Research Methods in Urban and Regional Planning

Urban and regional planners develop and evaluate plans for communities—the places we live, work, interact, and entertain on a daily basis. Their responsibilities require skills of retrieving, analyzing and presenting data. One of the required courses in all planning programs is planning methods. While teaching such a course we feel the need for a text book that provides an up-to-date introduction to the fundamental methods related to planning and human services delivery. In specific, this book describes methods used in four areas: demographic analysis, economic analysis, land use analysis, and transportation analysis. Many people have been helpful and supportive throughout this endeavor. Up front are our families who understood and supported us during the period. Andrea Yang, Rainer’s wife and also a planner, edited various chapters. David Edelman and Wolfgang Preiser provided suggestions for the content of this book and excellent insights and guidance whenever we asked for. We are grateful for the release time that David Edelman, the School Director, gave us on behalf of the entire School of Planning faculty. We would like to thank Dr. Stefan Rayer, Dr. Chen-Ping Yang and Dr. Zhongren Peng, who took time from their busy schedule to review various chapters. Dr. Rayman Mohamed used some preliminary chapters in his planning methods class and gave us valuable feedback. Their comments and suggestions significantly improved the book.