Urbanization: Some Key Terms and Definition

URBAN GROWTH

The (relative or absolute) increase in the number of people who live in towns and cities. The pace or urban population growth depends on the natural increase of the urban population and the population gained by urban areas through both net rural-urban migration and the reclassification of rural settlements into cities and towns.

 

URBANIZATION

–  The portion of a country that is urban

–  Changes in the proportion of the population of a nation living in urban places (demographics)

–  Process of people moving to cities or other densely settled areas

–  Changes in social organization resulting from population concentration

–  In other words, the process by which rural areas are transformed into urban areas

 

RATE OF URBANIZATION

–  The increase in the proportion of urban population over time, calculated as the rate of growth of the urban population minus that of the total population. Positive rates of urbanization result when the urban population grows at a faster rate than the total population.

–   

CITY PROPER

–  The population living within the administrative boundaries of a city

 

URBAN AGGLOMERATION

–  The population of a built-up or densely populated area containing the city proper, suburbs and continuously settled commuter areas or adjoining territory inhabited at urban levels or residential density

 

METROPOLITAN AREA/REGION

–  A formal local government area comprising the urban area as a whole and its primary commuter areas, typically formed around a city with a large concentration of people (i.e a population of at least 100,000)

–  In addition to the city proper, a metropolitan area includes both the surrounding territory with urban levels of residential density and some additional lower-density areas that are adjacent to and linked to the city (e.g., through frequent transport, road linkages or commuting facilities). Example of metropolitan areas include Greater London and Metro Manila.

 

URBAN SPRAWL

–  Also “horizontal spreading” or “dispersed urbanization”. The uncontrolled and disproportionate expansion of an urban area into the surrounding countryside, forming low-density, poorly planned patterns of development.

–  Common in both high-income and low-income countries, urban sprawl is characterized by a scattered population living in a separate residential areas, with long blocks and poor access, often over dependent on motorized transport and missing well defined hubs of commercial activity.

 

PERI-URBAN AREA

–  An area between consolidated urban and rural regions

 

MEGACITY

–  An urban agglomeration with a population of 10 million or more.

 

METACITY

–  A major conurbation- a megacity of more than 20 million people. As cities grow and merge, new urban configurations are formed. These include mega regions, urban corridors and city regions.

 

MEGAREGION

–  A rapidly growing urban cluster surrounded by low density hinterland, formed as a result of expansion, growth and geographical convergence of more than one metropolitan area and other agglomerations. Common in North America and Europe, mega-regions are now expanding in other parts of the world and are characterized by rapidly growing cities, great concentrations of people (including skilled workers), large markets and significant economic innovation and potential.

–  Examples include the Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou megaregion (120 million people) in China and the Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe mega-region (predicted to reach 60 million by 2015) in Japan.

 

URBAN CORRIDOR

–  A linear ‘ribbon’ system of urban organization: cities of various sizes linked through transportation and economic axes, often running between major cities. Urban corridors spark business and change the nature and function of individual towns and cities, promoting regional economic growth but also often reinforcing urban primacy and unbalanced regional development.

–  Examples include the industrial corridor developing between Mumbai and Delhi in India; the manufacturing and service industry corridor running from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to the port city of Klang; and the regional economic axis forming the greater Ibadan-Lagos-Accra urban corridor in West Africa

 

CITY-REGION

–  An urban development on a massive scale: a major city that expands beyond administrative boundaries to engulf small cities, towns and semi-urban and rural hinterlands, sometimes expanding sufficiently to merge with other cities, forming large conurbations that eventually become city-regions.

–  For example, the Cape Town city-region in South Africa extends up to 100 kilometers, including the distances that commuters travel every day. The extended Bangkok region in Thailand is expected to expand another 200 kilometers from its center by 2020, growing far beyond its current population of over 17 million.

 

References: UPOU PPT Lecture

Approaches in Spatial Analysis

 

In his doctoral thesis titled Spatial Analysis in Support of Physical Planning (2003),  Eric Koomen emphasizes the important role of spatial analysis in the formulation and evaluation of physical planning initiatives. To carry out this role, one must be knowledgeable about the application of different approaches in spatial analysis in such a way that it will correspond or will respond to the planning issues at hand.

