REGIONAL PLANNING

MAIN DEFINITIONS
Planning and sustainability: general concepts and tasks; the study of urbanism. Variety of approaches.
Relationships between Urban Planning and Economics and Planning and Urban design: for instance government's role in urban settings and problems of housing finance.
FEATURES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Interpretative concepts with the help of geographical disciplines. Site characters. Related categories: intersection, contiguity and ridge, valley . ; urban form and structure analysis: Sprawl, urban sprawl, exurbanisation, periurbanization, sprawling city, suburbia, suburbs: urban Fabric. Phenomena of urban development: mode of urban growth, structure of urban settlements; urban density.
ELEMENTS OF NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PLANNING LEGISLATION
Town and Country Planning Code, Spatial planning and regional legislation in Lombardy and Tuscany.
Urban services standards. Concept of threshold.
ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION
Landscape planning. Content landscape protection measures in land use plans. Case studies.
Land Resources Data Base. GIS methodologies. Collecting and processing spatial data by geo-portals
Landscape planning with special reference to the river areas.
REGIONAL PLANNING ISSUES
The following regional planning issues are handled: Co-ordinate zoning laws and codes; Carry on sustainable land-use policies; Prevent development in risky areas (flood plains or along earthquake faults); Select transportation corridors; Designate critical nuisance land uses locations; indicate green belt land or natural or agricultural reserves to avoid settlement amalgamation and protect the environment.