The State Council has approved the overall urban planning (2011-2020) for Dezhou in East China’s Shandong province.

As a traffic hub and economic center in the junction area between Hebei and Shandong provinces, Dezhou is also the base for Shandong’s new energy industry.

According to the plan, coordinated urban and rural development was urged in the designated area of 789 square kilometers, with infrastructure and public service available to surrounding villages.

More efforts will be concentrated on counties and central towns with good basic conditions to promote modernization of agriculture and villages.

The scale of the city should be controlled. By 2020, the downtown population should be capped at 1.44 million, and construction land should limited to 155.29 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, the plan also called for intensive use of land and underground urban space with solid measures to protect arable land.

The local government is also required to improve low carbon and green infrastructure. Roads, railways, and inland ports should be further optimized to build a public traffic-based and diversified urban transportation system.

The plan also urged comprehensive planning on infrastructure of water supply, garbage disposal and disaster prevention.

To build a resource-saving and people-friendly city, the local government was asked to control pollutants, speed up overcapacity retirement, and support green buildings.

While placing strict management on water resources, more work should be done to build a sponge city and protect ecological function areas.

The local government is also asked to make coordinated arrangements for service infrastructure closely related to public interests, such as education, healthcare and municipal administration, with a special focus on affordable housing projects.

In addition, the city is asked to protect historic sites and cultural heritage, especially areas around the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in Dezhou.