(Main Section: Ecological Planning)

In China, at the beginning of the 21st century, conceptual planning became a popular type of strategic planning. However, it tended to address issues more relevant to development opportunities, industrial structures and spatial layouts, rather than the ideas of environment and ecology. Instead, Tongji University’s conceptual planning for the West Lake in Hangzhou, proposed in 2001, focused on the restoration of water environments. It regarded environmental improvement as a precondition for further development of tourism and the economy. Although this plan did not win the bid at the time, the lake’s ecological restoration from then onward incorporated all of its proposed concepts. As a result, the lake’s ecosystem has been restored successfully. This paper introduces the plan, discusses its main ideas and contextually reflects upon the implementation of conceptual ecological planning. In addition to the need to be connected to development actions or statutory planning, relying on adequate multidisciplinary technical support and rationally addressing local development contributes to best practices for ecological conceptual planning