Courses
Schedules
Spring 2025 Fall 2024Catalog
052 First-Year Seminar: Race, Sex and Place in America (WGST 51)
This first year seminar will expose students to the complex dynamics of race, ethnicity, and gender and how these have shaped the American city since 1945.
059 FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR: World’s Fairs
This first-year seminar focuses on the constructed images of the modern American city based on six U.S. World’s Fairs between 1893 and 1965.
101 Cities and Urban Life
This course will introduce students to the topic of cities and urban life. This course also serves as an introduction to the minor in City and Regional Planning.
246 Cities of the Past, Present, and Future: Introduction to Planning
Introduction to the evolution of cities in history, to the concept of urban morphology or form, and to the different elements or subsystems of the urban system and how they have changed over time.
247 Solving Urban Problems
Introduction to methods used for solving urban problems. Covers methods employed in subfields of planning to develop an ability to critically evaluate different techniques and approaches used within these disciplines.
317 Introduction to Site Planning and Urban Design
This course examines site planning as a process of creating the built environment. Designers and planners consider many things in the process of site planning, including site hydrology, topography, building form, access, and regulations. Students will review theories of urban design, conduct a site analysis, and propose a site plan.
326 Social Ventures (ECON 326, PLCY 326)
Examines students’ knowledge and understanding of social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to addressing complex social needs. Affords students the opportunity to engage in a business planning exercise designed to assist them in establishing and launching a social purpose entrepreneurial venture.
330 Principles of Sustainability (ENEC 330)
This course introduces students to theories, principles, and measurement of sustainability. It also provides an overview of sustainability in national and international contexts.
363 Personal Finance, Wealth Building, and Public Policy
Students will develop a solid understanding of basic financial principles, gain enough familiarity with markets, banking, and investment activities to make sense of the market and explore policies and initiatives to help lower income individual and families build wealth.
375 Real Estate Development
Rigorous examination of real estate development from the entrepreneurial and public perspectives. Emphasis on risk management and the inherent uncertainties of development. The four dimensions of real estate are addressed: economic/market, legal/institutional, physical, and financial.
390 Undergraduate Special Topics
These courses will introduce undergraduate students to the topic of cities and urban life.
420 Community Design and Green Architecture (ENEC 420)
The impact of building on the environment and health will be examined by looking at the major areas of: land use planning, water resource use, energy, materials and indoor environment.
428 Global Cities: Space, Power, and Identity in the Built Environment (GEOG 428)
This course addresses questions of power, politics, and identity in the urban environment, with a focus on the emergence of key selected global cities and the processes that both created them historically and which are currently transforming them locally and globally.
491 Introduction to GIS (GEOG 491)
Stresses the spatial analysis and modeling capabilities of organizing data within a geographic information system. (GISci)
539 Planning for Freight Flows
In this course we will identify the composition of freight flows, the role of freight transportation within supply chains, the impact of new technologies, the role of e-Commerce, and the rate of change of supply chain configurations.
547 Energy, Transportation and Land Use (ENEC 547)
This course explores the reciprocal connections between energy (production/conversion, distribution, and use), land use, environment, and transportation. Evaluation of federal, state, and local policies on energy conservation and alternative energy sources are emphasized.
548 Sustainable Energy Systems
This course will provide an introduction to urgent topics related to energy, sustainability, and the environment.
554 Planning in Practice Speaker Series
This course is designed to expose students to contemporary issues in planning practice and the variety of ways a career in urban planning can develop. Students will hear from practicing planners throughout this course.
573 “We’re Everywhere!”: The Social, Political and Economic Life of LGBTQ+ Communities
Cities of the United States have come to feature spaces identified by members of LGBTQ communities and their heterosexual, cis-gendered counterparts as gay, lesbian, or queer.
574 Political Economy of Poverty and Inequality
Introduces students to the political economy of poverty alleviation programs. Uses comparative cases to explore what types of projects, tasks, and environments lead to effective and equitable outcomes, and why.
575 Real Estate Development
Real estate development examined from both the entrepreneurial and public perspectives, with an emphasis on risk management and the inherent uncertainties of development.
576 Urbanism in the Global South
This upper-level course focuses on concepts and themes on the development of urbanism in the range of geographies of the “Global South.”
