Educational objectives
The programme follows three tracks, providing core modules on key disciplines as well as practical hands-on experience: 1. territorial government and town and land-use planning, 2. landscape and environment, 3. Geographic Information Systems (GIS. The programme is organised in two teaching modules: a. Teaching units (UD), which cover foundation subjects of a mono or multidisciplinary nature; b. Teaching units consisting of multidisciplina... More...
The programme follows three tracks, providing core modules on key disciplines as well as practical hands-on experience:
1. territorial government and town and land-use planning,
2. landscape and environment,
3. Geographic Information Systems (GIS.
The programme is organised in two teaching modules:
a. Teaching units (UD), which cover foundation subjects of a mono or multidisciplinary nature;
b. Teaching units consisting of multidisciplinary Studios (UDA). These focus on activities relating to actual local situations, allowing students to apply knowledge acquired in the UDs. The UDAs are coordinated by a central disciplinary area, but contain other subject input as well. They last one semester and conclude with a single examination.
The relationship between core knowledge provided in the UDs and its application in the UDAs characterises the approach of the degree course.
The programme is organised in semesters. The objective of the first two semesters is twofold: i) to teach the student that territory, city, landscape and environment are complex phenomena, the product of different forces, to be investigated from various disciplinary viewpoints, and ii) to provide the first analytical tools. The necessary background in the evolution and history of urban thinking, in planning tools and the institutional system for territorial government, is accompanied by the fundamentals of mathematical and statistical tools, representation and cartography. The first year studies conclude with a practical experience in the UDA, which allows students to apply the gained knowledge about urban planning, history and geography to the analysis and interpretation of settlement, landscape and environment characteristics.
The third and fourth semester activities provide students with skills in urban design (proportionate to the employment opportunities provided by the BSc degree), an understanding of the field of territorial planning and its practices, and the other needed skills. These include knowlesge about sociology and urban and economic geography, as well as the techniques and methods of spatial analysis using GIS. Urban design skills and knowledge relating to territorial planning practices are developed through two interdisciplinary UDAs, the first dedicated to urban design, with input from the field of urban morphology analysis, the second dedicated to regional planning, with elements of landscape design and hydrogeology. These experiences are supported by an UD providing basic knowledge in energy efficiency of human settlements and their environmental impact, and a UD providing basic knowledge and skills about environmental assessment techniques.
The fifth and sixth semester activities help students to understand the complexity of implementation processes and to acquire the necessary skills in this field, to experience real working conditions through an internship, and to develop a capacity for independent work in the final exam. The experience gained in the interdisciplinary UDA about local development and urban regeneration programmes is supplemented by UDs providing skills for evaluation of economic feasibility and strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes, and basic knowledge about mobility and transport planning. Finally, in the last semester a specific UD is devoted to develop and systematise knowledge about issues and tendencies of urban and regional planning in the last fifty years
Career opportunities
The degree course is intended to train “territorial technicians” with skills that enable them to perform the following functions: assist in the formulation of territorial, urban, environmental, landscape or sector plans at various scales, in the definition, implementation and management of integrated programs and projects for regionaland urban transformation and regeneration,in the development of analysis, evaluations and monitoring of plans, d... More...
The issues that urban, territorial and landscape planning must address have expanded over recent times, partly as a consequence of the growing pervasiveness of environmental problems. On the one hand, this has increased the demand for specialists and hence the presence in planning and programming teams of technicians with different kinds of disciplinary training (planners, environmental engineers, geologists, historians, architects, economists, sociologists); on the other hand it has become necessary to address these activities with a broad interdisciplinary approach that integrates the various inputs. The territorial technician will therefore work with different specialists, and hence needs a multidisciplinary background that enables him/her to understand the languages of the various specialists and work with them in an integrated way.
Graduates will seek employment with local authorities (municipalities, provinces, regions), municipal companies, professional firms operating in the field of territorial, urban, landscape and environmental planning. However the course does not qualify the graduate for positions entailing supervision, management or coordination of such activities: these functions are reserved for graduates in the Master Course.
Graduates can also pursue free-lance activities and enroll, after passing a state exam, in section B of the professional order of Architetti, pianificatori, paesaggisti e conservatori with the title of “junior planner”.
| The Study program qualifies the following professional profile/s: | Roles and skills: |
| Collaborator in the production of urban, territorial, environmental and landscape plans at various scales; | - Functions:
this technician carries out parts of the plan production, with particular attention to the analysis activities, without liability on the overall plan production - Skills: this "collaborator" knows how to use properly the knowledge of the institutional and legislative frameworks and tools for the city and territory government, he/she is able to recognize problems and develop socio-economic, territorial and statistic analysis aimed at preparing plans |
| c) collaborator in the field of design, implementation and management integrated spatial and environment regeneration programmes; | - Functions: the junior planner carries out parts of the programmes planning process, participates in the implementation and monitoring process of these programmes,
- Skills: the ability to apply economic feasibility evaluation and strategic environmental assessment techniques, a knowledge of the public administration management procedures the ability to use different ways and techniques of communication with non expert people, the ability to work within interdisciplinary teams |
| b) collaborator in the field of territorial and environmental analysis, evaluation and monitoring activities ; | - Functions: the junior planner develops territorial and environmental analysis and assessments (EIA e SEA)
- Skills: in addition to a sound knowledge of the institutional and legislative frameworks, the ability to carry out analysis and to apply environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment techniques |
| Designer and maneger of GIS for urban an territorial analysis and management | - Function in a work context:
this professional is in charge of defining procedures, analysis, geographic data processing and related maps production, and he/she responsible for the definition and management of geographic information systems - Skills related to the function: his/her professional activity is based on theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of geographic information systems and mapping, on a thorough knowledge of GIS software with which you can develop analysis in the field of planning. Besides he/she knows the internal management procedures of public administration directly involved in the definition and use of geographic information systems and is able to follow them |
| Designer and manager of geographical information systems. | - Functions:
as "responsible for technical and administrative procedures” for the implementation of plans and programmes related to territory and city he/she assesses if the eligibility conditions are fulfilled, accomplishes investigation measures and related technical assessments, provides for communications among stakeholders; - Skills: a sound knowledge of the institutional and legislative frameworks and of government instruments governing the city and the territory and a knowledge of administrative procedures to be followed in order to produce, approve and monitor regional, urban and landscape plans and projects. |
| Qualifications for further studies | Knowledge required to continue studies |
Expected learning outcomes
Graduates are technicians with a solid basic training and with an a strong attitude to be operative. On the one hand, graduates must have a background in disciplines essential for working in the planning fields, which is i) more instrumental knowledge (mathematics, statistics, cartography, representation, use of software aimed at planning), ii) knowledge of a wider spectrum of disciplines related to the analysis of historical, economic, social... More...
Graduates are technicians with a solid basic training and with an a strong attitude to be operative.
On the one hand, graduates must have a background in disciplines essential for working in the planning fields, which is i) more instrumental knowledge (mathematics, statistics, cartography, representation, use of software aimed at planning), ii) knowledge of a wider spectrum of disciplines related to the analysis of historical, economic, social and territorial contests, to the government of the territory, to the urban and territorial planning and its instruments, to the environment, the landscape, to the evaluation processes and techniques. On the other side, graduates must be able to apply this knowledge in analysis, design, evaluation, communication activities they will collaborate with in professional practice and which requires the ability to work with different specialists. For this reason the degree course curruculum includes many interdisciplinary application activities.
In addition, graduates must be familiar with the English language whose knowledge is necessary in the European contexts in which they will operate.
