No. 40

Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on the Management of Urban Construction Archives were adopted at the 6th Routine Meeting of the Municipal People’s Government on March 14, 2023, and are hereby promulgated. They shall be effective as of May 1, 2023.

Mayor: Gong Zheng

March 24, 2023

Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on the Management of

Urban Construction Archives

(Promulgated by Decree No. 4 of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on March 24, 2023, and to be effective as of May 1, 2023)

Article 1 (Purpose and Basis)

With a view to strengthening the management of urban construction archives, standardizing the collection and arrangement of such archives, and effectively protecting and using such archives, so as to better service this Municipality's planning, construction and administration, these Procedures are formulated in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on Archives, the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects, the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Archives, the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Urban and Rural Planning and other laws and rules and in the light the actual circumstances of this Municipality.

Article 2 (Application Scope)

These Procedures apply to the collection, arrangement, preservation, use and informatization of the urban construction archives as well as the supervisory management thereof within the administrative areas of this Municipality.

For the purpose of these Procedures, “urban construction archives’ mean historical records of various forms including writings in different 1anguages, pictures, diagrams, audio-visuals, etc. which are directly formed in the city planning and construction and the relevant administrative activities, and have preservation value to the State and society.

Article 3 (Government Responsibilities)

The municipal and district people’s governments shall strengthen their urban construction archive work, incorporate such work into the planning for archive undertaking development, establish and improve urban construction archive institutions, and include funds for urban construction archive undertaking development in the government’s budget, so as to ensure that urban construction archive undertaking development will match the nation’s economic and social development.

Article 4 (Administrative Departments)

The municipal planning and resources department shall be responsible for the management of this Municipality’s urban construction archives, and work under the supervision and guidance of the municipal department in charge of archives.

The district planning and resources departments shall be responsible for the management of the urban construction archives within their respective jurisdiction, and work under the supervision and guidance of the same-level department in charge of archives.

The departments of development and reform, housing and urban-rural development, transportation, water authority, landscaping and city appearance, civil air defense, housing management, economy and information technology, agricultural and rural affairs, finance, etc. shall, according to their respective functions and duties, coordinate for the implementation of these Procedures.

Article 5 (Archives Institutions)

The Municipal Urban Construction Archives Repository (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Archives Repository) and the agencies designated by a district people’s government or by its representative offices (hereinafter referred to as the district archives agencies) shall, according to their respective functions and duties, perform such work as the collection, arrangement, protection and opening to the public of urban construction archives.

Article 6 (Team Development)

This Municipality shall strengthen its training of urban construction archivists, set up training bases for such archivists, carry out plans for training such archivists, and build up a contingent of high-quality, professional and applied urban construction archivists.

Urban construction archivists of this Municipality shall be devoted to their duty, observe law and discipline, possess the corresponding professional knowledge and skills, and receive professional training related to archives and construction projects. Archivists are qualified to be evaluated for professional technical titles.

Article 7 (Technological Innovation)

This Municipality encourages and supports scientific research and technical innovation in urban construction archives, and promotes the application and transformation of new technologies such as cloud computing, blockchains, big data, and artificial intelligence in the collection, arrangement, protection and use of urban construction archives, thus boosting scientific progress and administration modernization in urban construction achieves.

Article 8 (Scope of Archives Collection)

The Municipal Archives Repository and district archives agencies shall be responsible for collecting the following urban construction archives:

1. archives of urban construction projects;

2. archives of professional management and technologies formed by such construction-related specialized departments as planning and resources, housing and urban-rural development, transportation, water authority, landscaping and city appearance, civil air defense, and housing management; and

3. other urban construction archives with preservation value.

The specific scope of urban construction archives collection shall be determined by the municipal planning and resources department and the municipal department in charge of archives, jointly with other relevant departments in accordance with the law, and shall be made known to the public.

Article 9 (Units that Form the Archives)

The state organs, public organizations, enterprises, public institutions and other organizations that form the urban construction archives (hereinafter “urban construction archive-forming units”) shall designate their archive agencies or archivists to take charge of their respective urban construction archives, and exercise supervision and guidance over the urban construction archive work of their subordinate units.

Article 10 (Project Units’ Archive Responsibilities)

A development unit shall establish and improve its system of project archives management.

The units of survey, design, construction, supervision, etc. that participate in a construction project shall all, in accordance with the progress of the construction project, complete the collection, arrangement and filing of the construction project records simultaneously, and promptly submit them to the development unit which shall coordinate and promote the construction project archive work by the survey, design, construction and supervision units.

When the development unit organizes an acceptance inspection upon completion of the construction project, it shall inspect the construction project archives according to the provisions.

Article 11 (Archives Inspection and Acceptance)

The planning and resources department shall properly inspect the urban construction archives in accordance with the state and municipal prescriptions on scientific and technical archive inspection and on comprehensive inspection of construction projects for acceptance.

Article 12 (Transfer and Acceptance of Project Archives)

The development unit shall, after inspecting and accepting the completed construction project, hand the construction project archives that conform to the technical standards and norms for construction project archives over to the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency, and shall be held responsible for the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of the archives. Where the archives meet the requirements, the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency shall accept them and issue a certificate.

The Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency shall provide the development unit with consultation and convenience for the latter’s transfer of its archives.

The development unit shall keep a complete set of the construction project archives on its own.

Article 13 (Preservation of the Archives of Stopped and Delayed Projects)

In the case of a stopped or delayed construction project, its construction project archives shall be temporarily preserved by the development unit.

Article 14 (Requirements on Archives of Pipeline Removing, Discarding and Supplementary-testing)

To remove, discard or supplementarily-test underground pipelines, owners thereof shall collect, arrange and file the relevant pipeline project records in a timely manner before submitting them to the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency.

Article 15 (Transfer of Professional Divisions’ Archives)

The urban construction archives formed by professional divisions in the field of construction shall, according to the provisions, be preserved within the divisions for a year before being transferred to the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency. The specific provisions on the transfer shall be formulated by the municipal planning and resources department and the municipal department in charge of archives jointly with other relevant departments.

Article 16 (Collection for Archives)

The Municipal Archives Repository may, by adopting such measures as acquisition from the public and on-the-spot collection, focus on collecting important and valuable records on historical-feature areas, heritage buildings, industrial legacies, immovable cultural relics, etc.

Article 17 (Encouragement of Archive Donations)

Units and individuals are encouraged to donate important and valuable urban construction records, and the Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall accept the donations according to the relevant state and municipal prescriptions.

Article 18 (Facilities and a Safe Work Mechanism)

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies as well as the archives agencies under the urban construction archive-forming units shall provide the storage rooms and necessary facilities and equipment that are suitable for archive preservation so as to ensure the safety of the urban construction archives.

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies as well as the archives agencies under the urban construction archive-forming units shall establish and improve the working mechanism for urban construction archive safety, strengthen the risk management for urban construction archive safety, and draw up risk control measures and emergency plans for urban construction archive safety so as to enhance the emergency-handling capability for urban construction archive safety.

Article 19 (Management for Protecting Archives)

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall practice classified protection and management of the urban construction archives of permanent preservation value that are under their safekeeping.

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall properly inspect the safekeeping of the urban construction archives. Where such archives have been damaged or deteriorated, they shall promptly restore or duplicate them or adopt other measures for technical treatment and rescue.

The urban construction archives that have been preserved by a district archives agency for five years shall be transferred to the Municipal Archives Repository.

Article 20 (Management of Confidential Archives)

The preservation and use of confidential urban construction archives, changes in their confidentiality classification, and their declassification must be conducted according to the provisions of laws and administrative rules on protection of state secrets.

Article 21 (Requirements on Archive Opening)

Upon the expiration of 25 years after the archives of the Municipal Archives Repository were formed, they shall be open to the public. Where the urban construction archives which involve state security or some significant interests, or which are not suitable for opening even at the expiration of 25 years, their opening to the public may be postponed.

When the Municipal Archives Repository opens its urban construction archives, it shall publish the catalog of its urban construction archives via the website or other means.

The Municipal Archives Repository shall establish a coordinating mechanism for examining the opening of its archives, formulate the working rules for examining and opening the archives, and conduct the archive examining and opening work in a timely manner.

With regard to the examining and opening of the archives that have not been transferred to the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency, the urban construction archive-forming or archive-preserving units shall be responsible for the archive preservation; and when the archives are transferred to the Repository or the agency, the aforesaid units shall provide the Repository or the agency with such written information as their suggestions on the archive opening when the time is due, their opinions on restricted archive use, the changes in the security classification of the archives, the declassification of the archives, the nature of government information publicity, use by the public, etc.

Article 22 (Standardization)

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall strengthen standardization of the service window for urban construction archive use, strive to optimize the system of urban construction archive consulting, keep improving the rules on urban construction archive use, and create new forms of service to upgrade their service.

Article 23 (Requirements on Archive Use)

On the strength of legitimate proof such as an ID card, passport or letter of introduction, a unit or individual may make use of the open urban construction archives. To use urban construction archives not yet open, one has to follow the relevant state and municipal provisions.

The municipal planning and resources department shall, under the guidance of the municipal department in charge of archives, formulate specific administrative methods of using urban construction archives, and shall publish such methods.

Article 24 (Responsibilities for Archive Use)

To use the urban construction archives, one must observe the relevant state and municipal provisions, shall not lose such archives, shall not provide, transcribe, duplicate or publicize such archives, shall not temper with, damage or forge such archives, and shall not destroy such archives without authorization.

Article 25 (Emergency Use of Archives)

When urgent use of urban construction archives is needed to deal with natural disasters, accident-caused disasters, public health events, public safety events and other emergencies, the Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall first provide the archives. Then within 15 working days after the emergencies have been handled, the unit using the archives shall complete the archive-use formalities.

Article 26 (More Extensive Use of Archives)

By relying on its archive resources and in the light of the economic and social development of this Municipality, the Municipal Archives Repository shall strengthen the work of urban-construction-archive compilation and research in such ways as providing literature, conducting statistics-based compilation and compilation on certain themes, and organizing exhibitions and displays, so as to strengthen the compilation and research work on urban construction archives; the Repository shall also adopt such forms as exhibitions on certain themes, public-benefit lectures, and education to popularize science to improve the publicity and promote dissemination of the urban construction archive culture.

