Land Use Planning Support System For Urban Master Planning

Based on China's existing planning system and the practice of urban master planning,this thesis presents a land use planning support system for urban master planning(LUPS) by using the concept of planning support system(PSS) advocated by western scholars.The purpose of this research is to change the phenomenon of incoherence among policy and plan in urban planning and to reflect various values and interests in planning processes by alternative policy choices.Firstly,this thesis reviews the current trends of PSS researches in western urban planning community, analyses and compares the existing land use planning support systems in western countries,sums up the modeling techniques,system implementations and application modes of these systems.The overall framework and workflow of LUPS is presented.LUPS consists of three submodels:land evaluation,development constraint and land allocation.LUPS selects rule-based model as land use modeling technique by using constraint rules and allocation rules to simulate various types of land development policy.In LUPS,the urban land use is divided into two categories:"Industry area" and "Residential area".LUPS doesn't project the land use demands.The projected land use demand is an external data to input for LUPS.Based on vector spatial data model,LUPS is developed for GIS software—ESRI's ArcGIS 9.2 with VBA and ArcObjects.The land evaluation submodel of LUPS is undertaken with GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA).The land evaluation begins by land suitability analysis for residential use and land suitability analysis for industry use.After the two result suitability maps are formulated,a GIS overly combination is used to create a land evaluation map which consists of basic land units.In development constraint submodel of LUPS,constrain rules in accordance with constrain policies are used to restrict locations and types of land development.Land evaluation map is modified by constraint rules using overlay technique.Alternative policy choices will be performed as alternative constrain rules to produce different modified output map.In land allocation submodel of LUPS,the projected land use demands for "Industry area" and "Residential area" will be allocated to different basic land units.Allocation rules in accordance with priority policies are used to simulate the priority of different land uses.Based upon vector data model,an improved land use allocation approach for dual objectives is presented in land allocation submodel.A decision plane is established based on the results of the two separate single objective multi-criteria decision analysis.The decision plane can be partitioned into two regions by weights assigned to two objectives.Then dual-objective decision is solved by using a diagram algorithm.The land allocation submodel calls upon land evaluation map,user-specified land development policies and projected land demands to generate likely urban growth scenarios.The principal result from development constraint submodel and land allocation submodel is a land use scenario which delineates where future urban development is expected to occur.LUPS allows users to determine different land uses and create alternative land-use scenarios by using land development policies and assess the likely impacts of alternative policies on land-use in urban planning area.Furthermore,the author provides technical and experiential examination of two applications of the LUPS in assisting the formulation of urban master plan.In CaseⅠ,LUPS is applied to evaluate "Green Heart" policy and "Industry Priority" policy to support policy-making in the urban master planning of Guangrao in Shandong Province.The study of CaseⅠillustrates that LUPS is an efficient tool to support evaluating and policy-making for land development policies.It can provide a clear relationship between policy and land use plan for policy-maker and enhance the transparency of decision making.In CaseⅡ,LUPS integrated with scenario planning is applied to assist land use planning in the urban master planning of Baoshan City in Yunnan Province.The study of CaseⅡillustrates a certain universal approach for land use planning is created by using LUPS integrated with scenario planning.This approach has changed the traditional "blue print" method.It could enable decision-makers and planners to make more sound and robust decisions in a future of increasing uncertainty and unpredictability and promote adaptability of land use plan for an uncertain future.The characteristic of this research is building relationship between policy and land use plan,providing tool and platform for participatory planning.LUPS allows users to simulate future land use changes resulting from the implementation of alternative policy choices which reflect different values and interests in planning processes.LUPS is developed on the basis of China's existing planning system,it supports land use planning processes and decision making in urban master planning and provides a platform for communication among planners,policy-makers and publics.However,the current LUPS is an experimental system.Further research should clearly be needed in four potential topics:Land demand projecting,development density policy simulation,land use category and system integration.