Reinventing planning education and profession for sustainable development

This paper presents a case study of environmental planning education and planning profession in the Philippines. It seeks to understand the development and strengthening of environmental planning education and planning... [ view full abstract ]

This paper presents a case study of environmental planning education and planning profession in the Philippines. It seeks to understand the development and strengthening of environmental planning education and planning profession and the changing roles, expectations, and implications of planning in the built and unbuilt environment, as it responds to the long-standing and emerging concerns of sustainable development. A systematic review and assessment of data and information obtained from relevant institutions regarding the planning profession, was undertaken to gather in-depth understanding on the implications of environmental planning in sustainable development. The research highlights the curriculum development in the case of the University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning, evaluating its scope and contents from the formative years up until the present time, where sustainable development planning have largely become available through a limited number of courses which introduce sustainability, environment and natural resource planning and management, disaster risk reduction and management, and climate change adaptation concepts into the core courses, in lieu of the process of formal curriculum change. This also exemplifies gaps and challenges in strengthening the planning practice, in relation to the professional planning policy mandates. Limited within the bounds of national and local planning and governance structure in the Philippines, this exploratory study encourages new approaches and underscores the indispensability of the planning profession and discipline in nation building and sustainable development of the built and unbuilt environment.