Industrial Transformation and Sustainable Urban Planning in the Pearl River Delta

Abstract

Industrialization in the PRD has brought about great economic growth and contributed to the rise and consolidation of this deltaic region as a key global player. However, it also generated severe environmental imbalances and pollution of vital and non-renewable resources, such as soil, water and air. Nowadays, the increasing shift towards service-oriented and innovation-driven sectors makes abandoned and decommissioned industrial areas available for transformation. However, to make the most of the potential of these areas to achieve sustainable urban development, novel approaches in planning and design practise are needed to tackle the complexity arising from the challenges posed by climate change and urbanization. This contribution provides a landscape-based approach to adaptive industrial transformation that looks at the spatio-temporal dimension, leveraging the intrinsic and relational qualities of these sites. The approach is tested through two applications in the Chancheng district (Foshan) and Haizhou (Guangzhou).