Catalog of Courses for Urban & Environmental Planning
Elective courses offered at the request of faculty or students to provide an opportunity for internships, fieldwork, or independent study. Prerequisite: Planning faculty approval of topic.
Collaborative Planning for Sustainability asserts that communities can only be sustained ecologically, socially, and economically by community members working together to solve problems. Most people yearn for ways to engage one another productively to care for their environment and their communities. Such caring can engender conflict, but when done well, authentic collaborative planning can transform civic disarray into civic virtue.
The course emulates the real estate development process in a specific geographic and socio-economic setting. In this studio, students will form small teams assigned to develop a project for a specific site. The students begin with site analysis, develop a proposed "product," conduct all the key financial analyses, and identify and develop the materials that would be necessary to move the project through public approval. Prerequisite: PLAN 5220
The studio allows students to both learn & apply the real estate development process in a specific geographic & socio-economic parameter. Students will form small teams assigned to develop a project for a specific site. Students begin with site analysis, develop a proposed site & conditions, conduct all the key financial analyses, & identify & develop the materials that would be necessary to move the project through public approval & completion.
Topical Offerings in Planning
Explores neighborhood, planning issues from the professionals' and citizens' perspectives. Cross-listed with PLAC 5610.
Civic tech is a framework that planners can use to promote positive social change through digital and information technologies. This course leverages the particular skills, training, experiences that students bring with them, but it does not teach new technical skills. Students work with an external partner to design and implement a group project that advances the public interest. Readings and discussions highlight important concepts and cases.
This course will help you identify global segregation trends in cities and the role of planning and designing interventions to reduce inequality and segregation towards disadvantaged socio-economic groups, racial minorities, people with physical and cognitive disabilities, children, older adults, refugees, gender minorities, etc. This course will build your confidence in your ability to design and plan participatory, inclusive, and innovative ways of re-thinking the city.
Green infrastructure includes water, habitats, parks, soils, and forests essential for healthy communities and building community resiliency. Working in teams, students conduct field work and determine community needs and opportunities for a community's urban forests, water, recreation, and historic and cultural resources. Students then complete a strategic green infrastructure plan for a city.
The course focuses on planning, preservation, and practice within rural places and among underrepresented populations. The coursework includes assignments that employ new skills or knowledge related to course objectives. Students will be involved in co-learning with residents of rural communities in and outside of the classroom. The course may include a service-learning component for approximately 25-30% of overall instructional time.
Students act as a consultant team to develop sustainable planning and design strategies for sites which rotate each year.
Plants lie at the intersection of climate change, food security, ecological risk, geopolitical conflict, and cultural self-determination. Yet, they remain largely overlooked and marginalized as a practical body of knowledge to the alarming ignorance of the botanical world. Through selected topics, this course will investigate the role and agency of plants in transforming the built environment, urbanization, and climate adaptation, among others.
Cities have altered natural drainage patterns, vegetation, local climate and habitats. Cities can use natural elements such as plants, trees and wetlands combined with engineered structures as "constructed green infrastructure" to redesign degraded urban sites. Students will utilize "green infrastructure" to create conceptual designs for sites to absorb stormwater, clean the air, or provide food and recreation.
Adaptation refers to actions taken at the individual, local, regional, and national levels to reduce the risks posed by a changing climate. This course contrasts the theory and academic research of climate adaptation planning with the state of practice in communities around Virginia. Anticipated impacts such as sea level rise, heat waves, and coastal storms will be explored as well as implications for natural ecosystems & urban infrastructure.
Applied independent study.
The course is an introductory studio for the degree of Master of Urban and Environmental Planning. The course covers the history of planning, emergence of sub-fields, ethical considerations, and methodological approaches to planning. The main applied emphasis is on physical planning/urban design and the way in which public planning shapes the built environment. Enrollment restricted to First Year MUEPs; all others permission of instructor.
This course serves as the fourth semester integrative class for the MUEP. Students work on a group project for a community client. Course entails understanding and drafting MOUs, creating concrete work plans, engaging with the public, gathering data and investigating strategies and alternatives. Final product should be a meaningful, implementable planning document for community use.
Topical Offerings in Planning
Analyzes community and environmental planning in the United States; the planning process; and sustainable communities.
