Course Listing

34:970:501 History and Theory of Planning (3) Surveys the history of urban planning, its major guiding and critical theories, and their relation to a broad range of contemporary issues faced by planners and policymakers. Provides an intellectual foundation for students pursuing professional careers in urban planning, as well as an introduction to planning history and theory for students pursuing doctorates. Required for M.C.R.P. degree.

34:970:508 Comprehensive Planning (3) Introduction to the principles and practice of physical planning in the United States. Workshop exercises, analyses, and readings designed to provide a comprehensive and practical understanding of steps in the physical planning and approval process, the elements of physical plans, and the data and analyses needed to prepare and review such plans.

34:970:509 Urban Economy and Spatial Patterns (3) Overview of basic economic principles and public finance. Survey of location theory, focusing on central place theory, systems of cities, and industrial location theories. Economic, sociological, and geographic theories of the internal structure of cities examined. Required for M.C.R.P. degree.

34:970:510,511 Graduate Planning Studio (3,3) Team projects in planning design; research and program development; field studies and problem analysis in local, regional, state, and national contexts. Development of comprehensive solutions, strategies, and recommendations for inner-city, suburban, and exurban areas and for regions. Required for M.C.R.P. degree. Enrollment during last year of coursework.

34:970:515 Methods of Planning Analysis I (3) Introduction to applied statistics and computing. Includes descriptive and inferential statistics, regression and correlation analysis, and computer-based analytic tools for planning analysis. Required for M.C.R.P. degree.

34:970:516 Methods of Planning Analysis II (3) Introduction to a set of tools widely used in professional planning practice. Topics include applied demography (descriptive analysis of populations, top-down and bottom-up population projections), regional economics, and use and transportation analysis models.

34:970:517 Survey of Planning Law Principles (3) Introduction to major legal principles involved in the planning process. Zoning, subdivision, housing, eminent domain, and comparative land-use systems used to introduce principles of constitutional law; administrative law; and the law of contracts, property, torts, and procedure. Required for M.C.R.P. degree.

34:970:521 Historic Preservation (3) The scope of historic preservation has expanded significantly. An overview of historical evolution of the preservation movement in the United States, examining important public preservation regulations and programs and the economics of historic preservation.

34:970:523 Legal Aspects of Environmental Planning (3) Legal principles involved in protecting the environment, including air, water, and noise pollution; control of population growth and distribution; and ecological aspects of land-use control.

34:970:525 Property Theory and Policy (3) The problem of private property versus public and common property rights in housing, urban space, and environmental resources treated from an international perspective. Policies and practices that determine patterns of ownership, use, economy, and justice in alternative property regimes critically examined.

34:970:527 Advanced Multivariate Methods (3) Multivariate statistical methods used to analyze land-use, environmental, public health, and other large data sets.

34:970:528 Housing Markets and Finance (3) Demographic shifts and changing housing need/demand parameters, evolution of housing supply patterns and cost trends, and market interrelationships. Historic trendlines and future directions evaluated. Current issues and policies examined.

34:970:529 Principles of Housing (3) Housing and development policy as it has evolved historically and as it is being practiced currently on the federal, state, and local levels. Basic economic factors affecting housing, political context, and social outcomes.

34:970:555 Urban Transportation Policy Analysis (3) Overview of major policy issues in urban transportation systems; interdependence of transportation with urban land-use patterns. Problems of the present auto-dominated system examined, and alternative solutions analyzed in the context of the changing political/institutional environment.

34:970:556 Urban Transportation Planning (3) Urban transportation planning and programming process, with particular emphasis on the methods used at the metropolitan and local levels to gather and analyze appropriate data for decision making, evaluate alternative plans and programs, and fund and implement selected proposals. Integrated approach to conceptualizing and operationalizing various techniques, encompassing both land-use and transportation modeling and administrative and fiscal structures.

34:970:557 International Transport Policy and Planning (3) A comparative analysis of transportation systems, problems, policies, and travel behavior around the world, including North America, Western Europe, Japan,  the formerly socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and developing countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.

34:970:558 Public Transit Planning and Management (3) Overview of public transit planning and management issues, including recent trends, tools, and techniques.

34:970:559 Seminar in Transportation Security (3) Students develop and complete an integrated project covering risk management, risk communication, port security, public health response, surface transportation security, natural hazards, and the social aspects of disasters.
This is the capstone course for students seeking the Transportation, Vulnerability, Risk and Security (TVRS) certificate.  

34:970:561 Urban Poverty Theory and Policy (3) The problem of persistent urban poverty in the United States, primarily from the period beginning with the War on Poverty in the early 1960s. Examines issues such as how is poverty defined, how has the face of poverty changed, the feminization of poverty, and the shortcomings of strategies to address poverty.

34:970:562 Community Economic Development (3) Theory about what economic development is and what economic developers do. Economic development contexts of different types of regions, such as resource regions, high-tech regions, and older industrial regions.

34:970:563 Community Development (3) Overview of the history of community development and challenges to the dominant perspective, as well as the range of institutional factors shaping the field. Develops student skills appropriate to work in the field through course assignments.

34:970:571 Industrial Ecology (3) Explores the metaphor of industrial ecology and tests whether it is a framework for implementing sustainable development. Evaluates current research and practice in industrial ecology at the macrolevel (materials and energy flows), mesolevel (morphology and structure), organizational level (how firms work), and microlevel (individual motives and behaviors). Examines the implications for environmental planning and policy.

