National New-type Urbanization Plan Research Articles

New-type urbanization ecologically reshaping China

Addressing critical ecological issues is one of the core objectives of the Chinese National New-type Urbanization Plan (NTU). However, there is not enough research to clearly demonstrate NTU's impact on environmental pollution. There is a need to provide solid empirical evidence from evaluation of the effects of NTU on environmental pollution. This study implements a series of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference analyses based on a comprehensive panel dataset spanning the period 2006–2017. The quantitative results show that NTU is largely conducive to curbing environmental pollution, with PM2.5 concentrations as a proxy, and its robustness is demonstrated by the parallel trend test and placebo test. Further, the ecological effect of NTU is heterogeneous in terms of city level, location, and former pollution level. Small and medium cities benefit more than larger or central cities from NTU, and eastern cities exhibit better air quality improvement than cities in western regions. In addition, through quantile regression, we find that the positive outcomes of NTU are restricted by level of pollution, i.e., heavier pollution adds greatly to the difficulty of abatement.

Examining the Planning Policies of Urban Villages Guided by China’s New-Type Urbanization: A Case Study of Hangzhou City

Planning policies have greatly influenced the development of urban villages, an informal phenomenon in which rural settlements are encircled by urban environments during China's rapid urbanization process. "The National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)" of China initiated in 2014 provides a new perspective on planning policy research on China' urban villages. Hangzhou, a pioneer city that adopts new-type urbanization in China and combines the characteristics of rapid urban growth, mountainous urban terrains, and a long cultural history, serves as a typical case study to compare the planning policies responding to the informality of urban villages guided by traditional and new-type urbanization. This study employed the content analysis method to analyze the evolution of Hangzhou's planning policies of urban villages since the reform and opening up and used one-way ANOVA to analyze the differences in rental levels among the urban villages developed under the planning policies of different urbanization stages, aiming to compare the influences of planning policies guided by traditional and new-type urbanization on urban village development. The results indicate that the policies allowing some degree of informality in the new-type urbanization stage achieve a higher rental level for urban villages than the policies of the traditional urbanization stages that restrict and prevent informality. The findings of this research suggest that informality may provide advantages that formality cannot replace and provides important policy implications for rapidly urbanizing countries.

Analysis of the Urban Land Use Efficiency in the New-Type Urbanization Process of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt.

The accelerated urbanization process in China has caused a shift in the urban land use structure. The Chinese government has issued ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan’ focusing on the rational use of resources, which is of great significance for the intensification and sustainability of land use. In promoting the construction of the new-type urbanization (N-TU), enhancing the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) is crucial to regional coordinated development. This study uses panel data from 2011 to 2020 for 11 provinces (cities) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and adopts the super efficiency (SE) slacks-based measure (SBM) model with undesirable outputs and the entropy weight method to calculate the ULUE and N-TU levels. The study uses the System generalized method of moment (Sys-GMM) to study the N-TU’s impact on the ULUE empirically. The results indicate: (i) the overall trend of new-type urbanization level is gradually increasing and has the characteristics of uneven spatial distribution between provinces. (ii) The ULUE shows a fluctuating upward trend during the studied period. (iii) The N-TU and its subsystems have significant positive effects on the ULUE. Overall, this study aims to explore the relationship between the N-TU and ULUE enriching the theoretical analysis and empirical research in related fields, thus helping decision makers in the assessment and design of policy recommendations.

Evaluating Sustainability of Urbanization from a Multidimensional Perspective: A Case Study of 11 National Urban Agglomerations in China

Abstract During the period of rapid urban growth worldwide, China’s urbanization process has soared. Based on China’s National New-Type Urbanization Plan (NNUP), this paper takes 11 national-level ...

