Climate & Environment

Urban Planning

Meaning statusEstablishedSource recordDirect source requestedWhy these are different

Definition

Urban planning is the technical and political process of designing and regulating the use of land and the arrangement of cities: zoning and land use plans, transport and infrastructure networks, housing supply, public space, and development control. Its twentieth-century history runs from modernist zoning (which produced sprawl and segregation) to contemporary paradigms — compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented, participatory and nature-positive planning — codified in frameworks like the New Urban Agenda.

References

unhabitat.orgBulk import source

Source imported for editorial provenance.

www.oecd.orgBulk import source

This reference provides supporting context for how “Urban Planning” is defined and used.

Overview

How it is used

The discipline structures master plans, zoning codes, development permits, public participation processes and metropolitan strategy.

Why it matters

Cities are built once and lived in for centuries; urban planning is where their sustainability is decided, one zoning map at a time.