Social Aspects of Planning & Management

• Planning and management or urban areas is carried out to ensure that development is sensibly located and undertaken in the best interests of the public and with the least possible damage to the environment.
• Development is central to urban life. It provides housing, facilities such as schools and hospitals, provision for commerce and industry, good transport links and essential services such as power and water supply. But it needs to be carried out to good standards and in the right places. This is dealt with through building and other regulations and planning of the use of land. Urban areas also become outworn and require re-generation and renewal. This often requires the effects of past development and processes, such as industrially contaminated land, to be properly dealt with.
• Industry and transport are needed for a thriving economy. Wastes are produced and have to be dealt with. These activities can give rise to noise and pollution that can seriously affect the quality of life of residents and the nearby natural environment. Environmental regulation, imposed to minimise these effects, needs to be properly targeted.
• The protection of wildlife, landscapes and the conservation of the historical heritage are commonly amongst the aims of planners. This needs to be achieved through appropriate location of development and the proper control of activities and processes to reduce pollution and contamination.
  Some hazards can be reduced but cannot be eliminated. We need to understand the nature and extent of these so that effective emergency planning and relief measures can be agreed well in advance.
• Securing the proper balance between social, economic and environmental interests both now, and for future generations, is the basis of more sustainable development. But urban planners and managers, quite properly, think mainly in social and economic terms. While some aspects of the environment, particularly ecology, and the archaeological record have become more widely appreciated there is often limited background in geosciences even though these relate to securing safer, more cost efficient development and more sustainable conservation. It is part of the purpose of this website to try to address these gaps.