The complexity for the resource-based cities in China on creating sustainable development

Cities 97 (2020) 102571

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The complexity for the resource-based cities in China on creating sustainable development

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Fangli Ruan , Liang Yan (Professor), Dan Wang Economic Research Center for Resources and Environment, Wuhan 430074, China School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China

A R T I C LE I N FO

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Complexity Resource-based city Sustainable development Policy

Sustainable urban development is an eternal challenge for the world, among which the resource-based city faces more complex dilemmas because of their particularities. The level of sustainability can reflect whether the policy is effective. In turn, policy analysis can help us understand the complexity of urban sustainable development, to which little attention has been paid. Considering their role of providing basic energy and raw materials for the economy, understanding the complexity of resource-based cities on creating sustainable development is more crucial. Therefore, this paper aims to fill the research gap through China's case and provide an absolutely new perspective of policy analysis through analyzing the deficiencies in policy development, implementation and response. We argue that more effective and reasonable policies are the key to solve the complex problem for such cities on creating sustainable development, and three aspects of policy development, implementation and response are all very important. We suggest the government build a special management system with absolute powers and responsibility, develop implementable policies with a normative but flexible indicator system, develop coherent policies based on timely evaluation and establish a complete data system to monitor and record the dynamic development and provide support for later evaluation and future policy development.

1. Introduction Since the “United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” clearly identified cities as drivers of sustainable development and made sustainable cities a part of the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015), the challenge of sustainable urban development has been recognized worldwide. Sustainable urban development aims to achieve urban prosperity and economic growth while improving resource utilization, protecting the environment, eradicating poverty and meeting all kinds of social needs such as education, health and employment (United Nations, 2015). In this context, effective urban planning and government policies are critical and can be the forceful tool to assist in monitoring current conditions and project future sustainable urban development (Liu, Yin, & Ma, 2012; Rotmans, Asselt, & Vellinga, 2000). For example, the sustainable urbanization relies heavily on the effective policies for land use (Lu & Ke, 2018); the energy-saving and emissions reduction policies contribute to an increasing eco-efficiency (Lin & Zhu, 2019) and are of great significance for sustainable progress (Yao, Jiao, Han, & Wang, 2019); industrial land policy plays a key role in the creation of growth and new jobs (Vandermeer & Halleux, 2017). Researchers concluded

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the effectiveness of the policies according to related development levels, but the analysis of the policy itself is also a good way to help us understand the complexity of sustainable urban development, to which exists a big research gap. Among all cities, the resource-based city faces more serious crises than others in terms of sustainable development (Yu, Jong, & Cheng, 2016), which are of global interest (Li, Long, & Chen, 2013). The unsustainable nature of such cities has also been recognized worldwide because of the considerable dependence on natural resources (Walker & Jourdan, 2004) and the development pattern labeled “polluted now, clean up later” (Chiu & Yong, 2004). Also, there exist complex and tight relationships between the economy, resources and environment (Yu et al., 2016). Globalization and increased competition have also had a violent impact on such cities (Bontje, 2005). It is more urgent and complex of this long-term and extremely hard task, achieving such cities' sustainable development (Li et al., 2013). Accordingly, analyzing the policies for such cities is more important and necessary to overcome this international challenge. In terms of international context, many resource-based cities, such as Pittsburgh (USA), Kitakyushu (Japan), Ruhr (German) and Lorraine (France), have already successfully made their sustainable development

Corresponding author at: Economic Research Center for Resources and Environment, Wuhan 430074, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (F. Ruan), [email protected] (L. Yan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102571 Received 14 February 2019; Received in revised form 15 November 2019; Accepted 12 December 2019 0264-2751/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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city's unsustainability, communicate with other international scholars about policy analysis and the complexity of sustainable urban development.

