City Planning Review（2021.5）

♦ Pursuing

Author: SHI Nan

♦ RESEARCH FINDINGS AND PLANNING ENLIGHTENMENTS OF CHINA’S URBAN SYSTEM IN NEW ERA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF NETWORK CONNECTIVITY AND TERRITORIAL CONTIGUITY

Author: ZHANG Yishuai; ZHAO Min; CHENG Yao

ABSTRACT: A correct understanding on China’s urban system is a prerequisite for the scientific formulation of China’s territorial planning. Based on the overview of relevant research on China’s urban system, this paper explains the dual mechanism and interdependence of “network connectivity” and “territorial contiguity” in the urban system. Then some indexes and algorithms, such as social network connectivity, structural hole and contiguity weighted network connectivity are used to build a city network model from the perspective of “network connectivity” and “territorial contiguity”, which are used to analyze the evolution trend and development characteristics of China’s urban system. Research shows that: China’s urban spatial development pattern featured by multi-hierarchical, multi-level and networked is becoming increasingly mature, and the coordinated development pattern of large, medium-sized and small cities has been continuously strengthened; and the regional differentiation characteristics of cities and regions have also been highlighted. This research aims to provide a reference for the planning work and related academic research in the new era.

KEYWORDS: urban system; network connectivity; territorial contiguity; paradigm cognition; reflection on planning

♦ HISTORICAL EVOLUTION AND SPATIAL LOGIC OF SPATIAL PLANNING OF URBAN AGGLOMERATIONS IN CHINA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF NEW STATE SPACE

Author: ZHANG Xianchun; TANG Chenghui; XU Shuncai; YUE Wenze

ABSTRACT: In the restructuring of state space, spatial planning of urban agglomerations has functioned as an important means to alleviate the fierce intercity competition and enhance regional competitiveness. Based on the new state space theory, this paper examines the development process and evolution characteristics of spatial planning of urban agglomerations in China, and explores its spatial logic in combination with the conceptual framework of state spatial selectivity, including spatial characteristics and spatial effects. This paper unfolds that firstly, at different developmental stages, the contents and the role of spatial planning vary greatly, and the transition in the development reflects that state spatial selectivity has changed from the scale of city to that of region. Secondly, under the macro background of social transformation, the spatial planning of urban agglomerations in China is deemed as a strategical deployment of the state in response to the rise of city-regions, and through layered superposition of diverse strategies, a dynamic and embedded form of state space is shaped. In the end, as a flexible rescaling strategy, spatial planning of urban agglomerations brings about capital re-regionalization and power rescaling in specific regions in a flexible and low-cost way, which improves the national spatial governance capacity and realizes the transformation of local governance mode. However, the spatial planning of urban agglomerations in China has heavily relied upon top-down promotion from upper-level governments, and there are structural tensions in its implementation processes. It is urgent to strengthen the internal integration in the implementation of different national spatial strategies and the connection of national projects.

KEYWORDS: new state space; urban agglomeration; spatial planning; rescaling; China

♦INFLUENCE OF URBAN HIGH-DENSITY LIVING ENVIRONMENT ON STROKE RISK: A CASE STUDY OF WUHAN

Author: XIE Bo; ZHENG Yiling; LI Zhigang; AN Zihao

ABSTRACT: Using the spatial regression model, this study explored the association between high-density living environment and stroke risk in Wuhan based on the disease data in 2015. The research indicated that the standardized incidence of stroke exhibited significant clustering in the urban core, and high-density built environment would significantly exacerbate the incidence of stroke. The results showed on the one hand that three density variables, i.e., net residential density, residential land-use density, and building density, were positively correlated with the risk of stroke. On the other hand, the accessibility of community hospitals, parks, fast-food restaurants, and bus stops had an important impact on the stroke risk of urban residents. In general, air pollution, physical activity, dietary habit, and social capital played significant roles in this process. Finally, this research proposed healthy city planning strategies for stroke prevention in high-density living environment, including the land use mix model to decrease population and building density, planning strategies for the dispersal of aging population in the urban core, and improvement of public service facilities at the block level.

