Study On Modern Land Use Planning In China

Land exists as a natural substance with a much longer history than human beings.It was the foremost external object that men ran into when men were initially separated from the nature.Ever since land started to function in human society,land has been indispensable to all production activities like agriculture,industry,architecture,transportation,etc..With population increasing and economic growing,it has become an eternal subject for land use and planning on how to handle limited land area and rising demand on land,and the sharp conflict between these two factors is more and more obvious.It is a momentous problem for us to decide how to effectively utilize land,to rationally and fairly assign and reassign limited land resources in all developing stages.Engels said something to this effect that science was originated and developed from production activities.Just like any other science,land use planning was formed with certain historical and realistic background.Human history is the history of how to use land.The land use experiences throughout human history provide rich elements and solid base for the science of land use planning.In the course of land use,people's primitive demand was to measure and distribute land.As the land is limited in area,with the population growing, the inevitable man-land conflict became the original incentive for land use planning.In order to survive and to develop,people had to adjust land uses and then to rationalize land uses so as to raise land productivity and output,and this led to the birth of land use planning.As a socio-economic activity of human being,land use planning came into being with human's arrival on the earth;its upgrading and developing came along with succession of human society and progress of social productivity.All nations established and developed land use planning systems suitable to their own situations;each nation can provide valuable inheritance and profound experiences for us to further study land use planning and to have a systematic comparison and analysis.AS an ancient civilization,with its industrial and courageous people and thousands of years' production and social experiences,China has accumulated sufficient materials and achievements and has contributed greatly to the development of land use planning.More significantly,ever since 1980s,China has been undertaking the unprecedented comprehensive land use planning which covers its entire territory;this work has definitely played a positive role for China's socio-economic construction;but it has yet faced with grave challenges.To summarize these valuable lessons and experiences will surely awaken us to their important academic value and practical guiding for furthering the science of land use planning and improving our future work of comprehensive land planning.Our current planning job is in dire need of a scientific and systematical theory and methods.China's modern land use planning has made references to all related theories,has taken lessons from all previous achievements,has studied and compared other countries/ regions' land use planning systems,has systematically reviewed all rights and wrongs of China's land use planning,has followed the latest developments and trends of modern land use planning;has worked out the theories and methods for China's land use planning;and has initiated case studies of China's land use strategic planning.All these have laid solid and scientific ground for China's future progress of land use planning science and China's land use planning work.Society changes with the changes of environment,and much of the changes come from land use planning.Hence,the development of land use planning is regarded as a highly synthesizing process.The social and economic development has been up-grading and perfecting land use planning theories and methods.Comparison study of land use planning in other countries and regions has enlightened us with the truth that land use planning systems vary sharply with the country or region's basic conditions and social-economic systems.Yet,at the same time,the same need for government regulating on land use planning has brought about much similarities in theories,systems,goals,targets, measures,procedures and managements,which are valuable assets for us to learn from.The historical review of China's land use planning adequately shows that its progress is in line with its social-economic growing trend.Before China's opening and reform, China's land use planning fitted well with its centralized economic planning and the need of its state-run farmland and rural communes;the then main planning methods consisted of projects layouts,technical design and on-site drawings.Ever since China started the opening-up and reforms,its land use planning has switched to meet the need of a market economy and the control of land uses;its main form has become comprehensive land use planning;its major planning measures are featured with "regional(uses) zoning plus quota controlling".More and more emphasis is put on theories and methods of sustainable development,public participation and the like.Here are some of the conclusions reached through studies on China's modern land use planning.(1)Some theories have significantly influenced the forming and developing of modern land use planning,including idealism,rationalism,ecological-orientation, humanism,sustainability doctrines,etc.Yes its fundamental theories consist of systematic control of land uses,government regulating of land uses and land resources allocating under un-balanced economic situations.Theories of modern land use planning are made up of land use evolutions,land use organizing and land use functioning.(2)Land use planning has more and more become an important part of public policies.An inevitable trend is to set up land use planning methods and methodology from the perspective of public polices.Meanwhile,it is still a necessity to maintain the land use planning tradition of designing land uses.(3)The future will find an ever-rising and versatile demand on land and intensifying conflicts between land supply and demand.It will be a hard but vital task how to coordinate relations of population,resources,grain,environment and development. (4)The near future will require China's land use strategic planning to focus on the integrated demand of the country's key strategies like grain safety,ecological safety, economic development and social harmony and to promote intensified,efficient,scientific and rational use of land.