PLANNING - Planning means pre-thinking & pre-arranging things before an event takes place so as to

achieve good results in health, convenience, comfort and happiness of all living beings. It results in
the blueprint for the further development and course of action for the achievement. By careful
planning we can eradicate the mistakes of the past and be wiser in the future.
Planning is a conscious effort to
o systematically define the problem.
o analyze the problem.
o enable the planner to improve the quality of decision making.
The main focus of planning is that the benefit of the growth & opportunities is equally distributed.
Planning is concerned with the proper and eminent use of the resources.
The raw material for planning is People & Land. For an efficient planning one must understand the
characteristics of the people and should be able to plan for the projected population.

URBAN PLANNING It is the evolution of the systematic techniques for the development of Urban
area and its entities- infrastructure facilities, best use of land and efficient allocation of resources. It
involves efficient utilization of resources & provision of healthy & a satisfying environment in which
to live & work.
Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements, from the smallest towns
to the world's largest cities. City or Urban Planning can be applied to the processes and planning of
different land uses in relation to each other. Planning schemes deal with the housing, surroundings,
services, health facilities, public infrastructure. At Urban level the complexities of these processes
increases and as planners we need to identify the parameters affecting the problem. So nothing can
be planned as an individual entity. The Physical, Social and Political processes are interactive and
hence
Urban Planning is all set to achieve three primary goals:


To enhance the quality of life
by developing in terms of:
 Equity in opportunities.
 Equity in distribution of resources.

Provision of Infrastructure

INFRASTRUCTURE

Physical
water supply,
sanitation, electricity,
roads

Social
education, health,
religious

Utilization & consumption of resources

Political
Govt. offices,
postal services

Water resources, power resources, etc and not just the consumption but the choices of
consumption.
It starts with the planning of the infrastructure facilities-

LAND MANAGEMENT
For this purpose, planning for different land uses is done considering various aspects as land value,
land characteristics, best coordination between different land uses. So planning gives the planner a
vision of the future to calculate and approximate whether it is going to be a high density area or low
density, a commercial or industrial area where employment/area of land will be maximum or any
other land use. And based on this calculation of the land allocation, the need for land is determined,
land acquisition and consequently expansion of city takes place.
Planning also gives an idea about the population that will permanently inhabit the area and those
that will form the floating population of the area.

Urban Planning is done to achieve:

To make the events happen as we expect them to happen.
To accommodate all the activities that we want to happen.
To avoid all undesirable activities that we dont want to happen.
Therefore Urban planning involves three broad functions:
1. Research- To understand the existing conditions and problems of an area.
2. Objective and goal formulation- To decide what is to be achieved.
3. Formulation of actual plan- Results in future development and recommends the course of
action for the achievement of desired growth.
Planning is responsible for the future development in terms of:
 Area development of congested, polluted and insanities.
 Conservation of areas of importance either due to ecological or Historical factors.
 Services- Physical and social infrastructure
 Communication facilities
Town planning started in India with the formation of the Town Planning Legislation in 1919 in
Bombay and in 1920 in Madras. In 1950 proper coordinated development plans were prepared by
Town Planning departments. And Institute of Town Planners in India was formed to work to achieve
its objectives. The objectives of Town Planners and planning in the past and in the present have
remained the same:
To make the city a better place to live

Proper allocation of resources and infrastructure facilities.

To check the migration of the people from rural area to urban areas.

Significance of urban planning lies in the fact that it helps in determining various problems like
congestion, encroachment, migration, environmental problems, pollution, housing shortage and
demand, slum, under utilization of land value, etc and find guidelines for achieving the desired
objectives.
URBAN PLANNING = INTEGRATED/ COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING
And the objectives of urban planning lies in preventing the foreseen problems and propose proper
provision of various facilities to the settled and floating population. As urban planning is just not
concerned with one kind of planning it is the mixture of planning aspects in which each planning is
related to another by any means. For e.g., as it comprises of physical planning, transport, health,
infrastructure so in one field you are concerned with lot of connected activities.
The planning process is determined by the following triangle..
Organization
(social activity)

Work/Function
(economic activity)

Place
(physical activity)

Urban planning further helps in organized development of any town by regulating further policies
and regulations which in turn provides us a comfortable environment enhancing our quality of life.