590 Special Topics Seminar
Original research, fieldwork, readings, or discussion of selected planning issues under guidance of a member of the faculty.
591 Applied Issues in Geographic Information Systems
Applied issues in the use of geographic information systems in terrain analysis, medical geography, biophysical analysis, and population geography.
634 International Transportation Planning
This course sets out to expose you to how the transportation planning practice differs across the world by looking at best practices such as bus rapid transit, people-oriented street design, congestion pricing—to name a few.
635 Energy Modeling for Environment and Public Health
This course will equip students with an overview of contemporary issues in energy modeling and energy systems analysis, with a focus on environmental and public health impacts of energy systems.
636 Urban Transportation Planning
Fundamental characteristics of the urban transportation system as a component of urban structure. Methodologies for the analysis of transportation problems, planning urban transportation, and the evaluation of plans.
637 Public Transportation
Alternative public urban transportation systems including mass transit, innovative transit services, and paratransit, examined from economic, land use, social, technical, and policy perspectives.
639 Complete, Safe, Equitable Streets
Streets are an essential, if often invisible, part of communities. Streets can be vibrant parts of the urban realm, sites for children playing and neighborhood gatherings, loci of physical activity opportunities, or places of fear that fail to safely accommodate all users.
641 Watershed Planning (ENEC 641)
This course explores the functions of ecosystems, land development activities that impact such functions, and the land use management tools to create strategies for mitigating and restoring environmental damage.
647 Coastal Management Policy
The focus of this class is on understanding the challenges that coastal communities face, how coasts are currently managed, and different strategies for responding in a rapidly changing world.
651 Urban Form and Design of Cities
This course examines urban form as a product of environmental, political, cultural, regulatory, technological, and social processes. Students will learn how traditional and modern urban forms evolved, gain knowledge of historical and contemporary theories of urban design, and apply this knowledge in a design exercise.
655 Planning for Natural Hazards and Climate Risk
Introduction to natural hazards risk management planning, including climate change-induced hazards. Areas of study include planning and its application to hazard mitigation and disaster recovery. Emphasis is placed on the connectivity between planning for natural hazards and disasters, climate change adaptation, sustainability, and disaster resilience.
656 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation
The focus of this course is understanding how social and environmental systems interact to create risk and damage. This course prepares students to design and implement adaptation strategies for organizations of all types, from businesses to government agencies. Students will learn to integrate information about climate hazards, natural systems, built infrastructure, and socioeconomic systems. Previously offered as PLAN 756. Restricted to juniors, seniors, and graduate students only.
662 Gender Issues in Planning and Development (WGST 662)
Permission of the instructor required for undergraduates. Examination of the environmental and health risks, policy institutions, processes, instruments, policy analysis, and major elements of American environmental policy. Lectures and case studies.
663 Diversity and Inequality in Cities
Introduces students in planning to issues related to diversity and inequality. Different aspects of diversity (e.g., gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality/citizenship) will be explored. Examines the relationship between diversity and the unequal distribution of resources and life trajectories. Permission of instructor needed for undergraduates.
671 Development Planning Techniques
Intermediate and advanced techniques for analyzing the development of local and regional economies. Social accounts, indicator construction, regional input-output models, economic and fiscal impact analysis, labor market analysis, and regional economic forecasting techniques.
672 Urban Data Analytics
This course is about different techniques used in assembling, managing, analyzing and predicting using heterogeneous data sets in urban environments
673 The Ethics and Politics of New Urban Analytics
In this seminar, we will examine urban analytics platforms and interrogate them from variety of lenses, including privacy, equity and probity.
677 Perspectives on Economic Development
This course critically examines how theories and frameworks of economic development translate into local economic development processes and practices on the ground.
685 Water and Sanitation Planning and Policy in Less Developed Countries (ENVR 685)
Seminar on policy and planning approaches for providing improved community water and sanitation services in developed countries. Topics include the choice of appropriate technology and level of service, pricing, metering, and connection charges; cost recovery and targeting subsidies to the poor; water venting; community participation in the management and operation of water systems; and rent-seeking behavior in the provision of water supplies. Permission of the instructor.
