Computing in planning: professional and institutional requirements

This paper represents an attempt to show how computation might be improved and reorganized to deal better with the imperatives of the planning profession and to improve its organizational setting. I will first sketch three underlying sets of circumstances: the state of urban development, focussing mainly on the USA; the structure and imperatives of planning capable of dealing with these conditions; and some organizational factors which generally stand in the way of such planning. The key to this part of the discussion is the identification of three major activities in planning: analysis or modeling, invention or design, and guiding public participation. I will then describe the hypothetical functioning of a well-tempered planning program, showing the critical importance of computing in relation to the three major planning activities; then with a generalized examination of the computing issues I arrive at an optimistic evaluation of the possible achievement of this program.