Large-scale and intensive construction will be banned in the demonstration zone of the Yangtze River Delta, according to a new overall land development plan for the zone.

The plan for Eco-Friendly and Integrated Development of the Yangtze River Delta highlights ecological and cultural heritage preservation.

The plan stipulates in explicit terms that large-scale and intensive construction should be banned in the demonstration zone, while cropland, ecology, and natural and cultural heritage sites will be firmly protected and preserved with concerted efforts from the governments of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai Municipality.

By 2035, the total construction land planned for the demonstration zone will be controlled within 803.6 square kilometers, 15.7 square kilometers less than present.

"The three control lines, namely the line of cropland and permanent primary farmland protection, the red line of ecological conservation, and urban development boundary, are taken as uncrossable red lines for restructuring economy, planning industrial development, and pushing for urban and rural construction to focus on integrated ecological green development with strict control on development intensity. It is also strictly forbidden to remove or merge villages at will, or build larger communities and demolish or build on a large scale against the will of farmers," said Men Xiaoying, deputy director of the Land and Space Usage Planning and Research Center under the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The demonstration zone will set out to build a green, polycentric and open-space pattern in a way to expand ecologically protected space, guarantee the space for farming and optimize the space for cities and towns.

"Through this plan, we will gradually improve land and space utilization efficiency. For example, we can introduce some new business forms, while optimizing our space layout to form an intensive grid style, which will be more conducive to the spatial efficiency and collaboration, rather than the mono-centric pie-spreading style in the past," she said.

The Yangtze River Delta region, only a 26th of China's entire territory, is a major economic booster accounting for nearly a quarter of China's gross domestic product.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at nature@cgtn.com.)