Balancing Economic Development and the Preservation of Agricultural Land: An Evaluation of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan

The megacity of Shanghai faces enormous planning challenges, particularly controlling rapid urban growth and preserving some of the world's most fertile agricultural land. Almost two-thirds of Shanghai's territory is classified as agricultural land. Maintaining this high ratio of agricultural land to total land area and, at the same time, accommodating a large and rapidly increasing urban population represents an immense and complex planning challenge. Shanghai has recently adopted a Municipal Land Use Plan to address some of these planning challenges. This article provides a review, analysis and critique of Shanghai's Municipal Land Use Plan. From a review of the relevant literature, this article develops a framework to evaluate Shanghai's plan. This framework provides a qualitative assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the SMLUP's overall goal of preserving arable land and fostering urban-economic development.