AI Driven Urban Planning: From Planning Support to Plan Making (2024)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals and humans. AI is emerging as an important technology to enhance and reshape urban planning research and practice. Extensive big data from urban sensors and social media enable planners to understand urban dynamics in real time and address sophisticated and complex planning and urban management issues. Traditional urban planning methods like statistics, geographical information systems (GIS), and traditional analytical models are inadequate for analyzing big data. AI especially language models like ChatGPT, machine learning, and deep learning offers new opportunities for planners to derive insights, increase planning efficiency, and tackle complex problems. The selection begins with a scoping review summarizing AI in the urban planning literature and the changing role of planners as AI becomes more and more important in the planning process. It describes the evolution and current status of AI in urban planning. The selection provides a holistic overview of the adopted and potential applications of AI in urban and regional planning. It explores fundamental questions including a description of urban planning AI, roles of AI and planners in future urban planning processes, how AI can facilitate planners in the urban planning process, and how to respond to the challenges and problems AI poses for urban planning. The selection addresses potential issues and challenges in AI enabled planning processes. It proposes a typology of urban planning AI in six main categories: machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, expert systems, and gaming/entertainment. The selection describes each category and its relevance to urban planning. The typology characterizes and charts a pathway illustrating how urban planning AI could evolve in the future, from AI-assisted to AI-augmented to AI-automated and to AI-autonomized planning. Professor Peng describes necessary steps to automate or semiautomate urban planning processes at each level of development. The selection describes the functions of AI and roles of planners, applications, and issues at each of these levels. It includes an example of urban transportation system planning to illustrate the urban planning AI process. Professor Peng emphasizes that planners need to make sure that AI assisted or generated plans reflect political realities and the values of citizens and government officials. Urban and regional plans need to address ethical concerns like data privacy, bias, transparency, stewardship of the earth, and social equity. The author, Dr. Zhong Ren Peng, is a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Florida (UF) and the director of iAdapt UFs International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design.