II. THE ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM IN SHANGHAI

[ II-A | II-B | II-C | II-D | II-E | II-F ]

A. Institutional Setup

1. Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (SEPB)

Initiated in 1978 and established in 1979, SEPB fulfills its duty of supervision, management and coordination in environmental protection with regard to national policies, laws, regulations and local principles for urban development. The followings are the main duties:

1. Work out the standard of environmental protection countermeasures in pollution control and their bye-laws; monitor, inspect and direct the environmental protection undertaken by the appropriate agencies at the county/district levels;
   
   
2. Draw up the urban environmental protection plan, and take part in working out the urban master plan, the socio-economic development plan, the territorial development plan and the regional plans at county/district levels;
   
   
3. Determine the indices of total amount control of pollutants, and coordinate the fulfillment of comprehensive control of urban environment and its examination;
   
   
4. Assist in the decision-making in key projects of urban infrastructure in Shanghai; run the pollution control systems such as registration for pollution discharge, licensing of pollution discharge, fee collection of pollution discharge, environmental impact assessment, etc;
   
   
5. Manage the environmental monitoring network of Shanghai, organize environmental quality investigation and dispose-severe incidents in environmental pollution and ecological destruction.
   
   

(a) Institutions under direct administration of SEPB

The institutional framework of such relationship is illustrated in figure 11.

Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center was established in 1980. It receives technical instructions from National Environmental Monitoring Center. Since its formal operation in 1985, it has undertaken various kinds of monitoring in the Shanghai region on air quality, water quality, pollution sources and noise environment, becoming the authorized unit for allocation monitoring sites, sampling, data processing and analyzing. The Institute of Pollution Discharge-Fee Collection and Supervision is responsible for collecting the relevant fees.

(b) Environmental protection agencies at district and county levels

Such agencies consist of environmental protection bureau, environmental monitoring station and institute of pollution discharge fee collection and supervision at district and county level. The establishment of these agencies was completed before 1985. They receive technical. instructions from SEPB.

Figure 11. Institutional framework of SEPB

(c) Streetship (township) environmental supervisors

They are responsible for supervising the fulfillment of environmental protection at street and town levels.

(d) Other environmental agencies

Besides the above agencies, various industrial departments and large enterprises in Shanghai -have their own environmental protection units, some of which have strong professional staff and excellent working conditions, forming an important supplement to the governmental agencies.

2. Shanghai Coordinating Meeting on Urban Comprehensive Environment Harnessing (UECH)

This is an organization responsible for the action of urban comprehensive environmental harnessing or control at city and district/county levels. Under the leadership of the Shanghai Municipal Government and the technical direction of NEPA, Shanghai UECH Coordinating Meeting sets up its office in SEPB which carries out environmental monitoring and statistics in evaluating and examining the efficiency and effectiveness of various measures for such harnessing or control (figure 12).

NEPA examines each year the urban environment comprehensive harnessing of 37 key cities across China and publicizes the ranking of results. Shanghai has achieved an increasing overall score covering 20 synthesized indices and entered the top ten since 1994. Among the indices, Shanghai scored 44.69 in pollution control with ranking No.1, 15.33 in urban infrastructure with No.7 ranking. These achievements therefore indicate the excellent cooperation among multiple governmental departments which Shanghai UECH Coordinating Meeting has successfully established in coordinating actions from various aspects to protect, control and manage the urban environment.

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