Geography and Planning in the Information Age

The close and mutually beneficial relationship between geography and planning that has developed over the last 50 years faces radical change if it is to continue successfully in the future. The evidence of past geographical research is that town and country planning has contributed to making Britain a more pleasant, more successful and more equitable country to live in. Despite enormous social and economic change, a stability of purpose and method has underlain the flexibility of planning practice. The role of planning in reducing uncertainty in the land market is the key to its past success. An approach to planning procedure based on the potential of information and communication technologies is outlined in the face of the likely incapacity of planning based upon state regulation and bureaucracy for coping with challenges from globalization, sustainability and institutional change. Such information-based planning should facilitate greater self-regulation in an informed environment and so enable a more democratic and successful civil society.