{"id":22457,"date":"2026-04-20T15:34:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/?p=22457"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:53:13","slug":"uf-faculty-and-students-publish-new-planning-theory-for-accountable-human-ai-collaboration-in-cities-in-the-journal-of-the-american-planning-association-japa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/uf-faculty-and-students-publish-new-planning-theory-for-accountable-human-ai-collaboration-in-cities-in-the-journal-of-the-american-planning-association-japa\/","title":{"rendered":"UF Faculty and Students Publish New Planning Theory for Accountable Human-AI Collaboration in Cities in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zhong-Ren Peng<\/a>, professor in the UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning and director\u00a0of the International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design (iAdapt)<\/a>, recently published the article \u201cSymbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI Cocreation in Urban Planning\u201d<\/a> in the Journal of the American Planning Association<\/em> (JAPA) alongside a team comprised of his current and former Ph.D. students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Six<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Left to right: Kai-Fa Lu, Yanghe Liu, Dr. Peng, Qing Hou, Qing Zhang and Khalid A. Aljuhani<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper argues that AI should be treated not as a passive tool or an autonomous system, but as a co-creative partner in planning. While AI can generate options, reveal hidden patterns, and simulate consequences, humans must still set goals, make value judgments, and retain final authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors propose \u201cSymbiotic Planning Theory (SPT)\u201d, operationalized through the CORE framework\u2014Collaboration, Options, Refinement, and Execution\u2014to address the paper\u2019s key question: How can planners use AI without giving up human judgment, democratic legitimacy, and institutional accountability?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the paper puts it: AI proposes, humans authorize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCities are increasingly expected to use AI to make better decisions, but the real question is who stays in charge,\u201d said Peng. \u201cOur framework is designed so that AI surfaces hard tradeoffs while humans\u2014and communities\u2014remain the decision authorities. Following rules on paper is not enough. What matters is whether outcomes are actually fair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By operating through this CORE framework, the paper offers not only a new planning theory, but also a practical roadmap for how public agencies can use AI responsibly. This framework is supported by the paper\u2019s key mechanism, \u201cGoverned Friction\u201d, which argues that conflict between technical optimization and public values should not be hidden or treated as a nuisance. Instead, planning processes should be designed so that AI-generated proposals surface those conflicts, making them visible, debatable, and actionable. The paper describes this as a three-step cycle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Generative Provocation: AI generates an efficiency-focused baseline that exposes hidden bias or inequity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Normative Recalibration: planners and communities translate those conflicts into formal, binding constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Binding Re-authorization: continued model use depends on whether outcomes meet equity and accountability standards, not merely whether procedures were followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Figure<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The CORE framework as put forth in “Symbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI CoCreation in Urban Planning<\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Gainesville\u2019s shared e-scooter program as a case study, the paper examined the gap between procedural compliance and actual equity outcomes in designated Equity Zones. The city requires e-scooter vendors to deploy at least 10% of their fleet in designated Equity Zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On paper, vendors were largely compliant with the city\u2019s 10% Equity Zone deployment requirement. But the outcome data showed a clear gap between procedural compliance and substantive outcomes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The Equity Zone generated only ~3% of monthly trips<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The area around campus generated ~84% of trips<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Scooters in Equity Zones often sat unused for 75\u2013100+ hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what the paper calls the Compliance Trap: a situation in which a city follows the rules on paper but still produces inequitable outcomes in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To investigate the problem, the research team first used a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) model to generate a usage-maximizing baseline. That baseline concentrated scooters near campus and reproduced existing spatial inequities. Rather than treating that result as the answer, the paper treats it as a provocation \u2014 a way of making the hidden tradeoffs and inequities visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SPT in practice as depicted in the case study on Gainesville’s shared e-scooter program from “Symbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI CoCreation in Urban Planning<\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team then conducted community engagement, including 235 survey responses, interviews, and workshops. They found that low usage in Equity Zones was linked to several structural barriers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Weak walking access to scooter locations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Competition from free microtransit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Payment exclusion for people without bank accounts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Cost barriers relative to free alternatives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings were then translated into binding constraints for the model, which was retrained under revised guardrails set through planner and community input. The result shifted the plan from 103 locations \/ 189 scooters to 113 locations \/ 187 scooters, with improved Equity Zone coverage and stronger transit integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case study showed how AI can be governed not only for efficiency, but also for equity, democratic accountability, and continued human oversight. It also suggests a practical pathway that may help cities like Gainesville move from monitoring problems to acting on them through more explicit governance protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper offers both a theoretical and practical framework for human-AI collaboration, showing how AI can be integrated into planning workflows without giving up human authority, public accountability, or equity goals . Notably, the paper positions Symbiotic Planning Theory alongside rational, participatory, and co-design paradigms, arguing that those earlier theories were not developed for an era in which AI can generate alternatives at machine speed and reshape how planning problems are understood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zhong-Ren Peng, professor in the UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning and director\u00a0of the International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design (iAdapt), recently published the article \u201cSymbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI Cocreation in Urban Planning\u201d in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) alongside a team comprised of his current […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":22459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":108,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture.jpg",1600,1066,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-1536x1023.jpg",1536,1023,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture.jpg",1600,1066,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

Zhong-Ren Peng, professor in the UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning and director\u00a0of the International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design (iAdapt), recently published the article \u201cSymbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI Cocreation in Urban Planning\u201d in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) alongside a team comprised of his current and former Ph.D. students. Left to right: Kai-Fa Lu, Yanghe Liu, Dr. Peng, Qing Hou, Qing Zhang and Khalid A. Aljuhani The paper argues that AI should be treated not as a passive tool or an autonomous system, but as a co-creative partner in planning.…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"news<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"ryanhelterhoffurp","url":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/author\/ryanhelterhoffurp\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture.jpg",1600,1066,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture-1536x1023.jpg",1536,1023,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2026\/04\/DCP-atrium-group-picture.jpg",1600,1066,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ryanhelterhoffurp","author_link":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/author\/ryanhelterhoffurp\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Zhong-Ren Peng, professor in the UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning and director\u00a0of the International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design (iAdapt), recently published the article \u201cSymbiotic Planning Theory: The CORE Framework for Human-AI Cocreation in Urban Planning\u201d in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) alongside a team comprised of his current…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcp.ufl.edu\/urp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}