Maturing megacities: Lessons from the Pearl River Delta experiences

Abstract

The concluding chapter summarizes the indicators for a changed picture of urban development in the maturing megacities of the Pearl River Delta. It discusses the policy answers to the challenges of mega-urban development at different spatial scales. At the regional level, significant steps in the direction of a much closer integration of the municipalities and their development efforts can be noticed. They translate, among other things, into tangible efforts toward regional planning by the province of Guangdong. At the municipal level, planning urban expansion seems to have overcome the traditional model of development zones with the help of more integrated strategic planning approaches. It is worth noting that the lack of space for development, combined with the efforts toward introducing a more “harmonious society,” has finally brought about a relatively sophisticated set of urban regeneration policies. As yet, not only have they produced a system of redeveloped former manufacturing sites that provide space for service industries and consumption, but they have also been able to offer experimental settings for a gradual upgrading of old town cores and urbanized villages. In sum, the facets of maturing mega-urban (re)development have demonstrated an astonishing degree of strategic capacity to adapt to profoundly changing development challenges. While in many respects, the solutions found so far seem to offer room for further sophistication and do by no means address all self-imposed claims of a “harmonious society” satisfactorily, they nevertheless show how dynamic the transformation of the planning and development system in the megacities of the Pearl River Delta still is and indicate that the southern Chinese development system may be able to master the challenges of mega-urban development successfully.