IT infrastructure for supporting multidisciplinary urban planning

Abstract

In recent years, sustainability of urban environments has been transformed from a rather vague and fuzzy notion of encompassing elements of social, economic and environmental friendliness into a more concrete and measurable theory for development and design evaluation. Various assessment frameworks for urban sustainability have been designed under the auspices of both European and UK legislation, such as the environmental impact assessment, the strategic environment assessment and the sustainability appraisal. Furthermore, a number of tool kits have been developed and enforced to aid in the completion of sustainability assessments, particularly within the UK context. For example, under Section 39 (2) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, sustainability appraisal is mandatory for Regional Spatial Strategy revisions and for new or revised development plan documents and supplementary planning documents. As a result, the contemporary urban sustainability assessments have been shifting from environment-focused assessments (environmental impact assessments) to more systematic and comprehensive assessments with an integrated view of environment, society and economics, such as sustainability appraisal. Keywords :Designing , Sustainable Cities, GIS, databases, virtual reality