Research On The Coordination Tools For Department Plans And Territorial Plans In Guangdong Province

Promoting regional coordinated development is a significant strategic issue facing China.As planning is a vital tool for management and development,coordination of diverse plans plays a crucial role in facilitating regional coordinated development.Planning is characterized by multiple categories and multiple dimensions,among which spatial-dimension coordination is important for policy coordination.With space as an intermediary and vector,spatial-dimension coordination’s core tasks involve coordinating various development elements and policies addressing the spatial dimension,striving for general benefits and systematic optimization,and further achieving the sustainable development goals regarding the economy,society and environment.Thus,spatial dimension is of great importance to planning coordination.Currently,the territorial spatial planning featured with five levels and three categories attempts to construct a blueprint to enhance the integrity of the whole nation’s planning.The blueprint signifies a comprehensive plan,and five levels and three categories indicate that the planning outcome involves five scales and three types.This brings about the following theoretical questions: Does the five-level planning refer to the five stages of the comprehensive plan or the planning outcome at five different scales? Does the three-category planning refer to three planning deliverables or three distinct components within the blueprint? These theoretical reflections are closely connected with a fundamental question concerning territorial spatial planning system: Is planning integrity achieved through developing a comprehensive plan or a coordinated planning system? While planning ideas since the 1970s have negated the rational comprehensive planning,advances in computer technology and artificial intelligence presents a new vision for comprehensive planning again.In China,the provincial plan scale is situated between the national and prefecture-county levels.The provincial plans comprises of plans formulated by both the provincial government and relevant departments,and possesses the function of both transmission and coordination.Internationally,in terms of the spatial planning of the European Union(EU),its integration scale,the coordination of stakeholders,policies and laws involved are far more complex than those of provincial plans in China,whereas the administrative effectiveness of EU spatial planning is far inferior to that of provincial plan in China.Yet,the EU spatial planning has developed a coordination idea based on the local development-oriented principle,and have effectively coordinated spatial conflicts in a variety of fragmented policy areas in the spatial dimension.Therefore,from the perspective of empiricism,this study adopts a coordinated planning approach,drawing mainly on the coordination tools of EU spatial planning distinguished by its cross-sector and trans-territory characteristics.How to apply EU spatial planning ideas for coordination of provincial plans in China? This is not only a theoretical question,but also a practical issue.The natural and socioeconomic diversity in the territory of Guangdong Province renders its planning coordination as typical and representative practices nationwide.Although Guangdong has accumulated experience about formulating integrated development plans addressing spatial dimension and facilitating the three-plan integration,the planning coordination still confronts dilemma resulted from cross-department silos and cross-territory fragmentation.This study underlines and applies the coordination ideas of the EU spatial planning as theoretical framework and also comparatively analytical perspective.Nevertheless,drawing on the EU spatial planning does not mean waiving the power of provincial plan governance lacking in the EU context.Instead,the efficiency attributed to resources organization for planning coordination in China is addressed.In this way,apart from considering features of China’s planning,this study could draw insights from good practices about planning coordination,such as Germany where the coordinating mechanism has been established by constructing spatial order,and Queensland in Australia where state planning power directly intervenes spatial interests.Supported by the above theoretical research and case analysis,this study applies the Pasteur ’ s quadrant,takes Guangdong Province as a representative case for empirical research with a focus on its practices of coordination of provincial plans since 2000.The research methods used in this study involve system analysis,literature review,qualitative analysis,quantitative analysis,and comparative analysis with international cases.It is found that the coordination of Guangdong provincial plans confronts multiple practical issues,including:(1)inadequate departmental coordination,(2)ineffective regional coordination,(3)lacking for the thought of integration and coordination with space as a tool,as well as(4)lacking for a unified spatial unit for coordination actions.Accordingly,targeting at Guangdong context,this study investigates and delineates the spatial unit system as the vector of Guangdong’s provincial plans and policies.Further,this study argues that coordination of provincial plans should opt for the pathway of "carrying out planning coordination" to advance spatial coordination development,and integrate a series of technical tools including spatial units,spatial patterns,and spatial policies through constructing a two-level planning coordination work structure of "provincial spatial vision" and "provincial spatial platform".Overall,the effectiveness and applicability of the theoretical context and methodological tools proposed in this study are verified with the case study of Guangdong.