At the pivotal juncture of the 2025 Central Urban Work Conference outlining the blueprint for modernised people-centred cities, the National Governance Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Platform formally approved the research project Dynamic Adaptation Mechanisms for Digital-Intelligent Urban Spatial Planning and Urban Spatial Governance in the Context of Chinese Modernisation, led by Yang Tingzhang, an expert from the International Professional Competency Certification Association. This landmark event charts a new course for China's urban modernisation – ‘data-driven governance, intelligent spatial reconstruction’ – signalling a fresh phase of innovation in Chinese urban development.
As global urban competition shifts from ‘scale expansion’ to ‘quality competition,’ China's urban development faces dual challenges: Traditional spatial planning prioritises static blueprints over dynamic responsiveness, struggling to adapt to population mobility, industrial fluctuations, and climate crises while lacking flexibility in addressing public emergencies and extreme weather events. Amidst the rapid advancement of digital and intelligent technologies, integrating these innovations deeply into urban planning and governance has become an urgent imperative of our era. Yang Tingzhang's research team addresses this precisely by anchoring their work at the forefront of scholarship while aligning with national strategic imperatives. Guided by the theory of Chinese-style modernisation, they explore dynamic adaptive mechanisms for digital-intelligent urban planning and governance. By leveraging big data to extract urban patterns and employing artificial intelligence to simulate governance scenarios, they achieve real-time calibration between planning metrics and governance efficacy. This provides both theoretical and practical foundations for resolving pressing urban development challenges.
The project's approval owes much to Yang Tingzhang's profound academic expertise and his team's relentless dedication. As a renowned expert in urban planning and governance, Research Fellow Yang Tingzhang has long dedicated himself to this field, spearheading multiple national-level projects and producing significant outcomes. During the application phase, the team leveraged its professional strengths to conduct in-depth research and analysis, extensively gathering domestic and international research and practical experience. They crafted a high-quality proposal and actively engaged with platform experts to refine the plan, laying a solid foundation for the project's approval.
From a strategic perspective, the project holds multidimensional significance. Theoretically, it pioneers the ‘Digital Intelligence Technology Empowering Spatial Governance’ framework, filling a theoretical void in urban planning and governance while offering new perspectives and research paradigms for related disciplines. Practically, the outcomes will furnish technological and decision-making support for urban modernisation. For instance, drawing upon Chengdu Yuanshi's 3D GIS technology to establish a comprehensive spatial digital twin system spanning ‘surface – underground – aerial’ domains, enabling real-time monitoring and simulation of urban spaces to enhance risk resilience and resource utilisation efficiency; Internationally, the project's outcomes will present a ‘Chinese solution’ for global urban governance, enabling China to share its digital and intelligent governance experiences while elevating its international discourse and influence.
This project approval not only recognises Professor Yang Tingzhang's research capabilities but also serves as motivation for future endeavours. The International Professional Competency Certification Association will seize this opportunity to intensify research support, provide superior conditions and development space, while strengthening collaboration with domestic and international research institutions and universities to jointly advance the research initiative.
