CP6019 - Computer and Quantitative Methods in Planning

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of analytical methods beyond the basic statistics provided in Quantitative Methods I. This course will cover analysis of qualitative data, presentation of analytical results in written, oral and graphic formats, and the use of common planning information sources, including the U.S. Census citizen surveys and housing and land use inventories.

Course Objectives

This course has two major objectives.  The first is to introduce the theories and concepts of urban and regional development and the importance of spatial phenomena in urban and regional planning.  The second is to expose some basic techniques for analyzing the economic and demographic bases of regional growth and change, and have students try them for the first time.  Topics include data sources, population analyses, economic base studies, location analyses, population estimation and projection.  Students will practice their writing skills by using data and their analysis of those data to tell compelling stories based on official statistics and quantitative social science method.  

Topics Covered

• Urban and regional theory and analysis

• Intrametropolitan spatial structure

• Population change in metropolitan areas

• Housing

• Concentrated poverty and labor market structure

• Gentrification

• Population estimating

• Infrastructure planning

• The system of regions and cities in space

• Access in metropolitan areas

• Locations of urban places and concepts of regions

• Location quotient, shift-share, and multipliers

• Regional dynamics, business movement, and population migration

• Regional growth and projection models

• Regional input-output models 

• Identifying Regional Economic Development Clusters

• Cohort component projection model 

• The future of central cities and suburbs

• Extrapolation techniques in planning

• Suburban dependency on central city health

• Regional governance and regional planning

• Sprawl and quality of place and life

• Forecasting a future for the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta region

Required Texts

• McLean, Mary L. and Kenneth P. Voytek. Understanding Your Economy:  Using Analysis to Guide Local Strategic Planning.  Planners Press. 

• Myers, Dowall. Portraits of Change:  Methods of Analysis With Local Census Data. 

• Stanback, Jr., Thomas M. The Transforming Metropolitan Economy. 2002. Rutgers: Center for Urban Policy Research.