Prof. Natarajan Ishwaran Attended the Beijing-Tianjin Academic Exchange Conference

Binhai New Area is a sub-provincial region under the jurisdiction of Tianjin Municipality, China. Building upon previous experiments in Shenzhen and Pudong of Shanghai, Binhai has been set up a new growth area. It is located along the coast of the Bohai Sea, east of Tianjin’s main urban zone, The 2,270 sq. km. area with a population of 2.48 million is seen as an area promoting high level modern manufacturing, a research and development transformation base, a northern international shipping center, an international logistics center as well as a livable new ecological city. The Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) covers seven functional zones and a comprehensive trade port ranking fourth in the world. The seven zones are: TianJin Port Free Trade Zone, Tianjin Harbor Economic Area, Tianjin Binhai Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area(TEDA), Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City and the Central Business and Commercial District.
Prof. Natarajan Ishwaran and Ms. Wang Meng from HIST/AIR were invited to be part of Beijing-Tianjin Academic Exchange between International and Chinese experts in the Tianjin Binhai New Area during 30-31 October 2014 organized by the State Administration for Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA) of China which organizes similar exchanges and place-visits frequently to promote interactions and exchange of ideas between foreign experts resident in China and Chinese scientists, policy and decision makers and development practitioners.
The visit was a highly educational and informative one. The extent of planning that has gone into the design of the different zones of the TBNA is impressive. The models of the TBNA and its zones that are on display in the various Offices of TBNA that Prof. Ishwaran and Ms. Wang Meng together with other experts visited is a clear illustration of the creative combination of “big data” obtained via satellite and aerial images together with sophisticated GIS databases and the skills and imagination of architects and urban and land use planners. When the plans are fully implemented the TBNA will appear quite different from what it is now and it will be an industrial and economic development zone that will bring prosperity, employment and opportunities to many from both within TBNA and from other parts of China. TBNA is already attracting many international commercial, manufacturing and financial enterprises from all over the world and hence will also strengthen China’s partnerships with a number of other nations.
The monitoring and control of environmental quality is receiving the highest priority in the construction of TBNA. The Sino-Singaporean consortium that is building an eco-city is expected to set an example for possible future ventures elsewhere in China. The Eco-city is being built in an area that has been much degraded. The idea to fully restore what is now a sewage pond completely sealed off from neighboring ecosystems into a clean lake system that can be connected to other parts of the future TBNA’s functional zones is an ambitious project. In addition to being the prime driver of the eco-city construction project the Sino-Singaporean Consortium has also set up a state-of-the-art Laboratory for testing water, air and soil-quality as well as for detecting the presence of toxic and harmful substances. It can provide services for enterprises and industries in the area to meet environmental quality standards that must be met as part of the development of the TBNA. A post-doctoral program that is focused on specific aspects of the eco-city construction project is an integral part of the Sino-Singaporean investments into the area.

The development of the TBNA is a grand-scale experiment whose progress and outcome will be closely watched by many interested parties from both within and outside of China. Given the complexity of the plans that are to be implemented and the multiplicity of stakeholder interests and aspirations that must be met, the match between current plans and designs and the final outcomes after all the development work is completed in TBNA is an interesting parameter to monitor. Earth observation technologies and associated GIS and 3-D visualization tools can be helpful in monitoring the concordance between plans and implementation outcomes and to draw important lessons for the benefit of the development of similar projects elsewhere in China.