How Does New-Type Urbanization Affect the Subjective Well-Being of Urban and Rural Residents? Evidence from 28 Provinces of China

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) put forward the novel principle of “people-oriented” policy. Has the Chinese government’s plan achieved the expected results? To answer this question, the present study evaluates the impacts of New-type Urbanization on the subjective well-being (SWB) of residents. Based on the IV Ordered Probit Model and the data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we determined that (1) living in cities has a positive impact on SWB, and this impact is significant at a statistical level of 1%; (2) urban household registration (hukou) has no significant impact on SWB; and (3) “Gender”, “Income”, “Job”, “Politics”, “Education”, “Marriage”, and “Health” have significant effects on SWB. To improve residents’ SWB, the government should enhance the attractiveness of the city and significantly reform the household registration system.

Macao’s post-Mao grand tour: China’s gamble on urbanization in the Venetian Macao Resort

ABSTRACT The Venetian Macao Resort is one of the world’s largest buildings and Macao’s most popular attraction, visited by millions of tourists each year from mainland China. This article explores the Venetian’s function in China’s National New-Type Urbanization Plan, a macro-economic initiative implemented in 2014 by China’s central government. The project aims to urbanize hundreds of millions of rural Chinese citizens in hopes that these new urbanites will create a domestic consumption economy powerful enough to sustain economic growth. One key to enhancing urban consumption levels is fostering what Louis Wirth called ‘urbanism as a way of life’ – the density, heterogeneity, and anonymity of urban experience that stimulates market activity. Drawing on indigenous Chinese theories of education, and China’s pedagogical use of normative models to guide ethical behavior, this article analyzes the Venetian as an encapsulated model city in this national urbanization plan. It explores how tourists in the Venetian experience a normative mode of ‘urbanism as a way of life’ that comports post-socialist consumers, and contributes to the country’s economic development. As a privatized urban enclosure, the Venetian constitutes an architectonic resolution to the inherent contradiction of China’s macro-economic planning, and the risks that urbanization poses to the central government.

Impact of county-scale land use change on the value of ecosystem services: A case study in Nanping, Fujian, China

With the changing behavior of land use by explosive population growth, the ecological environment is constantly disturbed and destroyed by humans, and the value of ecosystem services is obviously degraded. After the introduction of the national new-type urbanization plan, counties have become the key areas to promote new-type urbanization, and county land use is exceptionally active. Therefore, it is especially urgent to grasp the impact of county land use changes on ecosystem service values. Based on remote sensing satellite image interpretation to obtain county land use classification data, the changes of ecosystem service values in County between 1995 and 2015 were thoroughly explored. The research results show that the total value of ecosystem services has increased in most regions during the 20 years, among which, the service value of Shunchang County has increased most significantly. In terms of the service values of different land use types in each region, woodland is the main contributor to ecological services in different regions. From different time periods, Jian’ou City had the highest value of woodland ecosystem services in 1995 and 2015. In contrast, Songxi County had a lower value of services for each ecosystem type during 20 years.

The Impact of New Urbanization Policy on In Situ Urbanization—Policy Test Based on Difference-in-Differences Model

Compared with traditional urbanization, new urbanization is more closely aligned with China’s basic national conditions and reflects the basic goal of sustainable development. As the main method of new urbanization, in situ urbanization can make up for the shortcomings of traditional urbanization. The establishment of national new urbanization pilot areas is an important element of the new urbanization policy. This paper tests the policy effect of the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) on in situ urban development through the establishment of pilot areas. We found the following: (1) In the central region, the establishment of new urbanization pilot areas has not played a significant role in promoting the process of in situ urbanization. By dividing the central cities into Yangtze River and non–Yangtze River Economic Belt areas, we also find that the effect of the new urbanization policy is not obvious, for these cities are not located in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. (2) The central cities located in the Yangtze River Economic Belt have seen significant policy effects due to their advantages in transportation, resources, industry, labor, etc. The establishment of new urbanization pilot areas has a significant promoting effect on the process of in situ urbanization.

