PLAN 3050 Methods of PlanningSpring
2010 (3 credits) Professor David L. Phillips |
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Urban
and Environmental Planning |
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Prerequisites: Open to undergraduates with Planning Majors and Minors receiving enrollment priority. There are no prerequisites; however some basic understanding of statistics is helpful. This is a required course for the Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning Degree.
Course Description: A Combination of lecture, some fieldwork, discussion and computer lab workshop dealing with field observations, statistics and mapping relevant to urban and environmental planning at the community level.
Pedagogical Intentions: The purpose of this course is to teach undergraduate planning students a variety of planning research techniques appropriate for professional practice. Many of these techniques and methods have wider applicability in urban research, public problem solving and engaged research. The semester is organized around the collection, analysis and presentation of qualitative and quantitative data with an emphasis on the latter.
Planning has adapted methods from many related disciplines: demography, urban and regional economics, quantitative geography, environmental and sustainability analysis, statistics, survey research and public finance to name a few. This course will cast these into a framework of “planning research”. Topics include: Gathering data through field observations, a range of secondary data sources for planning, exploratory analysis and mapping of census data, mathematical foundations for modeling demographic change, economic composition, index numbers and spatial interaction analysis.
Analytic methods in planning often originate in either the inductive or deductive approaches to developing knowledge. In practice these become blended. Consequently there is a dual focus on how planners can use numbers to assist in making comparisons and discover patterns on one hand and then use that knowledge to reason from means to ends in a deliberative and evaluative process. Further, data are the result of a socially constructed set of definitions and measurement. Consequently while the manifest activity in the course is developing a facility with quantitative methods, mapping, modeling and evaluation, the secondary, but equally important activity, is to appraise the underlying values implicit in those methods. Clear professional communication to different audiences often involved in planning will also receive emphasis.
The course will endeavor to maintain a dual perspective of planning for people and place. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District’s “Transportation and Housing Alliance Toolkit” will serve as one model for how qualitative and quantitative data can be incorporated into local community planning.
To allow students to expand their exposure to planning methods not emphasized in the lectures and workshops or to explore how methods are used within one or more of the specialized topics of planning practice, students will undertake an individual report of their own choosing from a wide list of topics. [They will share the results of their study in a presentation to the class.]
Learning Objectives: By the end of the course, students should be able to:
· Write research and professional reports clearly
· Present qualitative and quantitative results verbally and graphically through charts and maps.
· Conduct fieldwork surveys
· Identify multiple sources of secondary data useful to planners
· Use spreadsheets for the management, modeling and presentation of data.
· Use GIS software to map thematic data for small geographic areas.
· Have a familiarity with wide range of methodological concepts and terms planners have adapted.
Requirements: Student learning will be assessed in several ways:
A. Exercises.
1. Read the AICP Code of Ethics, the using the “Principles to Which We Aspire: Our Overall Responsibility to the Public”, write a 500 word essay addressing two questions: 1) explain which of the principles you think will present the greatest challenge in your first planning job, and 2) discuss how you see these principles relating to the planner as an analyst and communicator of information. Due: February 2 10 %
2. An exercise testing your ability to acquire and analyze data from the Census and American Community Survey. 10%
3. A 2 page description of your research project for the semester including the title, description of its importance and scope and how you will collect data or information. 5%
4. A thematic mapping exercise for a topic related to Transportation and Housing Accessibility for the Fifeville neighborhood in the context of Charlottesville/Albemarle. 10%
5. An exercise in forecasting the population of Charlottesville, Albemarle or Fluvanna counties in the context of the TJPDC. 10%
6. Other miscellaneous homework exercises 5%
B. Field exercise and group presentation on Accessibility and Visitability in Northern Fifeville. 20%
C. A paper researching planning methods of analysis on a problem or domain of planning of your choosing.
· Oral presentation of your Research Report Topic 10%
· Written research Report.(Draft Due, April 13. Final Report Due last day of Classes) 15%
D. Class Attendance and Participation in Groups and Discussion. 5%
Readings: TEXTS:
· Dankekar, Hemalata C. Planners Use of Information, 2nd ed. APA Planners Press
· Macris, Natalie, Planning in Plain English, APA Planners Press
· Langer, Creating Spreadsheets and Charts in Microsoft Excel, PeachPit Press
Other useful books:
· TJPDC, “Transportation and Housing Alliance Toolkit”, on Collab and TJPDC website.
