The chapter describes the planning support systems. It presents the resurgence of development planning and its evolution from focus on poverty reduction to a renewed emphasis on structural economic transformation. What conclusions can be drawn from experiences of countries that have succeeded in transforming their economies? Constraints of the planning are examined with examples of usage of geographic information systems, geospatial data infrastructure, and geospatial decision support system, as support for planning support systems and collaborative spatial decision making. Usages for the design on territorial, urban planning, and selected national public policies are presented.
TopBackground
Planning is a future oriented activity and is a means for preparing for actions. It occurs through a process in which:
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Information is collected and analysed;
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Logical alternatives courses of actions are developed consistent with the goals of a constituency; and
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A course of action is recommended.
Information collection, management and analysis about past trends and present issues is pre-requisite of good urban planning & management. The more information available about people’s actual needs and preferences, the better planners are able to satisfy them. Mostly planners require data from secondary sources from national to local level. But in many cases and specially in developing countries, this secondary information is not easily available in appropriate form reducing its utility.
Information requirements of urban planners and decision makers at local level and how they are able to accomplish their demands with modern Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in the form of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).
Development planning requires an effective approach to achieve the desired goals and objectives, evaluate alternative as well as control development programs that are in line with current and future prospects. In the quest toward urban sustainability planning, a support tool in the form of an information system is required for enhancing analyses and deriving rational decisions. Planning support system (PSS) and decision support system (DSS) are among the tools for achieving quality planning for optimum development. They support the tasks of plan formulation, monitoring and review which inevitably involve the assembly and integration of geographic information and are known to be widely used in considering alternative spatial development strategies as well as assessing development potentials involved in land use planning.
Information systems can serve as the eyes and ears to the development planning and monitoring processes. It provides for the monitoring and surveillance of compliance with planning regulations and also serves as an early warning system with regard to sources of friction, imbalances, shortfalls and failures in the process of planning and management. The advancement of ICT in the field of planning provides great opportunities for planning authorities to migrate from the conventional working procedures to a computerised system environment to support strategic planning and rational decision making.
Planning support system (PSS) and decision support system (DSS) are among tools for achieving quality planning for optimum development. Planning Decision Support Systems (PDSS) support the tasks of plan formulation, monitoring and review which inevitably involve the assembly and integration of geographic information and are known to be widely used in considering alternative spatial development strategies as well as assessing development potentials involved in land use planning.