City Planning Review（2025.3）

♦ HIERARCHICAL AND CATEGORIZED DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL SPATIAL PLANNING SYSTEM: A DISCUSSION BASED ON THE LOGIC OF “ZONING” AND “SYSTEM”

Author: ZHAO Min; CHENG Yao

ABSTRACT: Improving the national strategic planning system and promoting the reform of spatial planning system are important parts in the modernization of China’s governance system and capacity. This paper, first of all, elaborates on the development process and trend of China’s spatial planning system, and analyzes the development logic of spatial planning system based on “zoning” and “system”. Then, it illuminates the concept of the “National Spatial Planning System” and introduces the relevant experience in other countries. The paper proposes that it is necessary to establish a formulation and approval system for the territorial master planning at different levels and to clarify the overall pattern and planning zoning for spatial development and protection in cities and counties. Meanwhile, a number of subsystems, including urban planning, rural planning, ecological zone planning, marine planning, and relevant sectoral planning, should be established to accord with the development laws and meet the control requirements of “zoning” and “system”. Furthermore, the paper proposes building a “national spatial planning system” encompassing the “territorial master planning system”, “zoning planning system”, “relevant sector planning system”, and “planning implementation system”. In the end, considering the strategic and fundamental role of the territorial master planning, the paper presents corresponding suggestions for deepening the reform and improving the system.

KEYWORDS: territorial planning; national spatial planning; zoning and system; hierarchical and categorized structure

♦ THE REGULATION PATH FOR OPTIMIZING MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT IN THE OLD CITY CENTRAL AREA: A CASE STUDY OF NANJING ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF “UNBALANCED DEVELOPMENT”

Author: CHEN Yang; YANG Jianqiang

ABSTRACT: In order to promote the sustainable development of the old city central area in the high-quality stock regeneration stage, this paper, based on a theoretical analysis of multidimensional spatial characteristics of mixed-use development in the new era, breaks away from the previous unidimensional static evaluation idea that mainly focused on the functional mix of land. Instead, it adopts a dynamic perspective and develops an evolutionary evaluation framework encompassing both macro and micro scales. Using this framework, it conducts a quantitative analysis of the synergistic development of the multidimensional spaces of mixed-use development in the old city central area of Nanjing from 1978 to 2019. Furthermore, it examines the encountered problems, as well as regulatory measures, mechanism and their implementation results during the stock regeneration process. The results show that: “unbalanced development” has become an important issue of mixed-use development that needs to be addressed during the stock regeneration stage of the old city central area. The existing regulatory policy framework, anchored in “mixed land use control” and supported by “guidance for diversified sustainable development” and “public participation”, fails to adequately tackle the issue due to its deficiency in “targeting, safeguarding, and differentiation”. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a zoning control system both for the central area and for the scale between the “central area” and the “land parcel”. This requires formulating control and incentive mechanisms that guarantee the synergistic development of the multidimensional aspects of mixed-use spaces in accordance with different regulation goals, to achieve effective regulation in the long term through the monitoring of dynamic evolution.

KEYWORDS: mixed-use development; old city central area; unbalanced development; regulation path; Nanjing

♦ A STUDY OF PUBLIC COST CALCULATION METHODOLOGY FOR SPATIAL INCREMENTAL URBAN REGENERATION

Author: ZHU He; LIN Ying

ABSTRACT: Urban regeneration with a large increase in space capacity places an extra burden on the public services and infrastructure in a region, and the public costs paid to offset this external impact also put pressure on local finance. Due to the lack of public cost calculation methods, local governments are unable to leverage fiscal balance to scientifically control the function and development intensity of the stock space after its regeneration. Therefore, this paper endeavors to develop a financial analysis framework for urban regeneration in China and countries with similar land systems, in the hope of better understanding the relationship between the supply of development rights on the stock land in the later stage of urbanization and the government’s fiscal capacity. Furthermore, in line with the responsibilities and rights in the public services provided by the Chinese government, the paper develops a methodology for calculating public costs that is aligned with the government’s financial and accounting system. In addition, through empirical research, the paper reveals the short-term and longterm impacts of incremental urban regeneration on local finance, and puts forward suggestions for the adjustment of urban planning function and capacity based on financial balance analysis.

KEYWORDS: externality; public cost; land finance; financial balance; development control

♦ FACTORS INFLUENCING HIGH-QUALITY REDEVELOPMENT OF URBAN VILLAGES: FUZZY-SET QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BASED ON 42 CASES IN GUANGZHOU

Author: YUAN Dinghuan; JIANG Jianhua; LIN Wenyi; ZHOU Wangyue

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the multiple concurrent causal relationships involved in achieving high-quality redevelopment of urban villages in China from the perspective of institutional arrangement and institutional environment, based on 42 urban village redevelopment cases in Guangzhou. Employing the method of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the paper identifies two configurations that promote high-quality redevelopment: (1) village collective-led projects that enhance the city’s image; (2) village-enterprise cooperation projects that promote economic growth. Additionally, it identifies four configurations leading to the non-high-quality redevelopment of urban villages, further verifying the causal asymmetry in the high-quality redevelopment of urban villages. These findings provide both empirical evidence and theoretical insights for advancing the high-quality redevelopment of urban villages.

