_PlanTech / Digital Tools for Planners

A recent PIA PlanTech briefing provided insights into the Cardiff University approaches to improve the PlanTech / digital literacy of planning students in tertiary undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.  

PlanTech refers to the use of digital tools for planners such as Planning 3.0, chatbox / Chatgpt and BigData.  The introductory synopsis for the briefing noted that planning practice, especially in the government and corporate spheres, is applying PlanTech / digital tools to improve key planning processes.  It is argued that planning students in tertiary undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are being left behind.  

In planning practice and education circles, the application of PlanTech is promoted to provide workflow efficiencies, quick summaries, assistance with report writing, provision of initial interface / interactions with the community / individuals, assistance with coordinating / collecting and analysing community feedback, options development and assessment, and spatial data analysis.  The opportunities are evolving.  There is much hype and uncertainty.  A curious and interrogative perspective is noted as being essential.  

PIA has taken a leading role in providing information through the PlanTech briefings and guidelines.  A great overview of the evolution of the digital tools for planners is provided in PIA PlanTech Best Practice Guidelines.

PIA has proposed a framework of principles to guide the application of PlanTech as follows.

1         Planners must be prepared for wide reaching change to their day-to-day work. 

2         Planners must be central to the design of digital planning infrastructure. 

3         Digital planning infrastructure should be public infrastructure built with open technology. 

4         Ambitious programs can be implemented to improve social and environmental outcomes. 

5         Outcomes for communities and places must be considered alongside efficiency of approval processes in the development of digital planning systems. 

6         Ethics, accountability and transparency must be built into digital decision systems. 

7         Digital planning applications should be developed in a human-centric way. 

8         Communication of planning content and processes to non-planners should be reimagined. 

9         Collaboration should be prioritised in the development of underlying digital planning infrastructure. 

10      A culture of innovation and sharing should be promoted. 

It remains to be seen whether and how these will be adopted in practice and in full and how such adoption will be reflected in day-to-day changes and over what period of time, whilst acknowledging that PlanTech / Digital Tools are already being utilised in part.