KEYWORDS: built environment; high density; stroke; healthy city planning; Wuhan

♦ CALCULATION OF THE URBAN SPRAWL INDEX BASED ON THE SCALE-RELATED METHOD: A CASE STUDY OF 230 CITIES IN CHINA

Author: ZHANG Jingqi; JI Xiujuan; XIU Chunliang

ABSTRACT: After summarizing the conceptions of urban sprawl both at home and abroad, this paper analyzes and improves the existing urban sprawl index and develops a new urban sprawl index based on a scale-related method, and compares the urban sprawl situations of 230 cities in China from 2000 to 2015 before and after the revision. The result shows that the revised urban sprawl indexes of most big cities are on the rise, whereas those of most small cities are on the decline. The city with the highest urban sprawl index after revision is Dongguan City (SInew=6.04), and the region with the highest average urban sprawl index is east China (SInew=3.10). It is concluded that the new urban sprawl index can better reflect the two characteristics: low density and high speed of urban sprawl. Applying the new urban sprawl index to identify the urban sprawl has positive significance to ensure the red line of cultivated land and food security in China. At the same time, we should focus on eliminating potential risks of urban sprawl in east and south China – the two regions with the highest degree of urban sprawl.

KEYWORDS: urban sprawl; urban sprawl index; revision based on the scale-related method; calculation of urban sprawl

♦ AN ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION ABOUT THE VALUE AND CONNOTATION OF SMALL TOWN FROM DIFFERENTIATION TO REDIFFERENTIATION

Author: QIAO Jing; GENG Hong

ABSTRACT: Small towns have basically completed the first differentiation which is characterized by high regional differentiation and individual scale difference. In the period of high-quality development, it is no longer adaptive and sustainable to perceive the value of small towns and guide the regional development structure simply by taking the scale order under the guidance of growth as the connotation. Based on the labor division evolution, through analyzing the constraint condition of small towns’ differentiation and its changes, it is clarified that the shift of small towns from the connotation of “differentiation” to “redifferentiation” is a shift of individuals in the regional division of labor from the spatial scale transition toward value transition. Then, a whole region perspective that covers regionalization, networkization, and social stability at the grass-roots level, regional ecological security and regional cultural protection is suggested to refine the cognition and comprehensively clarify the existing and potential labor division value of small towns in regional development, so as to guide the labor division and cooperation within the framework of imbalanced coordinated development of small towns in the region, and boost integration between urban and rural areas and rural revitalization.

KEYWORDS: redifferentiation; differentiation; evolution of labor division; transition; small town

♦ THE “STUBBORN DISEASE” OF URBAN RENEWAL AND ITS COUNTERMEASURES

Author: DONG Xiao; LIU Jiaping

ABSTRACT: In the high-density old urban areas and the existing urban areas formed by the gradual outward expansion of the old urban areas, there are many phenomena that are difficult to meet the standard of “green and livability”, and some have even become “stubborn diseases” of the existing urban areas, such as “multiple faces in one city”, periodic congestion in some neighborhoods, and widespread failure of the blind walkways. Based on the concept of healthy city and green and livability, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions to “cure” these “stubborn disease” in existing urban areas by applying the principles and methods of urban planning. The findings of the study are of great significance and application value for the transformation and quality improvement of existing urban areas.