under different policies (He, Lee, Zhou, & Wu, 2017; Li et al., 2013). Their success can be attributed to the effective work of policies in the following aspects. Firstly, governments actively promoted the transformation of the industrial structure by reducing traditional industries and developing new industries. For example, the Lorraine government implemented the industrial transformation strategy, the Ruhr government enacted “Future Motion for Mining and Metallurgy” and the Kitakyushu government formulated industrial revitalization policies. These cities have successfully transformed from the economic development model led by the steel industry and the coal industry to a new model coordinated by various industries and led by the service industry as well as high-tech industries. Secondly, the governments promulgated strict laws, regulations and policies, such as the “Smoke Control Act” in Pittsburgh, coal subsidy tax in Ruhr and the “Industrialization Project of Environmental Technology” in Kitakyushu, to govern and protect the environment damaged by the development of traditional industries. In addition to these, the governments also established specialized institutions and provided financial support. The United States established the Economic Development Agency to help governments in the old industrial bases by grants and loans. France established an organization dedicated to industrial transformation and created a special fund for affected industries (3 billion francs for grant and loan). Germany also established the Development Committee for Ruhr Area to develop Ruhr's long-term development plan and the federal government allocated 300 million dollars only to improve traffic and communications in the Ruhr area. Fourthly, the governments developed a series of preferential policies for opening to attract foreign investment. The French government set a cheap land price in Lorraine, provided 20% of the funding for the plant and 15% for the equipment. Finally, the governments put the issue of people's livelihood, such as employment, housing and medical care, in a prominent position. The Lorraine government provided free training for unemployed workers to support their reemployment. Therefore, effective policies can indeed make this type of city out of trouble. However, the development of such cities is still a big challenge for many other countries around the world, especially for developing countries. These countries also have many policies to guide sustainable development, but why are they not successful? Policy analysis can help people know why from a new perspective. Compared to other countries, China faces more complex challenges in formulating effective policies to guide the sustainable development of such cities due to the large number, various types and wide distributions. Over 40% of total prefecture cities are resource-based cities, providing energy resources support for the establishment of a complete and independent industrial system in China as well as the economic development (He et al., 2017; Li et al., 2013; Li & Dewan, 2017; The State Council, 2013). The Chinese government always attaches great importance to these cities and has promulgated a series of policies to guide their development since the beginning of the 2000s. However, like many other countries with rich natural resources, for these cities themselves, resources have not become a driving force for their own development, but made them lag far behind other cities, which has seriously hindered country's overall progress (Chen, Shen, & Wang, 2018; Sachs & Warner, 2001). It indirectly reflects that the policies for these cities are not effective to some extent, and focus on the status of these cities themselves is not enough to understand what challenges they are facing. Therefore, we analyzed the policies for the resourcebased cities in China to better understand the complexity of their sustainable development. In summary, this study aims to fill the research gap of understanding the complexity of creating sustainable urban development through policy analysis of China's case, provide an absolutely new perspective of policy analysis through analyzing the deficiencies in policy development, implementation and response, provide planners, policymakers and other government personnel not only in China but also worldwide with reference for more effective and appropriate policies to overcome the international challenge of the resource-based

2. Resource-based city in China and related research 2.1. Resource-based city in China There is a special kind of city, resource-based city, that depends heavily on the exploitation and utilization of limited and non-renewable natural resources like coal, oil and forestry, as well as some heavy industries including steel industry, refining and metallurgical industry and other related industries (Bradbury & St-Martin, 2010; Li et al., 2013; Li, Marinova, Guo, & Gao, 2015; Yu et al., 2016; He et al., 2017; Li & Dewan, 2017; Ma et al., 2018). In other words, resource-based industries are predominant parts of the local economy of such kind of city (Bradbury & St-Martin, 2010; Li et al., 2013; Yu, Zhang, & Zhou, 2008), which has brought serious challenges to this special kind of city in achieving all aspects of their sustainable development (Ma et al., 2018). In 2013, 262 resource-based cities were identified by the State Council based on resource reserves and the exploitation and utilization conditions and were classified into four categories: growth (12%), mature (54%), recession (25%) and regeneration (9%) (He et al., 2017). The specific administrative level, type, and corresponding quantity are shown in Table 1. Fig. 1 shows the situation of those in prefecture-level that account for nearly 45% of the total quantity of the same administrative-level cities in China (He et al., 2017). This percentage further illustrates solving the unsustainable development of these cities is the key to achieving China's overall sustainable development. Regardless of the types of these cities, most encounter general features and similar dilemmas (He et al., 2017), including low GDP per capita, unbalanced economic structure, single heavy industrial structure, weak extended and alternative industry, relatively low technical efficiencies, unsatisfactory social welfare, low employment, poverty, severe ecological and environment conditions and urban shrinkage, which have had a seriously adverse impact on their long-term sustainable development (He et al., 2017; Li et al., 2013; Li et al., 2015; Li & Dewan, 2017; Ma et al., 2018; Sachs & Warner, 2001; Tan, Zhang, Lo, Li, & Liu, 2016). Because of the large-scale and low-tech traditional development model based on extensive exploitation of natural resources, these cities formed single heavy industrial structure with most labor in this single industry, which limited the development of other manufacturing as well as the primary and tertiary industries to establish a sound and independent economic structure (He et al., 2017; Li et al., 2013; Martinez-Fernandez, Wu, Schatz, Tiara, & Vargas-Hernández, 2012; Yu et al., 2016). However, natural resources are non-renewable and unsustainable (He et al., 2017). So, after a period of unreasonably excessive exploitation, these resources eventually depleted and exhausted (Li et al., 2013). As a result, the single resource-based industry collapsed and led to economic recession and city shrinking (He et al., 2017; Martinez-Fernandez et al., 2012; Yu et al., 2016). Moreover, these cities face severe environmental problems including industrial emission, deforestation and land subsidence because of excessive Table 1 The administrative level, type and corresponding quantity of resource-based cities in China. Administrative level

