CP6019 - Computer and Quantitative Methods in Planning

Course Description

CP 6019 is the first course of a required two-course methods sequence in the City and Regional Planning core curriculum.  It addresses the suite of fundamental analytical methods that are necessary for every planner to understand and apply.  The second course in the sequence, CP 6023, addresses basic statistical methods for planners.

The course content can be summarized in five areas:

• Information

• Time

• Space

• People

• Jobs

Planning is an information activity.  All analytical (and statistical) methods rely on the acquisition, manipulation, and presentation of quantitative and qualitative information. For many of these activities the crucial tool is the database management system (DBMS).  Microsoft Access is used to illustrate the basic concepts of relational database management systems, tables, queries, join, data import, and data export.

Because planning deals with the future, time is the first central dimension of planning.  Section two of the course considers a broad  range of time-series forecasting tools, including line fitting, curve fitting, and comparative analysis.  The second central dimension of planning is space.  Every city is unique because the topography of its land is unique, and its community of people, animals, and plants have a distinctive, shared history.  Geographic information systems (GIS) allow us to analyze the spatial dimensions of cities and regions, and CP 6019 will use ArcGIS to help students understand the basic concepts of spatial data and analysis.  GIS-based land suitability analysis will provide a concrete application of spatial analysis.  Geography brings us together, but it also keeps us apart.  Gravity models and four-step transportation models will be considered as the workhorses of transportation analysis.

If all planners work in the common dimensions of time and space, they also share an essential concern with people.  Before we can plan for land use, the environment, transportation, or any other subarea of planning, we must first understand how many and what kind of people for which we are planning.  Demographic analysis can be based on the simple time-series models already considered, but more sophisticated cohort-survival models are also widely used.

Finally, most (if not all) planners care about the quantity and quality of jobs.  Over time planners and economists have developed a toolkit of economic forecasting and analysis techniques, including economic base analysis, location quotients, and input-output analysis.  Economic analysis is important because it helps us understand the creation and distribution of wealth, and a healthy regional economy affects the lives and life-chances of everyone in a region, whether rich, middle-class, or poor.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course each student will be able to:

1. Input, import, and export data in a database management system

2. Search for, extract, and combine subsets of database data

3. Apply time-series analysis to forecast future values using lines, curves, regression, and comparative analysis

4. Build valid, accurate spreadsheet models

5. Create maps of GIS data

6. Conduct basic GIS analysis, including land suitability, proximity and overlay analyses

7. Construct a cohort-survival model

8. Conduct fundamental varieties of local economic analysis, including economic base, location quotient, and shift-share analyses

Course Readings

Community Analysis and Planning Techniques

by Richard E. Klosterman

Paperback: 272 pages

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield;   ISBN: 084767651X

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Access 2003

by Roger Jennings

Paperback: 1504 pages

Publisher: Que;   ISBN: 0789729520

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Excel 2003

by Patrick Blattner

Paperback: 960 pages

Publisher: Que;   ISBN: 0789729539