Graduate Courses for Urban Studies and Planning (URSP)

Schedule of Classes: Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer
(Only current and next semester available)

URSP 488 Selected Topics in Urban Studies and Planning (1-3 credits)
Prerequisite: permission of department. Repeatable to 6 credits if content differs. Formerly URBS 488.
Topics of special interest to advanced urban studies students.

URSP 600 Research Design and Application (3 credits)
Formerly URSP 602.
Techniques in urban research, policy analysis, and planning. Survey of descriptive and normative models. Objective and subjective measurements. Emphasis on assumptions of research.

URSP 601 Research Methods (3 credits)
Prerequisite: approved statistics course or permission of instructor. Recommended: URSP 600. Formerly URBS 601.
Use of measurement, statistics, quantitative analysis, and micro-computers in urban studies and planning.

URSP 603 Land Use Planning: Concepts and Techniques (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 603, URBS 680 or URBS 603. Formerly URBS 603.
Basic techniques for regulating the use and appearance of land. Legal framework, social implications, planning approaches, communicating land use information.

URSP 604 The Planning Process (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 604, URBS 656 or URBS 604. Formerly URBS 604.
Problem formulation, goal setting, generating and evaluating alternatives, budgeting, implementation. Working with committees and communities, conducting meetings, making decisions, and making presentations.

URSP 605 Planning History and Theory (3 credits)
Exploration of the major events and issues in United States planning history, the prevailing theories of planning, and the planning history-theory relationship. Emphasis on urban planning.

URSP 606 Microeconomics of Planning and Public Policy (3 credits)
Not open to students who have completed URSP 630 or URBS 630. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 606, URBS 606, or URBS 630. Formerly URBS 606.
Resource allocation in a market economy, the nature of market failures, and the justifications for public sector intervention. The limits and possibilities for planning in a market economy.

URSP 607 Human Behavior and the Physical Environments (3 credits)
Recommended: URSP 603. Formerly URBS 607.
Theories and research about ways human-produced environments change and are changed by the behavior of individuals and groups.

URSP 612 Geographic Information Systems for Urban Planning (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 612 or URSP 688M. Formerly URSP 688M.
An introduction to GIS and its application to urban planning. Topics include: thematic mapping, GIS data structure, spatial analysis, Internet GIS, using census data to study urban areas, and examples of urban GIS application. Weekly laboratory and project work use ArcGIS software.

URSP 630 Introduction to Transportation Planning (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 630 or URSP 688T. Formerly URSP 688T.
An introduction to the planning of all transportation modes, concentrating on automobile and public transit. Characteristics of each mode, including capacity, right of way requirements, cost, and relationship with land use. Forecasting travel demand, determining levels of service, traffic operations techniques, parking, demand management, pedestrian and bicycle facility planning and transportation modeling.

URSP 631 Transportation and Land Use (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 631 or URSP 688L. Formerly URSP 688L.
The interrelationship between transportation and land use. What are the impacts of various transportation modes on land use patterns, and how can land use solutions influence travel demand. The integration of transportation into master planning and site impact analysis. Using quantitative methods to understand the land use and transportation linkage.

URSP 632 The Urban Neighborhood (3 credits)
Formerly URBS 632.
Urban neighborhoods as physical, socio-political and geographic entities. Residents' perceptions, urban/suburban differences, neighboring behavior, organization, planning, design concepts.

URSP 640 Growth Management and Environmental Planning (3 credits)
Topics associated with growth management, defined as policies and strategies by which governments attempted to control the amount, location, pace, pattern and quality of development within their jurisdictions.

URSP 660 Function and Structure of Metropolitan Areas (3 credits)
Formerly URBS 660.
Theoretical and historical examination of basic urban functions. Intra-metropolitan location of activities. Role of metropolitan planning in a market economy. Examination of cases of metropolitan planning to assess alternative strategies for future metropolitan development.

URSP 661 City and Regional Economic Development Planning (3 credits)
Prerequisite: URSP 606 or URSP 660. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 661, URBS 440 or URBS 661. Formerly URBS 661.
Spatial patterns of employment and populations, and models of urban and regional growth and decline. Focus on application of economic theory and urban planning techniques to issues of local economic development and planning.

URSP 662 Urban and Regional Planning in Developing Countries (3 credits)
Theoretical exploration of urban and regional change drawing upon international planning and social science literature, and case-study analysis of multiple challenges and opportunities facing planners and policy-makers in the urban-centered areas of less-developed countries.

URSP 664 Real Estate Development for Planners (3 credits)
Prerequisite: URSP 606. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 664 or URSP 688F. Formerly URSP 688F.
Planning, Architectural and Public Policy students are introduced to the real estate development process primarily from the point of view of the private entrepreneurial developer. It will include the steps in undertaking a real estate development from the initial concept to the property management and final disposition, the basic financial and tax concepts underlying real estate development, a review of national housing policy,including public-private partnerships, and solving specific real estate development problems using financial spread-sheets.

