Urban and Regional Planning

Think of the things one sees in a city or region that everyone wishes were otherwise. They might have been otherwise if there had been careful planning in the past. The periodic confrontations over the building of new shopping centers, high-rise apartments, airports, landfills, and highways; the demolition of historic buildings; or the failure to conserve open space are a measure of the regard with which planning is held. In these contentious situations, the subject under debate is not the need for planning but rather the need for better planning, not whether but how it should be done.

Planning is a systematic process of thought and action intended to contribute to effective decision making for the welfare and integrity of communities and the sustainability of the ...