International Experiences Of Urban Growth Boundary And Implications To China

During the rapid growing of urbanization process in China, urban sprawls surrounding the outer edge has been a major way of expanding among most cities, which has posted difficult challenges for city development and management. Clear requirements on Urban Development Boundary have been presented by the Central Urbanization Work Conference in 2013 and Central Urban Work Conference in 2015. The relevant departments of Central Government have determined to launch pilot projects at fourteen cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and it will be expanded to over 600 cities across the country. This thesis intends to provide thoughts and ideas for governments at different levels in implementing these central plans and managing urban space development in a modern and scientific way.Five chapters are presented in this thesis and the first one is study review. The origination background and development process of Urban Growth Boundary are sorted out at a historical dimension. And, the academic definition and defining strategy of Urban Growth Boundary are summarized, analyzed and evaluated. International experiences are discussed as the second part. Five cities are selected to be analyzed as typical cases on their characterization, achievements and existing problems. These cities are Portland, Melbourne, Cape down, London and Seoul, and they are from five different continents, and from developed countries and developing countries with different type of boundary patterns (growth boundary and green belt). The applicability in China is studied as the third part, in which the concerns are discussed on our application of Urban Growth Boundary based on the summarized policies and experiences in China. In the fourth chapter, strategies are proposed during the process of confirming and implementing the Urban Development Boundary, and it is recommended to improve the understanding on the significance of the boundary, to accurate the confirming principles, to regular the management structure and to build the security system during the process of boundary definition and implement. The conclusion is presented in the fifth part, along with the expectation of the future study considering the current difficulties and deficiencies.The following statements can be concluded based on this study.(1) The Urban Growth Boundary has developed into the universal managing tools for city expanding in the world. The international experiences show that the Urban Growth Boundary plays an important role in guiding and controlling the city dimensions and expanding directions, in protecting the natural resources and ecosystems and in ensuring the sustainable development. And it is an indispensable method for the urban space management.(2) Considering the current developing stages and existing problems of Chinese cities, the Urban Growth Boundary is applicable. The relevant policy actualization and our experiences on pilot projects provide chances and circumstances for the localization of the Urban Growth Boundary.(3) To improve the understanding and to insist the scientific principles are the prerequisite and the key point of designing and complementing the Urban Development Boundary. Urban Development Boundary is necessary to improve the urban ecosystem and is the significant measure to carry out the farming land protecting system. Moreover, it is an efficient method to transfer the urban developing mode, as well as the strong tool to upgrade our ability to space management.(4) The guarantee for designing and implementing the Urban Development Boundary is to perfect managing systems and to build security systems. The successfully planning and smoothly implement of Urban Growth Boundary in the West are assured by the well developed managing systems and well-built security systems. To make sure an excellent applying result of this world universal tool in China, it is demanded to solidify a timely adjusted managing system on a clearly defined subject, with strictly examine and approve and under austerely monitoring. And it is necessary to build a public participated ensuring system for Urban Development Boundary, coordinated by government and directed by the National People’s Congress legislation.