| Field of Study: | City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning
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| Description: | The focus of this major is to promote an understanding of the complexity and diversity of environmental problems, to develop an appreciation of community change processes, and to provide planners with knowledge which will improve the quality of the built environment and reduce the impact of human activities on the natural world. The unique planning requirements of smaller communities and rural regions demand a grounding in both physical and social science methods and an understanding of the relationship between northern communities and surrounding rural resource regions. Environmental planning necessitates strategic thought and action combined with knowledge grounded in professional practice. The northern rural and community planning major combines concepts such as bioregionalism, sustainability, and landscape design within the context of physical land use planning, social planning and community economic development.
Northern and Rural Community Planning is the application of environmental planning principles and practices to the often unique social, economic, and ecological issues confronting northern and circumpolar communities in Canada and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. Successfully addressing these issues requires an appreciation of how and why communities change, an understanding of relationships between northern communities and surrounding rural resource regions, an understanding of the place and function of northern communities and rural regions in the globabl environment, and a grounding in both physical and social science methods of research and analysis. This stream combines concepts such as bioregionalism, sustainability, and landscape design within the context of physical land use planning, social planning, and community economic development. Students will study sustainability within the context of land use planning, social planning, and local economic development. The aim is to provide future planners with knowledge that will improve the quality of the built environment while reducing the impact of human activities on the natural world. |