Exploring the relationship between new-type urbanization and sustainable urban land use: Evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

The rapid development of urbanization has driven irreversible changes in land use, the Chinese government has adopted ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan’ focusing on rational utilization of resources, which will be of great significance effect to the sustainability, rational and intensive land use. This article built indicator systems to measure the level of new-type urbanization and the sustainability of land use by using the full permutation polygon synthetic indicator method and analyzed the relationship between the new-type urbanization and sustainable land use by using panel data model from 2002 to 2016 in 203 prefecture-level cities in China. Assessment results showed that there were serious problems of insufficient efficiency of land use in most cities and far behind the level of new-type urbanization. This indicated that the quality of current urbanization was low quality as the urban sprawled frequently and exceed the quality, and the coordinated development of urbanization and sustainable land use has not been achieved. The results of econometric model showed that new-type urbanization has a significant positive impact on land use, which implied that the implementation of the policy has not reduced the sustainability of land use, but played a significant role in improving it. Therefore, the current main task is to explore an intensive, efficient, ecological, rural-urban integration and harmonious urbanization way to pursue a harmonious relationship between urbanization and sustainable land use.

Evolution of rural settlements in the Tongzhou District of Beijing under the new-type urbanization policies

In 2014, China launched its latest urbanization strategy, the National New-type Urbanization Plan, to promote scientific and reasonable urbanization modes. China's new-type urbanization policy not only affects urban development, but will also have significant impacts on the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers as well as on the use modes of rural settlements. A thorough analysis of the impacts of new-type urbanization policies on the pattern evolution of rural settlements is therefore critical for developing and proposing a science-based layout scheme of rural settlements and for guiding the development and evolution of rural settlements in a reasonable manner. In this paper, we use the Tongzhou District of Beijing, one of China's new-type urbanization pilot areas, as an example. Applying the CLUE-S model to analyze the impacts of new-type urbanization policies, we simulate the potential influences of the implementation of these policies on the pattern evolution of rural settlements. Based on the results, the implementation of new-type urbanization policies has significant influences on both urban and rural population migration, mainly through the reform of the household registration system. The results further suggest that these policies have significant impacts on the land use scale as well as on the spatial patterns of rural settlements. By 2030, under the scenario of new-type urbanization, the land use scale of rural settlements in Tongzhou District would increase by 0.79% compared with that under the scenario of conventional urbanization. In terms of spatial distribution under new-type urbanization, land use of rural settlements would mainly compete with that of urban land and grassland. We conclude that the spatial distribution of rural settlements in Tongzhou District can be improved and better regulated via reasonable planning.

Characteristics of state-owned construction land supply in Chinese cities by development stage and industry

Land supply and regional economic development are closely related. Differences in regional industrial structure and degree of urbanization result in differences in the characteristics of land supply. In this study, a Python program was used to obtain 2010–2017 land transaction data of 327 cities in China’s Land Market Network. The development stage of each city was identified according to its per capita gross domestic product and industrial structure in 2017. Land supply, at various stages of development, for state-driven construction in cities was characterized with respect to various industries. We found that with the evolution of development stage, the annual average land supply scale of the city increased from 9491.77 hectares in primary industrialization stage (PIS) to 24614.84 hectares in developed stage (DS), and the proportion of newly increased construction land decreased from 87% PIS to 24614.84 hectares in DS. Furthermore, the supply structures of state-owned construction land significantly differed across development stages. With respect to the evolution of development stages, the change of land supply proportion in various industries presents the types of gradual decline, gradual increase, initial increase and subsequent decline, initial decline and subsequent increase, and volatility. The frequency distribution of the proportion of land supply in cities allocated for various industries and across the developmental stages was different. The administrative hierarchy of cities in China has a large influence on land supply. The effects of National New-Type Urbanization Plan (NUP) and marketization on land supply were contrary to expectations. NUP has significantly promoted land supply. The higher the development stage of the city, the positive effect of marketization on land supply has not increased. The findings enrich the theory of regional land use and can guide the formulation of land supply policies in different stages of development.

