Popularization of Environmental Protection Science | Properly handle the relationship between production and living and ecological environment protection

City is an important area of human activities.  

A good urban ecological environment is an important content and basis for building a harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

Urbanization is the product of human civilization and one of the prominent features of modernization. In 1900, only 10% of the world's population lived in cities. Now, more than 56% of the world's population lives in cities, and mankind has entered the era of urbanization. Since its establishment, especially since the reform and opening up, China's urbanization process has been accelerating. From 1978 to 2019, China's urban permanent population increased from 170 million to 848 million, and the urbanization rate increased from 17.9% to 60.6%. The rapid and large-scale urbanization process has greatly promoted economic and social development and people's living standards.

The urban ecological environment provides important support for economic and social development, such as water resources, pollution purification, climate regulation, etc. Urban plants have strong air ozone absorption capacity and air particle retention capacity, and urban green space plays an important role in mitigating urban heat island effect. Green space is also an important place for urban residents to have leisure and recreation, which is of great value to protect the physical and mental health of residents. To promote the modernization of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, we must aim to meet the people's growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment, take the ecological environment problems faced by urban development as a breakthrough, put the protection of the urban ecological environment in a more prominent position, make great efforts in urban production space, living space and ecological space planning, and strive to handle the relationship between urban production and life and ecological environment protection.

As the most concentrated area of human activities, urban operation needs to consume a lot of natural resources and discharge a lot of waste to the natural environment, which has a huge impact on the ecological environment. According to statistics, cities that account for less than 3% of the world's land area consume 60% of the world's water resources, 76% of the world's wood, and emit 78% of the world's carbon. Most ecological and environmental problems, such as environmental pollution, global climate change, loss of biodiversity, are related to cities.

Low carbon new urbanization road. The area of urban green space has increased from 1321200 hectares in 2006 to 3191900 hectares in 2019. The green coverage of built-up areas has increased from 35.1% to 41.3%, and the per capita park green space area has reached 14.4 square meters. The construction of green space has enhanced the ecological functions of the city, such as adjusting climate, purifying environment, reducing waterlogging, maintaining biodiversity, and cultural functions of leisure and entertainment. It has played an important role in improving urban living environment and improving urban quality. Taking Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province as an example, through the construction of an ecological control line, nearly 50% of the city area has been included in the scope of ecological control and protection. The development of urban production space and living space has changed from incremental expansion to stock optimization. More than 2400 kilometers of greenways and 1206 parks have been built, and more than 135 hectares of mangrove wetlands have been restored. The constantly optimized ecological space not only provides green welfare for urban residents, but also provides habitat for more than 2000 species of plants, nearly 380 species of birds and more than 100000 migratory birds every year.

The "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" period is a five year period in which China has built a moderately prosperous society and achieved the centenary goal, and has embarked on a new journey to build a socialist modern country and march towards the two centenary goals. In order to make a good start in building a socialist modern country, we must continue to plan and promote the construction of ecological civilization as a matter of vital interest to the people, vigorously implement urban ecological restoration and function improvement projects, adhere to the rigid constraints of resource and environment carrying capacity, take building a better living environment as the goal, reasonably determine the size and population density of cities, and optimize urban layout, Establish a continuous and complete ecological infrastructure standard and policy system, improve the urban ecosystem, strengthen the construction of green ecological network, and take building a beautiful urban ecological space, improving the urban ecological function, and improving the living environment as an important part of the construction of ecological civilization. On the one hand, optimize the internal pattern of the city, expand the urban development capacity, coordinate the urban production space, living space and ecological space, coordinate the development of the surrounding areas and the integrated management and control of the ecological environment, implement the ecological transformation of the old city, and build an ecological space that permeates the whole city and has a balanced space. On the other hand, further strengthen the construction of green infrastructure, scientifically implement urban ecological restoration, promote the naturalization of ecological restoration and the localization of green plants, build an ecological restoration system oriented by the goal of improving biodiversity and ecological service functions, improve urban climate regulation, hydrological regulation, environmental purification, biodiversity protection, leisure and recreation and other ecological functions, and enhance urban resilience and ecological security capabilities, It provides strong support for the modernization of the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.

(The author is the director of the Ecological Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.)