National Plan for Main Functional Zones (主体功能区规划)
Core idea
Zones the whole country by its appropriate development function.
Why it matters
Became the foundation of China's territorial-spatial planning system.
Description
Proposed in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan and issued by the State Council in 2010, the National Plan for Main Functional Zones divides China's territory according to the development role each area should play. Land is classified into optimised, key, restricted and prohibited development zones, judged against carrying capacity, existing development intensity and future potential, so that dense urban growth, agriculture and ecological protection are directed to suitable regions. The plan is supported by differentiated fiscal, investment, industrial, land-use, population and environmental policies, and national key ecological functional zones are designated among the restricted areas. The approach was later extended to cover marine space.
Significance
The plan marked a decisive shift from undifferentiated growth towards spatially differentiated development in China, embedding ecological carrying capacity and protection limits within national strategy. It supplied the conceptual basis for the unified territorial-spatial planning system consolidated after 2018, and its functional-zone logic continues to structure how the state allocates development and conservation across an immense and unevenly endowed territory.
What shaped it
- Zoning (1884 Germany / 1916 NYC)
- China's reform & opening (1978)
- Sustainable development (Brundtland) (1987)
Sources
- https://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/international/spw/general/china/index_e.html
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11769-012-0528-y
- https://bulletinofcas.researchcommons.org/journal/vol39/iss4/10/