ABSTRACT
Limited research has explored the reasons behind the level of environmental concerns in master plans in China, where serious environmental degradation has caught the world’s attention and the planning regime is significantly different with those based on representative democracy. Analyzing 80 master plans of China’s large municipalities, we find that the education and age of local leaders have a significant effect on environmental concerns in master plans, while their work experience and state mandate has little. We conclude that that well educated local leaders and more collaborative planning approach could deal more efficiently with environmental problems in China.
