City Planning Review（2023.11）

♦MISSION AND RESPONSIBILITY OF URBAN PLANNING

Author：YANG Baojun; ZHENG Degao; CHEN Peng; DONG Ke

ABSTRACT: Urban planning has made an indelible contribution to China’s urban development and construction. However, China’s urban planning is faced with dilemmas of vague positioning and weakening roles in recent years. This paper discusses the professional pursuit of China’s urban planning in the future in terms of both the central government’s requirements and local governments’ demands, with the aim to explore the mission and responsibility of urban planning amid Chinese modernization. China’s urban planners should uphold the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, improve the levels of urban planning, construction, and governance, and build livable, resilient, and smart cities. It is necessary to steadily push forward the reform of the planning institutions, establish a national planning system focusing on overall coordination as well as functional division and collaboration, and properly handle the relationship between urban planning and territorial planning. In accordance with the requirements of “studying practical problems, responding to real demands, creating genuine values, and ensuring actual implementation”, efforts should be made to return to the essence of urban planning and improve planning systems and methods. Urban planners should not only “do things correctly” but also “do the right things”. In view of the problems that cities generally face, such as lack of development momentum, development modes to be transformed, weak ability to cope with climate change, public hygiene and health issues, operational risks caused by aging, and challenges brought by differentiation, emphasis should be placed on improving the safety and resilience of cities, seeking driving forces of urban development, and promoting urban regeneration from the perspectives of breaking institutional barriers and making urban design play a more important role. Thus, future cities characterized by all-age friendliness, distinctive cultural features, green and low carbon, and intelligence-supported energization will be built. For this purpose, urban planners in the new era should take solving problems, creating values, and promoting high-quality urban development as their responsibility. 

KEYWORDS: urban planning; mission and responsibility

♦PLANNING NEEDS AND PRACTICE INNOVATIONS AT THE PRESENT STAGE 

Author：ZHENG Degao; MA Xuan; ZHANG Kan

ABSTRACT: Based on Kondratieff Wave Theory and Juglar Cycle Theory, this paper judges that China’s urban development at the present stage has entered a downward trend dominated by urban regeneration, together with the upgrade of human needs and the high frequency of safety risks. From the perspective of planning needs, based on the planning practices in Hubei Province and cities such as Hangzhou and Guangzhou, this paper discusses that urban planning in the downward period should be transformed from “growthism” to “structuralism”. After the transformation, urban planning should deal with the bottom-line issues such as water safety and ecological safety, and also answer the questions of how to collect money, how to formulate policies, and how to match people’s needs from the perspective of development. Safety, development, and human-based perspectives are the three underlying logics that urban planning should follow at the present stage. 

KEYWORDS: development cycle; safety and resilience; human-based perspective; planning and construction; urban governance

♦NEW URBAN-RURAL SPACE IN THE DIGITAL AGE 

Author：LUO Zhendong; CHAI Yanwei WANG De; ZHANG He; ZHOU Kai; JI Guangxu; WEI Zongcai; NIU Qiang; XI Guangliang

♦HOW TO REUNITE THE FRAGMENTED HISTORIC URBAN AREAS? 

Author：ZHOU Jian; TIAN Yinsheng; XU Lige; HE Yi; ZHANG Song; HUANG Huan; YANG Jianqiang; LI Jinsheng; JU Dedong; ZHANG Yang

♦GREEN AND LOW-CARBON URBAN REGENERATION 

Author：CHEN Tian; GENG Huizhi; LU Huapu; WANG Shifu; SHEN Guoqiang; LENG Hong; ZHAO Wei; L Huifen; LI Haitao; LI Fen; JIN Xiaolong; WANG Xuebin

♦HOW TO INVOLVE SOCIAL CAPITAL IN URBAN REGENERATION? 

Author：DING Zhigang; ZHANG Jingxiang; GUAN Xin; SIMA Xiao; WANG Liang; ZHOU Lan; LIU Yan; ZHANG Jian; YIN Zhi

♦CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND SPATIAL QUALITY IMPROVEMENT 

Author：LENG Hong; CHEN Tian; HE Baojie; HUA Xiang; TANG Yan; WU Jie; YAN Wentao; YUAN Jingcheng; YANG Xiaochun

♦COMMENTS ON DOCTRINES AND PRINCIPLES OF URBAN PLANNING 

Author：ZHANG Tingwei

ABSTRACT: The contemporary urban planning discipline is going through an “embarrassing” transitional period as confronting various challenges. This article starts from proposing the general doctrines and principles of common scientific disciplines, then discusses those of urban planning in the form of an outline, and finally explores the theories and principles of planning with Chinese characteristics. 

