Urban Planning AI
We investigate how AI can collaborate with planners, support plan-making and decision-making, and facilitate responsible planning automation. Our research also examines human–AI interaction and develops governance frameworks for transparent, accountable, and effective Urban Planning AI.
Concept of Urban Planning AI
Urban Planning AI refers to the use of artificial intelligence agents within the planning process itself, whether to support, augment, automate, or eventually take on independent roles in plan preparation and policy formation. This distinguishes it from AI applications that merely analyze cities without entering the institutional process of making public planning decisions.
Interest in this area has grown quickly across the planning field. Recent literature explores generative AI for urban design and automated plan generation, alongside a parallel and increasingly urgent conversation about governance: how to keep AI-assisted planning transparent, accountable, and reviewable as its role expands, rather than letting technical capability alone decide what AI is allowed to do in public decision-making.
Key Questions We Aim to Answer
How much of the planning process can and should be delegated to AI, and how does the planner’s role change as AI capability grows from data support toward plan generation?
How can AI’s involvement in planning be governed so that community priorities become binding constraints rather than advisory input?
How can AI-generated planning options remain contestable, with humans retaining final authority to accept, modify, or reject them?
What happens when an AI-assisted deployment meets a formal rule on paper but still produces unequal outcomes on the ground, and how should governance catch that gap?
Featured Research & Projects
Human-AI Collaboration in Transit Network Design
A Data-Driven Planning Case from Tampa
As artificial intelligence increasingly shapes how cities are planned and managed, a key question for planners is whether AI can move beyond supporting analysis to actually generating spatial plans. This study explores that question in the context of public transit network design, using downtown Tampa, Florida as an empirical testbed …
Selected Publications
Peng, Z.-R., Lu, K.-F., Liu, Y., & Zhai, W. (2024). The pathway of urban planning AI: From planning support to plan-making. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 44(4), 873–885. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231180568
Peng, Z.-R., Lu, K.-F., Liu, Y., Hou, Q., & Zhang, Q. (2026). Symbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE framework for AI-human co-creation in urban planning. Journal of the American Planning Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2026.2640038
Peng, Z.-R. (2026). Symbiotic Planning for Urban Futures: A Paradigm for Human-AI Co-Creation. Elsevier.
https://shop.elsevier.com/books/symbiotic-planning-for-urban-futures/peng/978-0-443-45040-2