The interactive relationship between transportation and land use has become more difficult to understand and predict, due to the economic boom and corresponding fast-paced proliferation of private transportation and land-development activities. A lack of coordination between transportation and land-use planning has created an imbalanced provision of transportation infrastructure and land-use patterns; this is indicated by places where a high-density land-development pattern is supported by a low-capacity transport system or vice versa.

Green and blue infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and cultural and built heritage play a key role in enhancing ecosystem services provision and shaping urban quality and communities’ wellbeing calling for an integrated approach to ecosystem services in urban policy and planning and decision-making. On the other side, under-used spaces and buildings have social, cultural, economic, as well as ecological functions and benefits, which are essential to sustainable urban development.

Spatial plans are widely used as a basic tool for regulating urban expansion. However, land development beyond zones planned for urban development is prevalent worldwide, posing a serious challenge to the implementation of spatial plans and their effectiveness in regulating urban expansion. This paper presents a review of research progress relating to the measurement, interpretation, and governance of non-conforming urban expansion. Spatial conformance between actual land use and plans is the basic criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of plans in containing urban expansion.