Urban Planning 101 Series – a primer for an aspiring student

#3. Skills of a planner

Urban planners work in a variety of settings from local areas, cities to large metropolitan areas. Their role involves gathering and analyzing #data, identifying issues and opportunities in a specific context, bringing their knowledge from global #bestpractices, and finally creating #plans and #regulations that guide urban development in consultation with various #stakeholders. They are also responsible for implementation of the plans, evaluation and monitoring and corrective actions.

The School of Planning, Real Estate and Infrastructure at #nicmaruniversity conducted a survey of planning professionals working in various public and private organizations with experience ranging between 5-30 years. The objective of the survey was to understand the skills employed while performing their daily job responsibilities. Following are the findings of the survey – we classify these skills as technical and inter-personal skills, commonly known as hard-skills and soft-skills.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

1. Spatial mapping and analysis

Planners use satellite imagery, #maps, variety of spatial digitized data, and survey data in #gis to understand growth #trends, patterns and linkages between urban environmental systems. Provision of infrastructure, services, various land use also requires spatial mapping and analysis to identify suitable land and locations. GIS tools are also used for #decisionmaking and #publicparticipation.

2. Research and data analysis

Planners work with a lot of information on various aspects of the urban areas. Gathering information about best practices world-wide, researching a particular topic, designing various surveys to collect first-hand information through #surveys and #fieldwork, collecting secondary data from government agencies and analysis of the data – all form basis of a planning exercise. Planners handle large datasets and apply #statisticalanalysis tools to interpret the data.?

3. Assessment of trends, patterns and future demand

How has the river water quality deteriorated over years? How has the population increased in a city over decades? How are the temperatures expected to rise in a particular city in the coming decade? How much public parking do we need for a neighbourhood in the coming years? Is rental housing #demand going to increase in the coming years? This and many. Urban planners identify demographic, socio-economic, environmental trends, and assess future demand.

4.? Critical thinking and problem solving

Critically thinking about information, checking whether it’s reliable, and interpreting it critically without a bias are important steps of planning process. Problem identification, formulation, proposing solutions, evaluating alternatives – all these are essential to the planning process.

5. Project formulation, appraisal and management

Master plans or government schemes are implemented through various large and complex #projects. The #projectmanagement skills of a planner include project planning, structuring, technical feasibility, financial appraisal of the project, and also monitoring and evaluation of the project.

6.? Core technical knowledge in the field of specialization

Planners may further specialize in specific areas such as urban-regional #landuseplanning or #masterplanning, #housing & #realestate, #environmental planning, #transportation, #infrastructure & services including #water, #wastewater and #sanitation, #community planning, #economic development, #urbandesign – requiring core technical knowledge in area of expertise along with good understanding of #law, #regulations and professional practice.

7. Software skills

Planners often use a number of software including GIS for mapping and spatial analysis, data tabulation and computation software, #statistical and #datavisualization tools, drawings and #presentation software.

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

8. Communication

Planners work with a variety of stakeholders including a multi-disciplinary team, residents, developers, city officials, other related agencies and boards, engineers, architects, elected representatives and decision makers in the government. #communication of all sorts – written, graphic and oral – is key for a planner. A technical project report or an email or letter to a group of homeowners inviting for a meeting or content of a newspaper or a social media advertisement – planners produce a variety of written documents and audio-visual presentations.

9. Negotiation and leadership skills

Working in multi-disciplinary teams and managing all stakeholders of a plan or project, convincing the decision makers demand great negotiation and leadership skills.?

10.? Staying relevant and updated!

Staying #uptodate with new ideas, concepts, perspectives, discussions, technological advancement, national and global priorities is an absolutely valuable skill, along with a desire for #lifelonglearning.

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