To improve its national spatial planning system, China aims to harmonize the existing standards for spatial planning and to set up a national standards system. To this end, on 14 October 2024, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Standardization Administration of China issued the “Three-Year Action Plan for the Construction of the National Spatial Planning Standards System (2025-2027)”. Over the next three years, relevant departments will revise or abolish existing standards within the Natural Resources Standards System, and develop new ones based on actual needs. Additionally, standards will be actively referenced in the formulation of national spatial planning policy documents, with timely evaluations and monitoring to track implementation progress.
By 2027, over 30 national and industry standards will be either developed or revised, covering four areas:
- General standards that are applicable across different sectors of land space planning, e.g. the “National spatial planning land use standard” (national standard to be revised) and the “Guidelines for planning the protection and utilization of natural, cultural, and landscape resources” (industry standard to be developed).
- Compilation and approval standards that are related to the planning process, e.g. the “Technical guide for detailed national spatial planning” (national standard to be developed) and the “Guidelines for resilient city planning” (industry standard to be developed).
- Implementation and supervision standards that govern the monitoring and supervision of spatial planning, e.g. the “Procedures for national spatial planning urban health check evaluation” (proposed national standard) and the the “National spatial planning monitoring and evaluation early warning standard” (national standard in development).
- Information technology standards that are related to the digitalisation of land space planning, e.g. the “Technical guide for ecological protection red line demarcation” (industry standard in development) and the “Technical guide for the construction of the national spatial planning implementation monitoring network” (industry standard in development).
Original policy:
