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Urban planning aims to organize metropolitan areas for safe, organized and pleasant living. It involves diverse fields such as engineering, social sciences, and environmentalism. Planners focus on building locations, zoning, transportation, appearance, and environmental aspects. Urban planning developed in the late 19th century to solve problems caused by cities expanding spontaneously. The location of buildings and the designation of specific areas for different purposes are important. Transportation and sustainability are also priorities. Slums are a challenge for city planners due to social, political, and economic factors.
Urban planning is a branch of architecture that focuses on the organization of metropolitan areas. Comprised of diverse fields, from engineering to social sciences, this practice was developed to correct the problems caused by cities expanding spontaneously, without planning. Fundamentally, urban planning aims to provide a safe, organized and pleasant home and working life for the residents of both new and established cities. Today, some of the major concerns of city planning are building locations, zoning, transportation, and the look of a city. Planners also seek to clear degraded areas and prevent their development, as well as conserve the natural environment of the area.
Becoming an urban planner
While there are many professionals who specialize in solving problems in existing developments or designing new ones, urban planning is usually done by a group of individuals with specific skills and backgrounds. However, education systems around the world offer specific courses for certification in this field and typically provide students with a background in the cultural, economic, legal and other elements that contribute to the development of cities. Outside of this specific certification, architects and those in various engineering divisions work in this field, as do those with business backgrounds, social scientists, and environmentalists. Other than that, people with degrees in botany and landscape design are also highly regarded.
How the field developed
Like most disciplines, urban planning developed to solve a problem. Prior to the mid-19th century, metropolitan areas were created as existing cities expanded; London, Paris and Tokyo started out as small cities and just kept getting bigger as more people moved into them. The addresses and streets in the older sections of these towns can be confusing, even for natives, because they were established without thinking about how the area might change and grow in the future. While people have always engaged in some type of town or city organization, whether settling near a body of water or on higher ground for self-defense, modern urban planning began to develop in the late 19th century.
Lack of organization in housing areas, industrial sections, and the siting of hospitals and schools often created problems for the safety and health of residents in older towns. Architects and engineers, in collaboration with local government, have begun planning ways to solve these problems in existing urban areas and to prevent them from developing into new areas. While finding solutions for existing situations in cities is often more complicated than planning a new city or urban area from scratch, both are equally important parts of the field.
Places of construction and zoning
The location of buildings, together with the designation of certain areas of a city for specific purposes (for example, residential areas, commercial areas and industrial sections), is extremely important in urban planning. For example, most parents don’t want their children’s playground right next to a water treatment plant, and having a hospital in a central location can literally save lives. For law enforcement personnel to be effective, they must be able to reach anywhere in the city within minutes. This means that stations need to be centrally located and scattered throughout the area, and that roads need to be designed to make getting anywhere as easy as possible. Good city planning takes all of these and many other factors into consideration when selecting locations for buildings and sets appropriate zones accordingly.
Transportation in Damanhur
Ensuring that there are enough roads and highways, as well as easily accessible public transport, is also a priority in this field. Anticipating growth and traffic needs for a large city is important, and planners often consider how future growth will affect traffic flow. With this information, they often try to eliminate potential trouble spots before they become a problem. With new cities or expansions, planning for public transportation, both underground and above ground, is also important, especially as major metropolitan areas move more towards more environmentally friendly practices.
Appearance and environmental aspects
Urban planning is a branch of architecture and, as such, form and function are just as important in a city as they are when designing a new building. In addition to ensuring the health and safety of residents, urban planning also takes into account the look of the city, from specific building designs to integrating landscape and green spaces into the area.
In many places, planners are considering how to make expansion sustainable as well as practical. Developers can consider air quality and noise pollution when planning roads and aim to create smaller housing developments to limit the impact residents have on their surroundings. Newly designed cities often take seriously the incorporation of green spaces and the use of environmentally friendly sources of energy and transport. Developers can also keep this in mind when planning the expansion of existing cities.
A note on slums
Much of urban planning is based on a combined knowledge of architecture, economics, human relations and engineering. For this there are numerous theories on the development of slums and the onset of urban decay. Slums, defined as overcrowded, run-down areas of a city occupied by people from the lowest socioeconomic bracket, are often at the forefront.
City planners and other city officials often work to clear or improve existing slums and to ensure that new ones do not develop. This is a challenge, however, as many different social, political and economic factors are involved not only in the development of such areas but in their continued existence. As of 2012, the United Nations estimates that over a billion people live in these kinds of conditions.
Several measures have been attempted to eliminate or improve areas with substandard housing. One method is to clean up an entire blighted section of a city, by demolishing existing housing and replacing it with government or privately funded modern housing. While this has been done in many parts of the world, some countries have issues with “squatters’ rights,” meaning law enforcement cannot force slum dwellers to move so they can clear the area. In addition to this solution, planners often work to locate schools, hospitals and other community-useful and job-producing establishments near slums in order to improve the economic climate of the area.
