Learning objective of "Urban Planning" is to introduce Students:
• the various forms of human settlements and their transformations in the course of time;
• the demographic, economic and climatic drivers of these changes, according to the different theories of interpretation;
• the most common types of urban plans, implementation tools and planning methods

At the end of the Course the Student is expected to be able:
1. to use the terminology of urban planning and to understand the information delivered by planning tools;
2. to characterize the main urban dynamics in human settlements (land use, population density, commuting, real estate), and regional inequalities using appropriate sources and methods (GDP ppp, Income/Gini index, human development index, Human poverty index, quality of life/multi indicator);
3. to identify the main drivers of urban transformations (structure and population dynamics, dynamics of firms / employment in secondary and tertiary sectors, dynamics of residential market), the outline the main disaster risk reduction tools and measures;
4. to draft a residential development in accordance with the land use code (land use, size and arrangement of the volumes, place and size of community services, safe urban road system) and within conventional planning tools.

Students are expected to have passed the examinations of the Architecture and Urban Planning Labs of the first year.

The Course is organized into three sections.
The first section transmits knowledge on (i) the various forms of human settlements (cities, metropolitan areas and regions, urban sprawl), (ii ) the territorial changes (environment and landscape) and on (iii) the territorial gaps (GDP pc ppp, Income/Gini index, Human development index, Human poverty index, Quality of life). The Italian context is systematically compared with that of EU27 and USA. Specific attention is paid to "transitions" (first metropolitan areas, first urban regions, origins of urban sprawl) that are retraced through contemporary writings and reports from European Union, Smart Growth America and The Brookings institution.
The second section introduces some of the main drivers of human settlements changes identified in the first section (demographic transition, rise of a tertiary sector economy, climate change, etc.). The main interpretative theories of ageing, in-migration, counter urbanization, urban sprawl, property predominance of housing, rise and mutation of industrial districts, adaptation/mitigation to/of climate change are presented and discussed. Reference reports by the United Nations-DESA, UNISDR-International Panel on Climate Change and the European Union provide the basis for this section.
The third section introduces to the urban governance: local governments, the "growth machine", most common policies, planning tools and codes at local scale.
The organization of teaching through lectures, oral and written synthesis on the mandatory readings (reports, scientific papers, legislation), identification of the reference lexicon, application of the analysis in selected cases in the contexts of origin of Students, assignments aimed at increasing the capacity of the Student's understanding and abilities.
Section A - Phenomena and changes (18 hours)
A1 Urban: City, Commuting, Metropolitan areas and regions (3 lectures, 3 readings)
A2 Rural: Urban sprawl and country side, Environment and landscape, Regional inequalities (3 lectures, 2 readings)

Section B - Drivers of changes (15 hours)
B1 Population: Trends, structure and territorial distribution, Access to housing (2 lectures, 2 readings)
B2 Climate change: Climate change and disasters, Urban climatology, Climate planning (3 lectures, 3 readings, 1 assignment)
B3 Economic activities: Industry and services over time (1 lecture, 1 reading)

Section C – Changes’ governance (42 hours)
C1 Urban planning goals and means: Compact city, Brownfields redevelopment, Transition oriented development (3 lectures, 3 readings)
C2 Urban plans types and implementing tools: Local development/Comprehensive plan, Land use plan and code, Density and land use, Transfer of development rights, Traffic safety through street design (5 lectures, 5 readings, 3 assignments)

The Course is organized into Lectures (21), Analysis and planning assignments (4), Written exam simulations (3).
Lectures have been summarized in the previous section.
Assignments deal with (i) the assessment of a Climate-plan for a medium-size city to be proposed by each Student, (ii) the analysis of a Comprehensive plan (or a Land use plan) of a medium size city to be selected by each Student from a roster of medium size cities supplied by the Instructor, (iii) the building plot development according the building code, (iv) the preliminary subdivision plan according the building code.
Simulations of the final exam (one for each course section), are organized as questionnaires on 2 readings selected from the bibliography of each course section.

Bianchi, R. 2014. Housing situation. In National Report for Italy, Tenancy law and housing policy in multi level Europe Project, EU FP7: 4-18.
Cervero, R. 2009. Public transport and sustainabble urbanism: global lessons. In Transit oriented development. Making it happen, ed. Curtis C., J.L. Renne, L. Bertolini, 23-38. Farnham: Ashgate.
Di Giacinto, V., M. Gomellini, G. Micucci, M. Pagnini. 2012. Mapping local productivity advantages in Italy: industrial districts, cities or both?, Working Papers Banca d’Italia, 850.
Eurostat. 2016. Patterns of urban and city development. In Urban Europe. Statistics on cities, town and suburbs. 2016 edition, 55-82. Luxembourg: Publication office of the European Union.
EEA – European Environment Agency. 2009. Health, environment and social equity: basic quality of life indicators. In Ensuring quality of life in Europe’s cities and towns, EEA Report No 5:13-19.
EC-DGC-European Commission-Directorate General for Communication (2013), Attitudes of Europeans towards urban mobility
Ewing, R. et al. 2014. Measuring sprawl 2014, Smart Growth America.
Howley, P. 2009. Attitudes towards compact city living: towards a greater understanding of residential behaviour. Land Use Policy 26: 792-798.
IPCC-International Panel for Climate Change. 2014. Climate change 2014. Synthesis report. Summary for policy makers
Istrate, E., R. Puentes, A. Tomer 2010. "Commuting" in State of metropolitan America. On the front lines of demographic transformation. The Brookings institution metropolitan policy program.
McConnell, V. and K.W. Wiley. 2010. Infill development: perspectives and evidence from economics and planning. Resources for the Future Discussion Papers 10-13: 37.
Mills, G. et al. 2010. Climate information for improved planning and management of mega cities (needs perspective). Procedia Environmental Sciences 1: 228-246.
Pruetz, R. and N. Standridge. 2009. What makes transfer of development rights work? Success factors from research and practice. JAPA 75 (1): 78-87.
Tiepolo, M. and E. Cristofori. 2016a. Climate characterization and planning in subtropical and tropical cities: In Planning to cope subtropical and tropical climate change, ed. M. Tiepolo, E. Cristofori, E. Ponte, 1-41. De Gruyter Open.
Tiepolo, M. 2016b. Tips on housing and safe urban roads design: 10.
UNDESA-Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2015. World population prospects. The 2015 revision. Key findings and advance tables. New York, United Nations.

Passing Urban Planning require:
A) Passing the final written exam on 6 out of the 15 mandatory readings of the course: 5 open-ended and closed-ended questions on each reading.
B) Delivery the Final report (a collection of 15 Readings summaries, 2 Analysis assignments, 2 Planning assignments).
C) a in class-presentation of an Assignment.

A = 23/30 max, B = 7/30 max., C = 1/30 max.

Students are demanded to pass A with at least 18/30 to add the points obtained for B & C components.