Spatial Planning

Taught Modules

Compulsory modules

• Place Making (30 credits)

  This module develops an appreciation of the role of urban design and place making in the creation and protection of high quality urban environments. Centring on a ‘live’ site with significant redevelopment potential, the module equips students with the knowledge and skills they need to appraise the character and quality of a place, and to generate imaginative and integrative visions for its future.

• Planning for Sustainable Futures: Environment, Health and Society (30 credits)

  This module builds understanding of the concept and principles of sustainability, including the various dimensions of sustainability that are integral to spatial planning and the interconnections between them. It develops skills in the interpretation and practice of sustainable development and understanding of the changing socio-political and environmental context within which spatial plans are generated and implemented.

• Planning Frameworks: Law, Policy and Professional Practice (30 credits)

  This module familiarises students with the legal, governance and professional contexts in and through which planning systems operate, as well as developing the core knowledge, skills and behaviours that planners need in professional practice. While special reference is made to planning frameworks and approaches in England and the UK, the module has an integral comparative dimension and various other planning systems internationally are  considered throughout.

• Research Methods (10 credits)

  This module provides students with a practical knowledge of the key research methods and skills applicable to spatial planning and related fields. The module develops a critical awareness and core understanding of different research philosophies, approaches and methods, in order to promote the design and delivery of effective research projects. On completion of the module, students will have developed the knowledge and skills needed to perform effectively as an independent researcher, a professional responsible for commissioning research and as a critical consumer of research.

Optional modules

• Contemporary Approaches to Urban Design (30 credits)

  The aim of this module is to provide the theoretical, practical and applied skills to enable the emerging professional to critically assess and develop urban design interventions. Theory and practice merge to become essential tools and perspectives for evaluating urban conditions in relation to place making. In this module, students learn to shape theory and practice to develop an urban design framework for critical analysis, evaluation as well as a coherent means for creating design interventions and understanding its impact.

• Effective and Proportionate Environmental Impact Assessment (30 credits)

  This module explores the systematic process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) / Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and the conceptual foundations of effectiveness in order to promote understanding of the development planning and design cycles where EIA / ESIA has greatest potential to shape sustainable outcomes. UK and international legislation and different sector guidance are examined to establish key dimensions of best practice. The module stresses the importance of EIA / ESIA scoping and impact mitigation across a range of biophysical and social components of the environment. Risk reduction strategies and the challenge of uncertainty are considered, along with approaches to assess and manage the cumulative effects of development. Reflecting notions of EIA / ESIA as an on-going management tool, the module considers the role of post-consent monitoring and evaluation. Issues of EIA / ESIA quality and expert competency within professional practice are examined. 

• Sustainable Development (30 credits)

  The challenge of sustainable development in the current global juncture is to eradicate poverty whilst rebuilding the ecosystems and natural resources that we depend on. This requires a step change in our approach to urban infrastructure – both the building of new infrastructure and the maintenance and upgrading of existing systems. The aim of this module is to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to respond to this challenge in cities, facilitating 12 infrastructure strategies which integrate concerns for social equity, ecological sustainability and local economic growth. The module draws particular attention to the role of infrastructure in the achievement of sustainable urban development and the opportunities for innovation in infrastructure delivery. A key element to this is the teaching of new ways of thinking about infrastructure delivery that draw on emerging global action norms based on systems thinking.

• Urban Regeneration and Historic Conservation (30 credits)

  This module locates conservation practice in the context of strategies for physical, cultural and social regeneration. It introduces students to key conservation and regeneration principles, strategies and impacts, exposes them to case studies from around the world, and develops their ability to think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to regeneration and conservation. A major focus is on the delivery of conservation/regeneration projects and the skills and issues involved, including finance and economics, community paritcipation, and the linking of physical with social regeneration. The module brings these aspects together through coursework that involves drawing up a regeneration proposal for an historic site at the local scale.