Studies the principles of design; the architecture of cities and urban design; perception of space and visual analysis; graphic presentation, including mapping techniques; and inventories, information storage, retrieval and use. Prerequisite PLAN 2110
Explores theories and concepts of economic, social, and cultural forces that influence urban and regional spatial structure.
Digital technology for representing and analyzing planning data will include photo-editing, web page design, geographic information system mapping, spreadsheet modeling, and document layout and production. The major emphasis will be on two- and three- dimensional representation of spaces common to planning: streetscape, neighborhoods, communities and regions. Representation of the past, the present and prospective futures to both professional and citizen audiences will receive critical attention.
This course will provide an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) concepts and software. It is intended for undergraduate planning students but open to other undergraduates. The course introduces the concepts of GIS as well as practical training on ESRI's ArcGIS suite. Students successfully completing the course will have general familiarity with the major functionality of ArcGIS
A seminar exploring how racialized inequalities have shaped American cities North & South, past & present, and the influence of racialized urban structures on the idea & experience of race in America. Topics include the effects of segregation, redlining, urban planning, redevelopment, white flight, ghettoization, & neoliberal development on the form & culture of American cities & structures of inequality in the US.
Examines the role of planning in government decision-making. Focuses on local government, but intergovernmental aspects of planning that influence local decisions are also stressed. Studies planning processes, such as transportation, community development, and social planning.
Explores theories and concepts of economic, social, and cultural forces that influence urban and regional spatial structure.
This lecture course focuses on cities as centers of cultural, social, and artistic activity. It considers how we define cities, the forces that create and sustain them, and what makes them culturally distinctive. It looks at several cities at their moments of cultural, political, and architectural glory: Istanbul in the 16thcentury, London in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Paris in the 19th century, New York in the 20th century, and Shanghai in the 21st century.
Analyzes methods used in quantitative and qualitative investigations of urban and regional settings for planning purposes.
This course is an introduction to the basic legal frameworks for regulating land use in the United States. Topics to be covered include zoning & comprehensive planning; the constitutional & statutory rights of landowners & developers to challenge government action; the rights of neighbors; legal constraints on zoning changes by local governments; public financing of local land use development; discriminatory land use controls; eminent domain; and state & federal housing & homebuilding programs.
Critical perspectives to reveal how global systems of power shape society, environment, and economy. Comprehensive understanding of how political economy historically and culturally mediates contemporary issues such as: socio-economic inequality and persistent poverty; public and ecological health crises; disinformation, agency, and public right-to-know; environmental degradation and disasters; demands for rights, justice, and accountability.
Urban analytics draws upon statistics, visualization, and computation to better understand and ultimately to shape cities. This course emphasizes geospatial data, familiarizes students with statistical computing using R, and introduces principles and techniques of machine learning. Students will also learn to explain and to critique the results of visualization, analysis, and predictive modeling.
This course will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning process related to real estate development including finance, branding, design, planning, land use, site planning permitting, adaptive reuse among others. Situated in an actual case, students will have the opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team on a real-world development project. Graduate course will have additional course requirement
Topical offerings in planning.
This course introduces design & systems thinking techniques to address the interrelated crises of climate change & social inequity in U.S. cities. It asks how such transformational change might work - examining the socio-technical context,challenges, & opportunities that animate systems change in the built world. Students will learn through readings,discussions,lectures, & workshops to develop interdisciplinary creative problem-solving skills
This class explores the wide range of approaches that have been taken to the complex relationships between body, sex, gender, and the built environment. Some see buildings as a direct expression of sexed bodies (phallic towers and breast-like domes), while others see buildings and settlements as expressions and reiterations of the gender structures of a culture.
This class explores methods of inquiry that share power in the production of knowledge, & that honor both technical & lived expertise. We will discuss theoretical & ethical frames for the co-production of scholarship, what it means to be an action-oriented scholar & workshop participatory action research techniques including photovoice, appreciative inquiry,counter-mapping.
Global Environmental Issues contextualizes environmental pressures through case studies on topics such as land use practices and soil health, overconsumption and labor conditions, deforestation and disease emergence, as well as resource extraction and disaster resilience. This course addresses the roots of global environmental issues while cultivating critical thinking about what is required for more just and sustainable futures.
