Development of sustainability indicators by communities in China: a case study of Chongming County, Shanghai W. Yuan a, * , P. James b, * , K. Hodgson c , S.M. Hutchinson b , C. Shi a a Yangtze River Institute, East China Normal University, 3663 Zhongshan North Road, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China b TIES, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Allerton Building, Frederick Road, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 6PU, UK c School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Allerton Building, Frederick Road, Salford, Greater Manchester M6 6PU, UK Received 17 October 2002; revised 11 February 2003; accepted 24 February 2003 Abstract Public participation as a means of identifying sustainability indicators for Chongming County, Shanghai, China was evaluated by an international group drawing on established best practice. An initial ‘long list’ of 86 sustainability indicators, based on previous indicator systems developed in China, was identified. This ‘long list’ was reduced via consultations with local academics and local-government officers from Shanghai City and Chongming County to a ‘short list’ of 17 indicators. This short-list was subjected to further community consultation involving 159 local-government officers, teachers, students (aged 12 –14 years), farmers and workers. Data from the consultations indicated differences in the understanding of sustainable development among the different sectors. By combining the data from the different sectors it was possible to identify a consensus around 4 core and 7 additional indicators. These are proposed as indicators which could be used to steer local activities directed towards sustainable development. The list of indicators produced by the people of Chongming Island was compared to local indicator systems in Europe. In comparison with European lists the Chongming list was found to have a greater emphasis on economic development but a similar level of concern for environmental matters. This study has special significance as it reports on the implementation of a process involving local resident participation in the process of sustainable development in China. q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sustainable development; China; Public engagement; Indicators 1. Introduction After the Rio Conference held in 1992, China was the first country to establish a national strategy towards sustainable development. China’s Agenda 21 was published in 1994 (Department of Planning Committee of China, 1994). Since then, the Chinese Central Government has been actively promoting sustainable development at differ- ent administrative levels. The National Sustainable Devel- opment Strategy set clear targets covering economic, societal and environmental dimensions for the whole country. Amongst other things, this strategy sought (with some success) to protect the environment at a time of continuous rapid economic growth in China (Zhang, 1999). So far, almost all local governments at the different administrative levels in China have combined sustainable thinking in local development strategies, and some of them have published their own Local Agenda 21 (Implement China’s Agenda 21 Shanghai Leading Group, 1999). However, currently in China, sustainable development is considered as a strategy or action plan rather than a set of indicators that could be used as a measurement tool. Consequently, there is little correspondence between the strategies or action plans and official statistics. This leads to difficulties in showing local development trends clearly and thereby contributes to the relatively weak control over sustainable development strategies seen in China. Indicators are now widely used in many counties and regions to steer sustainable development. Different methods can be chosen to establish a range of indicators. In China, indicator development has mainly taken place at an academic level. Although government has begun to pay more attention to the use of indicators, few indicators have been adopted as official criteria for the measurement of sustainable development at any administrative level. The use of sustainable indicators at the community level is highly specialized compared to indicators at other levels, e.g. National. Community level indicators need to be related 0301-4797/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0301-4797(03)00063-X Journal of Environmental Management 68 (2003) 253–261 www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman * Corresponding authors.