Build a people-oriented urbanization: China’s new-type urbanization dream and Anhui model

Since 2014, the Chinese government has initiatednew-type urbanization under the guidance of ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020)’, which embarks on a significant transformation of the model of urbanization in post-reform China. To understand the origin and outputs of this policy, this article demonstrates the context of China’s new-type urbanization. The paper proposes a conceptual framework of new-type urbanization, which mainly includes four aspects: humanism, people-oriented urbanization; inclusivism, benefits sharing for urban and rural; sustainability, development without sacrifice of resources and environment; and harmonism, coordination. This is followed by an examination of the case of Anhui province, as a pilot province of China’s new-type urbanization. Anhui has performed a lot of related work to promote citizenization of peasant workers and has made great progress on the reform of the household registration system. The study found that despite a special emphasis on people-oriented urbanization, the pressures and costs of citizenization of peasant workers are growing fast, accompanied by rising housing prices in cities. This insight suggests there are benefits and costs of promoting China’s new-type urbanization. Despite the advantages of institutional innovation, the unexpected side effects such as rapid rising housing prices actually undermine the success of plan implementation.

Progress of China's new-type urbanization construction since 2014: A preliminary assessment

The demand to measure the progress of China's new-type urbanization construction appears to be increasing due to its profound impact on both China and global sustainable urbanization. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the progress since the issuance of the National New-type Urbanization Plan (NUP) in March 2014, and it is unclear how to assess the comprehensive new-type urbanization construction, which has multiple dimensions and various themes. To close this gap, a new three-stage framework is proposed. This article outlines and classifies the up-to-date policies and actions since the release of the NUP and provides a preliminary assessment of China's new-type urbanization construction from the aspects of population urbanization, land urbanization, economic urbanization and comprehensiveness. The results show that China unfolded a very comprehensive top-down campaign of new-type urbanization construction. The strict urban-rural dual household registration system has started to be changed into a residence permit system. However, the implementation of the NUP is also facing many challenges. The most important thing is that the bottom-up factors should be more emphasized and combined with top-down factors in future plan implementations. This is to say, peasant-workers will need to be taken into proper consideration. People-oriented new-type urbanization should position peasant-workers at the center. Also, China’s transformation of new-type urbanization is comprehensive, complex, dynamic, and long term. It should not be expected that this transformation will be completed during the short six-year planning period.

Damming China’s rivers to expand its cities: the urban livelihoods of rural people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam

ABSTRACTOver the next two decades, China, the country with the world’s largest urban population, is orchestrating the urbanization of some 300 million rural people. In its National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014) the State Council has outlined a range of strategies to grow its cities not least of which is rural-to-urban migration. This plan will have significant effects on other types of displacement, particularly, the forced displacement and resettlement of those living in the path of large dams. This paper reviews what is known about New-Type Urbanization Approach to Reservoir Resettlement. Then, based on a longitudinal study of 145 resettled households at the Three Gorges Dam, the livelihood effects of rural-to-urban resettlement are unpacked to provide lessons for its use in advancing urbanization. It finds that rural-to-urban resettlers have lower incomes than their urban-to-urban and rural-to-rural counterparts, and higher rates of food and income insecurity.

In Situ Urbanization in China: Processes, Contributing Factors, and Policy Implications

Based on a review of existing literature and government documents, an analysis of official statistics, and case studies of both coastal and inland regions in several provinces (especially Fujian Province), this paper provides a systematic examination of in situ urbanization in China. The paper first reviews the processes of in situ urbanization and its importance in China’s overall urbanization process, and then examines various factors and mechanisms contributing to its emergence and development. The paper further looks at the changing trends of in situ urbanization in both the coastal and inland regions in China, and discusses the challenges and opportunities these pose, paying particular attention to their implications for the development of areas that have experienced outmigration in the context of the emerging trend of return migration. The paper concludes with a discussion on planning and policy implications of in situ urbanization for China in the context of its National New-type Urbanization Plan, and for other developing countries with similar conditions, and calls for a new developmental approach incorporating migration and in situ urbanization into an integrated framework.