Quantity Growth

Prefecture-level city County-level city County District Total

2

Total Mature

20 7 4

66 29 46

31

141

Recession

Regeneration

24 22 5 16 67

16 4 3 23

126 62 58 16 262

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Fig. 1. The situation of China's prefecture-level resource-based cities.

efficiencies of these cities were not good and had almost no improvement trend (Sun, Li, Wang, & Fan, 2012). Low resource utilization efficiency makes the shortage of resources more serious, which urgently needs to improve the mining industry and manufacturing industry (Yu, Li, Jia, & Li, 2015). Low eco-efficiency illustrates that energy consumption and pollution need to be paid more attention to during economic development (Yu et al., 2016). The total factor energy of these cities was inefficient and had significant differences among cities (Li & Dewan, 2017). The development of industrialization, service industry, and built districts in the city have a positive impact on efficiency, while consumer expenditure, the local government spending and vocational schools play the opposite role (Li & Dewan, 2017). (2) Countermeasures and alternatives: For those unsustainable issues, scholars have proposed some measures and options to promote sustainable urban development. Different cities should focus on appropriate paths, including constructing a circular economy, cultivating related industries and cultivating emerging industries, based on urban development (Xing & Luo, 2018). Long, Chen, Li, and Wang (2013) chose alternative industries through comparing relative advantages of resource-based cities within and between regions. In the process of selecting industrial transformation alternatives, industrial scale, structure and efficiency are three prominent factors to be considered (Kuai, Li, Cheng, & Cheng, 2015). Strategic innovation in terms of goals, social welfare, economic development and coordinative development is necessary to transform the resource-intensive economy (Dong, Li, Li, & Xue, 2007). A systematical compensation mechanism is needed to solve the economic restructuring (Liu & Zhuang, 2011). Combining clean production, resources integrated utilization, eco-design and sustainable consumption can make some achievements (Ren, 2011). (3) Relationship: The sustainable development of resource-based cities

exploitation without long-term planning and unreasonable utilization (Yu et al., 2016). The poor economic condition at the same time has an adverse impact on social welfare including health care service, employment support and education, etc. (Yu et al., 2016). 2.2. Related research Many scholars have carried out research on the above issues across different scales and types of cities and made significant contributions to these cities' sustainable development. Different concepts including green city, ecological city and low-carbon city have been developed in different periods, but they all intend to promote urban prosperity in more sustainable ways (Fu & Zhang, 2017). We summarize these studies into the following aspects: (1) Evaluation: The evaluation of China's resource-based cities mainly involves current issues, development performance, capability and efficiency. The sustainability of these cities of various resource types decreases, and varied to city ages, geographical areas and city sizes (Chang & Dong, 2016; Yu et al., 2008). The socio-economic development of resource-based cities dominated by heavy industry would result in environmental pollution and caused ecological pressure (Wu, Jia, Wang, & Yao, 2012). Therefore, these cities need to be transformed into sustainable development modes urgently based on the transformation capacity not only in the current pillar industry but also to new alternative industries (Li et al., 2015). However, the transformation performance of such cities varied greatly from the perspectives of society, economy, and ecological environment (Tan et al., 2016), and there was incoordination among these three aspects (Chen et al., 2018). The unilateral increase of economic sustainability did not mean improved sustainability of the whole system (Lu et al., 2016). The overall urban 3

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Table 2 Government documents at the national level for resource-based cities' sustainable development. Name of government documents at the national level

Time

Several opinions on implementing the strategy of revitalizing northeast China and other old industrial bases. Planning outline for prospecting of replacement resource of national crisis mines (2004–2010). Integrated solutions of population and development issues in resource-exhausted cities with a scientific outlook on development. Decision of the State Council on strengthening the geological survey. Plan for revitalizing northeast China The State Council's Several Opinions on promoting resource-based cities' sustainable development. National planning of mineral resources (2008–2015). Several opinions of the State Council on further implementing the strategy of revitalizing northeast China and other old industrial bases. Opinions on further supporting overall revitalizing of northeast China and other old industrial bases by China Development Bank. The progress of the revitalization of northeast China and other old industrial bases in 2009 and the arrangements of key work in the next phase. Action outline for the breakthrough strategy of mine exploration (2011−2020). Twelfth five-year plan of the revitalization of northeast China. The plan for the sustainable development of resource-based cities in China (2013−2020). The State Council's opinions on supporting several major policy initiatives for the revitalization of northeast China. Several opinions on the comprehensive revitalization of northeast China and other old industrial bases. Three-year rolling implementation plan for promoting the revitalization of northeast China and other old industrial bases (2016–2018). Implementation opinions on supporting industrial transformation and upgrading of old industrial cities and resource-based cities. National planning of mineral resources (2016–2020). Guiding opinions on strengthening classification and guiding the cultivation of resource-based cities to transform and develop new momentum. Notice on supporting the construction of the first-batch demonstration zone for the transformation and upgrading of old industrial cities and resource-based cities. Implementation opinions on accelerating the construction of green mines. Reply of the State Council on agreeing to build a national demonstration zone of sustainable development in Taiyuan City.

