Planning Compact City in Rapidly Growing Cities—An Estimation of the Effects of New-Type Urbanization Planning in Hangzhou City

Abstract

The Chinese New-type Urbanization (NTU) Plan indicated a major shift in planning towards compact development. This study developed an integrated framework to estimate the effectiveness of planning in promoting compact development in rapidly growing cities. We analyzed the coherence and conformance of planning, as well as the development outcome from a multi-dimensional perspective of compactness. Spatial data of both private and public development projects and big data of POI were employed for analysis in the case of Hangzhou. The findings indicate that land development efficiency and intensive urban functions at the local scale were significantly promoted after NTU planning’s initiation. However, the planning was inefficient in leading a more centralized development at the city scale. This could be attributed to the inability of the planning to resolve conflicts between growth pressure and compact goals, which is reflected in the incoherent control between the master and local plans. The inefficiency is further underlined by the insufficient connection between city-wide and subject plans, as well as the permanent planning of the Urban Development Boundary without specific tools. Particularly, planning performed weaker in controlling public projects due to dual-track planning institution. These conclusions suggest the urgency of enacting a planning system that dynamically links plans of different scales and functions as a crucial element for implementing compact development in rapidly growing areas.