 

Koomen enumerates these spatial analysis approaches as follows:

 

1.    Transformation

Transformation methods form the basis of data visualisation and essentially change a certain form of data representation into another to enhance specific features.

 

Two commonly applied transformation methods are: classification and filtering.

 

Classification is used to diminish the variability in data values and can emphasize a certain portion of a spatial data set. By adjusting the classification in a visual representation of a data set specific phenomena can be enhanced or obscured, indicating that the selection of the appropriate class boundaries is crucial.

 

Filtering changes the value at each location in a data set based on the original values at that location and its surroundings.

 

2.    Aggregation

 

Spatial aggregation methods reduce the individual values of a data set to a single value for a specified region or the whole study area. The latter aggregation reduced the number of spatial dimension of the data set from 2 to 0, creating a non-spatial indicator or index value. This loss of spatial information is compensated by the delivery of a clear, unequivocal summary of the original content. Aggregation can also be performed at a regional level, producing a new much coarser representation of the original data. Spatial aggregation methods either deliver spatial or non-spatial indicator values depending on the use of the spatial character of the original data. Aggregations based on general averages or total values are non-spatial as these are independent of the original spatial configuration of the data. The average size of certain types of interconnected areas (average size of all urban areas) is considered a spatial indicator value as this depends on how the urban areas are connected.

 

3.  Combination

Combination of different spatial data layers is one of the key functions of GIS and it offers a powerful tool to provide an overview on many different data sets in one new integrated representation. By overlaying different data layers it is also possible to create a new data layer instead of merely visualising a result. The overlay operation is thus a typical spatial analysis operation available in any proper GIS. A classic example of this type of analysis is to define the area of overlap of two or more separate data layers indicating, for example, the area where new developments are not permitted following a large set of zoning regulations. Overlays are well suited to compare several data layers in a structured manner. Basically three different comparison options can be distinguished (Muehrcke, 1973):

 

1. a data set with another data set that represents the truth as is common in, for example, validation exercises;

2. a data set with another data set, for example, to compare the development over time of a specific phenomenon or to study spatial patterns of related spatial phenomena;

3. a data set with a theoretical data set, to test assumed relations.

 

4.      Valuation

Valuation is an appropriate tool to help interpret the results of spatial analysis operations. By applying a normative and consequently subjective classification operation to analysis outcomes their value is better understood. In essence, this is not a spatial analysis method since it, generally, only applies to non-spatial valuation functions. The main aim of valuation is to make the content of related data sets comparable. It is a common tool in environmental impact assessments and decision support systems that aim to provide clear, easily interpreted outcomes to policy makers and stakeholders. Simple valuation exercises result in a limited number of categories distinguishing, for example, positive, negative or neutral outcomes in relation to a reference value. Monetary valuation that is common in, for example, cost benefit analyses is an example of a more elaborate valuation method.

 

5.        Proximity analysis

A classic type of GIS-assisted analysis deals with the assessment of distance, normally expressed as proximity. Buffer analyses that create zones of influence (e.g. noise contours around roads) surrounding different types of shapes are typical examples of proximity analysis. Plain distance maps that describe the Euclidian or other type of distance to a specified object (e.g. railroad, city centre) offer useful input to various forms of spatial statistical analysis that, for example, aim to explain specific spatial phenomena.

 

6.       Simulation

By describing the relevant relations of a system it is possible to simulate its future state. A common form of simulation (or modelling) is applied in impact assessments that describe the possible consequences of a specific event or policy. Such assessments follow predefined cause-effect relations that are made operational by one or more of the spatial data analysis methods described before. More complex examples of simulation are offered by the models that simulate, for example, the groundwater or land-use system.

 

In addition to these Koomen’s approaches is the Hot Spots Analysis as described below.

