Strategies for Sustainable Transformation of Resource-Dependent Cities - An Empirical Case Study of the City of Dexing (China).

Abstract

Transforming resource-dependent cities is one of the essential Chinese strategies at national level for accelerating economic, social and environmental development. Today, China still has 262 resource-based cities, which were first identified by the Chinese national official document Sustainable Development Plan for National Resource-dependent Cities (2013-2020), that are currently undergoing structural transition. This governmental document further categorized them into four types, according to the resource-supply capacity: growing, mature, declining and regenerative. Moreover, they can also be divided into the categories coal city, ferrous-metal city, forest city, or other industrial-based city, according to the leading industry. Because these Chinese resource-dependent cities are very diverse, it is difficult to establish a completely unified development model that is applicable to all of them. However, due to similar backgrounds and challenges faced, some shared lessons can still be summed up. For this purpose, this paper selects the small-sized city of Dexing as a typical case that is representative the majority of Chinese resource-dependent cities, in order to discuss possible approaches toward sustainable transformation. The analysis and conceptual strategies of this case are empirically derived from the participation process in the local planning research program Spatial Development Perspective of Dexing.