Oct. 2003 Sept. 2004 Aug. 2005 Jan. 2006 Aug. 2007 Dec. 2007 Dec. 2008 Sept. 2009 July 2010 Sept. 2010 Dec. 2011 Mar. 2012 Nov. 2013 Aug. 2014 Apr. 2016 Aug. 2016 Sept. 2016 Nov. 2016 Jan. 2017 Apr. 2017 May 2017 Feb. 2018

overviewed the policies for all aspects of the sustainable development of these cities to help people understand the current efforts of the Chinese government as well as indirectly know the present situation of such cities. Then we developed a framework to explore the challenges these cities faced from a new perspective of deficiencies in three phases related to policies (policy development, implementation and response), which enriches the existing literature. We hope that this article can provide a reference for planners, policymakers and other government officials in more effective and appropriate policies to promote the sustainable development of such cites not only in China but also around the world. We also hope to communicate with other related scholars and provide a new perspective on the complexity of sustainable urban development and policy research for global countries.

is a complex issue with complex relationships to consider. A coordination development of urbanization and ecosystem is needed because urbanization would weaken ecosystem service function through affecting the structure, habitat and circulation process (Wan et al., 2015). It could achieve improvements in the atmosphere and economic sustainability if the atmosphere was protected when promoted the economy and consumed the energy (Ma et al., 2018). In summary, almost all of the above studies are based on the resource-based city itself and analyze problems, levels and measures of development. But such cities are policy-driven cities, which means whether they can develop well largely depends on whether the policies for these cities are effective. On the other hand, policy analysis can help us understand the complexity of urban sustainable development. Only a few researchers have recognized the importance of effective policies. Liu et al. (2012) conceptually emphasized the importance of the government on the production and urban development during the transformation in Jiaozuo City and suggested that the needs of citizens should be fully premeditated. In the economic aspect of sustainable development, Li et al. (2013) specifically investigated policies and their implementation for economic transition in China's resource-based cities; He et al. (2017) discussed the efforts of the government for economic dilemmas of this special kind of city; Yu et al. (2016) presented the implementation situation of policies in China to rescue and transform resource-based cities, and concluded that the government conflicts between different administrative levels are the main barriers in industrial transformation of Yichun city. However, policies for the sustainable development of such cities are not only the inclusion of economic issues but also the far-reaching impact of different policies on society, resources and the environment (Liu et al., 2018). Governments should take all aspects of sustainable development rather than only the economy condition into consideration during decision making (Spangenberg, Pfahl, & Deller, 2002). Besides, it is also not just the implementation phase that affects the effectiveness of policies. So, this paper aims to fill the gaps above, including only focusing on the status of these cities but ignoring the vital of effective policies, only focusing on the development level to evaluate policy effectiveness but ignoring policy analysis to understand development complexity, only focusing on the policy impact on the economy but ignoring other aspects, and only focusing on policy implementation but ignoring the effectiveness of other phases. We firstly

3. Methodology This paper is a qualitative study of policies for the sustainable development of China's resource-based cities. It aims to understand the complexity for these cities on creating sustainable development through an absolutely new perspective of analyzing the deficiencies in policy development, implementation and response. This perspective can also be used for qualitative policy analysis more generally in other countries. The analysis contains two key parts. Firstly, in Section 4, we collected the government documents at the national level for resourcebased cities' sustainable development mainly from the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, and describe the content and goals of these policies. Secondly, after learning about the government's efforts, we analyzed and presented the deficiencies in the process of policy development, implementation and response in Section 5. 4. Policies The sustainable development of resource-based cities in China has been a core issue and policy-priority for the Chinese government (Lu et al., 2016). Since the 2000s, the national institutions have issued many policies to promote resource-based cities' development (Li et al., 2013; Yu et al., 2016). However, government policies for these cities' sustainable development are absent until 2010s (Li et al., 2013). Table 2 shows the related policies at the national level. Among all these documents, “The Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities in China (2013-2020)” is very special and most noteworthy. It was the first time the government make 4

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Table 3 National quantitative indicator requirements. Indicators

2012

2015

2020

Average annual growth

1. Economic development GDP (￥. trillion) The proportion of the mining industry's added value in GDP (%) The proportion of the service industry's added value in GDP (%)

