Chapter 9

The view of planning is quite different from the one held by an older generation of planners. But in the new planning the emphasis is on
tracing the possible consequences of alternative policies, only then evaluating them against the objectives in order to choose a preferred
course of action. The new concept of planning derived from one of the newest sciences. All three accounts are helpful ways of looking at the
planning process. Most urban and regional planning activities, however, have multiple objectives. The first step in the planning process, then,
is to identify those purposes which the planner seeks to achieve, to order them in terms of their importance, and to consider how far they are
reconcilable each with the other. Modern plan methodology, therefore, lays great stress on this first step in the process. Goals are essentially
general and highly abstract; they tend to fall into broad categories such as social, economic and aesthetic. Planners do the best they can by
trying to amass as much information as possible about their clients and their values; by trying to identify acknowledged problem areas, where
by fairly common agreement something needs to be done. Planners will turn to description and analysis of the urban or regional system they
wish to control. A model is simply a schematic but precise description of the system, which appears to fit its past behaviour and which can,
therefore, be used, it is hoped, to predict the future. Usually, the urban and regional planner is concerned with the spatial behaviour of the
economy or of society. The planner will need to know the size and location of both, as well as the interrelationships between activities. Model
design is one of the most complex and intriguing stages of the modern planning process. Designing a model, or models, to suit the precise
problem involves logical analysis of a set of interrelated questions. The design process, therefore, really starts as soon as the planner begins to
design the models. What is essential is that evaluation derives clearly from the goals and objectives set early on in the planning process. The
problem, though, went deeper than that, and the attack on systems planning came earlier. It should certainly not claim to know what is good
for people. This is all planning can legitimately do, and all it can pretend to do. Properly understood, this is the real message of the systems
revolution in planning and its aftermath.