Environmental influence of Wuhan urban agglomeration development and strategies of environmental protection

In Wuhan urban agglomeration (WUA), the population growth and concentr ation, the industrial development and urban sprawl have been affecting the envir onment fundamentally. Comparing with Yangtze delta metropolitan region, the leve l of urbanization and industrialization of WUA has lagged behind for about 10 ye ars; but the problems in environmental protection and rehabilitation are commonl y serious. In the future, WUA should avoid unnecessary mistakes and seek a win-w in strategy for economy and environment in its large-scale development stage. Ba sed on the analysis of the changing of main environmental pollutants and the cou pled curves in past decades, the paper discussed the important links among the u rban environmental pollutions, industry growth and urban sprawl in WUA. It is co ncluded that the integration of economic and environmental policies in urban dev elopment is more required and significant at the large urban agglomeration regio n. Four proactive and long-term strategies need to be adopted to provide prior g uidance and better protection for the development of WUA.