Detailed exploration of the normative debate surrounding environmental issues. Focus on the foundations of environmental economics, questions about the value of endangered species, concerns of future generations, appropriateness of a sustainable society, notions of stewardship, and obligations toward equity. Graduate course will have additional course requirements
This class begins with the premise that contact with nature is essential to modern life.The class will examine the evidence for why nature in important,and the many creative ways in which cities can plan for,and design-in nature, and foster meaningful and everyday connections with the natural world.
Elective courses offered at the request of faculty or students to provide an opportunity for internships, fieldwork, and independent study.
January Term courses provide students with unique opportunities: new courses that address topics of current interest, study abroad programs, undergraduate research seminars, and interdisciplinary courses. The intensive format of "J-term" classes encourages extensive student-faculty contact and allows students and faculty to immerse he topics of "J-term" courses change each semester and offer focused study, often related travel or current events.
Structured internship experience and reporting as a reflective practitioner for ten weeks or 200 hours of experience.
This course provides a framework for the completion of a Distinguished Major Thesis, a treatise containing an exposition of a chosen urban and environmental planning topic. A faculty advisor guides a student through the beginning phases of the process of research and writing. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Distinguished Major Program.
This is the second semester of a two semester sequence for the purpose of the completion of a Distinguished Major Thesis. A faculty member guides the student through all phases of the process which culminates in an open presentation of the thesis to an audience including a faculty evaluation committee. Prerequisite: PLAN 4901
Elective courses offered at the request of faculty or students to provide an opportunity for internships, fieldwork, and independent study.
Examines the role of planning in government decision-making. Focuses on local government, but intergovernmental aspects of planning that influence local decisions are also stressed. Studies planning processes, such as transportation, community development, and social planning.
This course focuses on case studies of real world GIS applications. Three cases covering urban and environmental planning at different scales will be introduced. To address these cases, students will learn advanced GIS skills in geodatabase design, data editing, spatial analysis, modeling and visualization. Class time is divided by multimedia lectures, hands-on demonstrations, project status updates from students, and diagnostic discussions
Foundational course for SARC real estate offerings. Covers fundamentals from basic real estate relationships, land acquisition decisions, "the cash cycle", legal aspects, public processes including entitlements, risk management, ethics, and preliminary feasibility analysis. The emphasis is on the creation of value in real estate (viewed holistically as financial profit informed by equity, sustainability, and design.)
Course examines the role good design and planning plays in adding value to real estate. Using a comparative case approach, the course will help students develop an understanding of how developer decision-making in regards to specific projects and their final built form is influenced by locational considerations, financial constraints, broader market dynamics, public perceptions of the project, and the legal framework.
Course examines the production of affordable housing in different real estate markets in the USA. Covers US housing policy, local and state planning parameters and the use of critical tools including tax credits, TIF, public private partnerships and equity-limiting models such as community land trusts.
Finance is a critical element in determining whether a real estate development project goes forward and whether the project actually looks and performs in accordance with the original design and social/economic objectives. In this course, students will learn the fundamental analyses of real estate finance and develop an understanding of the ways finance impacts upon project completion and architectural and community outcomes.
Course examines the role good design and planning plays in adding value to real estate. Using a comparative case approach, the course will help students develop an understanding of how developer decision-making in regards to specific projects and their final built form is influenced by locational considerations, financial constraints, broader market dynamics, public perceptions of the project, and the legal framework.
Studies current literature on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of historic places. Develops techniques for surveying, documenting, evaluating, and planning for preservation. Analyzes current political, economic, and legal issues in preservation planning.
Provides an introduction to the housing and community development area of planning practice. Topics include the housing and development industries, neighborhood change processes, social aspects of housing and development, and housing and development programs and policy issues.
This seminar will focus on density and contemporary housing issues, specifically related to affordable housing. As cities have spread out or decayed at the core, the variety of housing options has decreased leading to a growing divide between where and how people can afford to live. Assignments range from readings and leading discussion to case study presentations of recent global and local housing designs.
This course is an introduction to construction techniques and methods. This course covers project delivery methods, estimating, plan reading, and scheduling.
This class explores what makes a healthy city, what are the constituent parts of that system and what are different peoples needs across the life span, from perinatal to older age. The class begins by exploring concepts of health including health resilience - and focuses on how our cities can be better designed to optimize human flourishing.
