Planning quality analysis from the perspective of land use

Land use planning is generally a strategic process. The quality of land use planning directly influences the rational use of land resources and the sustainability of socio-economic development. Current studies have focused mainly on the external effects of land use planning such as comprehensive benefits and environmental impacts, while ignoring the inherited attributes and characteristics of land use. This study in fact showed that even such evaluation studies were incomplete. The empirical relationship between land use and planning was established from the perspective of land use in this paper. A 6-aspect analytical framework was constructed for evaluating land use plan. The aspects of the framework included whether or not (1) land use form was stable; (2) land use structure was rational; (3) land use behavior was orderly; (4) land use degree was changeable; (5) land use function was improvable; and (6) land use layout was reasonable. Based on this 6-aspect framework, a comprehensive evaluation system was proposed and applied to a newly completed general land use planning in Jinkouhe District, Leshan City, Sichuan Province. The analysis showed that each characteristic index for the target year (2010) and near future (2020) was superior to that of the base year (2005). The indexes for 2020 were generally better than those for 2010. This implies that the general land use planning quality was excellent and was broadly able to meet the objectives of land use in the study area. Implementation of the land use plan was likely to promote optimal allocations of regional land resources with positive effects on regional development. The method was considered to be generally simple, feasible and effective in evaluating land use planning quality. The aim of the study was to provide methodological support to the management practice of general land use planning for improved quality and implementation effects. It was important to note that general land use planning was a multi-link engineering system that was comprehensive with strong policy considerations. Implementation was likely to induce significant changes due to unforeseen effects of regulation adjustment. With therefore the exception of quality analysis, a whole range of tracking management was executed at the implementation stage of planning. Consistently, the gathering of feedback and other relevant information needed thorough screening and evaluation against planning objectives. The recognition attained in the method was comprehensive and detailed.