34:970:575 Locational Conflict (3) Analysis of the origins, dynamics, and resolution of community-level conflicts over the siting of controversial facilities. Explores public participation and communicative planning as alternatives to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) conflicts encountered by planners.

34:970:581 Gender and International Development (3) Overview of competing theories of development planning and feminist critiques of current theory and planning practice. Feminist perspectives on the sexual division of labor and women's role in the global economy. Gender dimensions of demography and diversity in planning; environmental problems (gender and the food, fuel, and water crises); organization of space (gender and the city, housing, transport, and land use); and gender research, training programs, and evaluation projects.

34:970:583 Gender in Policy and Planning (3) Examines the issues in planning and public policy through the lens of gender. Focuses on the ways that gender has shaped these issues from problem definition to policy solution. Critical debates in feminist and gender-based theory and how these have been used to challenge traditional planning, policy, and economics.

34:970:585 Tourism Planning (3) Analysis of the largest industry by value globally. Rise of mass tourism and marketing tourism destinations. Economic, environmental, social, and political impacts of tourism nationally and internationally.

34:970:590 Graphical Communication for Planners (3) Introduces applied graphical computing techniques including computer-aided design, desktop publishing, website design, and advanced topics.

34:970:591 Introduction to Geographic Information Science for Urban Planners (3) Introduces basic concepts of geographic information science and its computer applications. Pre- or corequisite: 34:970:515 or 516 or equivalent.

34:970:592 Topics in Geographic Information Science (3) Includes advanced geographic information science (GIS) topics, spatial statistics, and specialized computer applications. Pre- or corequisite: 34:970:591.

34:970:594 Program Evaluation: Process and Implementation (3) Focus on program evaluation as the procedures and techniques used to scientifically document the implications of professional interventions. Study of conceptual, measurement, and analytic tools, including intervention activities and objectives, intervention monitoring, measurement, design of monitoring and social experiments, and impact analysis.

34:970:601 Introduction to Planning and Design (3) Planning and design process, history of design, basic graphic techniques, environmental analysis, and conceptualization of the 10 basic design principles. Prior design training not necessary.

34:970:604 Land Development Practice (3) Emphasizes private decision making and development, publicly supported development, and the impact of public control on private development.

34:970:608 Human Rights, Health, and Violence (3) The law and discourse of human rights. Covers the basic international instruments of human rights law, the theoretical reframing of women's rights as human rights, the traditional uses of human rights and humanitarian law in war time, the new uses as the "rights community" defines violence more broadly, and the specific applications of human rights to health.

34:970:609 Social Policy in Developing Nations (3) Social policy issues and the priorities of developing countries and their ability to achieve balanced economic and social development. Sectors covered include food, health, housing, energy, and education.

34:970:615,616 Directed Study in Urban Planning (3,3) Directed study with an individual faculty member with approval of the graduate program director.

34:970:618 Environmental Planning and Management (3) Highlights institutional, technical, procedural, and normative factors that influence environmental planning and policy. Topics include environmental decision making (structuring decisions, physical context, social context), actors (government, scientific community), methods (GIS, risk assessment), process issues (public participation, negotiation), and decision criteria (equity, efficiency). Case studies and in-class exercises put topics into context.

34:970:622 Urban Redevelopment (3) Analysis of the evolution of urban redevelopment activities in the United States, post-World War II. Examines the successes and failures of major urban redevelopment policies and programs including urban renewal; public housing; historic preservation; business improvement districts; enterprise and empowerment zones; targeted incentives for industrial, brownfield, and waterfront sites; and the public provision of cultural and tourism infrastructure.

34:970:630 Discrete Choice Methods (3) This course begins with a review of linear regression and focuses on categorical dependent variables. Methods will include linear probability, logit, probit, multinomial and conditional logit models.

34:970:633 Population: Tools and Policy (3) Designed to provide a broad overview of the field of population studies. Introduces students to methods of demographic analysis and surveys social science perspectives on population problems. Major topical areas include mortality, fertility, migration, immigration, population growth, marriage, and household formation behavior.

34:970:636 Internship in Urban Planning (3) Internship in governmental, nonprofit, or private organization focusing on substantive urban planning issues. Eight to 10 hours a week plus the writing of an analytical semester paper.

34:970:644 International Economic Development (3) Theories, techniques, administration, information systems, and core processes of regional planning, including techniques for regional disaggregation of national plans, regional income and multiplier, input-output table, shift-share analysis, economic base analysis, and project evaluation.

34:970:645 Regional Development (3) Theories of development, underdevelopment, and uneven development in developing countries and regions in relation to the international economic order; the role of multinational corporations and international development agencies; national and regional development strategies and policies and emerging alternative perspectives.

34:970:646 Global Restructuring (3) Defines the nature and causes of the present global political, economic, and territorial restructuring; assesses the impact of globalization on industries, local communities, nations, and international relations. Examines implications for world development, planning, and public policy and evaluates emerging alternatives, including the "Third Way."

34:970:660 Major Debates in International Development (3)

34:970:664 Transportation and Environment (3) Provides an understanding of the complex interrelationships between transport and the environment. Course examines the various environmental impacts caused by the provision and use of transport, analyzes causes, and promotes discussion on technology and policy solutions to environmental problems. The course will focus on the economics of environmental, land use, and transport policy and how these affect environmental outcomes.

34:970:650 to 685 Seminars in Urban Planning (3) Lectures and special problems on current issues. Content of course varies from year to year on the basis of student and faculty interest. Some recent seminars include Energy Planning and Policy, Public Health and War, Planning Support Systems, and Economic Development in Developing Areas.