Fuzzy synthetic evaluation of contaminated site management policy from the perspective of stakeholders: A case study from China

Abstract

Contaminated sites are receiving increasing policy attention internationally due to the significant threats they pose to eco-environmental and human health. In China, a range of policies for contaminated site management have been developed and implemented with the ambition of reaching “zero contaminated sites” – in particular using a policy-driven approach to remediate or manage site risk while delivering useful synergies between services and opportunities in site reuse. To examine the interaction between policy making, policy implementation, and policy outcome, we designed a three-dimensional conceptual model of policy evaluation, and established an indicator framework of stakeholder perceptions covering policy formulation, policy implementation and policy outcome, which was tested in five cities in China (Chengdu, Beijing, Changsha, Chongqing and Shanghai) through interviews with various stakeholders. A combined method of fuzzy synthetic evaluation and entropy weight was applied for the purpose of quantification and comparability of evaluation results at different levels. The results show that: (1) there is no inevitable causality between policy formulation, policy implementation and policy outcome. Policy formulation, which is the premise of policy implementation and may largely influence policy outcome, does not perform well in all tested cities. Policy implementation is the key step and contributes most to the performance of the whole policy process. (2) In general, Chongqing and Beijing have a less-than-ideal performance compared to the other three study cities in contaminated site management. Due to differences in regional context, the same measure may produce different policy outcomes in different cities, indicating a need to carry out specific, locally contextualized or calibrated policies, based on the local cultural and socioeconomic environment. (3) The fuzzy synthetic evaluation method proved feasible in the quantitative evaluation of environmental policy, and can help to (i) better understand the advantages and challenges of implementing contaminated site management policy in target cities, and (ii) provide evidence for further decision making.

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ORCID for Andrew B. Cundy: orcid.org/0000-0003-4368-2569

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