 

7.    Hot Spots Analysis

This tool identifies statistically significant spatial clusters of high values (hot spots) and low values (cold spots). It automatically aggregates incident data, identifies an appropriate scale of analysis, and corrects for both multiple testing and spatial dependence. This tool interrogates your data in order to determine settings that will produce optimal hot spot analysis results. If you want full control over these settings, use the Hot Spot Analysis tool instead. (http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/tools/spatial-statistics-toolbox/optimized-hot-spot-analysis.)

Source:

Koomen, Eric Spatial Analysis in Support of Physical Planning (2003)

 

Application of Land Use Planning

A.   Land Use Planning as a Tool for FOOD SECURITY

 

Land use planning can contribute to improving the availability of food

within a defined region at local or national level in a number of ways:

               

o   Through land use planning, areas for food production can be defined,

zoned and protected from being converted into construction land;

o   Through the integration of rules regulating access to land and/or

improving tenure security, food production can be improved as farmers

will invest in long-term measures to improve the soil or start more

expensive cultivations that provide higher yields in the long-run;

 

o   Land use planning in combination with market analysis and infrastructure

planning can improve access to food.

 

 

B.   Land Use Planning: a Tool for Disaster Risk Management

 

·         Land use planning is a very important instrument in disaster risk management. By determining land uses, it affects both the vulnerability of the local population and infrastructure as well as potential hazards, and can accordingly be used to minimize disaster risk. The goal of land use planning for disaster risk management is to achieve a utilization of land and natural resources which is adapted to local conditions and needs and takes into account disaster risks.

 

·         Land use planning can significantly contribute to preventing new hazards, such as landslides and flooding, which are frequently caused by inappropriate land use. Land use planning can also reduce the vulnerability of people and infrastructure by identifying safe locations for settlements and constructions and by defining and applying adequate building standards during plan implementation. Thus, considering disaster risks in land use planning can save human lives and material as well as reduce economic losses. It contributes to sustainable development and poverty reduction.

 

 

C.   Land Use Planning: a Tool for Adaptation to and Mitigation of Climate Change

 

a) LUP for Adaptation

Adaptation consists of assessing vulnerabilities and impacts related to

climate change, identifying and prioritizing adaptation options, often

from a cross-sectoral perspective, and governing the implementation of

adaptation. Impacts and adaptation needs are very different from location

to location; therefore, land use planning has an important role to play in

adaptation to climate change.

 

b) LUP for Mitigation

Land use planning can be used to reduce deforestation and forest degradation

by limiting agricultural expansion, conversion of forests to pasturelands,

infrastructure development, destructive logging, fires etc. Land use

planning can also be used to identify areas for carbon sequestration (as an

environmental service for which farmers could receive a payment), e.g.

through afforestation or for the introduction of agroforestry. An example

is the transformation of coffee monocultures into coffee agroforestry

plantations in which the carbon in biomass and litter can be multiplied by

2.5 through the plantation/cultivation of shade trees. Another way of land

use planning to contribute to mitigation of climate change is the identification

of suitable sites for wind mill parks or for the production of solar

energy.

 

 

Reference:

 

          Land Use Tools, Concepts and Applications, GIZ, 2012

 

Simple Land Use Accounting

 To determine the areas for suitable development, there is a need to deduct first the following land uses and categories from the the total land area:

A.   Protected areas

 

i. NIPAS

strict nature reserves

national parks

natural monuments

wildlife sanctuaries

protected landscapes/seascapes

resource reserves

other protected areas (e.g. virgin forests)

 

ii. Non-NIPAS areas

reserved second growth forests

mangroves

buffer strips/easements

freshwater swamps/marshes

critical watersheds

 

B.   Other reservations

 

i. military and civil reservations

ii. mineral and geothermal reserves

iii. water courses and surface water

 

C.    Environmentally critical areas

 

i. water-related hazards

ii. earthquake-related hazards

iii. volcanic-related hazards

iv. erosion-hazards

D.    Protected agricultural areas

 

               i.    highly restricted agricultural lands - SAFDZ

E. Heritage sites

 

GIS will be very helpful tool in doing land use accounting. GIS Sieve Mapping screens out of consideration those areas that ought not to be built over due to various types of constraints such as physical or environmental (e.g. flood prone areas) and political or legal (e.g. protected areas). Sieve mapping is a necessary support to the land accounting procedure because some of the areas that are not suitable may overlap and are counted twice or many times over. With the aid of maps a particular area with several overlapping constraints is counted only once under one constraint. This way, multiple counting is avoided.

