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Institute of Land & Resources and Sustainable Development, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming 650221, China

1 Introduction

Land use zoning is a strategic measure to rationally utilize, renovate and protect land resources according to local conditions[1]. Its role and significance are very significant and has become the core content of each round of overall land use planning in China. Since the middle 1980s, three rounds of overall land use planning have been made and revised in China. As a result, there has been significant progress in related theories and methods to land use zoning, and the zoning system and zoning mode have been developing continuously and have been widely applied in the implementation of overall land use planning. It provides reference for China to formulate the direction of land utilization according to local conditions, reasonably determine land use structure, implement land use control, enhance land use intensification degree and promote the coordinated development of regions.

2 Thezoningmodeinthefirstroundofoveralllanduseplanning (from1985to2000)

According to theLandAdministrationLawofthePeople’sRepublicofChina(1986)andNoticeontheImplementationofOverallLandUsePlanning(Guobanfa[1987]No. 82) issued by General Office of the State Council, the first attempt was made in 1987 to compile the national overall land use planning, and the planning period is from 1985 to 2000. At the national level,theOutlineofNationalOverallLandUsePlanninghas been drafted, with a base period of 1985 and a planning period of 2000, and outlooks in 2020 and 2050 have been made. The planning was approved and implemented by the State Council on February 15, 1993. Through the establishment of the current round of planning, the first nationwide unified land use planning system was set up, and the establishment of land use planning in China, most provinces, cities and counties, and some villages and towns was completed. In this round of overall land use planning, land use zoning has been highlighted (ie regional division of land use). IntheOutlineofNationalOverallLandUsePlanning, in order to guide each area to rationally determine the priority of land use, adjust land use structure, excavate the potential of land and give full play to regional advantages, according to the present condition and planning of land use, as well as the natural and geographical conditions and social and economic development, China was divided into 11 first-level areas and 37 second-level areas based on the premise that the boundary of a county is complete[2]. The first-level areas reflect the most important regional differences in the country, including coastal areas, Songnen-Sanjiang Plain, Xing’anling-Changbai Mountains, the junction of Northeast China, North China and Northwest China, Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, the Loess Plateau, hilly areas to the south of the Yangtze River, southern mountainous areas, plains in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Sichuan Basin, northwestern areas, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The second-level areas reflect land use structure, land use direction, planning objectives, regional differences and consistency of implementation measures. The accomplishment of this pioneering zoning has played an important role in China’s land use management and has also had a significant impact in the field of land use planning research.

3 Developmentofthezoningmodeinthesecondroundofoveralllanduseplanning (from1997to2010)

In the light of continuous increase of population and gradual decrease of arable land in China, according to the experiences and lessons from land management, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council proposed that it is necessary to implement the most rigorous measures in the world to manage land and protect arable land, strengthen the macro-management of land and implement land-use control, and use overall land use planning as the key measure for the macro-management of land and the basic basis of land use control in theNoticeonFurtherStrengtheningLandManagementtoProtectArableLand(Zhongfa[1997]No. 11). In the meantime, the newly revisedLandAdministrationLawat the end of August 1998 established the legal status of overall land use planning and strengthened the overall regulatory role of overall land use planning on urban and rural land use. As a result, China started the establishment of the second round of overall land use planning, and the planning period is from 1997 to 2010. The establishment of land use planning in the country, all provinces, prefecture-level cities, and most counties was completed.

In this round of national, provincial and prefecture-level overall land use planning, land use zoning plan has been also highlighted, and the planning indicators of each area were determined. At the national level, intheOutlineofNationalOverallLandUsePlanning, China is divided into eight land use areas, including southeast coastal areas, areas around the Bohai Sea, Northeast China, central areas, southwestern areas, the Loess Plateau, northwestern areas, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau[3]. The development direction and management measures of land use in each region was determined, and there was no division of second-level areas. In the overall land use planning in each province, the regional zoning of land use was conducted in its regions, which plays a role in the zoning of second-level land use indirectly.

