The present day occupation of town planning primarily came about in reaction to the urban challenges brought on by fast

industrialization through the late 19th century. The quick expansion of towns was distressing and social reformers recognized the necessity for corrective intervention in order to cope with all the expansion forces let loose by modernization.

The Town Planning system has become a well established characteristic of community life around the U.K. ever since the end of World War One.. It provides for the organized utilization of space, accommodating the desires and demands of a multitude of interest groups and individuals, in order that fair and realistic decisions can be achieved by accountable organizations, responsible to democratically elected local regulators and also to the national government. Town planning forms the areas in which we live, work, learn, shop, play and in what way you get to and from them both now and in the foreseeable future.

Each component of a well-planned metropolitan setting works on it's own and as part of the whole. Planning is usually as much occupied with taking care of the total surroundings as with the particulars associated with a its component elements. According to your point of view it exists to safeguard the value of constituents' property, to determine that land is utilized effectively, as well as to re-engineer society and redistribute wealth.

City planning combines land use planning and transportation planning and the determination and creating of strategies for future years, and the actual arrangement and condition of a community. Urban planning may include urban renewal, by establishing urban planning approaches to present cities struggling with decay and deficiency of investment. Town and country planning is the land use planning process government authorities use to balance economic development and environmental quality. Regional

planning relates to a still larger setting, to a less detailed level. Every region of the United Kingdom has its own planning system that is in charge of town and country planning .

Town Planning now continues its dedication to best urban environments, but also must function within complicated political contexts. The job of reconciling contending development and environmental objectives in the interests of sustainability generally falls to the planning function in government. City planning is inclined towards creating a more pleasant, healthier and more convenient local living environment. A town plan also must be cost-effective, and to match the given site. The vision of what the town or city could develop into is critical. WHAT IS PLANNING Planning today is a diverse, multi-disciplinary professional field that includes traditional land-use and municipal planning, but also encompasses many other areas of practice, which include:

General land-use & development Long term land-use planning Regional planning Residential & commercial planning & development Urban design Facilities & infrastructure planning Transportation planning Social & policy planning Housing planning & policy Heritage planning & policy Environmental planning Parks & recreation planning Resource management planning Economic development And others

Definition of Planning: The profession's technical definition of planning is as follows: 'Planning' means the planning of the scientific, aesthetic and orderly disposition of land, resources, facilities and services with a view to securing the physical, economic and social efficiency, health and well-being of urban and rural communities. Elements of Planning: To think what are the most important and essential things for urban planning, I would like to review first the types and functions of planning in general, and then will consider what are the current and changing contexts for planning in China that have bearing in how we should conduct planning and then focus on urban planning itself and make my argument about the most important focus of planning. In one traditional sense, planning is like a blueprint. It's like an architectural plan or machine drawings or even the plan for some investment projects. Under the command planning economy, the government and urban planners as the planner for the government had full control of a number of things. Therefore, it has been a useful thing to do, and in the case of infrastructure and civic government structures, it still is the case. And this requires a very clear definition of growth (goals?) and control of its inputs and the planning, programming of those inputs. However, in many cases, these conditions are hard to find. At least the control of the external variables are very difficult to find in this time. So the classic case is the military actions. You can control your own troops, but, of course, you have no control over what the other side will do. So the planning in this case involves to define what you're going to do when certain

things happen and what you're going to do when things happen differently. So these are the classic definitions of military strategies and, of course, there are a number of studies and body of knowledge about corporate development strategies, corporate action strategies. And in the case of China, we have started city development strategy exercise which Mr. Anderson will be talking about in a later session. The important thing is that you have--you can control your own strengths and weaknesses, and in order to best take advantage of opportunities and best handle the threats. When you have--when you are not a direct participant of actions, then it is--the one way to influence the outcome would be set the rules and standards for action. Thus, what was normally called regulations or rules and standards, and in the case of urban planning, of course, the important ones are the zoning plans and land use plans. So the--what is the important factors that--outside factors that all planners should consider? Since all planning involves looking ahead, the current rapid changes in economy and society poses probably the most difficult challenge. And it is most difficult in the case of urban planners in China, first because the changes that are happening in China are probably one of the most rapid and unprecedented in any time or anywhere in the world history. On top of that, the urban planners have to deal with these changes for--and look ahead for a very, very long time. Urban planning usually spends much longer period of time than other planning. Therefore, it is doubly difficult for urban planners to handle. We, of course, do not need to go into all the details, but I would just like to stress that the emergence of the market and the increase of the number of entities that participate in the

decisionmaking that affects the course of urban development, and the--which, of course, means relative decline of the government authority. And also the spillover, as the economies are run more by the market, and the markets normally do not respect the administrative boundaries, economies and environment--environmental effects spill across local administrative boundaries or even international boundaries. So, therefore, we probably have to think that the blueprints are going to be much less effective in this--under these circumstances, and it will be--the more effective means of planning would be strategies and regulations. In fact, many people have been advocating that the blueprints should be almost discarded as the core function of urban planning. And I believe that that emphasis away from blueprints and maps have gone a little too far. Like the economic planners, the main function of the economic planning is to project what would be available economically and financially and to allocate them to different activities. And I believe the core function of the urban planning is to allocate the land and space, which is limited, to different activities that want the same thing, the most conveniently located land within a reasonable distance from each other. As we all know, the essence of the city is that many activities are clustered together in very close proximity. And this generates a lot of externalities, a lot of effects that are not intended by the individual participants, individual residents and businesses in a city. We all know, for example, the agglomeration economies that make businesses more efficient by locating close to each other, and we also know that the roads--road investments pay off very well

