Urban Planning and Geographic Information Systems

What is it about?

Though written twenty years ago the issues that are explored in this paper are still highly relevant today

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Why is it important?

The juxtaposition of words in the title reflects the sequence of the argument of this chapter. Urban planning comes first because it has long history as an activity which makes extensive use of geographic information. This extends from the sanitary maps that were made by the precursors of the modern planners in the 1830s and 1840s in Britain and the United States to the multi-purpose multi-user geographic information systems that have been implemented in many of today’s cities. In many ways the needs of planning have actually anticipated the development of geographic information systems. Geographic information systems come second in the title of the chapter because they are a set of relatively new technologies dating from 1960s which are currently transforming the handling of geographic information in fields such as urban planning. Even though the concepts underlying such systems have been in existence for over 30 years, however, it is only in last ten years that technological developments in computing have made it possible for urban planners to exploit the opportunities opened up by these systems. Consequently, virtually all the GIS systems that are currently in use in urban planning have been developed since 1990. Given the recent nature of most GIS applications in urban planning and the potential that has been opened up by recent technological developments - “the biggest step forward in the handling of geographic information since the invention of the map” according to Britain’s Chorley Committee this chapter considers the relationships between urban planning and GIS with particular reference to two related questions: (1) how will geographic information technologies change urban planning? and (2) how will the needs of urban planning shape the future development of GIS given that it is very much an applications-led set of technologies?