Information Technology in Urban Planning

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Information Technology in Urban Planning

• CRP 507 Computer-aided Planning
• Jan 2004

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Four topics in IT in urban planning

• Hardware and software potential and limitations
• Concepts and methods used
• Various applications
• Impact on societal groups

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Hardware and software

• Hardware evolves rapidly over time
• Ideal hardware configuration is flexible and
  scaleable
• Two kinds of software interest us
• Operating systems
• UNIX, Windows, and previously DOS
• Application programs
• Word, Excel, Access, GIS packages ArcView,
  ArcGIS

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Concepts and methods

• A developing body of literature on the
  relationship of IT to cities and regions
• Planning currently uses a number of IT methods
• Spreadsheet analysis and models
• Large-scale computer models

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• GIS implementation and database development
• Web and Internet activities

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Applications in planning

• We use IT to help
• Build theory (e.g., based on statistical
  analysis)
• Plan for the future (e.g., transportation and
  land use models that project into the future)
• Manage cities and regions (e.g., databases of
  parcels, streets, water and sewer lines)

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A historical perspective - evolution of IT in
planning

• IT applications in planning followed the
  development of hardware and software
• No accident that the first large-scale urban
  transportation models appeared in the mid-1950s
  with the first commercial Univac and IBM machines
• Strong linkage between computing power and the
  first major planning applications - and land use
  and transportation demand projection models

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Enthusiasm unbounded

• 1960s - urban allocation models appeared
• These models projected population, jobs and land
  use activities for small areas (e.g., census
  tracts) in a city
• 1965 Journal of American Institute of Planners
  issue on urban models a best seller

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• Planners thought of themselves as scientific
• Mainframes dominant - the IBM 360 is introduced
• Britton Harris proposed a planning sciences
  degree at University of Pennsylvania

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Requiem I

• 1970s - setback
• Urban models promised much but delivered little
  Models
• They delivered only population and employment
  projections at zonal level
• But policy makers want answers to deeper
  questions of housing, social conditions...

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Requiem II

• 1970 - urban models criticized as less than
  useful
• 1973- Lee publishes Requiem for Large-Scale
  Models in JAIP criticizing the models built in
  the 1960s
• General retreat from large-scale efforts and move
  to more targeted analyses

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Mainframes to micros

• Early 1970s - IT in planning schools dealt only
  with the mainframe
• Planning courses teach statistical packages and
  programming languages (FORTRAN and maybe SYMAP)

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• Universities did not offer computer courses after
  1974 until the 1980s
• Late 1970s - the microcomputer arrived

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New excitement, new energy

• The 1980s - micros and the invention of the
  spreadsheet, such as, Lotus, renewed interests in
  computing
• Starting 1980s, universities started offering
  courses in applied computing using BASIC Lotus

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• Microcomputers liberated us from the mainframe
  and centralized computing centers
• Much of the 1980s are spent discovering what we
  can do on a stand-alone basis

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The 1990s I

• The 1990s saw the development of a new thrusts in
  IT for planners
• GIS is one of the major new tools
• Also, the rise of the Internet and the Web
• In addition, the large-scale urban models returned

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The 1990s II

• Other hot topics
• Growth in multimedia applications
• Increased interest in database design
• Exponential growth in data availability,
  augmented by CD ROMs
• Integration of GIS, models and user interface
  design into planning support systems

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• Increased focus on the Internet
• Appearance of Digital cameras and photography,
  and Image Processing software

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Into the 21st Century

• Increasingly powerful and easy to use GIS
• Explosion in the potential of the Internet for
  community information systems
• GIS on the net

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• 3D and multimedia applications
• Creation of large, shared databases, in an
  enterprise model
• High resolution satellite imagery

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At a more mundane level

• Planners will need to
• Continue to learn the tools such as GIS, models,
  data handling devices
• Recognize the growing sophistication of the
  interacting citizen
• Build bridges to the network society
• Understand the flexibility and interrelatedness
  inherent in a network society

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Information technology and you

• Most of what we, the knowledge providers, will
  impart here has been learned on our own or in
  shared small group sessions
• In the 21st century you will be continually
  bombarded with new concepts and tools

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• Accept the fact that you will need to continually
  learn on your own, and that your professional
  survival may depend on your learning skills