Measures of spatial planning in the port areas at China’s border

Abstract The spatial planning for border port areas often requires consideration to the influence of cross-border bilateral exchanges and cross-border natural habitat ecosystems on territorial spaces, and implementation of national initiatives such as the “Community with a Shared Future” and the “Belt and Road Initiative”. The existing research on spatial planning focuses more on the administrative areas within a country and less on the cross-border regional connections. Also, existing literature regarding border port areas as typological research focuses more on economic and spatial development modes and less on the influence of ‘networks and flow’ on the territorial spaces. The author, based on the work practices in the land border areas in Yunnan and Jilin provinces as well as combining the theoretical concept ‘network and flow’ of Michael Batty, describes the features of cross-border flow network by use of border effect framework, researches the key considerations for the spatial planning for cross-border areas in the new era of spatial planning system construction, and initially provides optimization measures exampled by specific cases, which can be used as reference for the spatial planning for cross-border areas at all levels.