Extensive urban and suburban growth has characterized much of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States. Accordingly, urban geography and urban and regional planning have grown as key areas of geography, with geographers contributing significantly to the broader planning field. At the dawn of the 21st century, as American urban areas become increasingly congested and populated, the need for planners will only grow.
Urban geography focuses on the spatial organization of activities and land use within cities as well as the connections between cities in larger urban networks. Urban geographers also study the processes and forces that effect change in urban areas, including population growth and distribution, ethnic makeup, political movements, and industrial patterns. Urban geographers focus both on the unique or distinctive characteristics of individual cities and on the similarities that exist between many urban centers.
Geographic education and training promote the kind of understanding of society's complex use of urban and rural land necessary for successful planning and for providing possible solutions to problems arising from conflicting land uses within regions. The powerful tools of geography namely GIS, cartography, and remote sensing further bolster the geographer's ability to plan effectively for the future.
Ideally, planners are able to prepare master plans that will benefit the economy and social fabric of neighborhoods, communities, cities, and regions. They work to make cities efficient, but attractive places to live and work by considering zoning regulations, traffic flows, building density, hydrology, population distribution, and recreational needs. To gain these skills, planners study population geography, transportation, social service, utilities, and solid-waste disposal systems.
Some planners concentrate almost exclusively on transportation planning. Traffic congestion and its associated noise and air pollution has become a major problem in many American cities, especially since Americans have resisted most mass transit initiatives and insisted on private automobiles as their preferred means of transportation. This puts a tremendous strain on cities street networks, it also creates the need for skilled planners. With their well-developed spatial analysis skills, geographers can assist in this planning endeavor.
