Harbin, the capital city of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, recently issued regulations on implementing zoning control of the ecological environment.

The measures took effect immediately and include provisions on Harbin's ecological protection red line, environmental quality bottom line, resource utilization upper limit and ecological environment access list.

According to the regulations, there are three types of environmental control units: priority protection units, key control units and general control units.

Priority protection units refer to areas that focus on environmental protection, such as nature reserves and drinking-water-source protection areas.

Key control units refer to areas that involve key management and control of resource and environmental elements such as water, the atmosphere, soil and natural resources. They mainly include urban planning areas, industrial parks and areas with high development intensity and high pollutant emission intensity.

The general control units refer to the remaining areas not covered under priority protection units and the key control units.

Harbin has set up 33 priority protection units with an area of 24,261.82 square kilometers, accounting for 45.71 percent of the city's land area; 62 key control units with a total area of 9,455.34 sq km, accounting for 17.82 percent of the city's total; and 26 general control units covering 19,357.98 sq km.

Based on Harbin's ecological environment zoning control requirements, large-scale and high-intensity industrial and urban construction will be prohibited or restricted in priority protection units.

For key control units, the city will focus on pollutant emission control and environmental risk prevention and control. It will optimize space and industrial layout in accordance with differentiated ecological access requirements, continuously improve resource utilization efficiency, and strengthen environmental quality improvement target constraints.

For general control units, the combination of environmental protection and appropriate development will be the main focus. Harbin will strengthen pollution control in agriculture, life and other fields.