Ten Reasons Cities Need Urban Planning

Urban planning is a valuable lever for city leaders to achieve sustainable development. It helps them formulate medium and long-term objectives that reconcile a collective vision with a rational organisation of resources to achieve it.

Urban planning is a means to make a difference

Planning helps make the most out of municipal budgets by informing infrastructure and services investments, balancing demands for growth with the need to protect the environment. It distributes economic development within a given territory to reach social objectives, and creates a framework for collaboration between local governments, the private sector and the public at large.

Urban planning It is a framework that helps leaders transform vision into implementation, using space as a key resource for development and engaging stakeholders along the way.

Good planning can help city leaders to drive constructive changes:

1) A framework for growth

Thriving cities have a vision and follow it through with a framework to develop in an orderly manner. A framework is not about centralised command and control but a way to anticipate needs, coordinate efforts, and draw a path to a horizon that is collectively held. Major efforts to enhance liveability, prosperity and equity have taken place in a number of well known cities. Such transformational impact is not a product of spontaneity, instead of constructive planning.

2) A planned city is a well prepared city

Anticipating the future allows us to be better prepared today. By staying ahead of challenges, city leaders are ready to see opportunities and manage risks from a vantage point. With reliable information on the current situation, they will be able to make connections between the long-term vision and short term actions. On the other hand, cities that don’t actively plan for their future will likely be left behind.