The Municipal Archives Repository shall strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the relevant government departments, universities, research institutes, etc. to promote the transformation and application of the urban-construction-archive research results to improve the city appearance and protect the historical features.

Article 27 (Use of Red Archives)

The Municipal Archives Repository shall, by following the relevant state and municipal provisions, strengthen the protection and use of the red (revolutionary) urban construction archives, make full use of the red resources in the urban construction archives, create catalogs and databases on the theme of red urban construction archives, and provide service for inheriting, carrying forward, protecting and using the red resources of this Municipality.

The Municipal Archives Repository shall strengthen its cooperation with relevant departments, and make use of the red urban construction archives to conduct educational activities on such themes as the Party history, ideals and convictions, and patriotism.

Article 28 (Responsibilities for Informatization)

The planning and resources departments shall formulate the work scheme for informatization of urban construction archives, and comprehensively coordinate, organize and promote the IT progress in urban construction archives as well as supervise and guide the IT progress in accordance with this Municipality’s informatization planning, its digital transformation work, and the requirements for archive informatization,

The municipal planning and resources department shall organize the development of an information system for electronic urban-construction-archive management, and exercise the whole-process management of the collection, arrangement, protection and use of the information resources of the urban construction archives.

The information system for electronic urban-construction-archive management shall conform to the prescriptions of the state networks, information systems, and data security and confidentiality.

Article 29 (Basic Requirements for Informatization)

The Municipal Archives Repository, the district archives agencies and the urban construction archive-forming units shall promote the development of urban construction archive informatization, establish their respective work coordination mechanism as required, strive to perfect the administrative system for urban construction archive informatization, and improve the infrastructure and other conditions for urban construction archive informatization.

Article 30 (The Development and Connections of the Management System)

The urban construction archive-forming units shall promote the development of a management system that connects with the office automation system and the professional system, and dovetails with the management system of the electronic urban construction archives.

Article 31 (Filing and Transfer of Electronic Archives)

Electronic archives shall conform to the requirements for reliable sources, standard procedures, main elements complying with the rules, and long-term effective preservation. Electronic archives are equally authentic as traditional paper archives, and an electronic file can be used as proof.

The urban construction archive-forming units shall conduct standard management of the electronic documents that have been formed in their professional activities and have the preservation value, promptly file the documents electronically according to the requirements of electronic archive management, and transfer them to the Municipal Archives Repository or the district archives agency via networks or storage media that meet the safe management requirements. These units no longer need to file or transfer the documents in the traditional paper form unless otherwise provided for by laws and rules.

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall inspect whether the electronic archives they received are true, complete, usable and safe.

Article 32 (Management of Projects’ Electronic Archives)

A development unit shall strengthen management of the electronic archives of its construction project, and file the documents throughout the process of the project construction.

The Municipal Archives Repository and the district archives agencies shall strengthen professional training and guidance in the collection, arrangement and transfer of electronic archives of construction projects.

Article 33 (The Digital Archives Repositories and the Opening and Sharing of Digital Resources)

The Municipal Archives Repository shall, in accordance with the standards for building digital archives repositories, apply modern information technology to collect, arrange, preserve and use the digital resources of the urban construction archives, enhance the building of digital archives repositories, promote the opening and sharing of the digital resources of the urban construction archives, and ensure the safe use of the archive digital resources.

Article 34 (Coordinated Supervision)

The municipal planning and resources department shall, jointly with the departments of housing and urban-rural development, transportation, water authority, landscaping and city appearance, civil air defense, housing management, etc., establish a coordination mechanism for urban construction archive work, circulate reports periodically, study the routine supervision and enforcement work on urban construction archives, and reinforce coordinated supervision in accordance with law so as to raise the supervision efficiency.

Article 35 (Credit Management)

The municipal planning and resources department shall, jointly with the development and reform department and other relevant departments, establish and improve the mechanism for collecting, evaluating and applying the credit information on urban construction archives.

The relevant government departments shall, in accordance with the state and municipal provisions, collect the urban-construction-archive credit information onto the municipal public credit information service platform, and adopt measures for incentivizing good credits and punishing bad credits according to the law.

Article 36 (Legal Liability)

Acts in violation of the provisions of these Procedures shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and rules.

Article 37 (Administrative Responsibilities)

Where any department and its employees are involved in abuse of power, dereliction of duties, or practice of favoritism and irregularities, the leader directly in charge and other persons directly responsible shall be punished according to law; if the act constitutes a crime, the criminal responsibility shall be pursued.

Article 38 (Reference)

The management of the archives of rural construction projects may refer to these Procedures.

Article 39 (Effective Date)

These Procedures shall be effective as of May 1, 2023. The Interim Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on the Management of Urban Construction Archives which was promulgated by Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on May 5, 1987, amended for the first time according to Decree No. 53 of Shanghai Municipal Government on December 14, 1997, and amended for the second time according to Decree No, 52 of Shanghai Municipal Government on December 20, 2010, shall be abolished simultaneously.