 

 

Reference:

Serrote, Ernesto M., Rationalized Planning System, 2008, p. 100

Tactical Urbanism

 

“Tactical urbanism” is a popular buzzword among urban planners. But what does it mean? According to Mike Lydon, public space expert at Street Plans, tactical urbanism is short-term action for a long-term change. A good example for that are the popular pop-up bike lanes coming up in many cities during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. They are cheap, simple and short-term solutions, but there is a tactic behind them. They are intended for a deeper change, such as more safety and space for cyclists.

 

Tactical urbanism can be defined as “a city and citizen-led approach to neighbourhood building using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions intended to create long-term change”. Actions can be classified as tactical when they have a vision, a local context, a short-term commitment, a low-risk and high-reward value and the support of a community. Ideally, they even develop social capital by bringing neighbours together. In the long term, pop-up interventions are intended to get an official sanctioning or create change.

 

Due to key trends in urbanism over the last decades, we are currently evolving towards a more human-centred idea of urban planning. Copenhagen’s star planner Jan Gehl is a great example of how to create cities for people, not for cars. Environmentalism, the sharing economy, and sustainability as well as the development of technologies are other trends that enable change in urban planning. A shift in demographics and even an economic recession are opportunities for tactical urbanism – and the good news is that anyone can participate in it!

 

Source: https://parcitypatory.org/2020/07/31/tactical-urbanism/

"How we design and build a smart city and nation?"

 According to Cheong Koon Hean, the following may be done to better plan and design the built-up area.

1.       Smart Planning. This includes data collection. With the data, the planner can do appropriate modeling and analysis of the situations.

2.       Smart Environment. This means getting green in designing the built-up area so that people will be able to enjoy a green environment especially in open and public spaces.

3.       Smart Estate Services. This means introducing green building designs and improving mobility and connectivity of the people

4.       Smart Living. This includes using appropriate green and smart technology so that people can accomplish more tasks.

 

Source: How we design and build a smart city and nation | Cheong Koon Hean | TEDxSingapore accesed  at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m45SshJqOP4

Planetizen's Most Influential Urbanists

 

1. Jane Jacobs - (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) The author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs is credited with nurturing a new era of community-led planning. Famously opposed Robert Moses on some of the most famous planning controversies of the 20th century.

2. Jaime Lerner - An architect and urban planner, founder of the Instituto Jaime Lerner and chairman of Jaime Lerner Arquitetos Associados. A three-time mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, during a period of revitalization that made the city renowned for urban planning, public transportation, environmental social programs, and urban projects.

3. Frederick Law Olmsted - (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) A landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. Olmsted is considered the "father" of American landscape architecture, and is responsible for many plans and designs of open spaces around the country, perhaps most famously exemplified by Central Park in Manhattan.

4. Jan Gehl - An architect and urban designer famous for refocusing design and planning on the human scale. Author of Life Between Buildings; Public Spaces, Public Life; and Cities for People, among other books.

5. Andrés Duany - An American architect, an urban planner, and a founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Duany is credited with the plan and code for Seaside, the first new traditional community, the development of the SmartCode, and the definition of the rural to urban transect, among other accomplishments.

6. Lewis Mumford - (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) Mumford interpreted architecture and urban life in a social context, while working as the architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine for over 30 years and authoring numerous books, including The City in History, published in 1961.

7. Robert J. Gibbs - President of Gibbs Planning Group. Planned Michigan’s first ten New Urban communities and form-based codes, in addition to contributing to commercial developments in more than 400 town centers and historic cities in the United States and abroad.

8. Frank Lloyd Wright - Perhaps the most famous architect in U.S. history. Frank Lloyd Wright led the Prairie School of architecture and pursued the theory of organic architecture. Fallingwater, a home located in Pennsylvania, is a beloved example of his work.

