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Urban Planning

Urban Planning is a profession that deals with the spatial land use influencing the physical, environmental, economic and social aspects of the urban and rural environment. It concerns itself with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. 

Urban Planning Disciplines
  1. Land-Use Planning; Largely concerns legislation and policy, adopting planning instruments like governmental statutes, regulations, rules, codes, and policies to influence land use.
    1. Residential
    2. Commercial
    3. Industrial
    4. Municipal
  1. Strategic Urban Planning; Mainly focused on setting high-level goals and determining desired areas of growth for a city or metropolitan area.
  2. Master Planning; Typicallay concerned with greenfield developement projects, starting from scratch
  3. Urban Revitalization; It focuses on improving areas that are in a state of decline.
  4. Infrastructure Planning; It deals with the fundamental facilities and systems that serve a city and its people, and how those facilities can support goals laid out in the strategic plan. 
  5. Economic Development; It involves identification of areas of growth to foster greater financial prosperity within the city, specifically by enticing companies to build or move offices there.
  6. Environmental Planning; a type of strategic development that emphasizes sustainability.

Applications of GIS in Urban Planning

Urban planning is one of the main applications of GIS. GIS provides Urban Planners a spatial database and an analysis modelling tool. GIS has envolved over the years, its ability to integrate with planning models, visualization and IoTs makes it an amust tool in Urban Planning.

Applications of GIS in urban planning include:
  1. Analyzing the existing situation
  2. Modeling and Projection
  3. Feasibility studies
  4. Developing planning options
  5. Selecting Planning Options
  6. Resource Inventory
  7. Building control application processing
  8. Designing and mapping towns/cities
  9. Quality life enhancement
Administrative Areas Solutions:
  1. Management of land use records;
  2. Thematic mapping;
  3. Environmental impact assessment;
  4. Contaminated and derelict land registers;
  5. Planning application processing;
  6. Building control application processing;
  7. Land use management;
  8. Land availability and development monitoring;
  9. Industrial, commercial, and retail floor space recording;