Territorial and Spatial Planning and City Upgrading in the Post-Pandemic Era (1)

Introduction

With the theme of "Territorial and Spatial Planning and City Upgrading in the Post-Pandemic Era," the 2021 Annual Conference of the International Urban Planning Academic Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China (UPSC) was successfully held at Soochow University. This conference aimed at sharing new thoughts and practices in China and other countries in the fields of territorial and spatial planning and coordinated development, urban resilience enhancement and green ecology sustainability, new infrastructure construction and smart city, and featured regional landscape protection and urban regeneration. It focused on how to improve China's territorial and spatial planning system in the post-pandemic era and achieve planning transformation and governance upgrading, so as to provide a global perspective for the development of new urbanization in China. After obtaining the keynote speakers' consent, China City Planning Review (CCPR) collected the speeches and condensed them into the following articles, which have been proofread by the speakers.

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1.Wang Kai: Green Urban Development Based on the Vision of Carbon Neutrality

Chairman of the Regional Planning and Urban Economics Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China; President of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design

In the context that climate warming is threatening the global eco-security, carbon neutrality has become a common goal of all countries around the world and they have proposed plans and roadmaps for addressing climate changes. Deeply involved in the issue, China is committed to "striving to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060." We have achieved positive results by taking such measures as adjusting the industrial structure, optimizing the energy mix, saving energy, improving energy efficiency, promoting carbon market construction, and increasing forest carbon sinks. Despite all these achievements, we still face serious challenges. Specifically, it is a big pressure to reduce carbon emissions as total and per capita carbon emissions have been growing significantly. It is urgent to optimize the energy mix as the current energy utilization pattern fails to meet the requirements of low-carbon development. China is seeing an increase in carbon emissions from transportation. The building energy management needs to be further enhanced with an increase in building emissions owing to urbanization. As a major frontier of carbon neutrality, cities need to alter the way they build and operate themselves. China is exploring a low-carbon development pattern at the levels of city cluster (region)， city, and community. Especially, it has accumulated a lot of practical experiences in low-carbon development at regional and city levels. Finally, Wang proposed the following paths and solutions dedicated to the green development of Chinese cities: to improve the green and low-carbon planning and construction system; to improve the energy supply and consumption structure; to improve the comprehensive use efficiency of energy and innovate the use form of energy; to promote the green transformation of urban construction; to create green and low-carbon urban-rural space; to improve the disciplinary development.

2.Tu Qiyu: Strategic Zone as a Placemaking Innovation in the Yangtze River Delta Region

Chief Scientist of the Shanghai Municipal Center for Innovation Cities, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Traditional regional planning follows the spatial logic of layout including node, corridor, and network. Since the 21st century, a series of integrated spatial spaces, such as metropolitan area, cross-border adjoining area, and interregional cooperation have emerged to be the main forms of innovation space. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region hosts the world's most dynamic and diversified experiments of regional cooperation. Besides the general introduction of YRD region's innovative practices, this article identifies a new form of spatial innovation for regional cooperation, namely, strategic zone. It argues that the evolution of regional planning methodology does not well-match with the evolution of spatial innovation practices on regional scale.

3.David Shaw: Spatial Planning Reform in a Post-Pandemic Age: Has Anything Really Changed? Reflections from an English Perspective

Professor of the Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool

From the outside looking in, the English planning system is often viewed with a degree of curiosity and with false perceptions of stability. In truth, it has become a political football that is in a constant state of flux, as various governments, of differing political persuasions, seek to reform a system that does not seem capable of delivering their aspirations. This process of change is continuing and, in August 2020, the UK Government launched a new White Paper entitled Planning for the Future which promised a radical review of the English planning system. In the forward to the consultation White Paper, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister said "We have an outdated and ineffective planning system. Designed and built in 1947, it has…been patched up here and there over the decades…' There can be 'No more fiddling around the edges…the planning system needs levelling to the foundations and building, from the bottom up, a whole new planning system.'" The White Paper, therefore, promised radical reform, and as this paper was being written, new legislation was expected to be presented to Parliament in the autumn of 2021. However, these plans were put on hold following a stunning by-election result, in Chesham and Amersham, traditionally viewed as a very safe Tories seat. The Liberal Democrats overturned a huge majority to win by over 8,000 votes. One of the critical issues in this by-election was the planning reform agenda and the perception by this community that this would result in locally unacceptable significant housing development. The proposed reforms have currently been suspended. This short overview paper seeks to explore the scope of the proposed planning reform agenda and argues, as many others have done, that the scope of the White Paper was very narrowly focused, almost exclusively on housing delivery, and questioning whether new legislation is actually required.

4.Lu Xiaobei: Exploration on the Territorial and Spatial Planning of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle

Member of the International Urban Planning Academic Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China; Chief Planner of the Western Branch of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design

With the continuous adjustment of regional development patterns, city clusters have become the core carrier of China's regional economic layout. The Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster is one of the 19 city clusters in the national 14th Five-Year Plan, with a unique and important strategic position as it is a component of China's national urbanization strategic layout featuring "two horizontal and three vertical axes" and the connection point of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Belt and Road Initiative. Specifically, the two horizontal axes involve urbanized areas along the Eurasian Land-Bridge (China section) and the Yangtze River Belt, and the three vertical axes refer to urbanized areas along the coastal China, the Harbin-Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, and the Baotou-Kunming Railway. With the promulgation of the Planning Outline for the Construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, the Chengdu-Chongqing region has become the fourth city cluster development strategy directly deployed by the Central Government after the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao city clusters. The Territorial and Spatial Plan for Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle (hereinafter referred to as Chengdu-Chongqing Territorial and Spatial Plan)， jointly compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources, Sichuan Province, and Chongqing Municipality, is an important initiative to implement the strategic deployment of the Central Government of building the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. At the critical period for developing China's territorial and spatial planning system, the Chengdu-Chongqing Territorial and Spatial Plan is a significant exploration in that there is no precedent for city cluster-level territorial and spatial planning in China. Taking the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster as an example, this article discusses the positioning, value orientation, and key content of China's city cluster-level territorial and spatial planning.

Edited by Wang Miao with reference to 

WeChat Public Account of CCPR

by <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6nJZD98gTSrPIgvWKMwwbQ>