Representatives of a forum on unified territorial planning visit the Xiamen Planning Exhibition Hall in Fujian Province. Photo: FILE

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Territorial planning reaches the daily lives of ordinary people, because it not only decides the use of their neighborhood area, but also paves the way for urban development. Recently, the State Council released a statement on territorial planning and its supervised implementation, unifying the regulations regarding main functional area planning, land use planning, and urban and rural spatial planning.

Land planning in China has long been problematic. Some plans contradict each other. Some local governments make frequent and unpredictable changes in policies. In other cases, there is a mismatch between policy recommendation and project implementation. “Here is a typical example,” said Li Xiaojiang, former director of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, “for the same piece of land, the territorial planning department considers it as farmland while the forest planning department treats it as woodland. Meanwhile, the urban development planning department may intend to use it for urban construction.” He added that any change in land planning asks for a complicated procedure as it engages multiple departments.

At the root of this issue, many management departments are responsible for various forms of planning. Their functions vary in terms of goals, methods and focuses, causing such problems as self-contained systems, contradictory plans and a lack of coordination. Zhang Xiaoling, chief engineer for China Land Surveying and Planning, described the previous planning management mechanism as “nine dragons taming a flood.” Zhang said, “without enough collaboration and communication, the planning projects of different departments are very likely to be contradictory.”

Zhao Long said that since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially since the reform and opening up, various types of spatial planning have supported rapid urbanization and promoted the rational use and protection of land. Problems, however, have taken shape, such as complex and tedious approval processes.

To tackle these problems, the new regulations clarify the responsibilities of departments regarding territorial planning at all levels. The Ministry of Natural Resources, provincial governments and municipal governments will undertake planning and organization. At the same time, the regulations strengthen the restriction on specific plans. Local natural resource departments will make and organize plans concerning costal zones, protected areas and cross-regional territories. Governments will also plan and organize other forms of subject plans.

Zhang Bing, deputy director of the Spatial Planning Bureau under the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that at present, China is integrating and updating its data through the third national territorial survey. “In the future, we will be able to see the planning and use of each piece of land on an information platform for national territory. In this way, strategies targeting functional areas and the management of spatial elements can be precisely enforced.”

 

This article was translated from Guangming Daily.

​edited by MA YUHONG