CITTA 7th Annual Conference on Planning Research
”Bridging the Implementation Gap of Accessibility Instruments and Planning Support Systems”
Faculty of Engineering, Porto University
23th – 24th October 2014
Although the development of instruments for planning support dates back much further, the concept of Planning Support Systems (PSS) appeared in the planning literature in the mid-1980s. In the last decades, planning research and literature has witnessed a significant proliferation of PSS. Regardless of this, very few of the developed PSS are actually used in practice. Literature suggests that a fundamental dichotomy between supply and demand of information and models to support planning practice could be the main reason for this phenomenon. On the one hand, planning practitioners – the potential users of these instruments – are generally unaware of and inexperienced in the use of them. On the other hand, the authors of these instruments have, in general, little awareness of the related demand requirements in the complex planning context in which these instruments have to be applied.
This conference aims to bring together a wide range of Planning Support Systems (PSS) in an embracing debate on their implementation gap in planning practice. In addition to collecting a number of PSS, the conference aims to discuss the usefulness of PSS in planning practice from a dual perspective – author/practitioner – looking for recommendations to support the design of more useful PSS in the future.
The CITTA conference will gain from the presentation of the outcomes and findings of European and Australian wide research on usability of accessibility instruments, opening, at the same time, the debate to other (non-accessibility-based) PSS, such as those dealing with environmental, land use and transport planning issues.
More information on the conference:
https://citta-conference.fe.up.pt/
CITTA – Centro de Investigação do Território, Transportes e Ambiente
https://citta.fe.up.pt/
