Accelerating the planning and development of maritime cities constitutes a key measure in implementing China’s strategy of building a strong maritime nation and advancing the construction of high-quality, integrated land-sea spatial systems. Existing research is marked by a mismatch between domestic and international perspectives, dispersed theoretical perspectives, and fragmented findings, which hinders its ability to systematically inform maritime city planning practices. This paper adopts an interpretive review approach, grounded in a conceptual clarification of “maritime cities” to develop an analytical framework based on the dimensions of space, function, and governance. It systematically synthesizes key themes, recent advancements, and existing limitations within each dimension. On this analysis, the paper advocates for a future research agenda that constructs an integrated spatial theoretical model linking hinterlands, marine urban cores, and forelands; establishes a comprehensive platform for the collection, sharing, and monitoring of functional urban-marine data; and refines a governance system geared toward land-sea coordination and spatial precision. These efforts aim to provide a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for advancing maritime city planning within the broader context of China’s path to modernization.

As a renowned scholar focused on port research and a pioneer and practitioner of Delta Urbanism, Professor Han Meyer has led the Delta Urbanism research group—rooted in Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands—to study urban development patterns in coastal and delta regions around the world. Delta Urbanism emphasizes the interaction between distinctive natural environments and socio-economic activities, with particular attention to the roles of water bodies, soil, and ecosystems in urban development. This theory advocates for an interdisciplinary research approach that integrates engineering, planning, design, and scientific governance to achieve a dynamic balance between ecological, economic, and social outcomes. Based on interviews with Professor Meyer, this paper explores the theoretical framework of Delta Urbanism and its application in guiding the transformation of port cities into maritime cities. It analyzes Rotterdam’s successful experiences in addressing climate change and water management, and discusses the implications of the Dutch experience for the development of modern maritime cities in China. Drawing on the development practices of Dutch port cities, Chinese maritime cities should seek a balance between economic growth and ecological protection, highlighting the importance of sediment management and eco-hydraulic engineering to achieve sustainable development. In the face of complex port-city relationships and natural dynamics, regional design can serve as a strategic planning tool to address future uncertainties related to climate change and socio-economic development.

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area port cluster is an important part of China’s coastal port system, where the ports show unique functional evolution characteristics due to “one country, two systems”. With the trend of regional port integration across many China’s provinces, this paper analyses the functions and relative positions of ports in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the international and regional shipping network from 2017 to 2022, using ship trajectory data provided by the global Automatic Identification System (AIS), including the frequency of port calls at individual ports, types of international shipping routes, and changes in the direction of ship flow between regional ports. In addition, combining maritime enterprises data in the hinterland cities of the area from 2000 to 2020, this paper analyses the characteristics of the spatial and temporal distribution of different maritime industries and their changing patterns, and finally examines the interaction between the functional differentiation of the ports and the distribution of the industries. The findings indicate a substantial overlap in the market area between the ports of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, both primarily catering to the East-Southeast Asia, Trans-Pacific, and Asia-Europe routes, and both exhibiting a propensity for export activity since 2020. Shenzhen Port has emerged as the leading centre in connecting regional ports. Guangzhou Port mainly serves the transportation of domestic trade goods, with its foreign trade cargo predominantly exported to developing nations. Over the past two decades, maritime enterprises in the region have progressively shifted from coastal to inland cities, with Shenzhen and Guangzhou witnessing the most rapid increase in enterprise numbers, indicative of enterprise clustering propelled by the enhancement of inland port operations. The findings will provide practical guidance for understanding the dynamics of port system structure and industry evolution in the context of port regionalization development.

