Course Library
Browse our library of planning courses
Suitability Analysis and Linear Optimization: Siting a New Transit Line
This course applies suitability analysis techniques and least-cost path analysis—which optimizes routes on linear features—to planning for and siting a new transit line.
Location Optimization
This course introduces the basic principles of location optimization models and provides a hands-on tutorial on point-based location optimization using QGIS and LINGO.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course provides an introduction to urban design sketching by teaching how to draw urban design sketches and master plans using a mix of colored and black ink. These drawing techniques can be used to create plans that are detailed and expressive enough to use both in academic and professional presentations.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
The 2011 documentary film “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” documents the rapid rise and fall of a housing complex in St. Louis. Pruitt-Igoe became a symbol for the failure of public housing policy in the late 20th century.
The Future of Cities After COVID-19
This virtual panel discussion focuses on the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the development, demographic, and environmental trends of the future. Speakers: Allison Arieff, William Fulton, Scott Frazier, and Mariela Alfonzo. Moderator: James Brasuell.
The Human Scale
The Human Scale juxtaposes the urban experiences of cities across the World to raise questions about the costs of modernity and to argue in favor of city planning that reclaims the public realm for social life. This new approach to planning is measured by walking distances, social interactions, and social inclusion, rather than vehicle speeds and parking spaces.
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
What makes good public spaces work, and why are some public spaces underused? Over the course of this film, William Whyte details insights into seven basic factors of successful public spaces: suitable space, interaction with the street, the sun, food, water, trees, and, finally, a term Whyte calls triangulation, or the ability of a public space to bring people together.
Introduction to City Planning 5: The City of Tomorrow
Learn why city planning is crucial to the urban future and why the success of future cities will depend on the extent to which they are sustainable, equitable, and how they use technology to serve citizens. Evaluate the key challenges facing cities in the future and, importantly, potential solutions for those challenges.
Introduction to City Planning 4: Planning in the Postmodern Age (1980-Today)
Survey the key economic, environmental, sociopolitical, and technological shifts responsible for the evolution of city planning from 1980 to contemporary times. Assess historical urban planning movements through a critical lens, as course instructor Jason Luger discusses the relevance of past successes and failures for cities today.
Introduction to Urban Informatics
This course discusses how the field of urban informatics works. You will also learn about the technologies and concepts influencing Urban Informatics, including "Big Data," machine learning, visualization, and data-driven decision making.
Defining Neighborhoods
This course reviews the varying definitions of neighborhoods and examines methods for defining a physical basis and tangible meaning to neighborhoods based on the location of neighborhood centers, boundaries, and spatial extents.
Introduction to City Planning 3: Midcentury Modern (1940-1979)
Discover the impact of World War II and the Cold War in shaping city planning practices and how the tragic destruction and loss of life in World War II somehow created opportunities for planners to test new ideas.
Introduction to City Planning 2: Modern Ideas of City Planning (1900-1939)
Explore the development of the city and city planning from 1900 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Learn how the birth of city planning as a formal practice shaped the cities that defined the century.
Introduction to City Planning 1: Ancient Times to the Modern Age (7,500 BC to 1900)
Understand the history of urban planning through the context of the development of the earliest cities. Learn about key developments, innovations, and debates in early city planning and apply an analytic lens to the birth of the modern city.
Python Data Analysis and Visualization
In this course we will learn how to use Python to conduct basic data analyses and create attractive visualizations.
Urban Design for Planners 2: Getting Started with QGIS and SketchUp
Course instructor Emily Talen guides viewers through the process of transferring a shapefile of building outlines into SketchUp and processes of basic manipulation necessary to create a 3D model. Learn how to load data into QGIS, set the coordinate reference system, and change the graphic display of data layers.
Coding for Planners: Up and Running with Python
Python is one of the world’s most popular programming languages, particularly among beginners, thanks to its clear and straightforward syntax. It is also one of the most widely used languages for data science.
Introduction to the UrbanSim Cloud Platform
At the end of this course, participants will be acquainted with the UrbanSim forecasting methodology, understanding the features available in the UrbanSim Cloud Platform and the basics of an UrbanSim model at the Census block level.
Form-Based Codes 101: Introduction
This course defines form-based codes, explains why they were invented, and distinguishes form-based codes from conventional "use-based" zoning ordinances—all with an emphasis on placemaking and walkability. We will provide an overview of the development of form-based codes, their mandatory and optional component parts, and the importance of making form-based codes context or place-specific.