Canadian experience in low carbon eco-city development and the implications for China

Canada is a sparsely populated country with its majority of population concentrated in cities, and its urbanization rate had risen to 80.2% by 2006. A similar environmental situation (air and water pollution, biodiversity degradation, high carbon emissions, et al.) in Canada has been going on in China and many of the developing countries during urbanization process. Based on ideas from urban planning and ecological development, Canada has taken a series of effective eco-measures, which contain urban heat island effect mitigation program, green infrastructure construction, and livable region strategic planning, to tackle with the environmental problems. The accumulated experience provides positive reference for China to find ways confronting climate change and obstacles of low carbon eco-city development, including: (1) Low carbon eco-city development mode, (2) Urban green infrastructure, (3) Urban ecological planning, and (4) Public participation. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of RIUDS