作为联合国开发计划署技术援助项目“二十一世纪城市规划、管理和发展”的重要研究成果之一，本书在肯定中国城市发展取得巨大成就的同时，也看到了当前城市规划、建设和管理中的不足，重点对自然资源短缺、人居环境恶化、公共安全危机、社会阶层分化、形象工程泛滥、公共财政不足、公共政策失衡等7个方面的问题进行了深入观察，这些问题不仅严重制约着城市的可持续发展，还可能影响社会和谐与稳定，甚至危及国民经济的安全运行，应该引起高度关注和警惕。为此，本书对产生这些问题的背景及深层次原因进行了分析，并从观念、体制、政策、规划、管理等角度提出了相关建议，以探寻解决问题的途径和方法，具有较强的针对性、警示性、前瞻性和综合性。

Foreword

Part 1 General Overview

 1.1 A shortage of natural resources has become a bottleneck for urban development

 1.2 The deterioration of living environment has affected urban residents' living quality

 1.3 "Image projects" reflect a number of structural contradictions

 1.4 Frequent occurrence of public safety incidents call for legal and institutional innovations

 1.5 A more clear-cut social stratification makes it necessary to adopt innovative urban management systems

 1.6 Insufficient urban public finance makes a sustainable urban development strategy urgent

 1.7 Inefficient urban public policies reflect challenges in government management reform

Part 2 Natural Resources

 2.1 Main problems related to natural resources

 2.2 The history and causes of the problems

 2.3 Advice on alleviating the conflicts between supply and demand of resources

Part 3 Living Environment

 3.1 The main problems identified in the urban living environment

 3.2 Origins of problems concerning the urban habitable environment

 3.3 Solutions and suggestions

Part 4 Image Projects

 4.1 Image projects in urban construction

 4.2 Historical background for the prevalence of image projects in cities

 4.3 Measures of stopping image projects

Part 5 Public Safety

 5.1 Challenges facing city public safety

 5.2 Cause analysis of city public safety problems

 5.3 Suggestions on making policies on city public safety

Part 6 Social Stratification

 6.1 New social stratification structure appears in china

 6.2 Irrational income distribution: Long-term hidden issue in social stratification

 6.3 Imbalanced system: Intensifier of hidden hazards caused by social stratification

 6.4 Concept renovation and system reform

Part 7 Public Finance in Urban Government

 7.1 Principal issues of current urban public finance

 7.2 Cause analysis of the problems in urban public finance

 7.3 Further reform of urban public finance

Part 8 Public Policies

 8.1 City public policies in China

 8.2 Studies of public policies on city planning

 8.3 Procedure of policy-making and city planning

 8.4 Suggestions on improving city planning