In the second round of overall land use planning, the use of each piece of land was determined in the county-level and township-level planning through land use zoning, which lays the foundation for the implementation of land use control. According to land use, land can be divided into basic farmland, general farmland, gardens, forestry land, husbandry land, water surface land, nature reserves, urban land, rural residential land, independent industrial and mining land,etc. Through the division of land use zones in the county-level and township-level planning, the quantitative control of the superior planning and control of land use direction could be implemented.

It can be seen that in the second round of overall land use planning, the zoning mode of land use has been developed from the regional zoning of land use in the first round of land use planning to the new zoning mode consisting of two types of regional zoning and use zoning of land use. Among them, the regional division of land use is mainly the task of overall land use planning at the national, provincial and municipal levels, while the county-level and township-level planning mainly carried out land use zoning for the implementation of land use control services.

4 Furtherdevelopmentofthezoningmodeinthethirdroundofoveralllanduseplanning (from2006to2020)

In May 2005, the General Office of the State Council issued theNoticeonProposalstoReviseOverallLandUsePlanning(Guobanfa[2005]No. 32), which marks the formal revision of the third round of overall land use planning. The planning period is from 2006 to 2020. The establishment of land use planning in the country and all provinces, prefecture-level cities, counties and towns was completed, and a complete national five-level overall land use planning system was established. In the third round of overall land use planning, the zoning mode has developed further, a land use zoning system composed of regional zoning and function zoning of land use as well as land use zoning has been established and applied specifically in the overall land use planning at all levels.

At the same time, based on the experience of urban growth management in developed countries, in the guidelines for the overall land use planning in cities, counties and townships, it is clearly proposed that it is necessary to delimit the control boundaries and control areas of urban and rural construction land, including "three boundaries and four areas". The three boundaries are scale boundary, extended boundary and prohibiting boundary. Four areas include permitted construction, conditional construction, restricted construction, and prohibited construction areas[4].

4.1RegionalzoningoflanduseIn the third round of overall land use planning, the division of land use areas (namely regional zoning) was also highlighted in the national and provincial overall land use planning, aiming to determine the direction of land use, main land targets and major measures in each region according to local conditions. At the national level, intheOutlineofNationalOverallLandUsePlanning(2006-2020), China is divided into nine land use areas, including northwestern areas, southwestern areas, Qinghai-Tibet areas, northeastern areas, Shanxi-Henan areas, Hunan-Hubei-Anhui-Jiangxi areas, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shandong areas, Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai areas, and Fujian-Guangdong-Hannan areas[5]. It reflects the differences between various areas in terms of resource conditions, land use status, stages of economic and social development and strategic positioning of regional development.

4.2FunctionzoningoflanduseTheOutlineofthe11thFive-year(2006-2010)PlanforNationalEconomicandSocialDevelopmentofthePeople’sRepublicofChinaapproved in March 2006 clearly states: "according to the carrying capacity of resources and environment and the existing development density and development potential, it is necessary to consider China’s population distribution, economic layout, land use and urbanization model in future in an integrated manner, and land space is divided into four main functional areas for optimized development, key development, limited development and prohibited development[6]. In order to cooperate with the implementation of China’s main function area planning and coordinate the coordinated development of regions, the Ministry of Land and Resources requires that a study on the function zoning of land use should be conducted in the preliminary work on the revision of the third round of overall land use planning. In the completed revision of the overall land use planning at provincial and municipal levels, the function zoning of land use has been listed as the core content, and the overall land use planning maps mainly reflect the function zoning of land use. Therefore, the current land use zoning in China can be divided into the comprehensive zoning (i.e. regional zoning), function zoning of land use and land use zoning. In general, the new function zoning of land use in the revision of the third round of overall land use planning is not only the further research based on the research of other zoning (the regional zoning of land use and land use zoning), but also the result of main function zoning requirements in the new situation, which has important practical significance and theoretical value for the development of research on land use zoning in China[7].

