-level agents, thus paving the way for a more centralized model of environmental urban governance in China. Even so, many of the systems and software applications examined in this study are still in an early phase of adoption; therefore, the conclusions must not be seen as final, but rather as indicative of the direction of development.