9. Le Corbusier - (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a pioneer of modern architecture and planning. The "towers in the park" concept that emerged from his Radiant City Plan was adopted in cities around the United States.

10. Charles Marohn - Founder and president of Strong Towns, a news and commentary website and a popular portal for advocacy on issues of planning. Marohn authored Thoughts on Building Strong Towns, volumes 1 and 2, and A World Class Transportation System.

11. Richard Florida - One of the world's most visible urbanists. Richard Florida authored The Rise of the Creative Class and, most recently, The New Urban Crisis. Serves as university professor and director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto.

12. William H. Whyte - (October 1, 1917 – January 12, 1999) Whyte's 1980 book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces set a new standard of observation and the study of human behavior in urban settings.

13. Donald Shoup - Distinguished research professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Author of The High Cost of Free Parking, which has succeeded in launching a new approach to parking policy, as a fundamental aspect of planning and land use regulations, in communities around the country.

14. Kevin Lynch - (January 7, 1918 – April 25, 1984) An urban planner and author of The Image of the City (1960) and What Time is This Place? (1972). In The Image of the City, Lynch posited a theory of paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks that is referenced implicitly or explicitly in many planning and design efforts of the current day.

15. Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk - Co-founder of Arquitectonica and Duany Plater Zyberk & Company. A leader in the New Urbanism movement and the co-author of Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, and The New Civic Art.

16. Janette Sadik-Khan - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007–2013, while the nation's largest country pursued and delivered one of the most sweeping revitalizations of the city’s streets in a half-century. Currently the principal at Bloomberg Associates and chair the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACTO). Author of Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution.

17. Robert Moses - The "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City and environs, Robert Moses is one of the most polarizing figure of modern city building. Perhaps the most powerful man in New York City for a long stretch of the 20th century, Moses pursued a campaign of modernism based on slum clearing, public housing projects, and high-speed automobile transportation evident in New York to this day. Moses's ambitions also inspired the growth of an opposition movement around Jane Jacobs.

18. Daniel Burnham - (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) An American architect and a towering figure in the history of American planning, thanks to his work in co-authoring the Plan of Chicago. Burnham also contributed to plans for cities like Cleveland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

19. Ebenezer Howard - (January 29, 1850 – May 1, 1928), the originator of the garden city movement. Authored To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, published in 1898, which described a utopian city in which people live harmoniously together with nature.

20. Christopher Alexander - Architect and design theorist, regarded as the "father" of the pattern language movement. Co-author of the 1977 book A Pattern Language.

21. Jeff Speck - A city planner and urban designer and a leading advocate for walkable cities. Author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, among other books.

22. Peter Calthorpe - Founder of the award-winning firm of Calthorpe Associates, Calthorpe is also one of the founders and the first board president of the Congress of New Urbanism.

23. Michael Bloomberg - Michael R. Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served three terms as the mayor of the city of New York, during a time of innovation in city government and placemaking efforts in the nation's largest city.

24. Jane Addams - (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) Known as the "mother" of Social Work.

25. Enrique Peñalosa - Mayor of Bogotá from 1998 until 2001, and then again beginning in 2016, overseeing major transportation and public space projects in the city. Also served as the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

26. Nikos Salingaros - A mathematician by training who applies his work to urban theory. Salingros has championed network thinking and traditional architecture in the books Principles of Urban Structure and A Theory of Architecture, respectively, among other books.

27. Charles, Prince of Wales - A frequent commenter on matters of the built environment, Prince Charles is an advocate of neo-traditional ideas, such as those of Christopher Alexander and Leon Krier. Prince Charles illustrated his ideas on the built environment during a 1984 attack on the British architectural community in a speech given to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in which he described a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a "monstrous carbuncle."

28. Ian McHarg - A pioneer of the environmental movement, McHarg founded the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Landscape Architecture and authored the book Design with Nature, published in 1969.

29. James Howard Kunstler - Noted author and critic of suburban development patterns, best known for the book, The Geography of Nowhere.

