Territorial spatial planning

Territorial spatial planning (Chinese: 国土空间规划; pinyin: Guótǔ kōngjiān guīhuà) is the spatial planning system of the People's Republic of China which, according to its official definition, serves as the guide of the country's territory's development, the blueprint of sustainable development, as well as the fundamental basis of all kinds of development. Territorial spatial planning is an "all-in-one" planning encompassing former major function zone planning, land-use planning, urban and rural planning, as well as other different types of spatial planning.

Prior to the establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the introduction of policies of territorial spatial planning, various types of spatial planning systems had existed in mainland China, which include (but are not limited to):

In addition to the variety and complexity, due to the overlaps and gaps among the functions of different plans and departments concerned and the failure to coordinate them, contradictions among different plans had frustrated the formulation and implementation of these plans. Despite the provisions in both the Urban and Rural Planning Law and the Land Management Law requiring their corresponding plans to be coordinated with others, the mechanism of coordination remained unclear and, in practice, unimplemented.

An attempt to solve this problem was conceptualized in the Decision of the CCCPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform passed on November 12, 2013:

51. Improving the system of natural resource property rights and the system of natural resource utilization control. Ecological spaces including rivers, forests, mountain ranges, grasslands, undeveloped land, tidal flats, etc. shall be uniformly registered their ownership, so as to establish a property rights system for natural resource assets with clear property rights, rights and responsibilities clearly defined and effective supervision. A spatial planning system shall be establish, and development control lines for production, living and ecological space shall be designated so as to implement use control. The system for the economical and intensive use of energy, water and land shall be improved.
The national natural resource management system shall be improved, so as to exercise the unified duties as the owners of natural resource assets owned by the whole people. The natural resource supervision system shall be improved so as to exercise the unified all duties in regard to territorial space utilization control.

— The CCCPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform (中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定)

On December 12-13, the Central Working Conference of Urbanization (中央城镇化工作会议) discussed the necessity to "build a spatial planning system, push forward the reform of the planning system, and accelerate legislative works of planning".

The National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020) (国家新型城镇化规划（2014－2020年）) put forward the idea to "strengthen coordination between urban planning and other planning systems including economic and social development planning, major function zone planning, land-use planning , ecological and environmental protection planning, and infrastructure planning. Push forward the integration of multiple plans, including economic and social development planning, urban planning, and land use planning, into one plan in areas where conditions permit." In the same year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the Notice on the Pilot Project of "Integrating Multiple Plans Into One" for Cities and Counties (关于开展市县“多规合一”试点工作的通知), and a total of 28 cities and counties were appointed in the pilot project.