Urban and Regional Planning faculty work to organize areas of planning specialization to enhance the program’s curriculum and to increase the Department’s research opportunities. Specializations are an informal designation used by the Department to indicate areas of research and scholarly strength, but have no formal significance, meaning that they do not appear in official lists in the Graduate Student Catalog or on the student transcript.
Each area of specialization is listed below, and links to more detailed information including an introduction to the specialization, a listing of relevant faculty and concepts, and specifics regarding coursework.
Areas of Specialization
Environmental Planning: The application of planning theory and tools to achieve environmental goals, including ecological preservation and restoration, sustainable resource use, environmental health, and natural hazards mitigation.
Transportation & Land Use: Focuses on the interactive relationship between land development and transportation and its connection with the natural and social environments, and with regional economies.
Information Technologies for Planning: Teaches students to use and think critically about the function of advanced technologies within the planning profession and academy, including Geographic Information Systems, spatial statistics, and urban modeling and visualization.