KEYWORDS: urban village redevelopment; institutional arrangement; high-quality redevelopment; transaction costs; qualitative comparative analysis

♦ RESEARCH ON LOW-CARBON RENEWAL MODE OF COMMUNITY LIFE CIRCLES BASED ON FACILITY LAYOUT FORM TYPES

Author: ZHANG Xiaorong; YANG Hui

ABSTRACT: The layouts of service facilities in community life circles built in different periods are relatively fixed and show significant differences in form. These layouts reflect the characteristics of their respective eras in terms of facility types, quantities, and densities, directly influencing residents’ travel activities and their transportation carbon emissions. Research shows that four typical layout forms of facilities in community life circles are: the homogeneous type along the road, the concentrated type on local arterial roads, the point-concentrated type, and the scattered and disordered type. There are significant differences in the density, accessibility, and availability index values of these facilities, as well as in the travel carbon emissions of the communities they serve. An overall negative correlation exists between the index values and carbon emissions, and the causes and practical constraints of these characteristics vary across different types. This variation also determines that the low-carbon renewal priorities and paths for each facility layout form should be differentiated. Therefore, based on the spatial renewal potential of each type, three low-carbon renewal models, namely point implantation, nearby supplementation, and clustered sharing, are extracted, hoping to provide a new perspective and method for the renewal planning research of community life circles.

KEYWORDS: carbon emission from travel; community life circle; facility layout; low-carbon renewal; daily life

♦ REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMULATION OF CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM SYSTEM FOR URBAN AND RURAL PLANNING: EVOLUTION AND EXPLORATION AT SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY

Author: DUAN Jin; YANG Jianqiang; CHEN Xiaodong; JIANG Hong; WANG Chenghui; YIN Ming

ABSTRACT: This paper reviews the evolution of the undergraduate curriculum for the urban and rural planning discipline at Southeast University since the resumption of undergraduate admissions for the major of urban planning in 1998. The program has transitioned from emphasizing “design capability” rooted in an architectural foundation to a “Space +” cultivation system centered on spatial thinking. In response to the new phase of urbanization in China, the rapid development of digital and intelligent technologies, and ongoing reforms in the planning industry, the undergraduate program at Southeast University has evolved from “professional education oriented toward vocational planners” to “general education in urban and rural planning designed for diverse professional contexts”. To meet students’ need for employment and highlight spatial characteristics, the program has established a three-tier, progressively advanced general education curriculum that reflects the university’s distinctive features: “fundamentals of the architecture discipline”, “fundamentals of urban and rural planning”, and “specialized foundations in planning management, urban science, and planning design”.

KEYWORDS: planning education; undergraduate curriculum; general professional education

♦ STRATEGY FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIAL LAND SUPPLY IN RESPONSE TO THE NEEDS OF RURAL REVITALIZATION

Author: TANG Weicheng; PENG Zhenwei; ZHANG Jingxiang

ABSTRACT: Rural revitalization has become a national strategy in China. Nevertheless, in the face of the trend and need for the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, rural construction land is characterized by dual blockages: one in the external indicator transmission channel and another in the internal transformation channel. Inadequate supply of non-agricultural industrial land has become one of the key bottlenecks restricting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. The shortage of industrial land supply has resulted in the absence of an “interface” for external resources to enter the community, as well as a lack of basic spatial carrier for the optimal allocation of internal and external development factors, making it difficult to cultivate and strengthen the endogenous capacity of the countryside to achieve rural revitalization. With the dual strategic objectives of industrial integration and land conservation, this paper suggests that a rural non-agricultural industrial land supply mechanism with stock land conversion as the main needs should be established. Furthermore, the paper also proposes some suggestions to break the supply bottleneck in terms of land institution, supply channel, technical means, and planning strategy.

KEYWORDS: industrial integration; institutional innovation; stock land; supply mechanism; planning strategy

♦ USE CLASSIFICATION AS A TOOL TO DEFINE LAND USE RIGHTS: ESTABLISHMENT, EVOLUTION, AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE USE CLASSES ORDER IN THE UK

