Green ecological city planning and construction has become a global trend and, in particular, has been used as an important goal of sustainable urban development in China. Nearly 280 cities or regions in China have launched the research or practice and exploration of green eco-cities.

This project carries out the Current Situation Research of Domestic and Foreign Green Eco-Cities, the Technology Guidelines for Formulating the Green Eco-City Planning, and the Research of Policy Suggestions for Formulating the Green Eco-City Planning based on the spirit of implementing the “Implementation Opinion on Accelerating Promotion of National Green Building Development”, on the exploration of a construction mode of green eco-city with green, ecology and low carbon as a concept, and on the strengthening of the regulation and guidance of green eco-city construction. The main conclusions of the research are as follows:

(1) Connotation of green eco-city. The green eco-city is a centralized demonstration of eco-city-level green buildings between a single green building and an urban ecological city, which focuses on green construction in terms of planning and layout, type of construction, cross-plot integrated coordination of energy and resources and ecological environment and is connected with the land planning and layout, green municipal facilities and green transportation into an interactive system with green building as a core to form an urban environment in harmony with nature.

(2) Ecological indicators of higher frequency. The research has identified the following indicators of higher frequency in the indicator system of green eco-city planning and construction at home and abroad: per capita urban construction land area, public transportation sharing rate, renewable energy utilization, utilization of non-traditional water sources, separate garbage collection rate, index of native plants, and proportion of green building. These indicators can directly reflect the goals and the path of the planning and construction of a green, ecological and low-carbon ecological city.

(3) Research of domestic and international eco-city planning points. The research on cases of green eco-city planning and construction at home and abroad has identified different planning points in terms of land use, transportation, infrastructure and ecology, such as the land planning points for the spatial development layout TOD guidance and mixed land development, the transportation planning points for the green travel-oriented transportation planning and the walking and cycling system planning, the infrastructure planning points for the water-saving planning and low-impact development concept, the energy supply and demand balance and the use of renewable energy, and the separate waste collection and treatment, and the ecological planning points for the green system and the landscape recreation system.

(4) Strengthening the guidance of the green, ecological and low-carbon concept on the planning formulation. The guidelines, in compliance with the existing laws and regulations concerning urban and rural planning, adopt the embedded formulation to include the green, ecological and low-carbon concept and the green ecological planning into the same level planning system to form a technical guideline for the formulation of green eco-city planning that adapts to China's national conditions.

(5) Policy safeguards recommendations for green eco-city planning, construction and development. It is recommended to introduce implementation opinions and administrative measures and establish green eco-city planning, construction guidelines and indicator system and other mandatory policies; develop incentives and management methods of special funds and establish an implementation management mechanism with “one document and two certificates” as a core, and increase efforts to support technology research and development and supporting financial support and other incentives; include the requirements of green ecological indicators in the basic construction process for the purpose of management and implement the whole-process regulatory policies, and strengthen the target responsibility and other regulatory policies; strengthen publicity and education, train management capabilities and technical expertise, and add polices concerning public participation.

If well promoted and applied for green eco-city planning and construction, the research results of the project will be conducive to strengthening the regulation and guidance of green eco-city planning and construction and promoting the urban construction and development in the mode of green, ecological and low-carbon sustainable development.