Building Competences for Spatial Planners

Spatial planning is a process. The focus of this book is on the sequence of key tasks that constitute the process and on special techniques that are suitable to conduct these tasks. Spatial planners require a number of skills to manage this process in an efficient manner, select the necessary tasks for each specific planning context, as well as the appropriate techniques for each task – always considering the people with whom and for whom they plan.Rather than recommending options, or ‘recipes’, this book stimulates critical thinking and questioning: What do we want to achieve? How can we do that? What options do we have? Which option is the best for our case? This book contains enough planning theory to discuss the function of the planner and the alternative approaches, as well as to provide the background for defining a core set of planning tasks.Building Competences for Spatial Planners is ideal for both planning students and newly qualified planners who are rapidly accumulating knowledge and experience. Perdicoulis uses practice examples, diagrams and thought provoking chapter questions to help planners develop high-level skills such as efficient organization, communication and thinking. His engaging style carries the reader through areas such as team functions, how to define the planning problem, organizing timings and how to use charts and diagrams to help planners and their clients. More details at http: www.tasso.utad.pt

Anastassios Perdicoulis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, in Portugal, a Research Fellow at the CITTA research centre of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal. He is also a visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, Oxford Brookes University, UK.