- The Water Vision for a Water City-A Case Study on the “Two Rivers and Four Lakes” Spatial Planning Project in Guilin, China   1516 kb by    Wang, Jun & Zhang, Guofeng & Zhang, Zhao | sheng.ying@hotmail.co.uk    Short Outline This paper presents an analysis on a comprehensive development project financed by the World Bank, the “Two Rivers and Four Lakes” Spatial Planning Project in Guilin China and expects to provide experience and lessons for other developing countries. Abstract Every so often, a city with links to water feels that it can get sufficient iconic image and the benefits it can bring. Guilin is the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, which is characterised by its special water city features in the southwest of China. It is obvious that water acts as the soul of the city at heart. If there is not doubt that how many efforts that the city had tried to explore the potential of the water system in the city, it is equally certain that how immense challenges they met. Financed by the World Bank, the “Two Rivers and Four Lakes” Spatial Planning Project was initiated in 1998, covering a planning area of 615.35 ha. After years of planning and construction, currently, the “Two Rivers and Four Lakes” Spatial Planning Project has achieved great successes in integrating spatial planning, improvement of quality of life and the city’s development strategy and set a model for many other Chinese cities to learn in the past 10 years. Despite consideration to spatial planning has long been associated with physical design in China, the above project transcends the conventional spatial planning methods. This paper analyses how the project integrates with the city’s sustainable development goals and the key factors leading to a successful comprehensive development. It also demonstrates how the project well harmonizes the relation between heritage conservation and modern city development. Besides, it has also been found that truly successful spatial planning relies on fully respect to the local culture and a proactive public involvement in the process of planning. Keywords Spatial Planning, Dvelopment Strategy, Sustainable Development, Integration Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper