Strengthen infrastructure construction and build beautiful community homes

Adhering to the people-centered principle is one of the basic strategies for upholding and developing Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Community is the most basic living place for people, and the starting point of community planning and construction is the vital interests of the grassroots. In August, 2020, 13 departments, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, jointly issued the Opinions on Carrying out the Short-board Action of Urban Residential Community Construction, and at the same time issued the Standard for the Construction of Complete Residential Community (Trial), which clearly stated that the goal is to build a safe, healthy, well-equipped and well-managed complete residential community, and the supporting facilities of residential community should be improved as the focus, and the short-board action of residential community construction should be vigorously carried out. Residential community is the basic unit of urban residents’ life and urban governance, bearing the people’s hopes for a better life. It is of great significance to comprehensively improve the quality and service level of infrastructure construction in residential communities to enhance people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security.

Foundation first, improve people’s basic needs for a better life

Infrastructure such as water, electricity, gas, heat and communication is an important guarantee for the normal life of community residents. Due to the early construction, the problems such as the erection of wires from a distance and the aging of pipelines have not only brought serious troubles to the lives of some residents in old communities, but also caused a huge waste of resources and energy. In July 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Renovation of Old Urban Residential Areas (hereinafter referred to as "Guiding Opinions"), which clearly stated that starting from the most direct and realistic interests that the people are most concerned about, the residents’ opinions should be solicited and the renovation contents should be reasonably determined, and the supporting facilities of residential areas and municipal infrastructure should be improved. In the process of community transformation, we should adhere to the principle of "underground first, then above ground", give priority to the transformation of underground pipelines such as water supply, rainwater, sewage, gas, electricity and communication, and upgrade public infrastructure such as roads, fire protection, charging, lighting and domestic waste sorting. Implement the concept of sponge city, protect and restore the community ecosystem, build a sponge community, effectively combine natural channels with manual measures, comprehensively adopt the measures of "infiltration, stagnation, storage, purification, use and discharge", and carry out roof greening, rainwater storage and collection and utilization, and micro-topography construction according to local conditions through combined design, so as to scientifically and orderly promote the transformation of rainwater and sewage diversion and mixed connection in the community with separate system, and maximize the realization of rainwater in the residential community. Actively promote the classification of domestic waste, improve the facilities for classified delivery, classified collection and classified transportation, and at the same time strengthen publicity to make the awareness of garbage classification deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The Guiding Opinions pointed out that by the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, we should strive to basically complete the task of rebuilding old urban communities that need to be rebuilt before the end of 2000 in light of local conditions. As far as the current situation is concerned, the task of transformation is arduous. On the one hand, it is necessary to ensure capital investment and establish a long-term mechanism. The government, residents and social forces should share the burden reasonably and improve the long-term management mechanism of the community. On the other hand, community residents and professional and technical personnel should participate extensively, encourage planners and engineers to enter the community, improve the renovation design and refined governance level of old residential areas, promote the construction and renovation of community human settlements in a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon way, and strive to improve the functional quality of the community.

Overall coordination to ensure the healthy circulation of urban water system

Urban water system is a comprehensive system based on water cycle, water flux as the medium, water facilities as the carrier, water safety as the goal and water management as the means. Residential community is the spatial carrier of domestic water and sewage discharge of the broad masses of people, an important place for the conversion of material flow and energy flow, and a key node of urban water system. At present, the overall efficiency of urban water system in China needs to be improved. According to the Statistical Yearbook of Urban Construction in 2020 published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the leakage of urban public water supply network in China is about 7.85 billion cubic meters, accounting for about 13% of the total urban public water supply, which is still far from the goal that the leakage rate of water supply network is less than 10% in the Outline of Industry Development Plan for Urban Water Affairs in 2035. The concentration of influent biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in some sewage treatment plants in China is less than 100 mg per liter. It is urgent to systematically investigate the reasons for the low influent concentration around the pipe network in the service area and steadily improve the efficiency of sewage collection and treatment facilities. Due to the influence of extreme climate and the imperfect drainage and waterlogging prevention engineering system, urban waterlogging incidents occur from time to time, and the urban drainage and waterlogging prevention engineering system of "source emission reduction, pipe network discharge, simultaneous storage and drainage, and emergency exceeding the standard" needs to be improved urgently.

The upgrading and transformation of community infrastructure should not only meet the basic service needs of community residents, but also organically combine with the overall improvement of municipal facilities system functions, and implement the overall layout and policy requirements of the state on improving the quality and efficiency of each subsystem of urban water system. In terms of urban water supply, the General Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Guidelines for the Measurement and Management of Urban Water Supply Pipe Network by District-Construction of Water Supply Pipe Network Leakage Control System" (for Trial Implementation) in 2017, guiding local governments to take the measurement and management of urban water supply pipe network as the starting point, strengthen the leakage control of urban water supply pipe network with systematic ideas, improve the level of refined and information management of water supply pipe network, and enhance the ability of water supply security. In practice, we should combine the construction of complete community, the renovation of old residential areas, the renovation of shanty towns and the renovation of secondary water supply facilities, formulate the implementation plan of metering management in different areas of the pipe network according to local conditions, design and implement it synchronously with the construction and renovation of the pipe network, coordinate water metering and water pressure control, water quality safety and facilities management, pipe network operation and business charge management, and build a pipe network leakage control system. In terms of urban sewage treatment, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2020 issued the "Implementation Plan for Supplementing Shortboards and Strengths of Urban Domestic Sewage Treatment Facilities", which clearly proposed to combine the renovation of old residential areas and municipal roads, promote the connection construction of branch pipe networks and outdoor pipes, supplement "capillaries", and implement mixed connection, missed connection, and renovation of old and damaged pipe networks to improve the efficiency of sewage collection. In terms of urban waterlogging control, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Urban Waterlogging Control in 2021.It is clearly put forward that priority should be given to solving the problems of waterlogging in residential communities, mixed connection of rainwater and sewage pipe networks, etc. By disconnecting the rainwater pipes of buildings, optimizing the vertical design, and strengthening the elevation connection of buildings, roads, green spaces, landscape water bodies, etc., rainwater overflow can be discharged into drainage pipe networks, natural water bodies or recycled after collection.

