ARCH 30353: Planning 3

The Scope of Course Project

Updated 12/01/2022

The objective of designing the term project is to provide an opportunity for students to gain comprehensively in-depth understanding of common Urban Issues and an opportunity to use what we have learn so far to address the issues in planning. The students will work in a group (up to six students per team). Regardless of the study area in California or not, you must ensure the data source(s) from which you will be able to obtain are sufficient for conducting your project. Each team needs to determine the type and size of sample data based on your own judgment. The range of the topic is flexible but must falls into the learning scope of the course. The following topics are provided as examples with attempt to inspire your thoughts or ideas for your project only. You may choose one as your project topic or design your own.

  1. Urban sprawl & inefficient use of land causes housing affordability problems, transport problems, and uses up a finite resource.

  2. Transport: In most cases roads dominate, and the development does not support public transport, and is unfriendly for walking and cycling.

  3. Design for human scale, rather than cars and commerce. Design should inspire community and create a pleasant living environment.

  4. Community or neighborhood identity adds to the feeling of place and cohesiveness of the community.[verification needed] This is helped by access to most facilities within the local area; a strong local economy (includng a local currency or bartering system?) The dominant 20th century model results in isolation, lack of familiarity with neighbors (which contributes to crime) and many more trips out of the neighborhood (esp by car).

  5. Single use vs mixed use developments. Since the rise of the car, Recent decades have favored single use; mixed use may enable more needs to be met locally.

  6. Environment: water & waste.

  7. Environment: energy usage.

  8. Affordability and accessibility. The social impact of housing costs.

  9. Regional development - decentralization, revitalization of country towns. How, and ask: Why is it needed, why have people left?

  10. To plan or not to plan?

  11. Overarching vision and plan? Or a few simple principles to encourage sustainability and quality of life? Note that suburban sprawl was created with regulations, and traditional neighborhoods which grew into the most vibrant and desirable parts of cities had much less regulation, and would certainly not be permitted today.

  12. Need for participation by local communities, and ultimate say in their own communities.

  13. Existing communities: gradual & staged improvements. How to create community? How to achieve appropriate density and affordable housing, when residents natural tendency is to fight change, especially change that might negatively affect their house prices.

Source: https://www.appropedia.org/Issues_in_urban_planning

Project Proposal Requirements

1. This is a group project. Everyone's participation is required. Teamwork is highly valued!!!

2. Before 12/16/2022, each group leader must email the instructor the title of the project. The instructor will provide feedback, comments and suggestions, and to make sure there is no repetition among projects.

3. Student will make a 30-min presentation on January 05,2022 (including questions and discussions). The PPT file, and a short summary of comments and recommendations (in word) will be due by the end of the following Monday (01/09/2023).

4. The proposal presentation will be evaluated on the perspectives of Problem Identification, Proposed Methodology and/or Solution, Designated Deliverable, Project Plan, and Presentation Performance (including the design of the PPT file and Q/A).

Project Proposal Formatting

example(not necessarily the best)

I. Cover Slide

  1. Include your names, project title and contact information (name, email, phone number).
  2. Use your names and project title as a header/footer on each slide.

II. Introduction/Review of Literature

  1. General introduction. State exactly what you are interested in researching. Explain how the topic of your Professional Project is related to ARCH 30353: Planning 3, including an explanation of how the project makes use of the knowledge you gained from this courses.
  2. Review of the literature. major findings; consistencies and inconsistencies among these findings.
  3. Indicate which studies have already been done on the same or related topics; which questions or hypotheses have been offered;
  4. Break down your research problem into a series of more specific questions, or,whenever feasible, into hypotheses.

III. Identified Problems

  1. Clearly state your research problem.

  2. After reviewing the literature, place your own research within a context of already existing knowledge. Try to answer questions such as: Is your research an attempt to retest previous research findings? Investigating some aspect(s) of previous research in greater depth? Exploring areas suggested by previous findings? Studying a problem about which little or nothing is known, but which needs to be investigated for practical or theoretical reasons?

IV. Goal and Objectives

  1. Clearly state the goal of your research. The goal is a broad statement of desired outcomes, or the general intentions of the research, which 'paint a picture' of your research project. It emphasize what is to be accomplished (not how it is to be accomplished) and address the long-term project outcomes, i.e. they should reflect the aspirations and expectations of the research topic.

  2. List the objectives of your research. Objectives are subsidiary to aims and:

V. Scope of the Study

  1. Identify the geographical extend of your research.
  2. Define the scope of the work.

VII. Methodology

  1. Identify your Research Variables.
    1. Clearly identify all your research variables and state which ones you will be treating as dependent and which as independent variables.
    2. Define your research metrics to evaluate your research outcomes.
  2. Method of Investigation
    1. Specify the research sample--who the subjects of your research will be and how you are going to select them. Give your reasons for choosing such a sample.
    2. Identify your procedure. Indicate which techniques of data collection you plan to use (observation, interviews, questionnaires, records, personal documents, etc.), and any relevant information about your research design.
    3. Discuss how you intend to analyze your data.
    4. A methodology flow chart showing the overall design of the research is required.

VII. Data Source and Data Collection Techniques

  1. Plan for data collection or data source.
  2. Present the results of the survey (or research) without comment. It should be divided appropriately, generally by research questions.
  3. Appropriate summaries and sample data (survey questionnaires) should be presented.

VIII. Management Plan

  1. Including the timeline schedule for completing the project, and responsibility of each student in the team work.
  2. List other resources that would help to compete the project, if applicable.

IX. Designated Deliverables

  1. List the tasks to be completed.
  2. List the corresponding deliverables from each of the tasks.

X. References

  1. A bibliography of all sources you have used and cited throughout your paper/project.
  2. Chicago style must be used for all citations throughout the text and for your bibliography. Appropriate citations would include recent (within the last five years) peer-reviewed articles published in regionally, nationally, or internationally recognized professional journals; books; monographs; etc. Try Mendeley - Reference Management Software.
  3. Magazine, newspaper, web-news articles or other types of articles or publications are generally not appropriate for scholarly papers.

Examples of Urban Planning Projects