15.7 12.8 32

19.8 11.3 35

29.1 8.8 40

8% [−4] [8]

16,033 7607 4.5

> 20,200 > 9600 <5 > 95

> 29,700 > 14,100 <5 100

> 8% > 8%

2. Livelihood improvement Urban residents' disposable income per capita (￥.) Rural residents' net income per capita (￥.) Urban registered unemployment rate (%) Completion rate of shantytown renovation (%) Reduced death rate of safety accident per unit of GDP (%) 3. Resource support New important mineral resources' continuation base Increase in resource output rate (%) Forest coverage rate in forest industry city (%) 4. Conservation of ecosystem Restoration rate of geological environment in historic mines (%) Reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP (%) Reduced total emissions of major pollutants (%)

[60]

62

62.6

63.6

28

35

45

COD Sulfur dioxide Ammonia nitrogen Nitrogen oxides

[20] [25] [1.6] [17] [28] [15] [15] [17] [17]

Note: “[]” means the number inside is cumulative by 2020.

countries, building a modern industrial system, establishing a sound and long-term mechanism of resource-based cities, developing green economy, building a harmonious society and strengthening cooperation in the four northeastern provinces. Similarly, a document just focused on northeast China was issued in 2012 to promote the development of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang provinces and Inner Mongolia and put forward new opinions in 2014. In April 2016, objectives were set for 2020 and focused on four aspects of the institutional mechanism, economic structure, independent innovation and people's livelihood. The August document specified 137 key tasks and 127 major projects for three years with clearly responsible agencies and completion time. Mineral resources are important for sustainable development in terms of economy and society. At the beginning of the 21st century, China's industrialization developed rapidly based on the heavy chemical industry and the demand for mineral resources had greatly increased, which meant the contradiction between the rapid economic progress and the sharp decline of China's mines' production capacity. So, the government promulgated “Planning Outline for Prospecting of Replacement Resource of National Crisis Mines (2004-2010)” to guarantee the ability of resources to provide sustainable support to the economy and society. Based on this, the “Decision of the State Council on Strengthening Geological Survey” was issued in 2006 to put forward specific requirements in the major tasks, system and mechanism, scientific and technological innovation, and management level of geological work. The latter two files on the planning of mineral resources emphasized more on resource utilization efficiency, environmental protection and people's livelihood. Both documents described the objectives in terms of resource reserves, supply capacity, rational utilization and international cooperation while the latter added innovation in regulatory systems, market systems, legal systems and technologies of resource development and utilization. In recent two years, the government aimed to construct a few resource-based cities into demonstration zones to set an example for the others' sustainable development. In April 2017, the government issued a document to identify 12 demonstration zones of industrial transformation and upgrading. In February 2018, the State Council agreed on Taiyuan City to build a demonstration zone of innovation for sustainable development with the theme of “transformation and upgrading in resource-based cities”. All the above policies have had an important influence on such

an overall and specific plan for these cities' sustainable development. The formulation of this plan combined the experience, current problems and dilemmas, and future expectations of these cities. It emphasized these cities' great contribution to China's past advancement and special importance to China's future to arouse the attention of government at all levels for their sustainable development. The plan specified from four perspectives of the resource, economy, ecological environment and social livelihood based on four basic principles. Particularly, there were national quantitative indicator requirements for their sustainable development (Table 3). Based on this document, the “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Classification and Guiding the Cultivation of Resourcebased Cities to Transform and Develop new Momentum” was issued in 2017 to confirm different objectives for each of the four types of resource-based cities. We noticed that nearly half of these documents were about to revitalize China's old industrial bases. These places were rich in resources and were the birthplace of China's industries and had made tremendous contributions to the development of an independent industrial system in China. However, due to the exhaustion of resources, they had fallen into economic recession, with the single and weak industrial structure and backward technology. In 2003, the “Several Opinions on Implementing the Strategy of Revitalizing Northeast China and Other Old Industrial Bases” was issued to optimize and upgrade industrial structure, develop modern agriculture, strengthen infrastructure construction, promote the tertiary industry and economic transformation. According to this document, “Plan for Revitalizing Northeast China” was issued three years later to clarify general ideas, goals and tasks of accelerating the revitalization of the northeast China, and priorities of the government. In 2009, in addition to the original objectives, new goals of enhancing independent innovation, protecting the ecological environment and improving livelihood were added and put forward specific measures on further revitalizing these places. Then the National Development Bank issued a document in 2010 to support the above strategies and policy measures through development finance. Although these places had made some progress, their development was still pressing due to unreasonable structure, resource consumption, ecological damage and people's requirements for good livelihood because China began to accelerate economic transformation. Therefore, the government made further arrangements for the next stage's revitalization in the aspects of deepening cooperation with Asian 5

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Economy˖ Optimization of economic structure Industrial transformation & upgrade Innovation & entrepreneurship Coordinated development ĂĂ

