China announced plans on April 1, 2017 to create Xiong’an New Area, a new economic zone about 110 km southwest of Beijing. The new area of national significance covers the three counties of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin in Hebei Province, and is home to Baiyangdian, a major wetland in northern China. It will cover around 100 km² initially (called “Starting Zone”) and will be expanded to 200 km² in the mid-term and about 2000 km² in the long term. In this context, it is important to assess the land use pattern for the new area’s planning and development. Based on remote sensing interpretation of Landsat OLI images, we examine the current land use features, the potential for built-up land saving and intensive use, and the spatial variation of arable land quality. The results indicate that the arable lands, built-up lands and wetlands account for around 60%, 20% and 10%, respectively. The potential for rural built-up land saving and intensive use is quite large. The arable land quality and use intensity in Rongcheng and Anxin counties are much better than that of Xiongxian. The pros and cons for three potential options for the Starting Zone are listed and compared. The eastern area of Rongcheng county, to the north of Baiyangdian, is believed to be the most suitable Starting Zone. Policy recommendations for built-up land expansion, farmland saving and flood risk mitigation for Xiong’an New Area are also proposed in this paper.

To develop Xiong'an New Area (XNA) is one of the major national strategies and seen as the "new millennium project" in China. Sixteen experts from geography and human habitat sciences have made a thorough discussion on how to ensure Xiong'an to be built into an ecological and innovation city as a response to the implementation of the CPC Central Committee's requirements. Several key principles have been suggested as follows for the construction of Xiong'an: (1) Livability security. Specific policies should be made to optimize regional resources and environmental carrying capacity, put the safety in the first place, and effectively prevent flooding, atmospheric and other disasters, with the goal of human habitat environment favorable to live, work and play, in order to build a livable city. (2) Eco-city. Low-carbon technologies should be actively applied to organically shape the urban and regional ecological system and spatial structure. A green infrastructure system should be built. (3) Innovation. All-round innovation such as technological, cultural and management innovation should be promoted to build a new generation of sustainable development of science and technology innovation capital. (4) Regional coordination. XNA development actions should be coordinated with regional integration, as well as water system and environmental protection, through the solid regional cooperation to achieve reciprocal development. (5) Cultural city. The protection of traditional culture and the development of urban culture and arts should be attached great importance, cultural inclusiion and harmony should be advocated to explore the characteristics of a new type of urban culture with Chinese characteristics of humanities and ecology. (6) Comprehensive quality development. Emphasis should be placed on comprehensive development of urban ecology, economy and society. The concept of comprehensive high-quality and high-standard development should be highlighted to establish an international-leading-quality standard system and quality supervision should be comprehensively strengthened. Advanced social public facilities and security system should be constructed. (7) Pilot and demonstration. Xiong'an should be built into a successful model city in ecological innovation and new urbanization.

The establishment of Xiong'an New Area has far-reaching historical significance for adjusting and optimizing the urban layout and spatial structure of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Under the construction concept of ecological benchmark, the identification and optimization of ecological security pattern is the basic spatial approach to ensuring the ecological security and realizing sustainable development in Xiong'an New Area. Based on the ecological background characteristics of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin, this study quantified and mapped five ecosystem services, namely grain yield, water yield, soil conservation, habitat conservation and near water recreation, and identified the ecological sources. Using the VIIRS/DNB Nighttime Light data, ecological resistance surface based on land-use types assignment was modified. The minimum cumulative resistance model was used to identify the ecological corridors. Based on the current ecological security pattern, the optimization strategy of the ecological security pattern was discussed under the goal of green, ecological and livable city. The results showed that, ecological sources, which accounted for 41.88% of the total area and contained 14 major ecological patches, were mainly distributed in the areas surrounding the Baiyangdian Lake. The total length of ecological corridors was 107.21 km, which was divided into four groups with a circle distribution. The radiating area of existing ecological sources reached 70.6% of the total area. Therefore, it is necessary to build a new ecological source with a radiating area of 227 km² to meet the demand for 85% of radiating area of the ecological source. The ecological security pattern scheme proposed in this study can provide spatial guidance for the construction of green, ecological, and livable city in Xiong'an New Area.

Xiong'an New Area is considered as a special new area with national significance after Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Shanghai Pudong New Area. Its establishment is also a major strategic decision under the cooperation and development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, following the planning and construction of Beijing city deputy center. Currently, most researches focus on the strategic significance of Xiong'an New Area and interpretation or discussion on the objective of its development and construction, but the general idea and challenges of planning and construction on Xiong'an New Area need to be carefully and deeply analyzed and thought about. The paper makes some views and suggestions on strategic significance, the orientation of urban development, the planning of industry and land use, the innovation of institutional mechanism as well as some problems such as the administrative and land management model and ecological protection of Xiong'an New Area by four geographers, who have long been studying the development and planning of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River economic zone. The purpose of this paper is to promote the further study of geographers, and to provide the advice and suggestions for the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area. Moreover, the further study of Xiong'an New Area is of great value to the theoretical study of regional integration in China.

Development of Xiong'an New District (XND) is integral to the implementation of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Integration Initiative. It is intended to ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, optimize regional spatial patterns, and enhance ecosystem services and living environment in this urban agglomeration. Applying multi-stage remote sensing (RS) images, land use/cover change (LULC) data, ecosystem services assessment data, and high-precision urban land-cover information, we reveal the regional land-cover characteristics of this new district as well as across the planned area of the entire BTH urban agglomeration. Corresponding ecological protection and management strategies are also proposed. Results indicated that built-up areas were rapidly expanding, leading to a continuous impervious surface at high density. Urban and impervious surface areas (ISAs) grew at rates 1.27 and 1.43 times higher than that in 2000, respectively, seriously affecting about 15% area of the sub-basins. Construction of XND mainly encompasses Xiongxian, Rongcheng, and Anxin counties, areas which predominantly comprise farmland, townships and rural settlements, water, and wetland ecosystems. The development and construction of XND should ease the non-capital functions of Beijing, as well as moderately control population and industrial growth. Thus, this development should be included within the national 'sponge city' construction pilot area in early planning stages, and reference should be made to international low-impact development modes in order to strengthen urban green infrastructural construction. Early stage planning based on the existing characteristics of the underlying surface should consider the construction of green ecological patches and ecological corridors between XND and the cities of Baoding, Beijing, and Tianjin. The proportion of impervious surfaces should not exceed 60%, while that of the core area should not exceed 70%. The development of XND needs to initiate the concept of 'planning a city according to water resource amount' and incorporate rainwater collection and recycling.

China announced plans on 1 April 2017 to create the Xiongan New Area,a new economic zone about 110km southwest of Beijing. The new area covers the counties of Xiongxian,Rongcheng and Anxin in Hebei province,and is home to Baiyangdian,a major wetland in northern China. This is a new area of national significance. It will cover around 100km² initially （termed as the start zone）and will be expanded to 200km² in the mid-term and 2000km² in the long term. It is important to reveal and analyze the land use pattern for planning and development. Based on remote sensing interpretation from Landsat OLI images,current land use features,potential of built-up land saving and intensive use,and spatial variation of arable land quality were analyzed. Three potential choices for the start zone are listed and compared. The results indicate that the proportion of arable land,built-up land and wetland are around 60%,20% and 10% respectively. The potential for rural built-up land savings and intensive use is large. The arable land quality and use intensity in Rongcheng and Anxin counties are much better than that of Xiongxian. Among three potential choices, the medium plot is the best suitable start zone. Policy recommendations on built-up land expansion,farmland saving and flood risk mitigation for the Xiongan New Area are discussed.