Impact

Environmental Impact of Beijing’s Green Spaces

Most, if not all, impacts of green space implementation are positive:

Offset rapid urbanization
  • Reintroducing green spaces to those impermeable surfaces that largely overtook them as cities expanded globally (Zhang, 2012)
Image result for park beijing
A garden park near the Forbidden City

 

Reduce carbon in atmosphere
  • More plants cropping up means there are more entities absorbing and converting carbon into oxygen lowering overall greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, a major problem in China’s mass manufacturing cities (Li, 2015).
Image result for air pollution beijing
Smog in the city of Beijing
Lessen heat island effect
  • Caused by the absorption and trapping of heat in the concrete (Milojevic, 2016).
  • Dangerous for children and the elderly because heat stroke is a very real possibility.
  • Risk is all the more heightened for those who are poorer and may not have access to things like air conditioners.
  • Alleviate this risk as the greenery reflects and dissipates a lot of the heat where it is present (Milojevic, 2016).

 

Image result for heat island effect
Graph showing urban heat island effect in different settings
Rainwater runoff
  • Combat rainwater runoff, a phenomenon that occurs when rainwater simply goes into the storm water drainage system, which is often paired together with the sewage system (Zhang, 2012).
  • Impermeable surfaces, which makeup the majority of the city’s landscape, are unable to absorb any of the water and simply cause it to slide off into drainage systems or bodies of water, flooding them if they are loaded past their capacities (Zhang, 2012).
  • Introducing urban greenery provides a buffer between the rain and its typical destination.
  • Permeable vegetation, allows absorption of some of that storm water and store it in.
  • Reduction in flooding potential can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to infrastructure if a storm is particularly severe (Zhang, 2012).

 

Chinese Armed Police Force (CAPF) troop walking through a flooded street in China
Reforestation
  • Green space expansion is a tool to reforest landscapes and mountainsides
  • China was largely deforested over centuries for mass agriculture, a burgeoning population, and later, mass manufacturing, and has had to face many environmental consequences as a result (Marks, 2012):
    • Recurring dust storms
      • Due to desertification of barren land (Min, 1997).
    • Erosion
      • Very common due to lack of roots able to hold the soil together.
        • In the areas where reforestation has been done, both of these problems have been mitigated (Min, 1997).
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Forest with Beijing Skyline at the Back
Negative consequence

Green space policies are usually ignored by urban planning policy makers and builders so spaces often end up being encroached upon and fragmented by urban sprawl. In combination with the rising number of vehicles, it is more difficult to combat air pollution (Li, 2015).

 

Citations

Li, F., Hu, D., Liu, X., Wang, R. Yang, W, & Paulussen, J. (2008). Comprehensive urban planning and management at multiple scales based on ecological principles: A case study in Beijing, China. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 15, 524-533.

Marks, R. (2012). China its environment and history. Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Milojevic, A., Armstrong, B., Gasparrini, A., Bohnenstengel, S., Barratt, B., Wilkinson, P. (2016). Methods to Estimate Acclimatization to Urban Heat Island Effects on Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality. Environmental Health Perspectives, 24(7), p1016-1022.

Min, Li. (1997). Development of green space in Beijing. Ekestics, 64, 255-261.

Xu, X., Duan, X., Sun, H. et al. (2011) Green space changes and planning in the capital region of China. Environmental management, 47(3), Environmental Management 47: 456-467 DOI:10.1007/s00267-011-9626-3

Zhang, B., Xie, G., Zhang, C., & Zhang, J. (2012). The economic benefits of rainwater-runoff reduction by urban green spaces: A case study in Beijing, China. Journal of environmental management, 100, 65-71. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.01.015

                                                                                                                   Image Citations

(No Author)(Photographer). A garden park near the Forbidden City. (31 May 2008). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garden_Park,_Beijing.jpg

Kentaro Iemoto(Photographer). Sanlitun , Beijing, China. (22 February 2014). Retrieved  from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beijing_Air_Pollution…_(12691254574).jpg

TheNewPhobia(Photographer). Urban Heat island. (23 October 2011). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urban_heat_island_(Celsius).png

(No Author) (Photographer). Flooding in China. (14 November 2016). Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3706472/Cars-buses-stuck-chaotic-scenes-floods-kill-200-China.html

(No Author)(Photographer). Forest with Beijing Skyline at the Back. (n.d.). Retrieved from  https://www.goodfreephotos.com/china/bejing/china-beijing-forest-with-skyline.jpg.php