By Niu Xiong & Li Zuojun, Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies, DRC; Wan Hanbin, Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute

Research Report, No. 93, 2020 (Total 5837) 2020-4-30

Abstract: As one of the typical major public health emergency events, the novel coronovirus pneumonia epidemic has exposed the problems in the national governance system. Among them, the problems with national spatial planning especially stand out, which include the excessive concentration of population and buildings layout in big and megacities, the lack of planning for joint prevention and control of emergency events in regions and metropolitan areas, the inadequacy of urban medical and health care facilities, the imbalanced layout of medical and health care facilities between urban and rural areas and different regions and the insufficiency in the layout of transportation and logistics facilities for responding to emergency events. In this regard, this paper proposes the following policy options. One, planning for population and urban spatial layout needs to be optimized; two, planning for joint prevention and control of emergency events between regions needs to be enhanced; three, the planning for the layout of medical and health care facilities needs to be strengthened; and four, supporting policies for the optimization of spatial planning need to be formulated and the institutional mechanisms for spatial planning need to be refined. By so doing, it is hoped that China’s capability to comply with major public health emergency events could be properly enhanced and the life and health of the people could be ensured.

Keywords: national spatial planning, major public health emergency events, healthy cities.