Effects of urban planning on urban expansion control in Yinchuan City, Western China Meng Wang a, * , Aleksandra Krstikj b , Hisako Koura c a Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka 5650871, Japan b Department of Architecture, Tecnologico de Monterrey, CCM, Mexico City 04470, Mexico c Graduate School of Arts and Design, Kobe Design University, Kobe 6512196, Japan article info Article history: Received 18 October 2016 Received in revised form 2 March 2017 Accepted 18 April 2017 Keywords: Master plan Planning concept Planning tool Specific zoning Urban expansion Western China abstract Yinchuan, an inland city in Northwestern China, has been undergoing rapid urban growth in recent years that has imposed great challenges on urban planning. This study aims to examine the effects of urban planning on urban expansion control in light of the transition from a centrally planned economy towards a rapid growth of the market economy. The analysis is focused on the mutual influences between the planning concepts presented in Yinchuan's master plans, the implementation of the planning tool e specific zoning, and the urbanization in the Central Urban Area of the city. The study has clarified that the focus of city's plans had significantly shifted from constraining expansion to development promotion, in line with the intentions of the city government. However, the planning still does not function well in leading the urban development, which can be seen in the frequent adjustments of the plans to incor- porate the special zones promoted by local governments. Excessive zoning has been revealed in the repetitive industrial zones with low land use efficiency. Moreover, it has been assessed that the desig- nated specific zones have not been effective in promoting or controlling market-based developments since sprawl has been observed outside the zones. The per population urban expansion has exceeded the planned quota with 122 km 2 in 2015 and cultivated land saw a continued annual decrease as 3.01% over the last 8 years. Thus, the city faces significant sustainability challenges brought on by the present land- consumptive developments. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Cities in China have experienced tremendous changes since the “Reform and Opening up” in 1978 (Gaubatz, 1999; Ma, 2002). The rapid, unordered urban expansion, fueled by the high-speed eco- nomic growth has been criticized as the major cause for massive green lands’ loss, social inequality, and environmental deteriora- tion in Chinese cities (Cheng & Masser, 2003; Wu & Yeh,1999; Ding, 2009; etc.). Seeking efficient measurements to manage urban growth towards achieving sustainability is imperative under the considerations of these issues. With China's first City Planning Act from 1989, a comprehensive planning system was enforced (Yeh & Wu, 1999). According to the act, the master plans of all provincial capitals and cities with population over one million must be examined and approved by the State Council. Once a master plan is approved, any adjustment of the plan is basically prohibited and all development projects should conform to the planning regulation. Therefore, urban planning has been a primary instrument in guiding and controlling urban developments, which in turn has brought planning effec- tiveness in the center of the discussion on sustainable urban growth. Nevertheless, the available research does not offer a sys- tematic overview of the conditions in Chinese urban planning and development (Zhu, 2013). For instance, the majority of study areas are focused on the economically stronger mega-cities in east coast that had explosive population increase triggered by the rapid economic growth. Cities in central and western China have expe- rienced quite a different development process (Yeh & Wu, 1996), where the economic growth lagged behind after 1978, though phenomenal urban expansion has been observed in recent years. Today, the balance between the development pressure and the local economy is a specific planning issue for the inland cities. This study takes Yinchuan city-a rapidly growing regional center * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: wangmengbnugeo@gmail.com (M. Wang), sandra.krstik@ gmail.com (A. Krstikj), koura-h@kobe-du.ac.jp (H. Koura). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Habitat International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.008 0197-3975/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Habitat International 64 (2017) 85e97