Chinese city planners ready to redesign their mission

As China undergoes sweeping social change, the normally tough task of designing tomorrow's modern cities is growing even more daunting says veteran city planner Zou Deci.

"Suddenly, you have to face more vocal shareholders with diverse demands, pushing you to reform your design ideas, approach and practice," Zou said at the conclusion of the annual national planning conference on Monday.

The 80-year-old used to lead the country's top city planning team. Celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year, Zou and his peers helped give a modern face to cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Wenzhou.

"In retrospect, we have to make a change and redefine our role," he said.

China was a relatively late starter in urbanization. But since 1995, its urbanization rate has been accelerating with annual growth of more than 1 percent and urbanization growing at 14 percent during the past ten years, according to Li Xiaojiang, head of China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

However, the breathtaking urban expansion has been GDP-oriented, paying no heed to social and environmental costs. For example, the urban household registration rate only gained by 9 percent in the past decade, far behind the urbanization growth, leading to a series of social problems, Li added.

Cities rivaled each other to build bigger communities, higher buildings and invite richer enterprises, while ignoring local conditions and residents' demands. The lake area in central China's Wuhan city has shrunk by about one million mu, and about 100 lakes disappeared during the period from 1949 to 2012, according to another researcher.

Meanwhile, "Not in my backyard!" protests against potential environment-damaging projects have surged in recent years, as Chinese people are increasingly health-aware and more vocal in protecting their living environment.

The ultimate role of city planning has shifted from a market-oriented and government-led technological tool to a social mediator facilitating national governance modernization, an idea highlighted by the key CPC meeting in November last year, Li said.

China released an urbanization blueprint envisioning massive building of transport networks, urban infrastructure and residential real estate early this year, aiming to lift the urbanization rate from current 54 percent to 60 percent by 2020. The blueprint aims for urbanization that is human-centered and environmentally friendly.

"Now it is spring for city planning, but winter for city planners. You have more work to do and more interests to balance, as city planning will be closely integrated with social governance," said Sun Anjun, head of the urban and rural planning department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

You have to deal with government policies, local residents, NGOs, enterprises and other shareholders, and take the bigger picture of future vision in mind, Sun said.

"Being a technocrat will not make a good designer in the future," Li added," one has to be sensitive to social trends and widely solicit public opinion and design cities or communities with their interests in mind."

Zou believes in the future, Chinese cities will highlight an ecological civilization and be smarter in offering public services, which rely on the application of gardening expertise and big data-based analysis tools.

To reform city planning, China will scrap government approval for the design practices of foreign-invested city planning firms and delegate the qualification approval of registered planner to lower bodies this year, according to Sun.

Meanwhile, China will try to promote uniform city planning in 28 pilot cities and towns by coordinating the works of the country's top economic planner with ministries of housing and urban-rural development, land resource management and environmental protection.

"We will also streamline city planning procedure and improve the mechanism of public opinion consulting," Sun added.