Journal Highlights | Regional Integrated River Planning and Control: Lessons from the Experience of the Los Angeles River in the United States [2024.2]

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【Abstract】Regional rivers connect many towns, villages and natural spaces across administrative boundaries, and rivers and their banks have a variety of ecological service functions, which is a zone with prominent contradictions between natural resource protection and utilization. There are various problems in the comprehensive planning and management of regional rivers in mainland China in terms of value concepts, planning methods and management mechanisms, which are not conducive to coordinating the ecological protection and construction and development of land space. The United States has experienced the stage of river protection, restoration and utilization after urbanization earlier, and is good at coordinating the relationship between land use, natural hydrological processes and social economy, which has a good reference value for improving the protection effectiveness and composite service function of natural resources along regional rivers in mainland China. Based on this, this paper mainly uses the case study method to sort out and analyze the concepts and methods of overall planning and control of the Los Angeles River in the United States from three aspects: planning objectives and organization, core planning methods, design guidance and management. Three empirical enlightenments for the comprehensive planning and control of regional rivers in mainland China are proposed: strengthen the establishment of river composite function objectives under the guidance of multi-dimensional values, integrate the "river ruler" tool through the whole process of "analysis-planning-control", and adopt a collaborative management model with the participation of multiple subjects to connect the planning system.

Regional rivers and their riparian areas are important carriers to solve the problem of flood disasters and support the practice of urban stormwater management, and have a variety of important ecological service functions, such as increasing biodiversity, providing recreational open space, regulating climate and purifying water quality. The regional "river continuum" connects towns, villages and natural areas across administrative boundaries in the longitudinal (i.e., upstream to downstream of the river) space, and connects various types of ecological life and production land in the natural water body and riverbank in the horizontal space, which has the characteristics of both external differentiation and internal integrity, and is of great significance in promoting the integrated development of land space, improving the urban and rural ecological environment, and improving the quality of life of urban and rural residents.

Territorial spatial planning should take into account the protection and development of natural resources in the coordinated allocation of natural resources. How can resources be effectively exploited to protect nature on a large scale? This focus is particularly evident in the spatial planning and control of regional rivers where the contradiction between protection and construction is prominent. However, there are some problems in the planning and control of regional rivers in mainland China, such as limited thinking, backward methods, and inefficient management and control, which hinder the role of regional rivers in the development of territorial space as the material ecological foundation and the function of composite services. The United States has mature experience in the comprehensive planning and management of regional rivers, which can bring useful enlightenment for the territorial and spatial ecological planning of the mainland, and the coordinated protection and comprehensive utilization of river basins and regional rivers. Taking the Los Angeles River Master Plan of the United States as an example, this paper analyzes its practical experience in the target framework, organizational process, planning key links and collaborative management, and summarizes and proposes the key points for comprehensive planning and control of regional rivers in mainland China. 1 Development history, current situation and main problems of regional river planning and control in mainland China1.1 Development history and current situation

The historical process of regional river planning and control in mainland China can be divided into three stages: small-scale and natural utilization in the period when agriculture is the mainstay; the large-scale, over-exploited phase of rapid industrialization; The stage of comprehensive planning and control in the post-industrial period. The orientation of river planning and control has gradually changed from "development first and then treatment", "technology management theory", "hard engineering" and "point decentralized control" to "equal emphasis on protection and utilization", "ecological and natural solution", "soft engineering" and "comprehensive management of river basins".

