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UN-HABITAT Resources for Planning and Climate Change |
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The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) has developed a number of free resources designed to assist urban professionals with the planning and management of cities in relation to the unique challenges posed by climate changes.
The first resource is a guidebook outlining a 'strategic, values-based approach' to planning for climate change. It has been developed to enable 'city planners and other allied professionals to better understand, assess, and take action on climate change at the local level'. It includes a useful overview of current climate trends, their urban impacts and the urgency of forging a link between urban planning and climate change adaptation. Click here to download this document from the UN-HABITAT website (PDF format, 6.1MB).
A second useful resource is the summary report of a climate change assessment for Sorsogon City (Philippines), undertaken as part of UN-HABITAT's Cities and Climate Change Initiative, a key component of the Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net). The Initiative's overall aim is to provide insights on climate change adaptation and mitigation capacity in cities in developing and least developed countries. The rationale behind this report is to disseminate the early lessons of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative. It includes an analysis of the geographic, policy-based and institutional context for planning in Sorsogon City and culminates in a number of recommendations for planning-related actions at the national and urban levels. The report would be useful as a teaching case study for a planning educational course dealing with climate change. Click here to download this document from the UN-HABITAT website (PDF format, 3MB). |
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Handbook on African Urban Land Markets |
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Urban LandMark and UN-Habitat have produced a handbook entitled Africa’s Urban Land Markets: Piecing Together an Economic Puzzle, which can be downloaded by following this link to the Urban LandMark website. It is an accessible and extremely well-presented document that will be of great interest to all planners, students and laypeople with an interest in contemporary African urbanization.
The following is an extract from the Preface:
‘This handbook introduces key economic and related concepts explaining the functioning of urban land markets. By introducing key classical economic concepts, the handbook provides foundational economic terms that are often referred to in relation to urban land markets. In doing this, we do not imply that African land markets should or ought to ‘fit’ into neo-classical economic theories, nor do we propose that 'perfect' markets exist. Rather, we hope to provide the tools for engaging in a critical analysis of conventional economics, particularly in our understanding of African urban land markets.’ |
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Article: Three Decades of Thought on Planning Education |
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An article on the various trends and debates occurring within planning education, written by Andrea Frank, is available for download here.
The article abstract reads as follows:
'This annotated bibliography provides an overview of the literature on planning education addressing issues ranging from curriculum content to pedagogy and, program accreditation to nation-specific planning education. The focus of the bibliography is on academic, English language journal texts, however, some key books and web sites with significant sections devoted to planning education were also included. It was compiled as part of the author’s work at the Subject Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) in the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University with the principle goal to develop a subject-specific educational resource for academics. As such, the bibliography seeks to facilitate informed discussion, the identification of themes and knowledge gaps for further research and to support the development of a research culture in planning education. Spanning a period of 30 plus years, the compilation offers an opportunity to link change in education to those in planning practice and Higher Education'. |
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Report on Open Journal Access in African Countries |
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The AAPS currently orchestrates two projects geared towards, firstly, the revitalisation of planning education and, secondly, the promotion of case research and publication in African planning institutions. Last year the AAPS decided to investigate whether member schools have ‘open access’ to journals that publish material relevant to the promotion of these initiatives. A survey
questionnaire was distributed to AAPS members enquiring about current subscription statuses and whether particular journals are currently in demand. Overall, the investigation revealed that many influential planning-related journals are both in demand and available online, free of cost or at a reduced subscription rate, in African countries. The resulting report of the survey results, and the various methods of open access available to planning schools, is available here. |
- A generic version of presentations made to planning schools by the AAPS coordinator is available here. This provides a background of the network and the Revitalising Planning Education project.
- Papers from the first AAPS workshop are now available for download:
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