Tight inter relations

Livelihood: Increase of disposable income Decrease of unemployment rate Support of infrastructure Education and training Medical and health ĂĂ

Regeneration growth

SD of RBCs

recession

Tight inter relations

Tight inter relations Tight inter relations

mature

Resources: Increase in resource output rate Increase in forest coverage rate Resource continuation base Resource replacement ĂĂ

requirements

Tight inter relations

Ecology: Restoration of geological environment Reduced energy consumption Reduced pollutant emissions Reasonable land development ĂĂ

Perfect indicator system

needs

feedback

National governments

supervision

Provincial governments

Policy development

Government

County governments

supervision

feedback

Po licy implementation

Po licy response

supervision

Municipal governments

feedback

Fig. 2. Framework of policy deficiencies for the current development of China's resource-based cities. SD: sustainable development RBCs: resource-based cities.

5.1. Deficiencies of these policies in the process of formulation

cities' sustainable development, but these cities still face serious challenges in the economy, environment and people's livelihood. To some extent, these policies are inappropriate and of low effectiveness. So, the promotion of more appropriate and effective policies is urgent in these cities.

5.1.1. Discrepancy between local needs and national requirements It is local resource-based cities that take measures to realize the national goals and targets. Although these cities share some common features and encounter similar dilemmas, each one has its unique problems and the appropriate solutions are diverse (He et al., 2017) because these cities are significantly different in terms of resources, histories and natural environment and other aspects (Li & Dewan, 2017). Moreover, another deficiency of the state-dominated policy formulation is that the local people's needs in various cities cannot be completely considered, and it is not clear who the main beneficiary is (Liu et al., 2012). Diamantini and Zanon (2000) had already proposed in the study if Italy's sustainable development that every action must cope with local conditions, traditions and attitudes because urban

5. Challenges facing China's resource-based cities on creating sustainable development After analyzing the development, dilemmas, related literature and policies of China's resource-based cities, we drew a framework (Fig. 2) to better illustrate challenges facing these cities on creating their sustainable development through the absolutely new perspective of discussing deficiencies in policy development, implementation and response. 6

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conditions, the quality of life as well as the impacts produced on the environment are very different from city to city. Therefore, the general objectives and requirements in these national policies definitely cannot provide accurate and specific guidance that suit the various needs of all resource-based cities. So, the government should give priority to identify the respective issues and needs of these cities.

indicator systems present barriers for their effectiveness application (Shen & Zhou, 2014). On the other hand, a common set of indicators is impossible to equally suitable for all kinds of cities (Dhakal & Imura, 2003), and the dynamic nature of policy development also requires a certain degree of flexibility for sustainable development indicators (Hezri & Hasan, 2004).

5.1.2. Disconnection of the policy system In the context of China, administrative regions lead, supervise and manage the lower level regions through policies, and are at the same time led, supervised and managed by the higher level. The national government supervises and manages the whole country's development with the support of various provincial governments that supervise and manage their own province through various municipal governments supported by county governments. However, in terms of the sustainable development of these cities, there exist too many administrative levels between the promulgation of policies and the implementation of policies because there are few subnational governments' specific policies. For example, we listed nine documents issued by national governments about the “revitalization of northeast China and other old industrial bases”. However, there was no specific introduction of these bases and respective local polices. As a result, the resource-based cities that once relied on these bases for development have no localized plans and goals to achieve their own sustainable development. So, it is important to reduce the dissipation of policy effects by the multi-level administrative regions between policies and local cities.

5.1.5. Policy incoherence The sustainable development of this special kind of city is a complex, dynamic and long-time process that faces different problems at different stages. So, the development of a new policy should be based on the assessment of the development guided by the previous policies. It should clarify how much the previous goals have been achieved and what are the current key issues. However, all these documents only have some descriptions of previous achievements and emphasize that there are still many issues to be resolved. Policy incoherence makes policy guidance for these cities' sustainable development not very effective. This is also very important for the effective policies in the world, such as Brazilian low-carbon policy for urban transport, which also emphasizes policy coherence (Menezes et al., 2017). 5.1.6. Unclear responsibility The sustainable development of this special kind of city in China involves many stakeholders, including governments at all levels, various regulatory agencies, resource-based enterprises, related product retailers and the public and so on. They always hold different opinions driven by respective interests which are difficult to coordinate and balance (Kuai et al., 2015). For example, it is the mining companies that directly face the challenges of applying sustainable development and take steps to improve operational sustainability (Hilson & Murck, 2000). However, there is no specific policy for extraction, processing, discharge and recycling, which allows these companies to abandon the overall benefits of sustainable development for their own benefit. In some cities in China, the government requires certain types of companies to be completely shut down for a few months each year to reduce environmental pollution. This will not only seriously affect the progress of the local economy, but these companies will try to produce as much as possible in the remaining months instead of reducing emissions. So, the responsibilities of different stakeholders must be clarified in the relevant policies. Sustainable urban development requires the engagement of all stakeholders in a city (Lu & Ke, 2018). Menezes et al. (2017) concluded in the study of Brazilian transport that effective policies would depend on well-organized coordination among the various stakeholders.