The planning and control of regional rivers in mainland China has also accumulated some practical experience. For example, for the Yangtze River, a series of plans and regulations such as the Comprehensive Plan for the Yangtze River Basin, the Overall Plan for the Protection and Development and Utilization of the Yangtze River Shoreline, and the Yangtze River Protection Law have been promulgated and implemented, and results have been achieved in flood control, drought control and disaster reduction, comprehensive utilization of water resources, water ecology and water environmental protection, and soil and water conservation. In view of the local regional river Yongding River [Yongding River is the mother river of the capital Beijing, one of the seven major water systems in the Haihe River Basin, stretching for nearly 800km, spanning 5 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), 51 cities, counties and districts, and is an important water conservation area, ecological barrier and ecological corridor in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region] In the "Yongding River Comprehensive Management and Ecological Restoration Overall Plan", the goals of safety, flow, cleanliness and green are put forward, and the coordinated management of the river basin is systematically carried out in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Jinmeng region. The ecological governance model and implementation path of basin governance driven by the integration of investment subjects were explored.

At present, the comprehensive planning of regional rivers in mainland China usually adopts planning techniques such as river basin unit control, ecological function zoning, and landscape corridor construction, as well as policy control tools such as river chief system, ecological compensation, and sharing and co-construction. As an important special part of the territorial spatial planning system, it emphasizes the main body of river basin space, the comprehensive planning of global space and cross-regional coordination and control, but there are still many problems and challenges in the planning and control objectives, methods and mechanisms. 1.2 Main Problems1.2.1 Engineering Thinking Leads to a Single Functional Goal of River Planning, and the intervention of the mainland in the process of urbanization is basically to build water conservancy projects focusing on flood control and drainage, and the engineering measures mostly use high embankments, cutting and straightening and artificial masonry. The "armoured" river channel protects the city from flooding to a certain extent, but due to the lack of accessibility, the lack of water-friendly space and recreational service facilities, resulting in ecological and social and cultural isolation. At the same time, the hard artificial revetment seriously damaged the natural ecological and hydrological processes of the original riparian habitat. Long-term engineering thinking dominates the planning and construction of cities, and planning decisions tend to be simplistic, easy to replicate, and predictable, which is not conducive to improving the disaster adaptability of cities, and it is more difficult to solve the complex problems faced by cities such as climate change, resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, and social inequality. 1.2.2 Ignoring the environmental characteristics of regional river differentiation and adjacent construction demands, rivers flow through nature reserves, rural agricultural areas, urban fringe areas, general urban areas, urban center areas, etc., and there are significant differences in natural geographical characteristics, ecological environment performance and construction environmental impact along the routes. The supply and demand of ecosystem services in the river corridor space are also spatially differentiated, and there is a mismatch between the spatial pattern of the river and its functional demand in the development of riparian zone. The existing planning techniques often ignore the heterogeneity of the functional properties and spatial forms of the "river continuum", and seldom systematically consider the ecological characteristics of the spatial differentiation of rivers and the demands of adjacent construction and development, resulting in inefficient protection and utilization, and it is difficult to realize the coordinated allocation of river resources in land space. 1.2.3 Segmentation of departments reduces the effectiveness of collaborative management and control of riversRegional rivers often span multiple cities, counties or townships, and the land ownership and utilization status of their riparian areas are mixed, and there are many centralized management departments (natural resources departments, water conservancy departments, ecological and environmental protection departments, etc.), and the management rights and responsibilities of each department are segmented, and the planning is "taken out of context", and there are often "blank" or "overlapping" control areas. In the face of complex problems along different river sections, various departments often adopt "fragmentary" protection and "one-size-fits-all" backward management and control methods, and lack the collaborative management experience with the participation of multiple subjects. The compilation of territorial spatial planning is usually mainly based on land indicators such as cultivated land and construction land, while river space needs to be controlled according to local conditions and differentiated land use forms, coupled with multi-stakeholder games, which makes it difficult to effectively balance the protection and utilization of river space. 2 Practical experience of comprehensive planning and management of the Los Angeles River in the United States2.1 Research and practice of comprehensive planning and management of regional rivers in the United States

The United States has experienced the complex problems after urbanization construction earlier, and has carried out a large number of research and practical explorations on comprehensive river planning and control according to the characteristics of local environment and demand, and has issued many laws and regulations related to river management and control at the federal, state, county, and municipal administrative levels. For example, the Wilderness and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 protects nature, culture and recreation