The Vision of Urban Spatial Planning Based on the Concept of Low-Carbon City

1. Low-carbon economy and low-carbon city Along with continuous global growth of population and economic scale, extensive energy utilization causes large amounts of discharge of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases so that the international society is under strict challenge of greenhouse effect. Irrefutable facts are global warming climate, decreasing glacier and snow, rising sea level and even threatening disappearance of Maldives and other island countries. For the purpose of achieving balance between economic development and resources environment protection, low-carbon economy based on low energy consumption and low pollution is becoming an internationally hot spot and another new tendency after industrial revolution and information revolution that will probably exert major influence upon global economy. The concept of low-carbon economy was first proposed officially in British " White paper on energy sources " of 2003, and once put forward, it attracted wide attention over the whole world. The concept of low-carbon society proposed in Japan in 2007 was to reduce discharge of greenhouse gases through low-carbon technology and system to be realized by means of change of consumption ideas and ways of life. Shortly thereafter, more and more countries and cities started to explore the means for practicing low-carbon economy. In China, low-carbon economy is now starting to receive extensive concern and recognition. In the macroscopic background of state strategic regulation focusing on " scientific approach of development " and " building up ecological civilization " , development of low-carbon economy will become our inevitable choice for alleviating climate warming-up and realizing sustainable development. Along with the calling of Copenhagen Climate Meeting by end of 2009, the issue of climatic change is one of the key topics in the current international political struggle. Discharge reduction in large developing countries like China will be put under more international supervision, so that development of low-carbon economy may take up a certain urgency and necessity in China. As the center of human life and production, the city plays an essential part in the development of low-carbon economy. It is a fundamental material carrier in the social economic development, while low-carbon city constitutes an important support for energy saving, discharge reduction and development of low-carbon economy. As the only way for realizing sustainable development, low-carbon city will be a new tendency for future urban construction. More than 20 cities in China have started to plan the low-carbon ecological cities or satellite towns. Zhuhai, Hangzhou, Guiyang, …