Varies annually to meet the needs of graduate students.
A series of one-credit short courses, whose topics vary from semester to semester.
A series of one-credit short courses, whose topics vary from semester to semester.
Introduces the theory and practice of land use planning and growth management as they have evolved historically and as expressed in contemporary practice. Addresses the need and rationale for land use planning as well as its tools.
Worldwide urbanization processes will increase in the next years reaching a rate of 75% until the middle of the century. Shrinkage, stagnation and rapid growth will be simultaneous phenomena and to achieve urban sustainability it will be important to innovate analytical methods and urban design frameworks. Discussions, lectures, and readings in combination with an urban design group project will introduce students to contemporary urban design methodologies.
The growth of the informal sector worldwide has led to a polarization between formal and informal practices. Although the informal economy and its multifarious related activities contribute significantly to cities' development, it is often stigmatized as an urban mistake, and little is known about how it works. This course will investigate the spatial, social, and economic dimensions of informal practices and their role in the resilience, governance, and spatial justice of cities and regions around the world.
Course examines the impacts of transportation systems on the environment from roadside air quality to global climate change, exploring sustainable transportation policy, multimodal transportation, environmental justice, resilience,and community-based solutions.Building on course readings and discussion, PhD students will propose and develop a research paper on a topic of their choosing within the overall theme of transportation and the environment.
This course introduces graduate and advanced undergraduate students to current issues in the field of transportation planning and policy. It addresses all modes of transportation (auto, walk, bike) and considers multiple scales (national, state, regional and local). Through the analysis of key topics such as congestion, air quality, social equity, and security, we will gain an understanding of how decisions about the transportation system
Students will explore the ways that people have utilized rivers for their subsistence and livelihoods over thousands of years to the present, and how the well-being of river-based communities can be disrupted by large water development projects such as dams. We will examine what sustainable development means in the context of water development, drawing from inter-disciplinary perspectives.
Coastal flooding and accelerated sea level rise present serious challenges for cities around the world. This course critically examines the range of planning and design responses including managed retreat and nature-based adaptation as well as other policies and strategies to enhance resilience. The course also considers the vision of Blue Urbanism and the need to protect, celebrate and connect residents of cities with the marine environments nearby.
This course offers interdisciplinary inquiry into socio-environmental determinants of disaster and its global dimensions, policy domains, and community health impacts. Through critical analysis of disaster production, management, and response, students will explore disaster planning and resilience approaches and explore strategies to interrupt compounding catastrophe and cultivate post-crisis futures. Additional requirements for graduate level.
Focuses on a central question: Can local economies be sustainable and equitable without damaging the environment? Within this question are embedded topics' environmental racism, brownfield reclamation, environmental policy, and community organizing and engagement. Graduate course will have additional course requirements. The course addresses the challenges of balancing environment, economics, and equity.
This course provides a strong foundation in environmental psychology theory and methods. It will help you understand the human response to the designed environment, and how people feel, perceive and respond to the environment, as well as equip you with research skills to measure human-environment interactions.
Individual study directed by a faculty member. Prerequisite: Planning faculty approval of topic.
Survey course that introduces the field of urban and environmental planning as practiced in the United States. Topics include: history and theory of urbanization and city growth, emergence of the profession in 20th Century; main movements/eras of planning practice (e.g., City Beautiful, urban renewal) and major sub-fields within the profession (e.g., transportation, community development, urban design).
A seminar exploring how racialized inequalities have shaped American cities North & South, past & present, and the influence of racialized urban structures on the idea & experience of race in America. Topics include the effects of segregation, redlining, urban planning, redevelopment, white flight, ghettoization & neoliberal development on the form & culture of American cities & structures of inequality in the US. Graduate level will have additional requirements.
Required first semester course that introduces students to spatial analysis and representation through selected computer-based applications. Emphasis on 2D analysis and representation, use of secondary data and development of visualization techniques, and ways to communicate data and alternatives to a public audience.
Examines sustainable communities through environmental, social, economic, political, and design lenses. Using case studies of cities, towns, and development projects from around the world, students will have the opportunity to reflect on principles of sustainability and innovative applications used by planners and designers from across the globe and that span multiple geographic scales.