URSP 671 Politics and Planning (3 credits)
Formerly URSP 691.
Examination of the practice of planning as a technical and a practice role. Attitudes of planners toward plan implementation. Development of effective roles for professional planners.

URSP 673 Social Planning (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 673, URBS 683, or URBS 673. Formerly URBS 673.
Planning programs and policies in health, education, and social welfare. Strategies for organizational and community change and development.

URSP 681 Urban Planning Law (3 credits)
Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 681, URBS 450, or URBS 681. Formerly URBS 681.
Survey of the urban legal environment. Issues of planning, zoning, eminent domain, land use controls, housing codes, historic preservation and related tax provisions.

URSP 688 Recent Developments in Urban Studies (2-6 credits)
Formerly URBS 688.
Examination of selected current aspects of urban affairs and planning, including, for example, <"new towns"> in the United States or neighborhood preservation in Russia. Location of course may be off-campus.

URSP 691 Politics and Planning (3 credits)
Examination of the practice of planning as a technical and a political role. Attitudes of planners toward plan implementation. Development of effective roles for professional planners.

URSP 705 Summer Community Planning Studio I (4 credits)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Intensive community planning group field work, typically five days a week for four weeks. Often outside the USA. Application of class work to actual planning and policy challenges. Students seeking to meet the URSP studio requirement must also take URSP 706.

URSP 706 Summer Community Planning Studio II (2 credits)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Intensive analysis and report-preparation of work completed in URSP 705. Held in College Park. Students seeking to meet the URSP studio requirement must also take URSP 705.

URSP 708 Community Planning Studio (2-6 credits)
Prerequisites: URSP 600, URSP 601, URSP 604, URSP 605 and permission of department. Repeatable to 06 credits. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 704 or URSP 708. Formerly URSP 704.
The Community Planning Studio is a "capstone" course intended to provide students with an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to analyze current, pressing planning issues, in a selected community and to produce a report containing recommendations for addressing those issues. In essence, students act as a consulting team for a community client.

URSP 709 Field Instruction (3-6 credits)
Prerequisites: URSP 600, URSP 604, URSP605 or permission of department. Repeatable to 6 credits. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: URSP 703 or URSP 709. Formerly URSP 703.
Students will satisfy a 300-hour internship (20 hours for 15 weeks during the spring, 25 hours a week for 12 weeks during the summer). Suitable internships are approved by the Internship Coordinator or Instructor; they involve a significant amount of planning work (preferably in the student's are of interest) and provide an appropriate on-site supervisor. The Internship Coordinator will assist students in finding a suitable internship, but the ultimate responsibility rests with each student. Whether the internship is paid or not is a matter to be worked out between the student and the organization.

URSP 710 Research Seminar: Urban Theory and Issues (3 credits)
Prerequisite: 15 graduate credit hours in URSP. For URSP majors only. Formerly URBS 710.
An advanced research seminar for M.A. and M.C.P. students preparing their final research projects.

URSP 788 Independent Study in Urban Studies and Planning (1-3 credits)
Repeatable to 6 credits if content differs. Formerly URBS 788.
Directed research and study of selected aspects of urban affairs.

URSP 798 Readings in Urban Studies and Planning (1-3 credits)
Repeatable to 6 credits if content differs. Formerly URBS 798.
Directed readings in selected aspects of urban affairs and planning.

URSP 799 Master's Thesis Research (1-6 credits)
Formerly URBS 799.

URSP 804 Advanced Planning Theory (3 credits)
Relations between theory and practice in planning. Ways of developing and using knowledge in collective action. Challenges to organizing for planning, finding knowledge useful for planning and balancing social attachments with free inquiry.

URSP 805 Seminar in Research Design (3 credits)
Prerequisite: URSP 804 and URSP 810.
Addresses fundamental aspects of research desing for Ph.D students in urban planning and policy-related fields. Topics include principles of research design, formulating a feasible hypothesis and identifying appropriate methodology for testing hypotheses eg. qualitative methods, quantitative methods, survey research. Writing of proposals and dissertation. Publication, presentation, and funding.

URSP 810 Contemporary Metropolitan Issues (3 credits)
For Ph.D majors only.
Introduces Ph.D. students to current metropolitan issues. Focus is on the historical development of the issue, problem definition, methodological approaches to its study, methodological dilemmas, and the ways that different conclusions are translated into policy. Topics vary from semester to semester but include such topics as the spatial mismatch hpothesis, the impact of urban design and form on travel behavior, the impact of technology on urban form, the justification for historic preservation, and sustainable development.

URSP 898 Pre-Candidacy Research (1-8 credits)
Repeatable to 06 credits if content differs.
Selected topics in Urban Studies and Planning. Topics will vary with the instructor.

URSP 899 Doctoral Dissertation Research (1-8 credits)
This course is a required course for the Ph.D program in Urban and Regional Planning and Design.