21st century urban development

After forty years of fast development, China’s economy has now shifted from the speed-prioritized model to the quality-prioritized model. At the end of 2020, China’s urbanization rate based upon permanent urban residence population has exceeded 60% which implies that China’s new urbanization has entered the "second half" of its urbanization process. It is clear that at this stage, quality improvement rather than speed acceleration of urbanization is the main theme of this period. The 14th Five-Year Plan period is the first five years during which China will embark on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country and march toward the second centenary goal as has been proposed since the beginning of China’s reform and opening up. It is also a critical period for China to pursue new urbanization with the aim to achieve higher-quality development. In March 2021, the Fourth Session of the 13th National People's Congress voted and approved the "Outline" of China’s "14th Five-Year Plan". The "Outline" proposes to "persist in taking the road of new urbanization with Chinese characteristics, pursuing in-depth advancement of people-oriented new urbanization, and harnessing the potential of urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas to facilitate coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and towns, so that more people can enjoy a higher quality of urban life”。

At this new stage, China’s urbanization will show new features and face new challenges as well. The overall urbanization speed will tend to slow down while urbanization in China’s inland areas will accelerate; urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas will play a more prominent role, and smart governance will be widely accelerated. Facing these new development trends and the corresponding new commanding requirements, how can we arouse the underlying potential of new urbanization? Currently the world is undergoing great changes unseen in a century. Therefore, to promote the integrated development of urban agglomerations, to advance the high-quality development of modern metropolitan areas, to optimize the functions of super-large cities, to further the urbanization of counties, to strive for comprehensive rural revitalization, and to pursue in-depth implementation of major regional strategies and coordinated development are of great significance for China’s initiative to accelerate the establishment of a new dual-cycle development pattern and the promotion of high-quality new urbanization strategies.

The 9th “21st century urban development” international conference will invite well-known experts and scholars in the fields of planning, geography, economics, and management across the globe to deliver academic speeches, and invite authors to present their conference papers peer-reviewed and rated as high quality by the conference committee. We look forward to all the participants expressing their insightful arguments and speeches, so that we can jointly promote the development of the theory and practice of new urbanization and city-region spatial planning.

Conference theme and topics

1.Main theme

New urbanization & city-region spatial planning

2.Sub-topics

The conference will focus on the following sub-topics but not limited to:

（1）Regional urbanization pattern and localized development

（2）County economy and county urbanization

（3）Rural revitalization and urban-rural integration development

（4）Urban agglomeration development and spatial planning

（5）Metropolitan area development and spatialplanning

（6）Super-large/large city development and betterment of spatial quality

（7）Planning and construction of the Triangle of Central China

Organiser

Urban Planning Society of China

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Hosting Organiser

School of Architecture and Urban Planning,

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Academic committee

Chair

Duan Jin, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor of School of Architecture, Southeast University

Academic committee member （Ordered by Chinese surname）

Fang Chuanglin, Academician of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, Senior researcher of Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Anthony Gar-On Yeh, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor of the University of Hong Kong

Shi Nan, Vice President of Urban Planning Society of China, Professor-level Senior Urban Planner，Vice President of International Society of City and Regional Planners

Deng Hongdi, Deputy Dean, China Land Survey and Planning Institue

Sun Bindong, Director of the China Administrative Division Research Center, Secretary of the Party Committee and Professor of the School of Urban and Regional Sciences, East China Normal University

Lin Jian, Vice Chairman of the Planning Implementation Committee of the Urban Planning Society of China, Professor of the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University

Zhang Jingxiang, Executive Director the Urban Planning Society of China, Professor of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University

Zhao Yanjing, Vice Chairman of the Urban Planning Society of China, Professor of the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and professor of the School of Economics, Xiamen University

Peng Zhenwei, Executive Director of the Urban Planning Society of China, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Professor of Tongji University

Ewelina Woźniak-Szpakiewicz，Cracow University of Technology，Professor，Poland

Qing Shen, University of Washington, Professor, USA

Steffen Nijhuis，University of Delft，Associate Professor，NL

Zhongren Peng，University of Florida， Professor，USA

Organisation committee

Chair

Shi Nan, Vice President of Urban Planning Society of China, Professor-level Senior Urban Planner，Vice President of International Society of City and Regional Planners

Huang Yaping, Dean, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor

Executive chair

Peng Chong, Deputy secretary and deputy dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor

Deputy executive chair and secretary-general

Liu Helin, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Professor

Committee Member

Qian Si, Li Xiaofeng, Tan Gangyi, Cai Xinyuan, He Liqun, Wan Yanhua, Li Yichun, Song Minglei, Yang Liu, Geng Hong, Hong Liangping, He Yi, Chen Jinfu, Ren Shaobin, Guo Liang, Wang Zhiyong, Zhao Liyuan, He Hui

Brief Conference Schedule

This conference will be organized by both online and offline ways

Invited speeches in the main session （16 Oct. 2021）Presentations by invited distinguished guests.

Presentation in the branch sessions （Morning on 17 Oct. 2021）Three branch sessions with each having 7-8 presentations.

Roundtable: City-region development and planning in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River （Morning on 17 Oct. 2021）The 10-15 invited experts are expected to discuss the topic.

Important timeline

Conference paper submission

The conference warmly welcomes paper contribution from scholars, experts and government administrative staff et al. Papers by students from universities are also greatly encouraged. All the submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by the academic committee and those accepted papers will be published as conference proceedings. Authors with papers rated as excellence will be invited to present their work on the conference. Papers should be in a Word document suitable for Windows PC, submitted in electronic form, and submitted to: 21ccity@mail.hust.edu.cn. Please follow the paper format as illustrated by the word file attached strictly.

The paper must include:

The title of the paper, the name of the author

Author's contact information （university, department, full address, telephone, fax and email）

Please submit your paper to：21ccity@mail.hust.edu.cn <mailto:21ccity@mail.hust.edu.cn>.

Registration fee

For offline participants from China, the fee is 800 Yuan/person, and for students （full-time） the fee is 300 Yuan/person. The way of how to pay the conference fee will be announced soon in the second round of conference notice.

Registration fee is for conference reports and refreshments only. The registration fee does not cover costs of travelling and accommodation.

Conference location

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Contact information

Contact: Zhang Xue

Address: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1037, Yuyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei, China

China, 430074

Phone: +86-27-87557134,

Fax: +86-27-87557134

Email: 21ccity@mail.hust.edu.cn