Can Shanghai connect with the greenways of these cities? Official: Proposed Preparation of Greenway Construction Standards for the Yangtze River Delta | Standards | Yangtze River Delta
In June this year, Suzhou Metro Line 11 officially opened for operation and intersected with Shanghai Metro Line 11. In the context of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, besides rail transit, is it possible for greenways between cities in the Yangtze River Delta to connect with each other? The answer is yes.
In September last year, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang jointly released the country's first cross regional and consultative national spatial plan, the Shanghai Metropolitan Area Spatial Collaborative Plan, which clearly focuses on the integrated spatial pattern based on regional greenway ecological protection and governance, and achieves the connectivity of greenway networks in two provinces and one city. It is reported that a total of 9 cities in the Shanghai metropolitan area have planned greenways of about 6100 kilometers, of which the planned greenway length in Shanghai is about 1208 kilometers. According to relevant plans, by 2035, the length of the backbone greenway in the demonstration zone will not be less than 700 kilometers, and the length of the backbone greenway in the pilot zone will reach over 200 kilometers.
After conducting research, Yang Jinsong, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and others found that the construction and connectivity of regional greenway networks in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Jiaxing have certain conditions and are currently actively being promoted. However, in order to form a systematic and connected system, there are still problems such as inconsistent construction standards. For example, in terms of controlling the width of greenways, Shanghai stipulates that the total width of suburban greenways should not be less than 8 meters, while in Zhejiang it is 20 to 200 meters. The greenway path system referred to in Shanghai corresponds to Zhejiang's slow lanes. "Due to the inconsistent control indicators of regional greenways, it is not conducive to the connection between the two regions."
In addition, the regional border areas are generally remote, with inconvenient transportation and few human visits. The efficiency of greenway application is not high, resulting in less prominent social benefits in a short period of time. The enthusiasm for construction in various regions still needs to be improved. The committee members suggested increasing policy support in areas such as finance, land, administrative approval, and transportation support, preparing unified greenway standards for the Yangtze River Delta demonstration zone, and reducing problems such as poor connectivity caused by different standards.
The Municipal Greening and Urban Appearance Management Bureau recently replied that the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta have a good working foundation in jointly preparing standards. Through early coordination with relevant departments in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, the next step is to jointly prepare the "Technical Standards for Greenway Construction in the Yangtze River Delta Region" in the form of regional standards. On the basis of the existing Shanghai related standards, combined with the relevant standards of Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, and referring to relevant national and industry standards, the plan is to standardize aspects such as greenways, greenway travel systems, signage systems, supporting service facilities, and later management.
It is reported that currently, the first and second phases of the cross provincial greenway Huanyuandang Greenway in Qingpu District, Shanghai and Wujiang District, Suzhou, with a length of 3.1 kilometers, have been completed and opened to the public. The third phase, with a length of 3.1 kilometers, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The Huandian Mountain Lake Greenway has a total length of 31 kilometers and a demonstration section of 2.5 kilometers has been completed. It is expected to achieve full connectivity by the end of 2025. The Municipal Greening and Urban Appearance Management Bureau stated that in the next step, based on a full evaluation of the effectiveness of policy implementation, it will actively carry out research and improvement work on relevant support policies to better support and ensure the green road connectivity work in the Yangtze River Delta region.