Author: SU Zhangna; ZHOU Jianyun; PANG Xiaomei

ABSTRACT：After the large-scale transfer of land use rights to individuals in the process of transitioning to a market economy, it becomes crucial to define the boundaries between public and private land use rights. However, the land use classification specified in the national standards does not strictly restrict land use right in the built environment. Land use regulation actually is limited to construction management and fails to extend to the floor use regulation after completion or the normal regulation over the entire process. Similar to the privatization of land use rights in China is the nationalization of development rights in the UK in 1947. Both have formed a mixed land right system of public ownership and private ownership. As the supporting regulation for the nationalization of development rights in the UK, the Use Classes Order (UCO) defines the existing land use rights through the establishment of legal concepts, which provides inspiration and reference for China in the face of the same dilemma. This paper analyzes UCO from three aspects: establishment, evolution, and enlightenment. Firstly, the paper analyzes the logic behind the establishment of UCO, and points out that UCO is the regularization of legal concepts and its essence is a tool to define the land use rights. Secondly, the paper reviews the evolution process of UCO, revealing the role of UCO in adjusting public and private rights as well as the trend of increased private rights due to social changes. Thirdly, taking UCO as a reference and in line with the problems of land use regulation in China, this paper proposes the establishment of a use classification tool from the perspective of defining rights as a normal tool for land use and management.

KEYWORDS: land use right; development right; use classification; use regulation

♦ EVALUATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF NODE-PLACE ATTRIBUTES IN RAILWAY STATION AREA: A CASE STUDY OF THE YANGTZE RIVER DELTA REGION

Author: GUO Xuefei; YU Chen; YANG Sen; LI Sicheng

ABSTRACT: The relationship between stations and cities is undergoing transformation and reshaping in the context of regional development towards high-quality integration. To promote this integration, it is necessary to assess the development of transportation and urban characteristics in railway stations and their surrounding areas. Currently, there is a lack of systematic quantitative research on this aspect in the railway station areas of China. Combining the particularity of the development of railway station areas in China, this paper rebuilds an evaluation index system based on Bertolini’s node-place model. A total of 45 railway station areas in the Yangtze River Delta region are examined for attribute evaluation and optimization. The findings indicate significant variations in the growth of railway station areas in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the node attributes continue to be dominant, making it challenging to achieve a balanced development of both node and place attributes. Presenting an index evaluation tool for existing railway station areas, this paper aims to address the unfavorable factors that hinder the development of railway station areas, realize the dynamic and balanced development of station nodes and places, and provide decision-making support for the regeneration of existing railway station areas as well as the planning and design of new ones in China.

KEYWORDS: regional development and planning; station-city integration; railway station area; node-place model; Yangtze River Delta region

♦ CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHANHAIGUAN GREAT WALL NATIONAL CULTURAL PARK SYSTEM

Author: LI Yan; YAO Wang; ZHANG Yukun; SHANG Xiaoyue

ABSTRACT: The Shanhaiguan Great Wall is the epitome of the “giant system” of the nine military districts of the Ming Great Wall, and it is listed as the key protection and construction section of the Great Wall National Cultural Park. And the construction of its park system has the role of demonstration of the whole line. According to the compilation of the defense system, the distribution and structure of the “giant system” of the defense system of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty (nine sides of the Great Wall - Jizhen - Shanhaiguan) are drawn; with the help of the aerial photos of Shanhaiguan in 1962 and the modern historical maps of 1901-1945, the spatial distribution of the remains of the city, the water system and the historical roads that have been sealed for hundreds of years are revealed. Based on the defense system of the Great Wall, the Great Wall National Cultural Park system is constructed, with the defense system corresponding to the overall layout of the park, the level of the military fortress corresponding to the setting of landscape points, the post route corresponding to the touring path, and the beacon line of sight corresponding to the landscape view corridor, so as to display the full picture of the visible and invisible ruins and restore the systematic relationship. Through the concept of “Let History Speak”, the study provides a reference for the overall protection and inheritance of the cultural heritage of the Great Wall.

KEYWORDS: Shanhaiguan; the Great Wall; national cultural park; defense system; system construction

♦ REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON URBAN CARBON EMISSION MEASUREMENT METHODS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Author: WANG Yizhe; WANG Xingping; CHEN Qiuyi

ABSTRACT: To better promote low-carbon urban and rural planning, it is necessary to examine various types of research results of urban carbon emission measurement in an all-round way to form a more comprehensive understanding of urban carbon emission. Through a review of relevant studies, it is found that at the fundamental level, there are two major frameworks for urban carbon emission measurement: urban activity-based and gas observation-based. In view of low-carbon practices, three major research perspectives have been formed: the “production-consumption” perspective, the “spatio-temporal allocation” perspective, and the “actual measurement” perspective. These three perspectives have provided an urban carbon emission picture from different facets and offered methodological guidance for low-carbon city construction practice. In the light of the current needs of low-carbon urban and rural planning practice, efforts should be made in the following three aspects: (1) attaching importance to the equality in low-carbon city construction practice and strengthening the research on urban and rural planning methods from a consumption-oriented perspective; (2) developing a low-carbon urban-rural planning toolkit for urban carbon emission measurement from a diverse perspective; (3) enhancing the research on low-carbon spatial planning strategies based on urban carbon emission measurement methods.

KEYWORDS: urban carbon emission; measurement method; review; low-carbon; urban and rural planning