In the national land management industry standardRegulationsontheEstablishmentofMunicipal(Prefecture-level)OverallLandUsePlanning(TD/T1023-2010) issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources on June 27, 2010, the function areas of land use were clearly defined as spatial areas divided according to the characteristics of regional land resources and economic and social development needs to reasonably use land, control and guide the main functions of land use[8]. The function areas include basic farmland concentration areas, general agricultural development areas, independent industrial and mining areas, ecological environment safety control areas, natural and cultural heritage reserves, etc. In areas where forestry and animal husbandry are more developed, forestry development zones and animal husbandry development zones can be designated.

4.3LandusezoningSince the establishment of a land use control system by theLandAdministrationLawamended at the end of August 1998, the core of planning at county and township levels in the second round of overall land use planning (1997-2010) has focused on the division of various types of land use areas to control land use. Similarly, in the third round of overall land use planning, the division of land use areas and the determination of land use control rules are still the core content.

In the national land management industry standards theRegulationsontheEstablishmentofCounty-levelOverallLandUsePlanning(TD/T1024-2010) andRegulationsontheEstablishmentofTownship-level(Town-level)OverallLandUsePlanning(TD/T1025-2010), it is stipulated that land use areas refer to spatial areas divided according to the characteristics of regional land resources and economic and social development needs to guide the rational use of land and control the change of land use[9-10]. In theRegulationsontheEstablishmentofCounty-levelOverallLandUsePlanning, there are nine land use areas, including basic farmland protection areas, general farmland, urban and village construction land, independent industrial and mining areas, land for scenic and recreation facilities, ecological environment safety control areas, natural and cultural heritage reserves, forestry land and animal husbandry land. In theRegulationsontheEstablishmentofTownship-level(Town-level)OverallLandUsePlanning, there are ten land use areas, and urban and village construction land is divided into urban construction land and village construction land in the township-level planning.

5 Problemsofthezoningmode

Overall, the zoning mode has made remarkable achievements in the establishment and implementation of overall land use planning in China and plays a good role in the rational development, utilization and protection of land resources in all regions. However, there are still some obvious problems in the zoning of overall land use planning in China, and some problems are still prominent.

For instance, the division of "conditional construction areas" and "general farmland" in land use zoning is not reasonable enough. In order to expand good space for development and construction as much as possible, all localities often make every effort to classify high-quality cultivated land with good location conditions around towns and along major transport lines as the conditional construction area or general farmland, so that some good fields that should be classified as "basic farmland protection areas" have lost their uses, and remote poor quality cultivated land (and even cultivated land on steep slopes in mountainous areas) is often classified as a basic farmland protection area.

Although theLandAdministrationLawstipulates that "the overall land use planning must be strictly implemented once it is approved", the loose management and optional adjustment of overall land planning in some regions have significantly weakened the seriousness of land planning and have affected the operability of land planning. In some regions, land planning often follows new development and construction projects, and basic farmland reserves, general farmland, and urban and village construction land as well as permitted construction areas and conditional construction areas are often adjusted and revised. In some counties and cities, overall land use planning is partially revised and adjusted every year. Correspondingly, the divided "areas" is often revised, greatly reducing the authority and seriousness of land planning. Enclosure ringing in some places from time to time shows that some local governments are the leaders or defaults in violation of land planning, which is the biggest problem in the current implementation process of land planning.

6 Futureprospects

In the next round of establishment, implementation and management of overall land use planning, firstly, it is necessary to continue to improve the zoning system and zoning mode and further play its unique roles of leading land use direction and controlling land uses. Secondly, the scientificity and seriousness of land use zoning and space control zoning of construction land should be strengthened to classify basic farmland correctly. Thirdly, it is necessary to strengthen the authority and seriousness of overall land use planning, change the phenomenon of "land planning following new projects", prevent important land use areas and construction land space control areas from being changed frequently, and guarantee the sustainable utilization of land resources and the sustainable development of economy and society.

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