Green and low carbon help the city achieve the goal of "double carbon" as scheduled.

Realizing peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality is an important strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core, an inevitable choice to solve the outstanding problems of resource and environment constraints, realize the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and a solemn commitment to build a community of human destiny. In October, 2021, the State Council issued "peak carbon dioxide emissions Action Plan before 2030", which clearly stated that the green production lifestyle was widely implemented during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. Building green towns and communities. From the international experience, the improvement of residents’ quality of life will push up the per capita carbon emission level, and the essence of community renewal and transformation is to improve residents’ quality of life, and to actively intervene in green technology and green lifestyle to prevent the future increase of community carbon emissions. At the community level, the primary goal is to realize people’s high-quality life, and at the same time, we should popularize green lifestyles such as water saving, garbage sorting and food saving, enhance residents’ acceptance of green lifestyles, and ensure the smooth implementation of the national "double carbon" strategy. In the process of community infrastructure renovation, franchise units should seize the important opportunity of community renovation and old residential area renovation, speed up the renovation of underground pipe network, adopt new sewage collection and rainwater utilization technologies, comprehensively improve the efficiency of infrastructure operation system, and reduce the background energy consumption and carbon emission level of infrastructure operation in the community. Promote green technologies such as the integration of plants, networks and rivers, the utilization of reclaimed water and the management of non-profitable water, strengthen the construction of smart water, and realize the systematic carbon emission reduction of urban water system from the source to the end of the community. Code for Design of Outdoor Drainage(GB50014-2021) clearly requires that when sewage collection and centralized treatment facilities have been built in cities and towns, septic tanks should not be set in the separate drainage system. Septic tanks will not only intercept COD (carbon source) and affect the influent concentration of sewage treatment plants, but also anaerobically convert the intercepted COD into greenhouse gases such as methane. At present, the urban sewage treatment rate in China has reached 97.53%. In the process of community sewage facilities renovation, canceling the septic tank construction according to local conditions can not only reduce the renovation cost and urban greenhouse gas emissions, but also increase the influent concentration of sewage treatment plants and improve the operation efficiency of sewage treatment plants.

Scientific evaluation and building the bottom line of residential community safety

At present, China’s urban construction has entered a new stage of stock-based and high-quality development. Problems such as aging stock infrastructure, overloaded operation and untimely operation and maintenance may cause disasters and accidents. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Construction of Supporting Facilities for the Renovation of Old Urban Residential Areas", clearly requiring the organization of relevant professional business units to jointly investigate the possible safety hazards of supporting infrastructure such as gas, electricity, drainage and heating, and public spaces. Safety is no small matter, and responsibility is greater than heaven. Community infrastructure construction should be based on security, expand the connotation of resilience, and integrate the concepts of intensive, green, intelligent and collaborative to build an infrastructure security system to help the high-quality development of the city. Safety awareness should run through the whole process of building a complete community and transforming old communities. In the process of compiling the community renewal and transformation plan, facilities such as gas, electricity, drainage and heating with potential safety hazards should be given priority as key contents. Involving gas, electricity, drainage, heating and other security risks, we should ensure that the security review does not leak items. Professional business units should implement safety responsibilities, strengthen the protection of construction and operation and maintenance forces, and eliminate potential safety hazards. Make full use of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other information technologies, promote the construction of community intelligent disaster prevention and mitigation system, promote the sharing and application of data related to disasters and accidents, and accelerate the construction of community disaster comprehensive monitoring and early warning perception network and terminal equipment.

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to promote green development and carry out actions to create green communities. Green community is an inevitable choice for the development of modern cities and an important part of building beautiful China. The construction of green community should combine urban renewal and upgrading of existing housing, implement the concept of sponge city, integrate resilience elements and wisdom elements, realize the greening of community infrastructure, promote the improvement and sustainable development of municipal infrastructure system, and build urban ecological infrastructure system, so as to continuously improve people’s sense of acquisition, happiness and security.

Chang kui

Chief Engineer, Doctor, Senior Engineer, Ecological Municipal Institute of China Planning and Design Institute (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Long-term engaged in urban water environment improvement, sponge city construction, water system planning, ecological protection planning, municipal engineering and land space planning and other related professional fields. Participated in more than 20 planning, design and technical consulting projects, 4 national scientific research projects, 2 standard specifications and 4 monographs. He has won one second prize of Huaxia Construction Science and Technology Award, one first prize and two second prizes of National Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design Award, and one first prize of Provincial Excellent Urban and Rural Planning and Design Award. Participated in Yushu earthquake relief work, was responsible for the docking and coordination of Jiegu Town municipal engineering, and was awarded the title of "Advanced Individual in Yushu Earthquake Recovery and Reconstruction" by Yushu State Party Committee and Yushu State Government.