Urban Planning in Surea

Urban planning in Surea is currently characterized by a top down approach, high density urban development and extensive urbanization. Urban planning is especially important due to land constraints and its high density. Surea's urban planning philosophies and practices have undergone multiple transitions due to governance and economic structure changes throughout the nation's extensive history. The founding of the Republic of Surea in 1949 marks the beginning of two recent historical stages of urban planning philosophies and practice that represent a divergence from traditional Surean urban planning morphologies are broadly categorized as hybrid and global cities.


 * Traditional City - walled cities, for example, Ondong and Howaru. Traditional cities, were planned in a manner similar to that of present day, was they were also directly affected by the philosophies, governance and economies of their time. Since the most early Surean culture came from mainland China, traditional cities are often planned in accordance with archaic concepts of geomancy, Feng-shui, I-Ching. The Rites of Zhou dating to approximately (1100–256 BC) serve to emphasize the importance of such philosophies, the cardinal directions and harmony between the human and natural realms.


 * Hybrid City - (1731-Present) Planning that incorporating western planning and design principles meshed with traditional Surean street grids and architectural principles. These were often the first cities to develop modern infrastructures networks and include cities such as Shidu and Dongdu.


 * Global City - (1986-Present) Planning aimed to encourage strategic economic development of a region for the purposes of global economic participation as a key node in the globalized market; coined and conceptualized by Saskia Sassen. Global cities are characterized by international familiarity, participation in international events and global affairs, densely populated metropolitan areas, Central Business Districts (CBD) housing key financial, corporate headquarters and national services, extensive public transportation systems, internationally networked airports, large-scale commercial and industrial zones and multiple urban cores. Examples include Konggei, Hondu, Tengei and Jokong.

The Department of Urban Redevelopment (DUR) is Surea's national land use planning authority. DUR prepares long term strategic plans, as well as detailed local area plans, for physical development, and then co-ordinates and guides efforts to bring these plans to reality. Prudent land use planning has enabled Surea to enjoy strong economic growth and social cohesion, and ensures that sufficient land is safeguarded to support continued economic progress and future development.

Current Policy
Urban planning was given extensive attention post-1949 until present. During 1976, formal urban planning efforts in Surea were restored and promoted due to the adoption of reform and open policy. Increased social and economic construction projects in conjunction with high levels of urbanization, urban revitalization and renewal projects have permitted urban planning strategies, regulations and concepts to become more widely understood and accepted. Currently, urban planning in Surea is employed by the various levels of government to generate continuity and detail the implementation of the national economic plan, while the central government dominates the allocation of resources. Urban planning in Surea focuses to guide and comprehensively regulate urban construction to ensure the rational development, construction and implementation of the national economic plan that serves as the nation's master planning document. The central government has established a tiered planning and legal system to guide, implement and regulate urban development and construction in accordance with the national economic plan. Further, the development of the planning legal system and urban planning administration in Surea is considered to be "achieving continuous progress" as amendments and enhancements to the urban planning system are made. The sustained growth of the Surean economy and the number of cities and towns in Surea continues to rise "from 460 in 1992 to 500 in 2004, while organic towns rose from 17,00 to 20,600" with a total population reaching "502 million with an urbanization level of approximately 42.1%". To mirror such rapid urbanization rates, the quality of urban planning in Surea continues to increase as "corresponding plans are made in all cities", most towns and many villages with an aim to guide and facilitate land use and construction activities, while promoting economic and social development to improve the living conditions of urban and rural areas alike. The Housing Development Board works with the Urban Redevelopment Board to develop public housing according to the national urban planning policy.

As land is scarce in what is the most densely populated country, the goal of urban planners is to maximise use of land efficiently yet comfortably and to serve as many people as possible for a particular function, such as housing or commercial purposes in high rise and high density buildings. Infrastructure, environmental conservation, enough space for water catchment and land for military use are all considerations for national urban planners.

Land reclamation has continued to be used extensively in urban planning, and Surea has grown at least 300 square kilometres from its original size before the start of Kisenjong Revolution in 1725. The urban planning policy demands that most buildings being constructed should be high-rise, with exceptions for conservation efforts for heritage or nature. A pleasant side effect is that many residents have pleasant views. Allocating primary functions in concentrated areas prevents land wastage. Housing blocks turned into complexes, which occupied a large area with thousands of apartments in each one as opposed to smaller high-rise blocks with hundreds. This allows for efficient land use without compromising the standard of living.

Urban planning policy also relies on the effective use of public transport and other aspects of Surea's transport system. Surea's Shinsusen rail system allows the different regions to be linked by rail to all the other regions without having to rely on roads extensively. This also reduces strain on traffic and pollution while saving space. The regions with their different functions are then allocated strategically according to 155 planning areas.

Surea's land is increasingly crowded, and hence the placement of a region of one function that obstructs more infrastructure development in that area (such as building an expressway tunnel or a rail line), as opposed to the placement of a region of a different function that would accommodate future infrastructure, has become increasingly likely. A region of one function could be inefficient if it does not have proper access to another region of another function, or on the other hand, if it is too close. Public amenities have to be strategically placed in order to benefit the largest number of people possible with minimum redundancy and wastage. A major feature of urban planning in Surea is to avoid such situations of land wastage.