Spatial Thinking in Planning Practice: An Introduction to GIS

1 PREFACE THE EMERGENCE OF GIS IN URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING PRACTICE During the last 20 years, geographic information systems (GIS) have transitioned from scienti!c laboratories into the heart of conventional planning practice. During this period, planners have been aggressive adopters and adapters, and strong advocates for local governments deploying GIS. "is is true in part because GIS provides a platform for collecting and organizing spatial data, along with analyzing and manipulating capabilities that align closely with the professional needs of urban and regional planners. When facilitating GIS courses in the !eld of urban and regional planning, we have observed a de!cit of intro- ductory textbooks speci!cally written for planning students, whose career paths may require a certain set of GIS skills that di#er from those taught in geography or other departments. "is textbook is our !rst e#ort to compile a series of readings that we !nd compelling and relevant for planning graduate students to explore spatial think- ing and application, which will support a spatially informed future in the profession. "e goals of this textbook are to help students acquire the technical skills of using so$ware and managing a data- base, and develop research skills of collecting data, analyzing information and presenting results. We emphasize that the need to investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate its possible applications. GIS may not be necessary (or useful) for every planning application, and we anticipate these readings to provide the necessary foundation for discerning its appropriate use. "erefore, this textbook attempts to facilitate spatial thinking focusing more on open-ended planning questions, which require judgment and exploration, while developing the analytical capacity for understanding a variety of local and re- gional planning challenges. While this textbook provides the background for understanding the concepts in GIS as applicable to urban and regional planning, it is best when accompanied by a hands-on tutorial, which will enable readers to develop an in-depth understanding of the speci!c planning applications of GIS. Chapters in this text book are either com- posed by the editors using Creative Common materials, or linked to a book chapter scanned copy in the library reserve. In the end of each chapter, we also provided several discussion questions, together with contextual appli- cations through some web links.