Coastal zones are highly valuable, complex, and dynamic socio-ecological systems, requiring integrated management from a regional coordination perspective. Based on the types of coordinating entities, international models of integrated coastal zone management can be categorized into three types: establishing independent agencies, utilizing existing administrative institutions, and relying on non-standing deliberative coordination mechanisms. This paper selects the San Francisco Bay Area (the USA), Singapore, and the Wadden Sea (Western Europe) as representative cases to analyze the coordinating institutions and specific measures of each model. Based on a comparison of their applicability, this paper provides recommendations for coastal zone management in China, including: using spatial planning to align regional development goals; exploring cross-regional coordination measures (inter-regional negotiation mechanisms, administrative agreements, and inter-regional legislation); and promoting inter-departmental collaboration (reviewing laws and procedures, establishing coordination mechanisms, and signing administrative agreements).

Against the backdrop of China’s commitment to achieving its “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” goals, cities, as key drivers of low-carbon development, are playing increasingly prominent roles. At present, research on Low-Carbon City construction in various countries around the world pays more attention to scientific carbon reduction methods, and from the perspective of carbon accounting, it can more scientifically and systematically guide the preparation of land and spatial planning from the perspective of low-carbon. It is of great practical significance to clarify the application path of carbon accounting methods in the preparation and implementation of spatial planning. This paper summarizes the boundary and method characteristics of mainstream urban carbon accounting at home and abroad, sorts out the application status and existing problems of carbon accounting methods in spatial planning, and introduces the application methods of carbon accounting in the preparation and implementation of urban planning in Tokyo, New York and London, and then proposes a carbon accounting application path suitable for the spatial planning system from two aspects. One is carbon accounting analysis and scenario prediction based onspatial elements, and the other is special assessment and dynamic monitoring of Low-Carbon Cities based on carbon accounting analysis.

With the continuous advancement of the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, the spatial planning systems of countries related to the Belt and Road Initiative have attracted widespread attention. This paper first systematically compares the evolution of Kenya’s spatial planning system using time as an axis. It can be divided into four temporal stages: the period of tribal rule, the period of colonized rule, the period of independent statehood, and the period of development after the constitutional amendment. This paper also analyses the characteristics of Kenya’s spatial planning system under the equity orientation: pursue fairness in land management and setting limits on the types of land titles and the amount of land owned by individuals; pursue fairness in the planning and implementation process, with multi-perspective and multi-sectoral monitoring and pursue fairness in regional development, and pay attention to the development and planning of disadvantaged areas. This paper can be a reference for the study on the planning characteristics of the countries along the Belt and Road.

Urban shrinkage is a global multi-dimensional phenomenon, that some small and medium-sized cities in China have contracted now. To change the concept and paradigm of urban planning to cope with urban shrinkage is one of the important research directions for high-quality development of cities. This paper selects five small and medium-sized US industrial cities in the central northeast region that have encountered with shrinking populations after 1960 as the study objects. We sort out the evolution of their planning strategies, and analyze their evolution characteristics in three aspects: value orientation, development paradigm and implementation mode. In addition, an empirical analysis was conducted on three of them, Flint, South Bend and Evansville, to compare the differences in urban revitalization paths under the same goal, and to analyze the reasons for the success or failure of the three urban planning strategies. This paper therefore provides an empirical enlightenment for the planning strategy on the shrinking small and medium-sized industrial cities in China.

Master Plan is the statutory land use plan of Singapore, and the main tool of use regulation. At the beginning of the founding of Singapore, to achieve the full coverage of urban planning, Master Plan included three sets of standard development blueprints for different development areas. In the early days of the founding of state, to meet the needs of large-scale public housing construction, industrial development, and urban reconstruction, action plans were used to promote partial revisions of the Master Plan. At the stage of rapid urban development, the development guide plan promotes the transformation of Master Plan, to implement the spatial vision of conceptual planning and achieve delicacy urban management. In the contemporary era when the urban spatial structure is basically stable, the Master Plan provides clear expectations for urban development and market development with open and transparent information sharing. The planning permission system, under the authorization of the Master Plan and the Planning Law, clarifies the benchmark and boundary of the exercise of discretion, and effectively balances the rigid control and flexibility demand. Singapore Master Plan is of great reference value for China to improve the control mode of “detailed planning + planning permission”.