SIEMENS

Looking down at the city of Shanghai from an upper floor of Tongji University’s Science Building gives you a good idea of what urbanization is all about. The campus is surrounded by countless gray concrete structures huddled together. Giant excavation pits bring to mind the houses that were torn down because they were too small to accommodate the masses streaming into the city. This dreary area could definitely use a little sunlight, but even when the sun shines you can’t see it because of the smog. The view from the top of the building also includes the Yangpu District, which has 18,000 residents per square kilometer - the highest population density in Shanghai. By comparison, Berlin’s population density is only one fifth of that.

“Urbanization is a great challenge for China,” says Professor Wu Zhiqiang, Assistant President of Tongji University and head of the University’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP). “In the last 30 years alone, the proportion of the population living in China’s cities has risen from 19 percent to about 50 percent, which corresponds to 400 million people moving into urban areas.” The resulting increase in demand for housing, energy, and industrial products has made China the world’s biggest producer of CO₂ emissions today.

“And the urbanization process has only just begun,” says Wu, who expects China’s urban population to double over the next 30 years. “We’re therefore going to need completely new infrastructure concepts that address the requirements of both a growing urban population and environmental protection. This especially applies to new cities in China, which are literally springing up from the ground to accommodate the 13 million people moving into urban areas each year.”

Individual lifelines. With this in mind, in 2002 Wu launched the Eco-City Model project, which aims to develop complete infrastructure models for individual districts and entire cities. These models must provide answers to a crucial question. How can we meet huge urban energy demands, improve efficiency and quality of life, and at the same time dramatically reduce urban energy consumption, and thus emissions, from the levels common in large cities today? “Each city has its own specific needs,” says Wu. “For example, requirements vary on the basis of different climate conditions throughout our huge country.”

In the first phase of the project, Wu analyzed the needs of different types of cities. Since 2007 he has been studying how these needs can be addressed with technology, which is why he’s brought Siemens in as a partner. This is not the first time Siemens has worked with Tongji University. Shanghai college, which has around 55,000 students, is one of eight Siemens Centers of Knowledge Interchange (CKI) around the world. Siemens has entered into strategic partnerships with CKIs in order to conduct joint research, promote talented individuals, and establish net works. “With its virtually unique worldwide expertise in technological infrastructures, Siemens is the ideal partner for us in the Eco- City project,” Wu explains. Siemens also benefits from the partnership, as Dr. Meng Fanchen, General Manager of Siemens in Shanghai, points out. “When we provide Professor Wu’s team with technological support, we also learn a great deal about the future requirements of the Chinese market and how to prepare for them.”

The next step in the partnership will be to develop Eco-City Model master plans that help to make new entities such as satellite cities as self-sufficient, environmentally neutral andpleasant to live in as possible. The master plans will include intelligent building management systems and the use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro power, depending on the region. Efficient water treatment facilities and extensive public transport systems - areas where Siemens already offers solutions - will also be part of the picture. At the same time, the models need to be cost-efficient and, even more importantly, reproducible. What Tongji and Siemens want is clear: to ensure that these models, which are already eagerly awaited by urban planners and government officials, are ready as soon as possible. This can’t be done overnight, but it’s extremely important. China has already shown that it appreciates the work Wu is doing. He has been appointed Chief Planner for Expo 2010 in Shanghai.