KEYWORDS: urban planning discipline; doctrines and principles of planning; urban planning with Chinese characteristics

♦A STUDY ON THE INFORMALITY OF RURAL INDUSTRY INDUCED BY E-COMMERCE: BASED ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF SPATIAL DEMAND AND SUPPLY 

Author：TANG Weicheng; PENG Zhenwei

ABSTRACT: With geographical spread and deepening of the new economy of e-commerce, the phenomenon of industrial informality under the tight constraint of spatial supply has emerged in some villages. In order to reveal the induced attributes and multiple effects of the new economy, Zeguo Town, Wenling City, Zhejiang Province, is selected for empirical analysis. The study finds that the creation and operation of e-commerce induced mechanism in rural areas promote the evolution of industrial informality: the deep integration of e-commerce and specific industries will cause the expansion of industrial scale and short-term imbalance of spatial supply and demand. Enterprises, on the other hand, use the spatial transfer to the neighboring villagers’ homesteads to alleviate the upward pressure on factor costs brought about by the continuous spatial supply. The informality defined by both industrial and spatial processes continues to deepen, which triggers strong external interventions by local governments, and the mode of rural spatial governance shifts from routine to mobilization. The paper concludes by exploring several development trends in China’s rural area, providing useful reference for the policy provision of the externality system. 

KEYWORDS: induced mechanism; supply constraint; land price; mobilization mode; transformation of rural area

♦A PRELIMINARY EXPLORATION ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAND DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS AND PLANNING CONTROL IN CHINA 

Author：ZHAO Min; WANG Li

ABSTRACT: This paper explores the concept of land development rights and their conferring procedures in the context of a socialist market economy and the establishment of territory spatial development and protection system in China. Firstly, it introduces relevant systems and operational methods in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States and briefly reviews research perspectives from the Chinese academic community. Subsequently, based on China’s land system and spatial governance reform, it elucidates the definition of land development rights from both public and private law perspectives. In addition, it explains the conferring of development rights of state-owned construction land and collective construction land from the perspectives of statutory subjects and procedures. Finally, the paper examines the planning control mechanisms for the conferring of land development rights from three aspects: territorial planning and spatial development and protection, conferring of land development rights and planning conditions and planning permission, and exercise of land development rights and planning surveillance. It proposes a cognitive logic: territorial planning confers spatial development rights and protection responsibilities on local governments, and then local governments carry out spatial development. Through this process, spatial resources are transformed into land assets; subsequently, land development rights are transferred to relevant stakeholders through legal procedures. 

KEYWORDS: public rights and private rights; land development rights; spatial development rights; planning control

♦INNOVATION DIFFUSION AND CHARACTERISTIC MECHANISM OF REGULATORY DETAILED PLANNING SYSTEM: BASED ON THE EVENT HISTORY ANALYSIS MODEL 

Author：HOU Li; LAN Tianze

ABSTRACT: Regulatory detailed planning has been established as a formal system and is constantly being standardized under forces from both central and local governments, which has shown certain degrees of local autonomy and regional differences. Based on an extensive collection of official documents related to regulatory detailed planning from different levels of governments, the article employs the Event History Analysis Model to examine the spatial and temporal characteristics of the innovation diffusion of regulatory detailed planning system and their influencing factors in Chinese cities. The study finds that national and provincial motions do not have a significant facilitating or inhibiting effect on the introduction of planning regulations in cities, and that the institutionalization of regulatory detailed planning by city governments is more characterized by the diffusion with regional characteristics, most notably in the Greater Yangtze Delta region. The analysis also shows that the provincial regulations have been more influential to city governments in making technical guidelines. Since land bidding became mandated by the Central Government in market-driven urban development in 2004, the total amount of state-owned development land in auction has become a major factor that contributes to the institutionalization of regulatory detailed planning. 