· Olmsby, Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop, 2nd Ed. ESRI Press
· References will be available in the Fine Arts and Scholars Lab libraries.
· Electronic Web based articles will also be used.
Computers: Many of these methods and techniques require computation either for data management or for modeling. Consequently we will be developing computational skill using a spreadsheet software package. Excel is supported here. This will be sufficient for our work and most professional work. Advanced statistical work with SPSS which would be used in research will not be covered here.
The spatial element is at the heart of planning analysis. We will begin to use a GIS package for analysis and visualization. We will use the web for gathering information and data. We will use Power point to organize information for display and submissions. Except as explicitly noted, all written work will be word processed and submitted either in hard copy or electronically as directed at the time of the assignment.
We will rely on the web based COLLAB for course material, announcements, assignments, some submissions, and class email. Please be sure you have access to the Collab Website for this course.
Expectations and Attendance:
· Reading assignments are due on the dates listed on the schedule.
· Homework assignments are due in class on the dates listed or as adjusted on Collab given contingencies in course scheduling. Unexcused late assignments will be penalized one-half letter grade per day.
· Attendance: Because this is a professional program, a classroom is a proxy for the workplace. If you are not going to be at a class session, you are expected to 1) inform the instructor of your absence and its purpose and 2) inform any team members with whom you are currently working.
· Team meetings or work sessions by necessity will have to occur outside of the regular class times. Most often these will involve the current team members and perhaps the instructor. If you find that you are not going to be at a work session that your particular team has scheduled, your first obligation is to notify them personally BEFORE THE MEETING and also to notify the instructor by email. Notifying team members only by email will generally be insufficient if the inability to fulfill a meeting commitment is discovered within 24 hours of that meeting.
· Formal presentations whether as a group or individual will be conducted in a professional manner. Business casual dress is appropriate.
Operational Considerations:
While we do meet in a “computer classroom”, we will not always be working with computers during the class session. Please do not use computers for printing, word processing, tweeting or email during class. It is distracting to your colleagues and to the instructor.
Please turn any cell phones or pagers to off or vibrator mode. For those students who have family obligations where it is important for you to receive information from a caregiver, you may keep your phone on vibrate and step outside of the classroom to take your call. One or two students will also be asked to subscribe to UVAAlerts and have their phone configured to receive any such message.
You will want to acquire storage media as backup for digital work. You can use your space on the OLMSTED/CLASSES file server. However, you should not solely rely on them to preserve your work. The particular way you choose to back up the work may depend on your personal as well as school computers. One or more USB stick drive and/or a portable hard drive are fast, easy and of moderate cost. CD/DVD’s are cheap, permanent, but slow. Some students use Microsoft Go-Live or other “Cloud” storage. Develop a strategy and use it! The lack of a backup copy is not a sufficient excuse for missed work.
Student Accommodations : All students with special needs requiring accommodations should present the appropriate paperwork from the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC). It is the student’s responsibility to present this paperwork in a timely fashion and follow up with the instructor about the accommodations being offered. Students are urged to fulfill this responsibility within the first two weeks of the class.
The LNEC is located in the Department of Student Health and can be contacted at 243-5180/5181. http://www.virginia.edu/studenthealth/lnec.html
Contacting the Instructor:
You may contact the instructor by using email or phoning the office: 982-2196 or by email dlp@virginia.edu
The TA for the course is: Stuart Andreason.
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