All great designs are reinforced through a strong framework. Having this framework in place ensures the design works as it was intended. This is also true in urban planning whether it is on a local, regional or national scale. A useful planning tool used to achieve this is a master plan or spatial plan. At the turn of the century these plans were first officially adopted by a city planning commission (Cincinnati’s 1925 Official City Plan) and have continued to this day. These plans were developed to form a structure, protecting the legacy, underlying the city and monumental core, promoting economic development, renewing rivers and open space and improving transportation.
Master/spatial plans today may consist of five aspects, including, agendas, policies, visions, designs and strategies. These aspects are referred to as different mechanisms through which plans affect the world.
Plans are a necessity in defining an urban character and structure of a place so that the framework is set as the finer details evolve. Plans today need accurate and up to date data to improve the underlying issues and predict future needs. Once a plan has been developed it is implemented into the planning system to achieve the plans objectives.
A plan can be evaluated, once implemented, to see whether it has achieved the desired outcome. This is undertaken by assessing the effect (effect the plan has had on decision making, actions or outcome), net benefit (was the plan beneficial and to whom), internal validity (did it do what it was intended) and external validity (+or- social benefit). This is the most important part of constructing and implementing a plan because if a plan does not work then what is the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment