This Act specifically establishes guidelines concerning measures to be taken to cope with climate change, assure land use safety, conserve the natural environment and cultural assets, promote the reasonable allocation of resources and industries, strengthen land consolidation and management mechanisms, and restore sensitive areas and damaged land in pursuit sustainable development.

The competent authority referred to in this Act shall be the Ministry of the Interior at the national level, the municipality government at the municipality level and the county (city) government at the county (city) level.

The following terms, used in this Act, shall be defined as follows.
1.Spatial plan: establishment of spatial development plan to set guidelines for the conservation and utilization of resources on the land and in marine under the jurisdiction of the ROC government, to achieve the sustainable development goal.
2.National spatial plan: a plan established with specific objectives and consistent with relevant policies, concerning the land use throughout the country.
3.Municipality or county (city) spatial plan: a plan established for the development and control of land and marine under the jurisdiction of a municipality or county (city) government.
4.Metropolitan area: an area that consists of one or more central cities as the core and municipalities, counties (cities) and townships (towns, cities and districts) that are socially and economically associated closely with the core.
5.Specific area: an area designated by the central competent authority as having particular natural, economic, cultural significance or other properties.
6.Sectoral spatial development strategy: a development strategy that has been established by the competent authority after consultation with the relevant authorities.
7.Functional zone: demarcation of environmental conservation zones, marine resource zones, agricultural development zones and urban-rural development zones consistent with the characteristics of land resources to facilitate conservation, utilization and management of the land.
8.Growth management: management policies and measures established to promote land use effectively, ensure sustainable development, improve environmental quality and protect social justice, by taking into account the carrying capacity of the environment, public facility service standards and financial burden, user rights and obligations, and profit-loss balance, to regulate urban-rural development and to define the locations and timelines of future development of various areas.

The central competent authority shall be responsible for the following.
1.Establishment, announcement, revision and enforcement of the National spatial plan.
2.Review, approval and supervision of the spatial plan that are established by municipality or county (city) governments.
3.Establishment of functional zone demarcated priorities and principles.
4.Establishment of land use permit systems and regulatory measures for land use control.
5.Issuance of land use permits for environmental conservation zones and marine resource zones, review and approval of permit changes and revocation of permits.
6.Other relevant issues.
The competent authorities of municipalities or counties (cities) shall be responsible for the following.
1.Establishment, announcement, revision and enforcement of municipality, county (city) spatial plans.
2.Demarcation of functional zones.
3.Enforcement of land use control measures and establishment and enforcement of municipality and county (city) land use control measures.
4.Issuance of land use permits for agricultural development zones and urban-rural development zones, review and approval of permit changes, and revocation of permits.
5.Other relevant issues.

The central competent authority shall release a spatial planning white paper periodically through regular channels, on the Internet, and through other appropriate channels.

The basic spatial planning principles are as follows.
1.Spatial planning shall comply with international conventions and regulations and promote sustainable development.
2.Natural conditions, water resources and climate change shall be taken into consideration in spatial planning to establish the capacity to prevent disasters on land and facilitate emergency responses.
3.Environmental conservation zones shall be used for conservation purposes and other uses may be prohibited or restricted accordingly.
4.Marine resource zones shall be used with resource sustainability taken into consideration; diverse needs shall be consolidated and priorities of uses shall be established.
5.Agricultural development zones shall be used to ensure food security. Important agricultural production environments and facilities shall be safeguarded and fragmented development shall be avoided.
6.Urban-rural development zones shall be guided toward compact development and placed under growth management to create suitable and harmonious living environments and efficient production environments as well as to provide sufficient public facilities.
7.Metropolitan areas shall be developed in sympathy with regional characteristics and the overall development, whereas cross-region consolidation shall be reinforced to achieve the complementation of resources and strengthen regional functions to improve competitiveness.
8.Specific areas shall be developed in manner that takes into account topography, geomorphology, geographic features and cultural characteristics of the region as well as requirements set forth in other regulations.
9.When spatial planning involves indigenous people’s land, the traditional cultures, territories and knowledge of such people shall be respected and preserved, and mechanisms to help achieve mutual benefits and prosperity shall be established.
10.Spatial planning shall be conducted with extensive public participation and informational transparency.
11.Environmental conservation shall be considered in land use and fair and efficient regulatory mechanisms shall be established.

The Executive Yuan shall recruit and appoint scholars, specialists, representatives from non-governmental organizations and relevant authorities to form a spatial planning committee to meet and conduct the following.
1.Review and approval of the National spatial plan.
2.Coordination of sectoral plans with the National spatial plan.
The central competent authority shall recruit and appoint scholars, specialists, representatives from non-governmental organizations and relevant authorities to form a spatial planning committee to conduct the following.
1.Review and approval of the National spatial plan drafts and changes.
2.Review and approval of the municipality or county (city) spatial plans.
3.Reconsideration of the municipality or county (city) spatial plans.
4.Review and approval of applications for permits to use environmental conservation zones and marine resource zones, and review and approval of permit changes and revocation of permits
The competent authority of each municipality or county (city) shall recruit and appoint scholars, specialists, representatives from non-governmental organizations and relevant authorities to form a spatial planning committee to conduct the following.
1.Review and approval of the municipality or county (city) spatial plan drafts and changes.
2.Review and approval of applications for permits to use agricultural development zones and urban-rural development zones as well as review and approval of permit changes and revocation of permits.