An Initiative of an Environmental Model City: Featuring Sustainable and Healthy Cities

This study analyzes underlying gaps between environmental knowledge and behavior in the city of Toyota. A previous study suggested that citizens’ environmental knowledge of some eco-items comprising the city’s eco-policy significantly improved since it was designated as an environmental model city by the Japanese government in 2009. However, other studies suggested that citizens do not seem to act on these eco-items. Through a questionnaire with 133 Toyota citizens, this study explores possible reasons why citizens do not take action while knowing these eco-items. The findings suggest that the majority of respondents do not act on eco-items for economic reasons. For instance, buying a next generation car or a smart house is costly. Perhaps the city government should first focus on promoting Ecoful Town or addressing the heat island effect because they are relatively easy to deal with.

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Environmental governance with Chinese characteristics: are environmental model cities a good example for other municipalities?

Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science ◽

10.1007/s41685-019-00135-6 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 111-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stefan Brehm ◽

Jesper Svensson

Keyword(s):

Environmental Protection ◽

Best Practice ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Spillover Effect ◽

Environmental Model ◽

Model City ◽

Model Cities ◽

Chinese Characteristics ◽

Model Programs

Abstract Model programs such as the ‘environmental protection model city’ have become an inherent part of China’s urban environmental governance. The role of these incentive schemes for promoting best practice, however, has been neglected so far. In this study, we show that model city programs raise the bar in terms of environmental standards. What is more, model cities have a positive impact on regional economic development. We deploy a spatial Durbin model to measure best practice diffusion among 126 key environmental protection cities between 2009 and 2012. The results suggest that environmental model cities are better performers on average. We also find evidence for a positive spillover effect. Diffusion patterns are multi-layered where economic proximity is the most important dimension, followed by physical colocation and administrative hierarchy.

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