Department of Urban and Regional Planning

Mission

Urban and regional planning is a dynamic field that requires innovative solutions from committed and thoughtful individuals. Historically, it emerged out of the convergence of two concerns:

1. The provision of urban infrastructure; and
2. The initiation of social reform

Today, the underlying focus on community well-being continues, urban and regional planning has broadened to include the development, implementation, and evaluation of a wide range of policies. Specifically urban and regional planners, in both developing and developed countries, are concerned with:

• The use of land in the city, in the suburbs, and in rural areas, and particularly with the transition from one use to another;
• Potentially adverse impacts of human activities on a limited physical environment and the possible mitigation of those impacts;
• The design of the city and the surrounding region so as to facilitate the activities in which people need and desire to engage;
• Settlement systems and the location of human activities in urban and regional space;
• Identification of social needs and the design and provision of services and facilities to meet those needs;
• The distribution of resources, benefits and costs among people;
• The anticipation of change and its impact on how people do and can live;
• Participation of citizens in planning processes which affect their future; and
• The way that choices are made, decisions implemented and actions evaluated, and the means by which those processes can be improved in urban and regional areas