5.1.3. Lack of communication and coordination between governments In the context of China, powerful top-down governance mechanisms are unique to solve all kinds of problems including unsustainable development (Schroeder, 2014). However, if the higher government and local government develop policies only based on their own strategies and needs, the policies would also not be effective. On the other hand, it is not appropriate to give the average allocation of national objectives and goals to each city. For example, one-size-fits policies to improve the environment and save energy in Yichun are ineffective because the higher governments failed to coordinate with the local government (Yu et al., 2016). Menezes, Maia, and De Carvalho (2017) found in the study of Brazilian transport that effective urban planning and policies depend on the coordination among different institutional and governmental spheres. Therefore, during the process of policy development, it is necessary to communicate and coordinate strategies, achievements and issues between governments of different as well as the same levels. 5.1.4. Lack of normative but flexible indicator system Almost all these policy documents in Section 3 except “The Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities in China (20132020)” only presented descriptive objectives without any indicators or quantitative goals. Indicators are not only the premise and basis to evaluate strategies and policies for sustainable development and provide a solid foundation for new urban development plans and decisionmaking at all levels (Hiremath, Balachandra, Kumar, Bansode, & Murali, 2013; Holden, 2006; Shen, Jorge Ochoa, Shah, & Zhang, 2011), but also a kind of communication tool between decision-makers and scientists (Malkina-Pykh, 2002). However, the use of indicators lacks consensus on the framework, method and optimal number, which make it impossible to compare (Shen et al., 2011; Tanguay, Rajaonson, Lefebvre, & Lanoie, 2010). Diamantini and Zanon (2000) also proposed that too general indicators would limit the initiatives for sustainable development. So, it is inevitable and urgent to detail all goals into actionable indicators. How to develop an indicator system? Standardized indicators can be used to evaluate, monitor and compare data at different territorial levels to better analyze problems, and provide guidance for further policies (Luque-Martínez & Munoz-Leiva, 2005; Pires, Fidélis, & Ramos, 2014; Yigitcanlar & Lönnqvist, 2013). The differences between various

5.2. Deficiencies of these policies in the process of implementation 5.2.1. Incomplete data system The effect of policy implementation will be directly reflected in the data. However, there are no standards for resource-based cities to present data on local government websites, which leads to many data defects. Firstly, there is a complete lack of some kinds of data, such as the data for the continuation base of new added important mineral resources which is one of the indicators in “The Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities in China (2013-2020)”. Secondly, the calculation of some indicators is not uniform, such as the resource's output rate, which makes these data not comparable between cities. Thirdly, different governments may use different indicators to describe the same thing. Fourthly, there is a discrepancy of one indicator's data of the same year in different years' statistics. In addition, some data are not continuous and are missing in some years. There are many other deficiencies in terms of data, all of which will have a negative influence on the effective implementation of policies and evaluation of sustainable development. Poor urban data availability actually is an ongoing challenge worldwide for the effective Urban Sustainable Development Goal (Klopp & Petretta, 2017). 7

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5.2.2. Frequent replacement of the mayor In the context of China, a mayor is replaced frequently due to promotion or other reasons, which makes the policies developed by the former mayor cannot be fully implemented or even be abandoned. This is detrimental to the long-term goals of sustainable development because they may disregard long-term benefits to achieve short-term performance. From another perspective, the existing assessment of local officials' performance may be unreasonable. For resource-based cities, such an assessment should cover all aspects of sustainable development but not just the growth of GDP (He et al., 2017).

policy development, implementation and response is a good perspective for understanding the complexity of creating sustainable development. Other ways to analyze the complexity of other cities or countries require further discussion by scholars. In addition, there are many common problems that also require the joint efforts of researchers and the government, including the improvement of database and the establishment of standardized but flexible indicator system. These are exactly what we hope to research in the future.

5.3. Deficiencies of these policies in the process of response

Based on the above analysis, we proposed the following four main policy recommendations aiming for both local and international practice.