KEYWORDS: urban renewal; blind walkways; periodic traffic congestion

♦ PRACTICAL EXPLORATION OF PROMOTING THE RECONSTRUCTION OF TERRITORIAL PLANNING IN THE NEW ERA: WITH BEIJING AS AN EXAMPLE

Author: CHANG Qing; SHI Xiaodong; YANG Jun

ABSTRACT: The first round of territorial planning is in the strategic historical period of accelerating the construction of ecological civilization and high-quality economic development. After decades of rapid and extensive development, urban and rural construction has reached a critical stage of transformation to spatial reconstruction and quality improvement. The new edition of Beijing’s master plan aims to reduce the volume of development, persist in grasping the essentials of the capital’s development, persist in bottom-line transformation thinking, and substantially reform the original planning management and control paradigm, and set up a reconstruction planning regulatory framework and technical standard system to promote the quality of territorial space and optimize the structure. The purpose of implementation of the restructuring plan is to deepen reform. Beijing has matched the planning authority with the administrative authority, insisting that the planning authority of the capital belongs to the Central Committee of CPC, and the rigid transmission of the master plan and the multi-plan integration are also stressed. In addition, efforts are also put into linking the planning implementation with the administrative management, establishing a whole-process connection mechanism composed of links including the implementation of plans in advance, supervision and accountability during the implementation, and physical examination and assessment after implementation, in order to promote reforms in key areas such as planning, land, investment, finance, taxation and finance, public administration, and grassroots governance, so as to continuously boost shifting the pattern of urban development.

KEYWORDS: Beijing; the capital; territorial restructuring planning; multi-plan integration; full life cycle management

♦ “RIGIDITY” AND “FLEXIBILITY” IN THE TRANSMISSION MECHANISM OF SPATIAL PLANNING: A CASE STUDY OF CHONGMING DISTRICT, SHANGHAI

Author: HU Zhixing

ABSTRACT: With the reform of Chinese urban planning management institutions and the reconstruction of the spatial planning system, 2020 became an important year for the formulation of territorial planning. Shanghai has taken the lead in realizing multi-plan integration in China through the merger of planning and land functional departments. The innovations and results it achieved in planning concepts, planning methods and transmission systems are of guiding significance for the construction of spatial planning systems in other cities across the country. This paper analyzes the relationship between the development and management of the local government and the central government in the foreign planning system based on summarizing the spatial planning systems of Japan, Germany and the Netherlands and defining the content and transmission pattern of planning at all levels. Then, it systematically summarizes the main content of Shanghai’s spatial planning system from three aspects: overall planning level, unit planning level and detailed planning level. Taking the three-level planning practice in Chongming District, Shanghai as an example, it analyzes the whole transmission process of Shanghai’s spatial planning from top to bottom and from planning to implementation from the three aspects of strategic intention transmission, rigid index transmission and flexible control transmission. It may provide a reference for Chinese spatial planning system.

KEYWORDS: spatial planning; planning system; transmission mode

♦ RESEARCH ON THE CONTENT AND DEPTH OF PREFECTURE-LEVEL TERRITORIAL PLANNING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SPATIAL GOVERNANCE

Author: WANG Xin

ABSTRACT: From the perspective of spatial governance, the study finds that the depth of each content of prefecture-level urban space master plan is determined by three attributes: (1) which government department/planning does the content belong to; (2) is the content government or market/ socially dominated; (3) which level of government dominates the content. The content of different attributes should reach different compilation depths. The compilation depth is reflected in two major categories and six sub-categories of programming languages, which are guiding language (including qualitative requirements, spatial structure, location, partition) and mandatory language (including quantitative requirements, spatial structure, location, and layout) respectively. The content depth of land and territorial planning at different levels will be transmitted in three ways: (1) if the content is dominated by superior planning, the subordinate planning adopts the “implementation” transmission method; (2) if it is co-led by the superior and subordinate levels, the subordinate planning adopts the internal language of the same progressive transmission method, specifically three forms which are “deepening”, “optimization”, and “additional”; (3) if it is the content of the lower level planning, the lower level planning adopts the method of “conversion” step by step between different languages. In addition, this study believes that although the prefecture-level urban space master plan belongs to a “hierarchical” plan, it is actually a plan composed of several levels, including the municipal territorial master plan, the central urban area territorial master plan, etc. Based on the analysis of the above-mentioned impact mechanism, this study makes a preliminary discussion on the content and depth that should be compiled at each level in the prefecture-level territorial master plan.

