Dynamic of Regional Planning and Sustainable Development in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up, China has been embedded in global economy. As one of the fastest developing regions, the Pearl River Delta in South China has rapidly developed from an agriculture-based region to a world factory and is subsequently becoming a global innovation center. In the process of rapid development of globalization, marketization and decentralization, how the planning theory and planning concept are applied in this region? And how does the planning adapt to the needs of development to do the space regulation? This paper combs the previous regional plannings of the Pearl River Delta, analyzing how to effectively guide and reshape the sustainable development space under the background of land and space disorder. Four key conclusions emerge from this review. First, the concept of planning has been developing from incremental planning to stock planning. Second, there is a transformation of planning contents that is from building of an economy-oriented production space like industry park planning, to improving quality of the living space and providing environment-friendly ecological space such as greenway planning and quality living circle planning. Third, the upgrading of planning technological means is reflected in the change from expression of concept articles to visualization of big data. Fourth, it shows an obvious change from rigid governance to flexible and multi-scale governance.

Investigation of Dynamic Coupling Coordination between Urbanization and the Eco-Environment—A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta Area

“…The greatest contribution to the continuous improvement of the coordination of the Pearl River Delta area is regional planning in the past, such as industrial park planning, greenway planning, high-quality life circle planning, and so on. The purpose of such planning is to effectively guide and reshape sustainable development and improve the quality of the eco-environment [29]. However, the eco-environment level is still lower than the level of urbanization, and the type of coupling coordination has always stayed at the MC stage, which could be continuously improved.…”

Global Action on SDGs: Policy Review and Outlook in a Post-Pandemic Era

“…UN specialized agencies, enterprises, various social groups and stakeholders, and most importantly, governments, have initiated extensive actions and formulated many policies and measures aimed at the SDGs [3]. There are some policy studies on the realization of SDGs, but they are mainly focused on specific countries (regions) or specific areas or cities, such as the European Union [4], Ganges River basin [5], Amazonia [6], Pearl River Delta [7], India [8], New Zealand [9], as well as specific fields such as decent work [10], agriculture development, public health [11], energy [12], climate change [13]. The current analysis of various global policies is still seriously inadequate.…”

Urban agglomeration worsens spatial disparities in climate adaptation

“…We use the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), a site of major urban agglomeration led by the Chinese central government since at least 2008 14 , 15 , to examine the complexity and challenges of integrating existing local and municipal climate change policies. The GBA, which consists of two highly developed special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macao) and nine economically dynamic cities within Guangdong province, is an ideal site for examining the effects of urban agglomeration because it demonstrates both the locally-generated and top-down dimensions of this process (Supplementary Figure S1 ).…”