7. Takeaway for practice

Li et al. (2013) summarized four essential elements of several successful resource-based cities in other countries. We think those elements are exactly the deficiencies in policy response, namely the lack of special departments, special funds, personal training as well as laws and regulations. Special departments with clear responsibilities are needed to guide, supervise and manage resource-based cities, as these cities cannot achieve sustainable development goals by themselves. Several countries in the world, such as Germany, America, Britain and France, have achieved the development of resource-based cities due to the important roles the special departments have played (Li et al., 2013). Resource-based cities also do not have enough government revenue to support sustainable development because large resource companies are state-owned, which means major tax revenue is included in the state's fiscal revenue rather than the local (Yu et al., 2016). Menezes et al. (2017) found that the successful implementation of policies for public transport in Brazil needs a massive volume of financial resources responses. In addition, unemployment is the primary and arduous problem for these cities (He et al., 2017). However, the Chinese government mainly concentrates on industrial transformation to provide more positions for surplus labor but does not support the training costs of unemployed personnel from resource-based industries for improving their adaptability and vocational skills. Finally, laws and regulations can legalize, rationalize and ensure the implementation of relevant measures and actions, thereby improving the effectiveness of these policies. Germany had strict laws regulating the use of special funds for Ruhr (Peng & Guan, 2011). Another deficiency is the lack of timely evaluation and feedback on these policies and the development of these cities. Better information is the determinant of effective rational decision and policy-making processes (Hezri & Hasan, 2004). Therefore, performance assessment of these cities' sustainable development is the crucial step in determining the policy effectiveness and is also the base for future policy-making. It is the timely evaluation of current planning and policies that inform future practice for the environmental strategies in Thailand (Chaunjit & Angus, 2019).

(1) Build a special management system with absolute powers and responsibility. For resource-based cities in China, because of their wide distribution but a small number in each province, the management chain based on the administrative region is too long, resulting in the disconnection of the policy system as well as lack of communication and coordination between governments, which will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the policy. We suggest that the government should break through the boundaries between upper and lower administrative levels or between cities at the same level, then set up special departments that centrally manage these cities' sustainable development and make the government's requirements corresponding with the local development needs that are different due to the types, stages, resource endowments and problems. The sustainable development of this special kind of city may be only a small section of each province's overall development, but it is everything for this special management system. Regarding any matter concerning the development of resource-based cities, this management system should have absolute powers that are independent of other institutions, including the allocation of funds, personal training, project view, development planning, policy evaluation, supervision, punishment, etc. At the same time, it has to take overall responsibility for the sustainable development of these cities. We think it is a powerful way to solve most of the deficiencies in policy development, implementation and response. In the international context, other countries should appropriately adjust to suit their own according to their conditions, but the main purpose is the same, that is, matching the policy requirements to local development needs to the greatest extent. (2) Develop implementable policies with a normative but flexible indicator system. Those policies mentioned in Section 3 have expressed the governments' attitudes and expectations towards the sustainable development of this special kind of city in China, but how to implement them in specific practices is ambiguous and cities would not take the initiative to take action of sustainable development. It seriously affects the effectiveness of policies. Through the analysis of Section 5, we think the government should introduce the indicator system into policy development. On the one hand, a normative framework of the indicator system is needed to reflect all aspects of sustainable development and compare successes and failures of different cities (Moreno-Pires & Fidélis, 2012; Spangenberg et al., 2002). On the other hand, different local issues should also be incorporated to improve the flexibility of the indicator system (Hiremath et al., 2013). The indicator system not only allows policies to be implementable during practice but also clearly highlights key issues in the later evaluation. This measure needs to integrate the efforts of various interest groups such as the government, researchers and the public, etc. This issue is not specific to certain types of cities or to a certain country. For the world, the establishment of a normative but flexible indicator system makes sustainable urban development more implementable in local countries and makes a comparison between different countries

6. Conclusion Although the national government attaches great importance to the dilemmas faced by China's resource-based cities and actively promotes their sustainable development, so far, the governments' efforts have not yet achieved breakthrough achievements. Analyzing the policies for these cities from the perspective of policy development, implementation and response is a good way to learn the complexity of creating sustainable development. Policy deficiencies in all three processes are now the core issues that should be considered and overcome in these cities. More effective and reasonable policies are the key to solving this complex problem, and each aspect of policy development, implementation and response is very important. The sustainable urban development is a challenge faced by each country. Many studies have told us that this is a long-term problem. We proposed that analyzing the complexity is a good start. For policy-oriented cities, such as the resource-based city, discuss the deficiencies in 8

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easier. (3) Develop coherent policies based on timely evaluation. An effective policy cannot be created out of thin air. Coherent policies can more effectively address the key challenges that have not been solved by the previous policies. And these unresolved issues need to be pointed out very specifically and accurately through timely evaluation of previous policies. Developing coherent policies is very important for the sustainable development of all cities around the world. (4) Establish a complete data system. A complete data system can monitor and record the dynamics of resource-based cities' development, provide data support for later evaluation and provide a basis for future policy development. On the other hand, the open and complete data system can also ensure the integrity and availability of data obtained by researchers, thus promoting the progress of scientific research and providing a more effective reference for these cities' development. This is also a global problem.

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