Spatial Planning

Department of Urban Planning and Design, School of Architecture Department of Urban Planning and Design, School of Architecture Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, its spatial planning system has undergone successive institutional changes. Under the state-socialist economy, urban planning was closely connected with national economic planning and state-directed investment in industrial facilities and infrastructure. Since Reform and Opening-Up, market mechanisms have become increasingly important in economic development and have substantially reshaped plan-making and implementation. Rapid growth has also intensified income disparities, social tensions, environmental degradation, and resource pressures, creating new demands for spatial coordination and sustainable development. Before the institutional reforms of 2018, three major planning traditions operated in parallel. Urban and rural planning, administered by housing and urban-rural development authorities, governed settlement development, infrastructure provision, urban form, and development control. The urban and rural planning system developed from the statutory urban-planning system established under the 1989 Urban Planning Law and was extended to cities, towns, townships, and villages by the 2007 Urban and Rural Planning Law. Overall land-use planning, administered by land and resources authorities, developed through successive rounds from the late 1980s and was strengthened by the 1998 amendment to the Land Administration Law. Overall land-use planning allocated land-use quotas, regulated the conversion of agricultural land to construction land, and protected cultivated land. Major function-oriented zone planning, developed through the national development and reform system from the mid-2000s, differentiated territorial development and protection functions according to resource and environmental carrying capacity, existing development intensity, and development potential. These planning systems were prepared and administered by different government agencies, each with its own policy objectives, technical standards, approval procedures, administrative authority, and spatial designations. Their overlapping jurisdictions and inconsistent regulatory requirements produced persistent coordination problems and a fragmented system of spatial governance. To address these problems, the territorial spatial planning system was established in 2019 to integrate the principal functions of the previous planning systems within a unified framework for the development, use, regulation, and protection of territorial space. Geographically, this article focuses primarily on mainland China, while the section on “Spatial Scales and Institutional Variations” discusses the distinctive planning institutions and literature of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The evolution of spatial planning since Reform and Opening-Up can be understood as a gradual shift between two overlapping stages, distinguished mainly by their dominant policy objectives and governance priorities. The first stage, commonly described as “planning for growth,” prioritized industrialization, urbanization, infrastructure provision, and land development. The second stage emerged during the 2010s and was institutionally consolidated through the reforms of 2018–2019. It emphasizes “planning for high-quality development,” with greater attention to ecological protection, resource conservation, territorial security, and coordinated urban-rural and regional development. These changes in spatial planning reflect broader transformations in political, social, economic, and environmental relations. The transition from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy altered national development strategies, while the resulting economic, social, and environmental challenges prompted the establishment of a more integrated spatial planning system.