An Applied Planning Support Framework Including Models, Quantitative Methods, and Software in Beijing, China

Abstract

Planning support systems (PSSs) have attracted extensive attention from scholars and decision makers for decades. Most of the existing research on PSSs is related to system design, implementation, application as well as evaluation of a standalone system in one area, e.g. What if?, Community Viz and INDEX. There is no existing research on an entire framework of PSSs for various types of plans. In this chapter, we propose a PSS framework for various types of plans in Beijing, China, e.g. master plan, detailed plan, municipal infrastructure plan and transport plan. Based on an extensive literature review and multiple rounds of planner and decision maker surveys, the framework focuses on two aspects. On one hand, we itemize various types of planning (termed as “plan elements”) into various steps for each type of plan, e.g. population forecasting and establishing urban growth boundaries in a master plan. On the other hand, we list related PSSs for each plan element. In our research, PSSs have been discussed from three viewpoints, which are different models of PSS to be developed or already developed, existing PSS software (e.g. What if? and INDEX) as well as quantitative methods that can be used in PSS(e.g. scenario analysis, systems analysis, and logistic regression). The two dimensional framework provides a full picture of PSS applications in various types of plans. The framework has been applied in the Beijing Institute of City Planning (BICP) for several months, and has attracted hundreds of application requests from planners.