Abstract:

Plan evaluation has been considered as an indispensable process to ensure effective implementation of a regional plan Outcome evaluation， as an inevitable stage in the process of plan evaluation， has practical meanings in effectively promoting the development of regional planning However relevant research in this area is far less than sufficient This paper started with the evolution of regional planning and their effects on outcome evaluation Then considering conformance based evaluation theory as framework， this paper attempted to claim the degree of mission accomplishment as the evaluation scale Core mission need be analyzed and identified in each evaluation practices Further， goals and objectives should be classified and integrated to indicate the effectiveness of plan And finally each objective would be assigned a weight to calculate the overall achievement In order to test the validity of this evaluation methodology， an empirical case study based on “Regional Development Plan of YangtzeRiverside Area in Jiangsu” was applied In this case study， the author designed a sevenstep evaluations procedure， including plan description， objective identification， background establishment， outcome identification， evaluation and analysis， adjustment and correction， continuing monitoring Based on this procedure， this paper established an outcome evaluation index system， and applied the system on “Regional Development Plan of YangtzeRiverside Area in Jiangsu” The results indicated this area had increased in four aspects Firstly， regional economy had grown up continually， as well as the benefit of industry cluster and economics of scale had been enhanced Foreign investment became the engine of economic growth Secondly， sustainable development of environment resources had been achieved in this area Resources had been used more efficiently， while pollution had been under control Thirdly， infrastructure construction had been well developed and became the solid foundation for industry cluster and development of society and economy Finally， regional differences between south and north side of the Yangtze River were reduced steadily， and the north side presented a higher increase rate on economic growthAfter identifying the implementation outcomes， it is important to prove that positive results were actually caused by the original plan Therefore， in the next stage， this paper used regional differences between north and south side of the Yangtze River to prove the relationship between plan and outcome By comparing relevant factors and Theil index， the author positively concluded that plan was the major reason for the actual outcomes At last， the author summarized the case study and pointed out that “Regional Development Plan of YangtzeRiverside Area in Jiangsu” had positive influenced in directing industry positioning and distribution， as well as infrastructure construction The plan increased regional competition advantages and reduced local differences within the regional areas The outcome of plan implementation was good although limitation had been found in coordinating conflict interests and implementing safeguard plansAt the final， this paper analyzed potential defects in outcome evaluation， suggested that outcome evaluation could not explain how the plan affect the outcome， which means important determinant factors in planning and implementation could not be identified The author advised future studies should pay more attention to evaluating implementation process