30. Rosa Parks - (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) An activist in the Civil Rights Movement who set the stage for the Montgomery bus boycott with an act of civil disobedience on public transit.

31. Pierre-Charles L'Enfant - (August 2, 1754 – June 14, 1825), A French-born American military engineer who designed the basic plan for Washington, D.C. known today as the L'Enfant Plan (1791).

32. Buckminster Fuller -  (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) An American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. Fuller published more than 30 books and developed numerous inventions and architectural designs, including the geodesic dome.

33. John Muir - (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) A naturalist and author, most famous an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His activism helped preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, and many other wilderness areas. Muir also founded the Sierra Club, which is one of the most active environmental groups, advocating positions on development projects throughout the United States.

34. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. - (July 24, 1870 – December 25, 1957) A landscape architect and city planner who worked on projects in Acadia, the Everglades, and Yosemite National Park as part of a life-long commitment to U.S. National Parks. Also a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

35. Léon Krier - A leading proponent of New Urbanism and provocateur of modern urbanism. Best known for the development of Poundbury, an urban extension to Dorchester, in the United Kingdom.

36. Rachel Carson - (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) An American marine biologist, author, and conservationist. Carson's book Silent Spring is credited with bringing environmental advoccy to a new level of public awareness.

37. Walt Disney - (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) An entrepreneur, animator, voice actor, and film producer. In 1965, Disney began development of Disney World as a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow."

38. Candi CdeBaca - Co-founder and co-executive director of Project VOYCE, founder and member of the Cross Community Coalition, and founder and principal of Rebel Soul Strategies.

39. Henri Lefebrve - (June 16, 1901 – June 29, 1991) A Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for pioneering the critique of everyday life and for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social space. Author of 60 books and 300 articles.

40. Jimmy Carter - The 39th president of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and a tireless champion of Habitat for Humanity.

41. Patrick Geddes - (October 2, 1854 – April 17, 1932) A Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, and pioneering town planner, Geddes introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and coined the term "conurbation."

42. Saul Alinsky - (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) An American community organizer and writer and an early adopter and champion for many of the practices of modern community organizing.

43. Edward Glaeser - Economist and professor of economics at Harvard University. His book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier, is a popular and widely cited reference for urban boosters.

44. Gil Peñalosa - Founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, and a leading advocate for the design and use of parks and streets as great public places, as well as sustainable mobility: walking, riding bicycles, using public transit, and the new use of cars.

45. Saskia Sassen - Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and a member of the Committee on Global Thought. Coined the term "Global City," and authored Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, published in 1991.

46. David Harvey - A theorist in the field of urban studies, geographer by training, professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and prolific author.

47. Peter Hall - (March 19, 1932 – July, 30 2014) Professor of planning and regeneration at University College London. Also served as president of the Town and Country Planning Association and the Regional Studies Association. Considered the "father" of the enterprise zone, a policy tool subsequently adopted by countries worldwide to support economic development in disadvantaged areas.

48. Edmund Bacon - (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005) An American urban planner, architect, educator, and author. Served as executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission from 1949 to 1970, earning the nickname "The Father of Modern Philadelphia."

49. Jacob Riis - (May 3, 1849 – May 26, 1914) Social reformer, "muckraking" journalist, and social documentary photographer.

50. Georges-Eugene Haussmann - (March 27, 1809 – January 11, 1891) Commonly known as Baron Haussmann. Carried out a massive urban renewal program of new boulevards, parks, and public works in Paris commonly referred to as Haussmann's renovation of Paris.

51. Thomas Jefferson - (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) The third president of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an accomplished architect. Jefferson's designs for his home of Monticello and the University of Virginia campus are significant contributions to the architectural heritage of the United States, as well as influences on the federal style of architecture that survives to this day.

52. Brent Toderian - Vancouver chief planner from 2006 to 2012, during the city's 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and design process as well as the EcoDensity initiative and the Greenest City Action Plan. Toderian is now a consulting city planner and urbanist with TODERIAN UrbanWORKS and vocal advocate for livability initiatives.

