DESCRIPTION. In the last three decades, the field of Urban Planning experienced significant changes, largely due to the increasing and widespread use of information and communication technologies in all stages of the planning process. Such innovations helped to set up a new paradigm of Urban Planning, which is referred, since the early 2000's, as Urban e-Planning, combining in different degrees the conventional elements of paper based urban planning with digital technologies.
The book proposed - 'Urban E-Planning: recent advances and prospects' - aims to provide a comprehensive, critical, and updated perspective of these changes in the field of Urban Planning, in the last two decades, in different regions of the world, and to discuss the prospects of future changes, including those related to the introduction of new technologies such as AI. The book addresses and discusses planning theories on the light of this extensive use of digital tools, planning methods, citizen e-participation in the planning process, the panoply of planning digital tools that have been introduced, including mobile ones, and the changes in the overall urban governance process, with a particular focus on the governance and planning of smart cities. These issues will tentatively be grouped into four main sections: 1.Planning of smart cities; 2. Citizen's e-Participation in planning; 3. Planning response to Disasters, Energy transition, and Climate Emergency; 4. AI in Urban e-Planning. Depending on the exact number of chapters of each section, the book may be divided into two volumes.
More specifically, the first section (1. Planning and governance of smart cities) tentatively addresses, but is not limited, to the following issues: Concepts, models and practices of smart cities planning and governance; Augmented Reality Technologies in Urban e-Planning; Visualization of Virtual 3-D and 4-D Urban Models and Landscape Evaluation; Living Labs and Urban Innovation; Soundscapes in Urban e-Planning; Internet of Things and its influence on human spatial behaviour; Planning through the metaverse; Diversity, inclusion and equity in Urban e-Planning; Urban e-Planning and social equity; Smart City for vulnerable people; Smart City, refugees and displaced communities; E-Planning and urban informality in the Global South; Digital branding in the context of Urban e-Planning; Big Data and Open Data in Urban e-Planning; Transparency, Privacy, Surveillance, and Cyber security; Data Ethics in Urban e-Planning; General Data Protection Regulations on Urban e-Planning.
The second section (2. Citizen's e-Participation in planning) seeks to address, among others, the following issues: Web-based Citizen Participation in Urban e-Planning; Citizens as Voluntary Sensors in Urban e-Planning; Volunteered Geographic Information in Urban e-Planning; Crowdsensing / Crowdsourcing Spatial Information; Citizen Mobile Apps for Urban e-Planning; Co-creation in Urban e-Planning; Participatory Mapping and Public Engagement in Emergency Response; PPGIS in Urban Planning for community empowerment; Virtual/Mixed/Augmented reality in online participation; Citizen Science and Urban e-Planning; Serious Games for Participatory e-Planning; Social Media in Urban e-Planning; E-Participation of Youth and Children; Ethical issues in e-Participation: confidentiality, trust, diversity.
The other two sections (3. Planning response to Disasters, Energy transition, and Climate Emergency; 4. AI in Urban e-Planning) explore, but are not limited to, the following planning issues: Urban e-planning in a warming world; Urban e-planning and decarbonisation; Urban e-Planning and the energy transition; Urban e-Planning and mitigation: the reduction of GHG Emissions; Urban e-Planning and adaptation: the response to the impacts of Climate Change; Climate change, resilience and Smart Cities; Urban e-Planning and the management of natural disasters; Urban e-Planning and the management of manmade disasters; Innovations on Urban e-Planning to tackle the impacts of extreme events; Policy measures, planning scenarios, and actions in the post-pandemic; Building the post-pandemic sustainable, resilient and just city; Health and wellbeing in post-pandemic cities; Lessons and prospects for governance and urban e-planning in the post-pandemic; Benchmarking and comparing post-pandemic city recovery strategies; Impacts of the energy crisis on urban governance systems; Municipal measures to fight energy crisis; Electric mobility and Urban e-Planning; Artificial Intelligence and Urban e-Planning.
IMPACT. These changes in the planning process, its constraints and challenges, and its outcomes, have been researched in the last two decades, with some of its earliest results being published in 2010 in the 'Handbook of Research on E-Planning: ICTs for Urban Development and Monitoring' (https://www.igi-global.com/book/handbook-research-planning/41793), and since 2012 in the International Journal of e-Planning Research (IJEPR) (https://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-planning-research/44994).
This book seeks thus to give continuity to these efforts of compiling and debate the findings researchers around the globe have reached on their research of the changes introduced in the field of urban planning, in recent years, due to the extensive use of ICT in the planning process, its advances, retreats, and prospects for the next years. It is therefore expected the book will have a significant impact on all those working in this field or with an interest in it, helping to frame the way forward in the field Urban e-Planning.
AUDIENCE. The book is of interest for undergraduate and graduate students, for researchers, urban planners and other professionals in the broad field of Urban Studies, Planning, Geography, Development and Computer applications.