KEYWORDS: urban governance; regulatory detailed planning; policy diffusion; planning system; planning history; Event History Analysis (EHA)

♦CHARACTERISTICS AND MECHANISM OF THE COEXISTENCE OF URBAN GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE IN BEIJING 

Author：LIN Jingjie; ZHANG Jingxiang

ABSTRACT: Urban shrinkage has gradually become a global problem. In China, urban shrinkage, which is driven by the joint action of government and market, is a local phenomenon coexisting with urban growth. Hence, this paper establishes a model of urban growth and shrinkage from the perspective of government and market. The theoretical model induces four types of space, namely expansion-growth, agglomeration-growth, expansion-shrinkage, and reduction-shrinkage, which can be identified by using nighttime light data, LandScan population data, and land use data from remote sensing image. Thus, a case study is conducted in Beijing to investigate the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of urban growth and shrinkage, as well as the role of government and market in shaping four different types of space. The result shows that, interaction between government and market in Beijing has a significant effect on urban growth and shrinkage. It is possible for urban growth and shrinkage to switch to each other under the adjustment of government intervention and the change of market factors. Considering the coexistence of urban growth and shrinkage in Chinese cities, there is a need for a planning approach integrating the idea of smart growth and smart shrinkage, to realize the coordination between policy and market and the rational allocation of spatial resource. 

KEYWORDS: urban shrinkage; urban growth; urban governance; development transformation; Beijing

♦A STUDY ON THE CONSERVATION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE-BASED HISTORIC AREA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PRODUCTION UNIT: TAKING DONGFANG STEEL PLANT IN HUANGSHI CITY AS AN EXAMPLE 

Author：JIA Yanfei; ZHANG Minwei; TAN Gangyi; LIU Helin

ABSTRACT：In response to the deepening of industrial heritage conservation, as the carrier of the transition from individual heritage-focused conservation to that of the whole historic area, the industrial heritage-based historic area at the mesoscale provide a beneficial context for the conservation of industrial built environment. Through an overview on historic area evolution and industrial heritage conservation, this paper puts forward that, guided by the instinct logic of production space, a production unit is the minimal unit for the conservation of integrity and authenticity of industrial built environment. On the basis of proving the collective value of industrial heritage under the mechanism of industrial heritage-based historic area conservation, the paper proposes five modes to delimit the production unit-based historic areas, and analyzes the methods of conservation of related historic areas. With Dongfang Steel Plant Historic Area in Huangshi City as an example, the paper expounds on the procedures of information collection, unit identification, value assessment, and establishment of the conversation system from the perspective of production unit, and explores the authenticity- and integrity-oriented conservation methods for industrial heritage-based historic areas. 

KEYWORDS：industrial heritage-based historic area; production unit; delimitation and conservation; method

♦A STUDY ON THE REGIONAL DIFFERENCES OF HAKKA TRADITIONAL VILLAGE LANDSCAPE IN THE BORDER OF JIANGXI, FUJIAN, AND GUANGDONG PROVINCES 

Author：ZHUO Xiaolan; XIAO Dawei

ABSTRACT: Through comprehensive surveys, recording, statistics, and induction of the cultural landscape of Hakka traditional villages and dwellings in the border area of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces, this paper takes the morphotype systems of Hakka traditional villages and dwellings as the leading factors to carry out cluster statistics and landscape zoning. The Hakka area is divided into four cultural regions, namely, tang-xiang cultural region in the northwest, tang-heng cultural region in the northeast, enclosed buildings cultural region in the south, and terrace buildings cultural region in the west, including ten subregions in total. Furthermore, the paper summarizes and analyzes the landscape characteristics of Hakka traditional villages in each cultural region. It is proposed that the regional pattern of Hakka traditional village landscape in the border area of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong is a reflection of the differences in residential culture caused by the differences in the time sequence of regional economic and cultural development under the spatial framework formed by the natural geographical pattern. 

KEYWORDS: Hakka vernacular dwellings; traditional villages; residential culture; landscape zoning; regional pattern

♦PRACTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT OF SHARED OWNERSHIP SCHEME IN THE UK 

Author：LV Cheng; CHEN Youhua

ABSTRACT: As one of the home ownership policies ensuring adequate housing for everyone, shared ownership homes have been launched in many provinces and cities since 2014, but haven’t achieved the expected goal. The scheme of shared ownership housing in the UK has been constantly adjusted in the past more than 40 years, which is of great reference value for us. Based on the development history, role, and operation mode of the UK’s shared ownership scheme, this paper compares it with other affordable ownership homes, and finds that the shared ownership scheme plays an important supporting role in the British public housing system, which has obvious advantages over renting houses and brings economic and political benefits to the government. However, it cannot effectively help the “sandwich class” to ease the pressure of housing price. There are also many other negative effects such as complicated design, legal risk, risk of asset price decline, high holding cost, and lack of liquidity. In the current practice of ownership guarantee policies, we should learn from the British experience and lessons, clarify our positioning, and optimize the shared ownership housing scheme. 

KEYWORDS: shared ownership housing; affordable housing; the UK