A potential template for green cities, on part of the 1,230-sq-kilometer Chongming Island in the Yangtze River, north of Shanghai, could start construction later this year. The start-up phase for Dongtan, tentatively planned for completion by 2020, might extend to 630 hectares. The town’s population could reach 80,000.
Dongtan’s planned “ecological footprint,” the amount of biologically productive land and water needed for human life, is within 20% of the recent world average of 2.2 global hectares per person. In some big cities, environmental consumption reaches 13 gha per person, notes London-based Arup Group Ltd., Dongtan’s planner for the municipally controlled Shanghai Industrial Investment Corp. (SIIC).