From urban sprawl to land consolidation in suburban Shanghai under the backdrop of increasing versus decreasing balance policy: A perspective of property rights transfer

Abstract

Since the 1980s, Chinese cities have witnessed significant growth, resulting in urban sprawl all over the country. Under the strict land quota system, local government has had to transform its approach of Greenfield development to land consolidation. Under the ‘Increasing and Decreasing Balance’ land use policy, the Shanghai government began to consolidate rural construction land in order to acquire extra quota for state land by transferring development rights from collective land to state land and by establishing a three-level land consolidation planning system. This paper firstly examines the expansion of non-agricultural land in Shanghai since 1990. It explains the policy arrangements of land consolidation from the perspective of property rights transfer between state and collective land. Taking Xinbang Township as an example, this paper examines the roles of various stakeholders in land consolidation, the municipalities, district and township governments, village collectives, local villagers and entrepreneurs, and analyses the impact land consolidation has upon them. The paper concludes with discussion and policy implications of future land consolidation.

Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism

“…The policy of land development quotas leads to land consolidation in suburban areas (Tian et al, 2017). New towns are planning products.…”

The State as Both Regulator and Player: The Politics of Transfer of Development Rights in China

“…Three characteristics of TDR programs reflect this. Van der Veen et al (2010) argue that, when gains from land are considered the most important aspect of land use, the right to develop land is more important than ownership of land--to the extent that governments are often obliged to pay compensation for land that is subject to rigid planning control. It allows separation of the right to develop a land parcel from ownership (Janssen-Jansen, 2008) and creates a marketplace for development rights exchange between 'sending areas' targeted for protection and 'receiving areas' slated for growth (Linkous, 2016).…”

“…First, although designed by public institutions as a planning instrument, TDR leverages market mechanisms to achieve public purposes such as preservation of historical sites or farmland without governments having to pay land expropriation and protections costs (Nelson et al, 2012). Thus, the state's role is ideally 'restricted to the regulatory tasks that enable the market to function properly' (van der Veen et al, 2010(van der Veen et al, : 1011. Secondly, through the market TDR compensates those who stand to suffer from regulation-induced loss of economic value of their land.…”

Investigation of Collapsed Building Incidents on Soft Marine Deposit: Both from Social and Technical Perspectives

“…Therefore, due to the occurrence of creep, the decrease in the pore volume for Wenzhou clay could be more pronounced, thus promoting the development of differential settlement (δ). According to Yin [55,56], the tertiary creep of a soil contributes significantly to the long-term deformation of foundations of the highly sensitive clays [57][58][59]. Thus, this creep behavior becomes one of the significant factors contributing to this incident.…”