With the world population growing every year, the need for more and more planned cities are rising. The process of creating and developing areas within a city is called urban planning. It includes all kinds of areas, from commercial buildings to parks. The people in charge of this process are urban planners. They are up to date with the latest technology in city planning and construction. Some of these advanced processes have become commonplace in certain areas, like pipe relining in Sydney.
Urban planners are key to the entire process. They should take the opinions of all the stakeholders into account and make appropriate choices. The citizens, landowners and the government have an important say in urban development. As it uses taxpayers money, it should also be as cost-effective as possible.
Types of Urban Planning
Urban planning involves many elements like buildings, roads, transportation, and communal spaces. For easier understanding and functioning, processes that have different goals are categorised into different types. This also makes it easier for the local governments to aid such developmental projects. Even though these processes have been categorised differently, they are not mutually exclusive. Here are some of the types of urban planning.
Strategic Urban Planning
This type of planning aims to achieve high level and long term goals. This includes organising projects and aiding growth in areas. The proposal in this process is called a strategic plan or the developmental plan. Such plans include goals like improving community spaces and easing transportation. This type of planning is higher up in the hierarchy and tend to include other types within it.
Land Use Planning
This type of planning mainly involves legislative procedures to manage the available land and classify it according to its use. This classification is usually done based on the location, type and amount of land in question. They can be into zones like:
- Residential – for buildings that serve as homes and apartments
- Commercial – for stores and office spaces
- Industrial – for factories and warehouses
- Municipal – for government buildings
As with other kinds of planning, land use planning also requires the consultation of all the stakeholders and their opinions.
Urban Revitalisation
As the name suggests, urban revitalisation aims at improving areas that are not in a desirable state. The earlier example of pipe relining in Sydney would come under this type of planning. The focus of these projects can vary from city to city. That would depend on the overall state of affairs in the city and on the areas that require attention. This includes projects like road repairs, cleaning pollution, and maintenance or improvement of public spaces. Transport pollution is a serious issue faced by Australia, which has been challenging such cleaning projects.
Master Planning
Master planning deals with projects involving undeveloped land. Rather than working with existing projects, they start from scratch. This means deciding the future of a given area. Urban planners need a vision for the region that takes the zoning, infrastructure and other requirements into concern. This type often includes the construction of government buildings and community spaces like libraries and parks. Government agencies are often involved to a great extent in such planning processes. For example, the Western Australian Planning. Commission deals with such planning in Western Australia.
Economic Development
Economic development deals with the identification of regions of potential financial growth. These areas usually start with a large number of office spaces being focused on them. Other facilities like restaurants, petrol pumps and transportation develop around it as the need arises.
