Urban Planning & Operations Research: A Review and Critique

Abstract

While inquiry in Operations Research (OR) modeling of urban planning processes is long-standing, on the whole, the OR discipline has not influenced urban planning practice, teaching and scholarship at a level of other domains such as public policy and information technology. Could an OR approach which focuses on the complex, emergent nature of cities and the institutional environment in which these urban planning models are implemented enable urban planning to better meet challenges that are complex, multi-stakeholder, data-intensive and ill structured in nature? Based on a review of research and practice in OR and urban planning, we argue that a prospective and prescriptive approach to planning that embraces soft OR can help researchers and practitioners develop effective interventions that are equitable and which reflect community concerns. We show that trends and developments within urban planning highlight the benefits of embracing an OR modeling approach both in the framing of the model and in its implementation, while emphasizing two cautionary themes. First, a mechanistic application of decision modeling principles rooted in stylized representations of institutions and systems using mathematics and computational methods may not adequately capture the central role that human actors play in developing neighborhoods and communities. Second, as innovations such as the mass adoption of automobiles decades ago led to auto-centric city design show, technological innovations can have unanticipated negative social impacts. Therefore, we emphasize the important role of critical approaches, community engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion in planning approaches that incorporate decision modeling.