53. Allan Jacobs - An urban designer and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Authored the paper, "Toward an Urban Design Manifesto," with Donald Appleyard, among other books. Also served for eight years as the director of the San Francisco Department of City Planning.

54. Jennifer Keesmaat - Served as chief planner of Toronto from 2012 until September 2017, during which the city underwent a period of rapid growth. Keesmaat is an active participant in the planning discussion, contributing numerous editorials for local publications that argued in favor of progressive transportation planning policies.

55. Vitruvius - (c. 80–70 BCE – c. 15 BCE) A Roman author, architect, and engineer. Author of De architectura, whose description of perfect proportion in architecture and human form influenced Leonardo da Vinci.

56. Rem Koolhaas - Architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, and professor in practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaus is the author of multiple books, including S,M,L,XL, which includes an essay on urban planning titled "Whatever Happened to Urbanism?"

57. Jarrett Walker - A consulting transit planner, Walker's work in cities like Houston and his blog Human Transit lead current thinking about best practices public transit and mass transportation infrastructure.

58. Dan Burden - A leader in innovative transportation planning, working in the past as Florida's first state bicycle and pedestrian coordinator and as a co-founder of Walkable Communities, Inc. Burden is currently director of innovation and inspiration at Blue Zones, LLC.

59. Hippodamus of Miletus - (498 – 408 BCE) An ancient Greek architect and urban planner, among other intellectual pursuits. Considered the "Father of European Urban Planning" and the namesake of the "Hippodamian Plan" (grid plan) of city layout.

60. Joseph Minicozzi - Principal of Urban3, LLC, Minnicozzi is an advocate for downtown-style mixed-use developments, especially as preferred to big box retail.

61. Michael Mehaffy - Portland-based consultant and author specializing in walkable mixed-use projects. Mehaffy is also a senior researcher in urban sustainability at KTH University in Stockholm and the executive director of the Sustasis Foundation.

62. Fred Kent - Founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, and an authority on revitalizing public spaces.

63. Jim Venturi - Jim Venturi is the founder and principal of ReThinkNYC, a New York City-based urban transportation planning think tank.

64. Mitchell Silver - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Past president of the American Planning Association (APA) and former chief planning and development officer and planning director for Raleigh, North Carolina.

65. Christopher Leinberger - Research professor and chair of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business, president of Locus: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, and founding partner of Arcadia Land Company. Recently a proponent of Walkable Urban Places, or WalkUPs.

66. Carol Coletta - A senior fellow with The Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Practice, Coletta is leading a proposed $40 million collaboration of foundations, nonprofits, and governments to demonstrate the benefits of a civic commons. Former vice president of community and national Initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and president of ArtPlace. 

67. Dan Gilbert - The chairman and founder of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans Inc., Gilbert makes this list for his portfolio of downtown development investments in Detroit and Cleveland.

68. Zaheer Allam - An advocate for energy and urban systems in Africa and the Small Island States. Co-founder of the Plateforme Citoyenne.

69. James Rouse - (April 26, 1914 – April 9, 1996) Founder of The Rouse Company, was a pioneering real estate developer, urban planner, and civic activist. In 1982, Rouse created the Enterprise Foundation, an organization that helps community groups build housing.

70. Majora Carter - An American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter's work focuses on inclusion and sustainability.

71. Ellen Dunham-Jones - Professor at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture and director of the school's urban design program. Authored, along with June Williamson, Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs.

72. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - A pioneering hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1976. Their classic song "The Message" is an instantly recognizable urban manifesto.

73. Gaétan Siew - Architect, planner, and founder of Lampotang & Siew Architects. Work includes master plans for the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius, the Chinese neighbourhood in Port Louis, the Seychelles International Airport, and other projects around the world.

74. John Nolen - (June 14, 1869 - February 18, 1937) A landscape architect and planner best known for work in Florida and Wisconsin. An advocate for regional planning and land use controls to counter land speculation.

75. Mike Lydon - Principal with Street Plans and a leading proponent of Tactical Urbanism. Co-author of Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term ChangeVol.1-4.

