Urban Planning - Coursework Example

Urban Planning Introduction Urban planning considers the use of land and its overall design in urban environments. Planning entails the creation of strategic, comprehensive, and neighborhood plans, as well as regulatory strategies. Urban planning is an essential process in the establishment of sustainable development and proper use of resources such as land. The main objective of urban planning is to provide proper economic, social, and cultural conditions to the growing population, and to provide them with fulfillment of their physical and material needs. For urban planning to be achieved, a healthy atmosphere has to be maintained, and traffic congestion has to be minimized and regulated. This paper will look into transportation planning, growth management, defense privileges, structural unemployment and its importance for local economic development, challenges to regional planning, and the planning differences between the USA and other nations. Question 1: Transportation planning Transportation facilitates the movement of people and goods from one place to another. It also controls the growth and economic patterns by facilitating land access. Transportation planning identifies the vital relationship between transportation and other societal objectives. Many urban areas are faced with the problem of traffic congestion. The extensive freeways may provide different collector and express paths to split through traffic from narrow traffic, or individual high-tenure vehicle paths, either as a distinct control on the innermost road or a split roadway, to facilitate easy movement. Induced demand is brought about by reduction in the efficient transport cost instigated by the new infrastructure making movement more suitable. Trucks make up for about 10% of motor vehicles on the road. Trucks are essential to the economy and welfare of society. Business is dictated by trucking, and the logistics sector specifically relies on road transport for picking up commodities and delivering them. Other than pickup and delivery, the truck provides’ other services such as fire protection and snow removal. Question 2: Growth management Growth management refers to methods utilized by the government to make certain that as the population increases their requirements are fulfilled through set up services. The services not only encompass those provided by the government. Other requirements such as the preservation of the natural environment, provision of proper and affordable facilities for accommodation and housing, deliverance of services, maintenance of monuments and museums and creation of spaces for undertaking business activities to be organized. Sustainable development is significant to growth management. Sustainable development encompasses everything which satisfies the needs of the present generation without destroying the environmental resources for use by future generations. Such resources include water, land energy. Economic development and sustainable development should go hand in hand in an economic system. An economy should take into consideration sustainable development. The government charges impact fees to those who own recently developed acreage for the effect it will have on the population. Improvement of public facilities such as school expansion and construction of recreation facilities such as parks is financed from the accrued fees. Question 3: Defense of privileges The zoning system is highly seen as promoting the gains of those who have access to resources as opposed to the whole population. Those who are capable use the zoning system to change the land use for their benefit. The use of variance has been used as a tool by which those in power reward those who support them and reprimand those who are against them. Those with privileges in the society use the non-system of land management to their benefit. Not in my back yard (NIMBY) phenomenon is the opposition by residents to a proposed new development in their area. This phenomenon is primarily witnessed in proposed developments such as chemical plants, nuclear waste dumps, housing developments, golf courses, and prisons, among others. NIMBY portrays residents as advocating for some proposals such as budget cuts and downsizing tax increases, but is unwilling to implementing the proposals in any way that requires sacrifice on their part. Question 4: Structural unemployment Structural unemployment arises due to the disparity between the employment opportunities available and the human resources. An example is a coal miner who becomes unemployed due to automation of the mines, illiteracy, unqualified except in coal mining, and mainly poor. Even, though, there are many employment opportunities elsewhere for the skilled, these are irrelevant to the coal miner. Improving demand will just increase the salaries of the skilled employee who is suited for the growing job group. Regionally, structural unemployment may be as a result of training discrepancies following the downfall of an industry. Elsewhere it is due to immersed changes in the employment process. An example is the human resource considering the use of more mechanization implying that employees of smaller human resource process will do more. This will cut on the wages leading to increased profits and in turn increase economic growth. The global crisis has had a substantial effect on economic development. The crisis may have speed up tendencies that could create structural unemployment. One trend is the foreign producers’ competition, making Americans exchange of cheap imports for local products and a decrease in exports, hence domestic employment. Dealing with structural unemployment will help improve the economy locally regionally and globally. Question 5: Regional planning Regional planning has an important function in assisting the people of an area to deal with problems related with controlling fast growth, change in population, economic expansion, and conserving the environment and facilities provided in all local government locations. Regional planning is done in relation to policies of the state, local government planning systems, state planning control provisions, and development evaluation procedures. Non-statutory procedures help to advise and provide courses of action. Regional planning identifies the regional goals, ways of achieving the goals, the pattern of using land, and sustainability. Federal funding is aimed at improving infrastructure in order to facilitate the wellbeing of the people in a given locality. Federal funding may be used to improve housing, transport systems, and sustainability. Regional planning in an urban area faces a huge challenge. This is because the population increase is more than the available resources. As a result, the government faces numerous challenges in providing services to the growing population. Question 6: Planning differences The planning arrangement in the USA is different compared to that of other countries. While planning is assigned among all government levels, the federal government sets the general framework and policy but is not involved in the planning. In America, the city arrangements adhere to the zone organization. The zoning arrangement is where the places of work and shopping places are situated in a different place from where people live. In most countries, the living places are situated in the same place as the working and shopping areas or they are spread around. The road network in America is designed to accommodate large numbers of vehicles thereby reducing traffic congestion. There is also a variety of transport systems as compared to most countries. In Africa, for example, there is a poor planning of the roads. There are bus terminals in almost every intercept of the road; this has hugely contributed to traffic congestion. Furthermore, there is a high unemployment rate in most developing countries than in America; this has contributed to the mushrooming of informal settlement. There is affordable and appropriate housing for the average American worker. In conclusion, there should be comprehensive plans which are essential in planning as they provide mechanisms to aid intergovernmental coordination in local areas. This will facilitate the achievement of a proper urban planning. Read More