CONCEPTS IN

PLANNING

Maria Lourdes T. Munárriz, PhD, EnP

UP-School of Urban and Regional Planning
Institute of Environmental Planners
 What is Environmental Planning?

 The science of ordering the use of

land,
… where buildings and communication routes
are located in order to secure an optimum
economy, convenience and beauty.

 providing the right site at the right

time, in the right place for the right
people.
 What is Environmental Planning?

 Theart of anticipating changes

and making a balance among
economic, social and physical
forces,
 determine the
 location,
 form and
 effect of development.
 What is Environmental Planning?

A reconciliation of social and economic

objectives of public and private
institutions
 … in the allocation of resources, e.g., land,
 to obtain maximum efficiency while considering
the nature of the built environment and the
welfare of the community.
 What is Urban Space?

A social creation … the product of creative

activity.
• Once spatial relations are formed, there is a
seeming fixity … a life of their own.
Urban space is a consequence of
• the activities carried on within it,
• the characteristics of the people who occupy it,
• the form given to it by its physical structures,
• the perceptions with which people regard it.
Foundations of Planning
Factors that contributed to growth of
industrial towns:

 Population change – decrease in death rate

and increase in birth rate
 Economic change (1760-1830) – impacts on
urban and rural communities
 Birth of new transportation – locomotive
 Expanding commercial activity
Foundations of Planning continued
Some Determinants of Urban & Regional
Form:
 Contemporary Economic Re-structuring –
decentralize production and population, while
economic control has become increasingly
concentrated in multinational firms and financial
institutions.

 Declining industrial centers – industries move to

suburbs due to cheaper labor and land, less
burdensome regulation, weak labor unions …
competition from other advanced industries, e.g.,
Japan displaced many industries of USA and
Britain.
 Foundations of Planning continued

 Global cities – control of world financial system,

where financial and business services have resisted
decentralization. Ex. London, New York and Tokyo
are premier global cities.

 Expanding and contracting regions – simultaneous

growth and decline with a nation, a region or a
metropolitan area … within an area, some regions
are expanding while others suffer from disinvestment.

 Military-industrial centers – high-tech expansion was

closely tied to military investment due to cold war
between USA and USSR in the 20th century. Thus,
there is changing patterns in national government
investment.
 Technical Exercise

Comprehensiveness

Allocative Mechanism

CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANNING PROCESS

(Alden & Morgan)
Technical exercise

•Involves elaboration of means

and prediction of consequences.
•Provides technical base for
decision-maker.
Comprehensiveness

•Consider all alternatives and each

of their consequences;
•Consider implications of each
alternative.

Because in addition to explicit aims, there are

ends which should not be violated.
Allocative mechanism

•Resources should be allocated in

the most efficient manner within a
comprehensive framework.
Types of Planning

 National, regional, local levels

 Economic, social, physical,
environmental
 Short, medium and long terms,
 Allocative and innovative
 Types of Planning
 National, regional, local levels
National level is multi-objective and tends to be
economic in content.
Regional level straddles the national and local
gap; economic factors are of major importance;
deals with fundamental physical problems of
the region.

Local level deals with problems of communities

within its area.
 Types of Planning
 Allocative and innovative Planning
Allocative or regulatory planning
 concerned with coordination,
 resolves conflicts,
 ensures that the existing system is ticking
over efficiently through time in accordance
with evolving policies.
Innovative or development planning
 planning for efficient functioning of existing
systems,
 improving/developing the system as a whole.
REAL ESTATE PLANNING

Agricultural Tourism Commercial

Industrial Residential Mixed Use

Government Academic
Military
Center Campus
Concept Operationalization

Translate Concept:
Value of education
ideas,
- ask students how
opinions into long they study daily
attributes/ after school
variables - willing to go
through floods in
order to get to
school?
Goals, Objectives, Targets
Goals:
1. General and highly abstract

2. Broad categories: social, economic and

physical

3. Arranged in hierarchy, according to

importance
Goals, Objectives, Targets continued
Example Of Goals
Earlier times (20th century):
 Health (physical), education, income
and its distribution, mobility
Current times (21th century):
 Health (physical) public safety,
circulation, provision of services and
facilities, fiscal health, economic goals,
environmental protection and
redistributive goals.
Goals, Objectives, Targets continued
Objectives
1. More specific than goals,
2. Actual programmes being carried into
action,
3. Require the spending of resources …
implies an element of competition for
scarce resources.
Ex. If mobility is the general goal, then the objectives
could be reduction of travel time (O-D), improvement
in quality of public transportation.
Goals, Objectives, Targets continued

Targets
1. More detailed than objectives,
2. A further stage of refinement,
3. Performance are set against target
dates.

Ex. Construction of an underground railway within

10 years … to reduce travel time from origin to
destination.
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Land use plan – describes how land shall be put to
use in the next 5 years.

 Commercial zone – the central business district …

areas designated for trade, services and business
purposes.

 Ecozone – special economic zone … selected areas

with highly developed or which have the potential
to be developed into agro-industrial, industrial,
tourist/recreational, commercial, banking,
investment and financial centers.
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Environmental planning – activities concerned with
the management and development of land, as well
as the preservation, conservation and rehabilitation
of the human environment.

 Buffer zones – identified areas outside the

boundaries of and immediately adjacent to
designated protected areas pursuant to Section 8
of RA 7586 that need special development control
to avoid or minimize harm to the protected area.
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Base map – a map that serves as the working map
and provides the standard configuration of the
planning unit for the preparation of the thematic
maps. The base map shows the political
boundaries, main river system, main road system
and other important topographic features.

 Basic needs approach to development – the

identification, production and marketing of wage
goods and services for consumption of rural
communities.
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Sustainable development –
 a pattern of resource use that

 aims to meet human needs while preserving the

environment … so that these
 needs for the present and in the future.

(Wikipedia)

 development that meets the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
(Bruntland Commission)
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Sustainable rural development –
 incorporating the concept of sustainable
development in rural communities,
 considering the drastic shifts in weather that
have altered habitats and ecosystems and
affecting all sectors and industries
 formulating strategies in building better homes
and industries to create a new earth …a legacy
for our children and future generations.
(Source: Developing Sustainable and Resilient Rural Communities in the Midst of Climate
Change: A Challenge to Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategies, 2015 International
Conference of the UP-SURP, Asia Center Japan Foundation and the DENR)
 Some EnP Terminologies
in the Philippines
 Rural – Urban Linkages
 rural communities, while continuing to be self-contained
should be integrated with urban communities
 urban communities, while continuing to be dependent with
other urban communities, should be integrated with rural
communities
• it is from rural areas that urban communities rely on for
sources of food, clothing and shelter.
• it is from urban areas that rural communities rely on for
logistics, advanced researches in communication, medical
technology, quality education.

Source: Achieving Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation in an Integrated Rural –

Urban Community Development, 2016 International Conference of the UP-SURP,
Asia Center Japan Foundation and the PIEP.
END