when there are enough activities and enough people that will use the road. So these are socalled positive externalities. The economies call these effects externalities because there is either a complete lack of pricing or even if there is--there may be a price, it is not very effective in guiding people's actions. For example, if you put the roads in, then the price of the land will go up, but it is not good in making the roads--making road investment happen. It happens only afterwards. So these are good externalities, but there are also negative externa lities. Take the example of roads again. Of course, the congestion, nobody believes that they are causing the congestion, but it is by the collective effect of the individual actions on congestion that affects everybody negatively. Also the same is true with noise and pollution. That is more of a problem in densely populated urban areas because the negative effects are very, very high. Therefore, these things need to be allocated. Everybody wants a very convenient location, but everybody wants enough space that they can--within which they can do things without much intrusion. And, of course, it's not possible because, again, the cities--our cities, because people are--people and businesses are close together. So in many cases, the market mechanism itself will take care of itself. It's the land market and the real estate market would force businesses who do not need the most convenient location to a more distant location, for example, and, therefore, in many cases in China a lot of problems, I believe, are the result of not having a good functioning real estate market. And I believe that one of the main tests for urban planning in China would be to do its own job so that the land and real estate markets would function well. And what would be the job that urban

planners have to do to make the market mechanism to work well? I believe that is to take care of the externalities. First, you take care of the positive externalities well. In other words, put the-do an optimal layout of roads and other infrastructure and civic structures like parks and schools. Then the market will take care of the rest. And you should also take care of the negative externalities, and those again, congestion, pollution, and things like that. And these can be-can be achieved by two things. Of course, the traffic congestion, in order to manage traffic congestion, you have to have good traffic regulation, but you have to also have a good land use planning, good regulation of the density of development. So these things should go hand in hand together. So we, the urban planners, by sticking to this very traditional core activities of urban planning, which is land use planning and infrastructure layouts and zoning, I believe that the markets, the land markets and other things can take care of itself on a number of other things that need to be taken care of. Now, there are a number of different things that people will emphasize regarding urban planning. One of the things that are quite unique for urban planning is very long-term nature of urban planning. But this is quite natural because of the core activities of urban planning. If you focus on infrastructure and land which lasts almost forever and costs a lot to change, you have to have a very longer-term planning horizon. And then another important nature of urban planning

is that it is very comprehensive and multisectoral, but it is like economic planning. It is the-again, since all activities or almost all activities that happen in the cities require land and structure, by focusing on land and structure, you, the urban planners, are forced to deal with a number of different sectors and different considerations. However, I do not believe that it will be--it will be the duty of the urban planners to go into any depth in those sectoral planning activities. Again, as I just discussed, the urban planning should work together with sectoral planning to achieve the same objectives. The zoning and land use planning should be combined with traffic management and traffic regulations to achieve the--to minimize the negative externalities of transportation. And the urban planners should work with the parks authorities or schools authorities to increase the--to maximize the positive externalities of land use and the business activities. So all in all, I believe that the--I have focused on essentially one thing, that I believe that I have made some arguments that why we should stick to the old traditional core activities of urban planning, of land use planning and zoning. Now I would like to briefly introduce the next presenters in this module, and they will be actually talking about much broader things, and they-and they probably are more qualified and more passionate about urban planning in general because they are real planners. Good professional planning is forward thinking, comprehensive, informed, collaborative and inclusive. Contemporary planning is very much a process, which involves many elements and stages, considering and bringing together people, communities and the

environment leading to desired results. Sustainability the balancing of long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability has been integrated as a key principle in contemporary planning practice. Professional planners rely on many diverse skills and abilities in the undertaking of their work. ELEMENTS These more detailed issues are addressed by "element" plans which deal with more specific functional and geographic areas of interest. The functional components include such traditional elements as: * Environment * Urban Development * Land Use * Transportation * Parks and Recreation * Housing and Community Development among others Subsequent components of the Master Plan may include elements on Urban Design, as well as geographic components comprising district and area development and redevelopment plans for portions of the city such as Downtown and the citys riverfront. These detailed element plans are intended to be used together with the Concept Element to guide the growth and redevelopment of the city. Even though these plans are often large in scope and detailed in nature, they all depend on the Concept Element to provide their direction and focus.

The Environment Element sets out a vision for the long-term environmental health and sustainability of the Omaha community and the natural resources and ecosystems on which it depends. The plan was developed through a community-based process called Environment Omaha and is organized by five broad topics: Natural Environments; Urban

Form and Transportation;Building Construction; Resource Conservation; and Community Health. The Public Facilities Element serves as a long term guide for the development of public facilities usually not addressed in other comprehensive plan elements. This plan focuses on important support facilities which form the foundation for city services that are critical to almost every aspect of public health, safety, and welfare. The Housing Element is the culmination of a process which attempts to identify in general terms what the residents of Omaha want. It describes what approaches would be suitable to meet neighborhood needs, and delineates appropriate initiatives given the extent of the problem and the level of City support. The Transportation Element addresses the problems of increased traffic congestion and dependence on the automobile. It creates a new transportation system that will incorporate the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users while continuing to accommodate the auto. It calls for a more efficient street layout and reduce constraints on mass transit in developing areas. The Future Land Use Element guides the physical development of the city. It outlines general policies for the location of each of the citys primary land uses such as industry, offices, commercial space, parks, civic facilities, and housing. One of the main purposes for directing the pattern of land development is to ensure that the citys limited resources are used judiciously and efficiently.

REFERENCES Joyce M. Johnstone. "Urban Planning and Freeway Elements" Freeway Weekly 3.82 (2008): 23-56.

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TJ Clark, The View from Notre-Dame, The Painting of Modern Life, (Princeton University Press 1984) p. 37

Neil Smith, Gentrification, The Frontier, and the Restructuring of Urban Space, Readings in Urban Theory, (Blackwell publishing Ltd, 2002) p 262

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