Planning and design refers to the more specific planning or overall design of the project, taking into account political, economic, historical, cultural, folklore, geography, climate, transportation and other factors, perfecting the design scheme, putting forward the theory of planning expectation, vision and development mode, development direction, control index, etc.

The planning level includes five levels: urban system planning, urban master planning, urban planning, town planning and township (village) planning; the types are roughly land planning, regional planning, urban master planning, zoning planning, urban system planning, regulatory detailed planning, constructive detailed planning, urban design, industrial layout planning. Planning, urban development theory research and so on, a series of planning and design with different contents (special planning).

Urban design is similar to architectural design. Urban design is a kind of design between urban planning, landscape architecture and architectural design under the guidance of various upper-level planning and taking the city as the research object. Compared with the abstraction and digitalization of urban planning, urban design is more concrete and graphical.