Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development

and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing
into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution
networks.[1] Urban planning deals with physical layout of human settlements.[2] The primary concern
is the public welfare,[1][2] which includes considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of
the environment,[1]as well as effects on social and economic activities.[3] Urban planning is
considered an interdisciplinary field that includes social, engineering and design sciences. It is
closely related to the field of urban design and some urban planners provide designs for streets,
parks, buildings and other urban areas.[4] Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional
planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning, urban
development or some combination in various areas worldwide.
Urban planning guides orderly development in urban, suburban and rural areas. Although
predominantly concerned with the planning of settlements and communities, urban planning is also
responsible for the planning and development of water use and resources, rural and agricultural
land, parks and conserving areas of natural environmental significance. Practitioners of urban
planning are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban
design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and
management.[2] Enforcement methodologies include governmental zoning, planning permissions,
and building codes,[1] as well as private easements and restrictive covenants.[5]
Urban planners work with the cognate fields of architecture, landscape architecture, civil
engineering, and public administration to achieve strategic, policy and sustainability goals. Early
urban planners were often members of these cognate fields. Today urban planning is a separate,
independent professional discipline. The discipline is the broader category that includes different
sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, economic development, environmental planning,
and transportation planning.[6]

Contents

 1History
 2Theories
 3Technical aspects
 4Urban planners
 5See also
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links
o 8.1Library guides for urban planning

History[edit]
Further information: History of urban planning
There is evidence of urban planning and designed communities dating back to
the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan, and Egyptian civilizations in the third millennium BCE.
Archeologists studying the ruins of cities in these areas find paved streets that were laid out at right
angles in a grid pattern.[7] The idea of a planned out urban area evolved as different civilizations
adopted it. Beginning in the 8th century BCE, Greek city states were primarily centered on
orthogonal (or grid-like) plans.[8] The ancient Romans, inspired by the Greeks, also used orthogonal
plans for their cities. City planning in the Roman world was developed for military defense and public
convenience. The spread of the Roman Empire subsequently spread the ideas of urban planning. As
the Roman Empire declined, these ideas slowly disappeared. However, many cities in Europe still
held onto the planned Roman city center. Cities in Europe from the 9th to 14th centuries, often grew
organically and sometimes chaotically. But in the following centuries some newly created towns
were built according to preconceived plans, and many others were enlarged with newly planned
extensions.[9] From the 15th century on, much more is recorded of urban design and the people that
were involved. In this period, theoretical treatises on architecture and urban planning start to appear
in which theoretical questions are addressed and designs of towns and cities are described and
depicted. During the Enlightenment period, several European rulers ambitiously attempted to
redesign capital cities. During the Second French Republic, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann,
under the direction of Napoleon III, redesigned the city of Paris into a more modern capital, with
long, straight, wide boulevards.[10]
Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century. The
industrialized cities of the 19th century grew at a tremendous rate. The evils of urban life for
the working poor were becoming increasingly evident as a matter for public concern. The laissez-
faire style of government management of the economy, in fashion for most of the Victorian era, was
starting to give way to a New Liberalism that championed intervention on the part of the poor and
disadvantaged. Around 1900, theorists began developing urban planning models to mitigate the
consequences of the industrial age, by providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier
environments. The following century would therefore be globally dominated by a central
planning approach to urban planning, not necessarily representing an increment in the overall quality
of the urban realm. If anything, the new paradigm of highly regulated land-use forced the poorer
urban class into informal settlements and slums.
At the beginning of the 20th century, urban planning began to be recognized as a profession.
The Town and Country Planning Association was founded in 1899 and the first academic course in
Great Britain on urban planning was offered by the University of Liverpool in 1909.[11] In the 1920s,
the ideas of modernism and uniformity began to surface in urban planning, and lasted until the
1970s. Many planners started to believe that the ideas of modernism in urban planning led to higher
crime rates and social problems.[3][12] Urban planners now focus more on individualism and diversity
in urban centers.