Explores methods beyond the conventional town-hall meeting to gather insights from communities on planning issues. Topics will include more traditional methods of qualitative research such as focus groups, interviews, charrettes, participatory action research, and scenario planning, as well as strategies like asset mapping, visual preference surveys, games, art-based visioning, participatory budgeting.
Applies quantitative skills to the planning process: analyzes decision situations and develops precise languages communicating the quantitative dimensions of planning problems. Includes lectures, case studies, and applied assignments addressing statistical methods, survey methods, census data analysis, program and plan evaluation, and emerging methods used by planners.
This course is an introduction to the basic legal frameworks for regulating land use in the United States. Topics to be covered include zoning & comprehensive planning; the constitutional & statutory rights of landowners & developers to challenge government action; the rights of neighbors; legal constraints on zoning changes by local governments; public financing of local land use development; discriminatory land use controls; eminent domain; and state & federal housing & homebuilding programs.
In this course students grapple with the dynamic tensions between planning and democracy, the various responses that have been proposed, and planning failures and successes. They explore the development of theories about how we ought to plan, why, and for whom.
Required first semester technology-oriented course that introduces students to spatial analysis and representation using a variety of computer-based applications. Emphasis on 2D and 3D analysis and representation, use of secondary data and development of visualization techniques.
Technology class introducing students to the fundamental applications of geographic information systems central to planning analysis and practice.
Urban analytics draws upon statistics, visualization, and computation to better understand and ultimately to shape cities. This course emphasizes geospatial data, familiarizes students with statistical computing using R, and introduces principles and techniques of machine learning. Students will also learn to explain and to critique the results of visualization, analysis, and predictive modeling. Graduate course will have additional requirements.
This course will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning process related to real estate development including finance, branding, design, planning, land use, site planning permitting, adaptive reuse among others. Situated in an actual case, students will have the opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team on a real-world development project. Graduate course will have additional course requirement
Topical offerings in planning.
This class explores the wide range of approaches that have been taken to the complex relationships between body, sex, gender, and the built environment. Some see buildings as a direct expression of sexed bodies (phallic towers and breast-like domes), while others see buildings and settlements as expressions and reiterations of the gender structures of a culture.
This class explores methods of inquiry that share power in the production of knowledge, & that honor both technical & lived expertise. We will discuss theoretical & ethical frames for the co-production of scholarship, what it means to be an action-oriented scholar & workshop participatory action research techniques including photovoice, appreciative inquiry,counter-mapping. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
Detailed exploration of the normative debate surrounding environmental issues. Focus on the foundations of environmental economics, questions about the value of endangered species, concerns of future generations, appropriateness of a sustainable society, notions of stewardship, and obligations toward equity. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
This class begins with the premise that contact with nature is essential to modern life.The class will examine the evidence for why nature in important,and the many creative ways in which cities can plan for,and design-in nature, and foster meaningful and everyday connections with the natural world.
This research studio explores planning history and theory, urban design, environmental resilience and multi-scalar and multi-dimensional approaches to issues and sites. The studio will build student skills to assess, imagine, and represent strategies for integrating infrastructure systems, energy producing ecology, climate resilience to heat and flooding, and distributive, equitable public space.
This lecture course focuses on cities as centers of cultural, social, and artistic activity. It considers how we define cities, the forces that create and sustain them, and what makes them culturally distinctive. It looks at several cities at their moments of cultural, political, and architectural glory: Istanbul in the 16thcentury, London in the late 17th and 18th centuries, Paris in the 19th century, New York in the 20th century, and Shanghai in the 21st century.
Independent research on topics selected by individual students in consultation with a faculty advisor.
In this course students grapple with the dynamic tensions between planning and democracy, the various responses that have been proposed, and planning failures and successes. They explore the development of theories about how we ought to plan, why, and for whom. This course will have additional course requirements compared to PLAN 6070.
This course provides a strong foundation in environmental psychology theory and methods. It will help you understand the human response to the designed environment, and how people feel, perceive and respond to the environment, as well as equip you with research skills to measure human-environment interactions. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.
A thesis is optional for the Master of Urban and Environmental Planning degree. Students should begin early to explore topics and to identify potential committee members. A guideline document is available.