For more than 35 years, planners have depended on The Planner's Use of Information to help them address their information needs. While the ability to manage complex information skillfully remains central to the practice of planning, the variety and quantity of information have ballooned in the last two decades. The methods of accessing and handling information––although often ultimately easier and faster––require new technical savvy. At the same time, planners themselves, and the constituents they serve, have changed. This completely revised and updated third edition of this popular book will serve the new generation of planners who work in a world where social media, cell phones, community-embedded development, and a changing population have revolutionized the practice of planning. Edited again by Hemalata C. Dandekar, with chapters by leading experts in data collection, analysis, presentation, and management, The Planner's Use of Information empowers practitioners to use and address the impacts of twenty-first-century technologies. The book offers a range of methods for addressing many kinds of information needs in myriad situations. It is an invaluable day-to-day resource for practicing planners and an ideal classroom text for courses in planning communication and analytical methods. Illustrations, real-life examples, cartoons, exercises, bibliographies, and lists of online resources enrich the text.

For more than 20 years, planners have depended on The Planner's Use of Information to help them solve their information problems. While the ability to manage complex information skillfully remains central to the practice of planning, in the last two decades the variety and quantity of information have ballooned. The methods of accessing and handling information - although often ultimately easier and faster - require new technical savvy. At the same time, planners themselves, and the constituents they serve, have changed. The completely revised and updated second edition of this popular book will serve the new generation of planners who work in a world where computers, the Internet, telecommunications networks, and a changing population have revolutionized the practice of planning. Edited again by Hemalata Dandekar, with chapters by leading experts in data collection, analysis, presentation, and management, The Planner's Use of Information fully describes the capabilities, uses, and impacts of twenty-first century technologies. One of today's most valuable planning tools, computer graphics, is covered in depth. A new chapter takes the reader through a city planning director's typical workday to examine how to obtain, assess, and use information to best advantage within the crucial political context of planning. The Planner's Use of Information offers a range of methods for solving many kinds of information problems in myriad situations. It's an invaluable day-to-day resource for practicing planners and an ideal classroom text for courses in planning communication and analytical methods. Illustrations, sidebars, real-life examples, cartoons, exercises, bibliographies, and lists of online resources enrich the text. The new edition of The Planner's Use of Information includes chapters by Hemalata C. Dandekar, Nancy Nishikawa, Maria Yen and Grace York, Richard Crepeau, Peter Ash, Elaine Cogan, Alfred W. Storey, Vivienne N. Armentrout, Andrea Frank, and Kristina Ford.

Power and inequality are realities that planners of all kinds must face in the practical world. In 'Planning in the Face of Power', John Forester argues that effective, public-serving planners can overcome the traditional--but paralyzing--dichotomies of being either professional or political, detached and distantly rational or engaged and change-oriented. Because inequalities of power directly structure planning practice, planners who are blind to relations of power will inevitably fail. Forester shows how, in the face of the conflict-ridden demands of practice, planners can think politically and rationally at the same time, avoid common sources of failure, and work to advance both a vision of the broader public good and the interests of the least powerful members of society.

An argument that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Urban planning is a craft learned through practice. Planners make rapid decisions that have an immediate impact on the ground—the width of streets, the minimum size of land parcels, the heights of buildings. The language they use to describe their objectives is qualitative—“sustainable,” “livable,” “resilient”—often with no link to measurable outcomes. Urban economics, on the other hand, is a quantitative science, based on theories, models, and empirical evidence largely developed in academic settings. In this book, the eminent urban planner Alain Bertaud argues that applying the theories of urban economics to the practice of urban planning would greatly improve both the productivity of cities and the welfare of urban citizens. Bertaud explains that markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities’ development. He cites the experience of cities without markets for land or labor in pre-reform China and Russia; this “urban planners’ dream” created inefficiencies and waste. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities’ productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.

Writing is never easy, but this book can make it easier. With attentiveness and experience, Claudia Kousoulas gives readers applied writing, editing, and production approaches that provide a clear path to completing a document and tools that ensure it is engaging and professional. The book follows a project’s path from initial assignment and conception, through sorting out what’s significant, shaping it into a message, and guiding readers to an action. It addresses the different types of documents planners have to create, the different media they use, and the different audiences they address. Its strategies will help writers start a project and see it through to a clear and coherent piece of work that serves its purpose. This book will help planners meet the challenges of creating work that is accurate, creative, and useful. Students will find it helpful in providing professional standards and quick reference information, and professionals will carry it through their careers as a reference, and as a way to establish workplace standards and improve their own work.