686 Policy Instruments for Environmental Management (PLCY 686, ENEC 686, ENVR 686)
Design of public policy instruments as incentives for sustainable management of environmental resources and ecosystems, and comparison of the effects and effectiveness of alternative policies.
701 Research Methods
Course combines material learned in other courses (theory/philosophy, methods, and their substantive area of interest). Familiarizes students with the skills necessary to conduct research and critically review and understand evaluation reports.
704 Planning Theory
The logic of planning as a professional activity. Critical overview of current process theories leading students to develop a personal philosophy applicable to their work as planners.
710 Microeconomics for Planning Policy
Introduction to principles of demand and supply, elasticity, marginal utility opportunity cost, pricing, production decisions, and profit maximization, cost-benefit analysis, financial appraisal, role of government, and market instruments for environmental protection.
714 Urban Spatial Structure
Theories and empirical evidence of the contemporary spatial development of metropolitan areas. Industrial, residential, and commercial location; neighborhood change; the role of technological change and public policies; and normative perspectives.
715 GIS for Planners
This class covers a range of basic concepts of GIS and spatial analysis, covering three major processes in GIS application – data collection, data visualization, and data analysis.
720 Planning Methods
Accessing information from conventional and electronic sources, spatial data acquisition, analysis and mapping. Inferential statistics through multiple regression. Course requires computer laboratory time. Permission of the instructor for undergraduates.
724 Introduction to Law for Planners
Governmental institutions, real property, constitutional law, land use law, and environmental law.
725 Development Dispute Resolution
Contemporary methods of resolving development disputes through negotiation, bargaining, and mediation. Techniques and skills applicable to solving controversies over planning and implementation of public and private development projects.
727 Community Engagement
This course covers the conceptual foundation of public participation and community engagement, the processes and institutions involved in urban planning and design decision- making, and professional skills necessary to conceptualize and implement high-quality community engagement activities.
735 Community Revitalization Applied (PUBA 735)
Students apply their skills in business, planning, or public administration to actual community revitalization projects in North Carolina communities. Projects require an understanding of community development methods, the real estate development process, and public-private partnerships. Students will manage client relationships and learn how their skills contribute to solving community challenges.
738 Transportation Policy
Examination of current transportation planning and policy questions: land use relationships, modal comparisons, environmental quality, transportation demand management, paratransit planning, the transportation needs of special populations, and international comparisons.
739 Transportation Planning Models
The transportation planning process; data collection, trip generation, modal choice, trip distribution and assignment. Social, economic, and environmental impacts of transportation. Innovative modeling techniques.
740 Land Use and Environmental Policy
History, institutional setting, rationale of state and local land use, and environmental policies. Program and policy frameworks, political and market processes, resource utilization concepts, and contemporary development and resource management.
741 Land Use and Environmental Planning
Methods of land use planmaking. Use of GIS and spreadsheets to analyze land suitability and spatial needs. Preparation of land classification plans, land use design plans, and development management programs.
745 Development Impact Assessment
Methods for data management and predictive analysis of the environmental, transportation, and other infrastructure; fiscal and social impacts of land development projects. Impact mitigation measures are also examined.
752 Principles of Site Planning and Urban Design
This course examines site planning as a process of creating the built environment. Students will learn how a variety of environmental, market, design, and regulatory contstraints guide this process. They will conduct a site analysis, propose a site plan, and discuss the plan’s consistency with local regulations in a report.
754 Natural Hazards Resilience Speaker Series (1 credit)
Invited practitioners and scholars will discuss a range of pertinent topics, including research findings and experience in practice tied to disaster management and climate change adaptation. Speakers will include a range of officials, scholars, private sector representatives, media members, politicians, advocates, community leaders, and members of various professional associations.
757 Planning for Historic Preservation
Concepts, processes, and policies for historic preservation; its role in the community planning and development process.
760 Real Estate Investment and Affordable Housing
Fundamentals and techniques of real estate investment analysis, including cases and computer modeling; applications of the public interest in private investment decisions; tax and other public policies influencing real estate investments; and affordable housing.
761 Housing and Public Policy
A theory-based course in housing and market dynamics; the justification for government intervention and the operations of the mortgage market and construction industry. Students develop skills for housing market and policy analysis.