Rural migrant workers’ intentions to permanently reside in cities and future energy consumption preference in the changing context of urban China

Focusing on China, which has a special household registration system (called hukou), this study examines the likely effects of the China’s National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) on rural migrant workers’ intentions to reside permanently in cities and their future energy consumption preference. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in 2014 and 2015 among rural migrant workers and residents with a hukou in three cities (985 migrants and 671 residents with a hukou). Analysis results show that 39% of migrant workers intended to reside permanently in cities under the aforementioned plan, and the current energy consumption of residents with a hukou is 1.2–4.0 times higher than that of rural migrant workers. Further analyses based on structural equation models confirm that migrants’ current less-satisfied life experience and lower level of viability in cities hinder them to become a permanent urban resident. Unexpectedly, migrants’ permanent residence intentions do not affect their future energy consumption preference, which is however mostly affected by their confidence and barriers to become a permanent resident, especially future concerns about health and lack of social security in their current daily life. Finally, it is argued that studies on rural migrants should pay more attention to capability-concerned and life-oriented aspects, which are useful to derive important insights into cross-sectoral energy policymaking.

Infrastructure for China’s Ecologically Balanced Civilization † †Note: This paper is not intended to represent views endorsed by the OECD nor by its member countries.

Abstract China’s green investment needs up to 2020 are ¥1.7 trillion–2.9 trillion CNY ($274 billion–468 billion USD) per year. Estimates of financing requirements are provided for multiple sectors, including sustainable energy, infrastructure (including for environmental protection), environmental remediation, industrial pollution control, energy and water efficiency, and green products. The context to China’s green financing is discussed, covering urbanization, climate change, interactions between infrastructure sectors, and the transformation of industry. Much of the infrastructure financing will occur in cities, with a focus on equity, environmental protection, and quality of life under the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020). China has implemented many successful policies in the building sector, but there is still considerable scope for improvement in the energy efficiency of Chinese buildings. China is currently pursuing low-carbon growth strategies that are consistent with its overall environmental and quality-of-life objectives. Beyond 2020, China’s future as an ecologically balanced civilization will rest on the implementation of a central infrastructure policy: China 2050 High Renewable Energy Penetration Scenario and Roadmap Study. As exemplified by the Circular Economy Development Strategy and Near-Term Action Plan, an essential part of China’s green industrial transformation involves engineering systems that conserve materials, thereby reducing or even eliminating wastes. To better understand changes to China’s economy under its green transformation and to unlock large potential sources of finance, it is necessary to undertake a fuller examination of all of China’s infrastructure sectors, particularly freight rail infrastructure and ports. Large investments are required to clean up a legacy of environmental contamination of soil and groundwater and to reduce industrial pollution. Transformation of the power sector away from coal will avoid some industrial treatment costs. The contribution of engineers in planning, designing, and constructing China’s new green infrastructure will be furthered by understanding the broad policy context and the interactions between land use, infrastructure, and environmental performance.

A Regional Categorization for "New-Type Urbanization" in China.

Regional differences in the character of urbanization in China are substantial. The promotion of what has been termed “new-type urbanization” cannot, as a result of these regional differences, be expected to follow a universal approach—rather, such a development must objectively adhere to locational and category-specific principles and adopt differentiated urbanization development models. Regional categorization is often used in geography, but is rarely deployed in research addressing human and social problems relating to urbanization. In March 2014, China published the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020), which calls for the scientific and reasonable planning of “new-type urbanization,” and appropriate regional categorizations are urgently needed in order to guide this reform. Responding to this challenge, this research engaged in the design of a “dominantly quantitative analysis, qualitatively supplemented” method in order to divide China into 5 main regions and 47 sub-regions in terms of new-type urbanization. The paper discusses the features and key problems of each region. This study introduces a new method for regional categorization, thereby remedying the lack of regional categorization in relation to “new-type urbanization” in China, and ultimately promoting the development of regional categorization in the humanities as a valuable reference for healthy and sustainable Chinese urbanization.