KEYOWRDS: spatial governance; prefecture-level territorial master plan; planning content and depth

♦ RECONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SYSTEM IN TERRITORIAL PLANNING BASED ON COMMUNICATION ACTION THEORY

Author: ZHOU Zihang; ZHANG Jingxiang; WANG Ziyi

ABSTRACT: Starting from the connotation of public participation, this paper first expounds the evolution of early governance power theory, and points out that in the bottom-up power theory, communication action theory, as the guiding ideology of moderate coordination of elite representative and citizen resolution, can be applied to the construction of public participation system. Secondly, by introducing the analytical paradigm of Cognitive Rationality, Instrumental Rationality and Communicative Rationality constructed by Communication Action Theory, the paper establishes corresponding relations with the diverse demands of the public, the administrative intention of the government, and the results of public participation. Next, the paper analyzes the current public participation methods in the existing spatial planning field, clarifies the public participation rights given by the law, and studies the characteristics of public participation in all levels and fields under the territory spatial planning system of “five levels and three categories”. Finally, combined with the “conversation” method of Communication Action Theory to achieve the ideal understanding, the programmatic reconstruction mode of public participation system of territory spatial planning based on planning level and planning field is obtained.

KEYWORDS: Communication Action Theory; public participation; territorial planning; communicative rationality; reconstruction

♦ URBAN REGENERATION MECHANISM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COORDINATION OF PUBLIC LAW AND PRIVATE LAW: INSPIRATION FROM THE REGENERATION PROCESS OF CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION IN UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS

Author: QI Dongjin; HOBMA Fred; XIONG Liang; ZHOU Jianyun; XIAO Jingtong

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the regeneration process of Central Railway Station area in Utrecht, the Netherlands, through a public-private partnership and points out that public law establishes a flexible and dynamic planning management and control model; and private law promotes government and business cooperation through development agreements. The parallel operation of public law and private law pushes the planning implementation and the development agreement of public-private partnership runs through the whole process of project development, which enhances the creativity and sustainability of the project. The mutual integration of public law and private law is the future development direction of the modern legal system, and an important institutional background for China to promote urban regeneration through private-sector participation. In terms of public law, it recommends an adaptive and flexible detailed planning system, and simplified procedure of planning permission; in terms of private law, the role and status of various agreements should be fully emphasized, to tap the potential of public-private partnership and ensure that the public benefits from land value increase.

KEYWORDS: public law; private law; public-private partnership; urban regeneration; Utrecht

♦ PRESERVATION AND RENEWAL OF HISTORIC RESIDENTIAL AREA LANDSCAPE: A CASE STUDY OF BEACON HILL ROW HOUSE DISTRICT IN BOSTON, THE UNITED STATES

Author: YANG Zhen; WU Qiucheng

ABSTRACT: Research on historic residential area is part of the research on historic district. Closely related to residents’ everyday life, the landscape of the historic residential area has authentic cultural connotations. Taking the Beacon Hill row house area in Boston as an example, this paper analyzes the landscape characteristics of European and American row house areas, evaluates the historical status, spatial pattern, and landscape characteristics of Beacon Hill, and reviews key historical stages related to the landscape preservation and renewal of Beacon Hill. The paper thus summarizes Beacon Hill’s strategies in terms of design control, finance and tax incentive, place making, and neighborhood governance. Then it concludes four inspirations, i.e., respecting the authenticity of diversity, encouraging individuals to be main actors, sustaining localities, and preserving both people and their houses. These inspirations provide a reference to the preservation and renewal of the historic residential area landscape in Chinese cities.

KEYWORDS: historic residential area; Beacon Hill; row house; landscape; preservation and renewal

♦ RECOLLECTION OF MODERN URBAN DESIGN IN CHINA: AN INTERVIEW WITH ACADEMICIAN QI KANG

Author: YANG Junyan; QIN Shiwen; JIN Tanhua; MIAO Cencen