Abstract
Environmental planning at different levels has been called for by environmental departments in China during last years to integrate environment consideration to economic development. Based on the accomplished environmental planning practice in Xiamen China, the paper suggests a general environmental planning process with ecological function zoning as its key steps, at the same time an effective method for ecological function zoning was formulated. The case studies of Dongfu suburban town environmental planning and Xiamen eco-city conceptual planning indicate that scientifically sound results of ecological function zoning can contribute to improving not only the adaptability and acceptability of environmental planning, also the environmental management and the decision-making. The experience shows that the ecological function zoning methods should be applied according to the principles of adaptive management, resource-based and community-based, so that it can integrate science into decision-making process, avoiding both narrow-minded viewpoints of planners and natural resource use conflicts among variety of stakeholders. Problems to be resolved in the future are also pointed out in the ending part.
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Acknowledgement
Gratefulness to Xiamen Environmental Protection Bureau for the economic support granted to the research project. We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Stoyan Stoyanov from University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia, Bulgaria and the other anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments.
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Fang, Q., Zhang, L., Hong, H. et al. Ecological Function Zoning for Environmental Planning at Different Levels. Environ Dev Sustain 10, 41–49 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9037-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9037-4