Important progress and future direction of studies on China’s urban agglomerations

Urban agglomerations are an inevitable outcome of China’s new national industrialization and urbanization reaching relatively advanced stages of development over the past 30 years. In the early 2000s, urban agglomerations became new geographical units for participating in global competition and the international division of labor, and China has spent the past decade promoting them as the main spaces for pushing forward its new form of urbanization. The convening of the first Central Work Conference on Urbanization and the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) further defined the status of urban agglomerations as the main players in promoting China’s new type of national urbanization. Nevertheless, urban agglomerations remain a weak link in Chinese academia and are in urgent need of study. Only 19 articles on the theme of urban agglomerations were published in the journal Acta Geographica Sinica between 1934 and 2013, accounting for only 0.55% of all articles written during that period. Not only are there very few, they have also all been published within a relatively short period of time, with the first having been published only 10 years ago. The studies are also concentrated among only a few authors and institutions, and research is aimed at national requirements but is rather divergent. Even so, some studies on urban agglomerations have played a leading role and made important contributions to dictating the overall formation of urban agglomerations nationwide. Specifically, a proposed spatial pattern for urban agglomerations formed the basic framework for the spatial structure of China’s urban agglomerations and guided the government to make urban agglomerations the main urban pattern when promoting the new type of urbanization; proposed standards and technologies for identifying the spatial dimensions of urban agglomerations played an important role in defining the scope of national urban agglomerations; a series of studies in the area of urban agglomerations spurred more in-depth and practical studies in the field; and studies on issues related to the formation and growth of urban agglomerations provided warnings on the future selection and development of urban agglomerations. Taking the progress and results of these studies as a foundation, the foci of selecting and developing urban agglomerations in China are as follows: to be problem-oriented and profoundly reflect on and review new problems exposed in the selection and development of urban agglomerations; to concentrate on urban agglomerations and lay importance on the formation of a new “5+9+6” spatial structure for China’s urban agglomerations; to rely on urban agglomerations and promote the formation of a new pattern of national urbanization along the main axes highlighted by urban agglomerations; to be guided by national strategic demand and continue to deepen understanding of major scientific issues in the course of the formation and development of urban agglomerations, including studying the resource and environmental effects of high-density urban agglomerations, scientifically examining resource and environmental carrying capacities of high-density urban agglomerations, creating new management systems and government coordination mechanisms for the formation and development of urban agglomerations, studying the establishment of public finance systems and public finance reserve mechanisms for urban agglomerations, and studying and formulating technical specifications for urban agglomeration planning and standards for delineating urban agglomeration boundaries.

The China Dream is an Urban Dream: Assessing the CPC’s National New-Type Urbanization Plan

The future of China is inexorably an urban one. Within the next 15 years, a billion Chinese—70 % of the population—will be living in urbanized areas. In anticipation of this, in March of 2014 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council issued the National New-Type Urbanization Plan (国家新型城镇化规划), China’s first official plan on urbanization. The plan emphasizes a “human-centered and environmentally friendly path” to urbanization over the next decade. In concrete terms, this will mean urban hukou expansion, infrastructure development and investment, and rural land-use reform. For many urban migrants and rural residents likely to be moved, “The China Dream” (中国梦) via urbanization fulfills Deng Xiaoping’s call for a “moderately prosperous society” (小康社会) by encouraging the aspirations of those left behind after 35 years of Reform and Opening-up. This paper will assess the role that the China Dream plays in China’s efforts to expand urbanization and enhance China’s efforts at boosting domestic consumption and maintaining social stability.