Developing an indicator system to foster sustainability in strategic planning in China: A case study of Pudong New Area, Shanghai

This paper reports how the use of a new integrated theoretical framework underlain by the concept of sustainability to establish an indicator system for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can effectively address the quest for urban sustainability of Chinese cities. The usefulness of the new framework was justified by a trial implementation of the framework in an SEA of development in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, in which the indicator system was capable of providing both retrospective and prospective insights of the environmental challenges created by economic and social development in qualitative and highly legible terms. The study affirms the constructive role of SEA on National Economic and Social Development Planning in both the socio-economic and environmental sustainability and underlines the importance of carefully-crafted indicator systems to promote the SEA practices in China.

► We proposed a new integrated theoretical framework of indicator system.
► The indicator system was designed both for retrospective and predictive assessment.
► The indicator system gives integrated consideration across environmental and non-environmental issues.
► The approaches of indicator analysis and scenario analysis were combined in the predictive assessment.