A Research about Public Participation in the Process of Master-Urban-Planning in China—An Introduction of Practice of Gathering Public Opinion via Questionnaire Survey

This paper summarizes the practice of public participation via questionnaire survey in the process of working out Master Plan in China. Based on the analysis, the key issue to be desperately solved is the strategic content about urban long-term development, especially highlighted in conducting public participation by ways of questionnaire survey. In this regard, designing the questionnaire’s content and subsequent distribution must provide convenience for townspeople to comprehend and to express themselves, and meanwhile questionnaire retrieving and analysis/conclusion shall be oriented by optimized scheme of spatial distribution. The importance of public participation cannot be overemphasized under the transformation of urban development in China. It will influence the decision-making of local government; it will have the communication between planners/ designers and government officials further strengthened.