Theories such as sustainable development, healthy communities, new urbanism, and smart growth
have all helped to create a consensus around the idea that good communities should feature a mix of
uses and people, open & connected streets, pedestrian networks and compact form. Professional
organizations, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) promote such
ideas in their publications, workshops, and conferences. Theories pertinent to the planning of cities
are clear and reasonably consistent in articulation of the features of good communities (Jill Grant,
2005).
Globally, 54 percent of the population lives in urban areas today,
and this trend is expected to continue: By 2045, the number of people
living in cities will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion, adding 2
billion more urban residents. With more than 80 percent of global GDP generated in cities,
urbanization can contribute to sustainable growth if managed well by
increasing productivity, allowing innovation and new ideas to emerge.
However, the speed and scale of urbanization brings challenges,
including meeting accelerated demand for affordable housing,
well-connected transport systems and other infrastructure, basic
services as well as jobs, particularly for the nearly 1 billion urban
poor who live in informal settlements to be near opportunities.
Urban issues are increasingly prominent on national policy agendas.
Cities and metropolitan areas are major contributors to national
economies and play a key role as nodes in global markets. Moreover, at a
time of deepening globalisation and increasing international
competition for investment, metropolitan regions have become the targets
of a wide range of public interventions. As a result, throughout the
OECD, urban development policies seek to address a range of issues –
from managing urban expansion and congestion to fostering
competitiveness, innovation, social inclusion and environmental
sustainability.
Urban Planners work with the cognate fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, and City Administration
to achieve strategic, policy and sustainability goals. Early urban
planners were often members of the these cognate fields. Today urban
planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The
discipline is the broader category that includes many different
sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, environmental planning, and transportation planning.
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