Report "Improving GIScience in UK Spatial Planning Education"

Richard LeGates (San Francisco State University) and Richard Kingston (The University of Manchester) have just finished a report which looks at “Improving GIScience in UK Spatial Planning Education”.

This SPLINT white paper describes activities of three organizations involved in efforts to strengthen the education of UK urban planners related to spatial thinking and spatial planning: The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), The Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) Consortium, and the Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE).
The report focuses on the relationship between spatial planning and GIScience and is available to download from [SpatialLiteracy.org]

Some points from the document:

GIScience in planning education

• GIScience is a mature field of study worldwide
• Most urban planning programs in the UK introduce students t GIScience
• The amount and nature of GIScience material taught in UK planning schools varies widely
• This white paper argues
  - That all UK urban planning students should be attain core spatial literacy
  - That ten-weeks of instruction in GIScience is a realistic target and adequate to provide foundation spatial literacy
  - That GIScience instruction for planners should
  -> Be carefully designed with explicit statements of expected learning outcomes, course objectives, required resources, deliver methods, timing, assessment procedures, and evaluation
  -> Stress the science and concepts underlying spatial thinking that will build a foundation for lifelong learning
  -> Emphasizes competencies appropriate t different levels of instruction and urban planning paths
  

Recommendations

• Strengthen collaboration between the RTPI, SPLINT, and CEBE
• Follow a low-budget, bottom up, strategy relying upon the constituencies of each of the three groups to the maximum feasible extent
• Inform GEES, planning practitioners, and spatial planning experts of the collaboration and involve them where appropriate
• Augment the UK GIScience Planning Educators’ GIScience SIG
• Make relations with the RTPI a UK Planning Educators’ GIScience SIG concern
• Continue SPLINT research efforts related to GISscience in urban planning
  o Investigate the current skills gap in planning practitioners GIScience knowledge
  o Identify best practices in current UK GIScience education in urban planning
  o Survey planning practitioners to understand their perception of how GIScience and related spatial information technologies are used and how SPLINT, CEBE, and the RTPI can assist practioners to use them more effectively
• Disseminate material on GIScience education via RTPI’s PERN network
• Encourage the RTPI to set-up a GIScience & ICT network
• Include presentations on GIScience in urban planning education at CHOPS meetings
• Design and implement GIScience short courses and training sessions for planners
• Initiate a process to revise the RTPI Policy on Initial Planning Education related to spatial planning to explicitly recognize the importance of GIScience and spatial information technology
  

Credits: SpatialLiteracy.org