Under the new situation of building a national land spatial planning system in China, there exist significant deficiencies for geological work to support on spatial planning. Based on the experience of Shanghai, this paper aims to summarize the main problems in China and put forward specific suggestions for improving the service efficiency of geological work in the spatial planning field. Methods:We comprehensively analyze the degree and history of domestic and foreign geological work in serving space planning. Combined with the recent practice in Shanghai, we analyze the main problems existing in China in this regard, and discuss ways for the geological work to play a greater supporting role in the new era.Results:The research results show that the main problems are that the accuracy of geological survey and information integration is insufficient, especially, special geological information integration that can meet the needs of spatial planning is lacking, and there is a disconnect with the planning industry at the institutional and technical levels. As results, the channels for obtaining geological information are not smooth for planning industries, and the results of geological evaluation are difficult to be effectively applied. More importantly, the applied value of geological work is generally underestimated by the planning industry and policy makers, resulting in the technical path of geological work is difficult to adapt to the planning industry, and the traditional way of expressing geological results is difficult to attract social attention.Conclusions: We suggest to further strengthen the geological survey and information integration of regional and key planning areas, to clarify the geological information that must be obtained for spatial planning at the level of laws and regulations, to establish channels for obtaining geological information, to construct corresponding geological evaluation standard system. At the operational level, we propose to carry out demand- oriented propaganda, to build problem- oriented, simple and easy- to- implement technical paths, and to strengthen space- oriented, key space- focused results expression.