764 Community Development and Revitalization Techniques (PUBA 734)
Community revitalization requires mastery of community development methods, the real estate development process, and public-private partnerships. Techniques include demographic trend analysis, stakeholder identification, government entitlement review, area and parcel analysis, market research, and pro forma financial analysis.
765 Real Estate Development
The dynamics of real property development from the developer’s perspective covering market research, government relations, site planning, financing, investment analysis, construction and project management, and marketing.
767 Diversity and Inequalities in Cities
Introduces students in planning to issues related to diversity and inequality. Different aspects of diversity (e.g., gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality/citizenship) will be explored. Examines the relationship between diversity and the unequal distribution of resources and life trajectories.
769 Housing and Community Development Policy and Planning
This graduate course will explore issues of housing and community development policy and planning issues at the national, state, and local level in the United States. It will provide an overview of the historic and contemporary housing planning and policy issues that have shaped communities and households.
770 Economic Development Policy
This course will introduce students to the field of local economic development policy and planning and to commonly-used economic development strategies, from industrial recruitment and cluster development to small business assistance and university-led innovation. Students will learn to think critically about both merits and limits of individual economic development strategies, yet also understand the conditions under which communities and community actors can guide and coordinate strategy use in innovative and more equitable ways.
774 Planning for Jobs
This graduate seminar examines the policy and planning implications of changing labor market conditions and their impact on U.S. workers, especially the working poor.
776 Development Finance
Community development financial institutions and loan funds for local asset building and wealth creation. Investment analysis to structure and finance local projects. Real estate and business development cases.
781 Water Resources Planning and Policy Analysis (ENVR 785)
Water resources planning and management. Federal and state water resources policies. Analytical skills to identify environmental problems associated with urban water resources development.
785 Public Investment Theory (ENVR 785)
Basic theory, process, and techniques of public investment planning and decision making, involving synthesis of economic, political, and technologic aspects. Theory underlying benefit-cost analysis, adaptation to a descriptive and normative model for planning public projects and programs.
787 Applied Environmental Finance (PUBA 787, ENVR 787)
The course will focus on environmental services related to: drinking Water, wastewater, storm-water, watershed protection, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainability, and wetlands.
788 Advanced Econ Analysis for Public Policy (PLCY 788)
This course introduces microeconomic theory using multivariate calculus and constrained optimization. Topics covered include consumer theory, producer theory, market equilibrium, taxes, and market power. Applied public policy examples are incorporated.
789 Advanced Economic Analysis for Public Policy II (PLCY 789)
This course provides further applications of economic theory to public policy including risk and uncertainty, information economics, general equilibrium and welfare policy, externalities, public goods and taxation, and game theory.
800 Research Design
This course provides an introduction to research design methods for planning and applied policy research. The design of a research endeavor is arguably the most important part of the investigation, together with what data is collected, how it is collected, and how the data are analyzed.
801 Design of Policy-Oriented Research (PLCY 801)
Logic of designing research for the analysis of planning problems and the formulation of public policies. Elements of research design, case study, survey research, quasi-experimental designs, and the social experiment are covered.
802 Advanced Seminar in Research Design: Data, Methods, and Evaluation (PLCY 802)
Three main objectives: to deepen students’ understanding of important issues and topics in the design of empirical research, to further develop students’ ability to critically evaluate research designs and policy-related products, and to aid in developing a research paper, dissertation, or other product.
805 Theory of Planning II
Doctoral-level introduction to planning theory. Plans, roles of planners, political justice, institutions, epistemology and process analysis is emphasized.
823 Planning Workshop
Problem-solving, client-based courses designed to give students experience in applying planning theory and methods to actual problem situations in economic development, housing and community development, real estate, environmental planning, and land use and transportation.
890 Special Topics in Planning and Urbanism
Reading, lectures, and discussions to provide opportunities to develop new concepts and courses in various city and regional planning topics.
896 Independent Study
After identifying a faculty member whose research interests align with desired independent study topic, the student will work with faculty to create a course plan.
992 Master’s Project (Non-Thesis)
In their final year in the program students must submit a final project of professional quality on a topic in their area of specialization.
994 Doctoral Research and Dissertation
After successfully completing comprehensive examinations, Doctoral candidates begin working on their dissertations.