76. Bruce Katz - The inaugural Centennial Scholar at the Brookings Institution, where he focuses on the challenges and opportunities of global urbanization. Served for 20 years as the vice president and co-director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, and authored the book The Metropolitan Revolution, published in 2013.

77. Camillo Sitte - Architect, painter, and city planning theoretician. Authored City Planning According to Artistic Principles, published in 1889, frequently cited as a criticism of the Modernist movement.

78. William Penn - (14 October 1644 – 30 July 1718) An English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

79. F. Kaid Benfield - Former director for sustainable communities for the National Resources Defense Council and high profile author, writing at numerous urbanism publications and authoring several books.

80. R. John Anderson - Co-founder and principal for Anderson|Kim Architecture + Urban Design.

81. Earl Blumenauer - The U.S. Representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district, Earl Blumenauer is one of the federal government's most ardent supporters of alternative transportation, through public transit and bike infrastructure, as well as sustainability initiatives.

82. Walter Benjamin - (July 15, 1892 –  September 26, 1940) A philosopher famous for theories of aesthetics. Benjamin also focused academic inquiry on the concept of the flâneur.

83. Naomi Klein - A journalist, activist, and author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, Shock Doctrine, and No is Not Enough.

84. Donald Appleyard - (July 26, 1928 – September 23, 1982) An urban designer and theorist, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley. Author of the book Livable Streets and, along with Allan Jacobs, the paper "Toward an Urban Design Manifesto."

85. Henry Cisneros - Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 1981 to 1989—the second Latino mayor of a major American city and the city's first since 1842. Cisneros also served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton.

86. Ildefonso Cerdá Suñer - (December 23, 1815 – August 21, 1876) A Catalan Spanish urban planner who designed the 19th-century "extension" of Barcelona called the Eixample.

87. Shelley Poticha - Director of the Urban Solutions team at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Formerly a senior political appointee in the Obama Administration, where she led the Partnership for Sustainable Communities and launched the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

88. Doug Farr - Founding principal and president of Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design. Farr also founded the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Core Committee and is a board member of EcoDistricts.

89. Virginia Hanusik - A New Orleans-based artist examining the the relationship between culture and the built environment. Hanusik's most recent projects, Backwater and Impossible City, were detailed in Places Journal.

90. Richard Sennett - Centennial professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and university professor of the Humanities at New York University. Sennett studies social ties in cities, and the effects of urban living on individuals in the modern world, and has authored many books on related subjects, including The Fall of Public Man, published in 1977, about the public realm, and Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation, published in 2012.

91. Kennedy Smith - Expert on commercial district revitalization and development, independent main street businesses, and economically and environmentally sound community development. Co-founded the Community Land Use and Economics (CLUE) Group, LLC. Also the longest-serving director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Main Street Center.

92. Mike Davis - A writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian, best known for his investigations of power and social class in Southern California. Authored City of Quartz, published in 1990.

93. Clarence Stein - (June 19, 1882 – February 7, 1975) An urban planner, architect, and writer. Stein was a major proponent of the Garden City movement in the United States. Co-founded the Regional Planning Association of America to address large-scale planning issues such as affordable housing, the impact of sprawl, and wilderness preservation.

94. Jose Corona - Currently the director of equity and strategic partnership for the Mayor's Office in the city of Oakland. Previously worked as chief executive officer of Inner City Advisors (ICA).

95. Jason Roberts - Co-founder of the Better Block Project, founder of the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, and co-founder of the Art Conspiracy and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff.

96. Jean-Michel Basquiat - (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) An American artist, who began his career as a graffiti artist in New York City, helping to popularize the medium.

97. Emily Talen - Professor of urbanism at the University of Chicago, following previous faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University. Author of numerous books devoted to the relationship between the built environment and social equity.

98. William McDonough - Architect, product designer, and advocate. Authored the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, as the most famous expression of his message. Also the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners and co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC).

99. Theaster Gates - A Chicago-based installation artist, Gates's addresses urban planning, among other issues. Gates is also the founder and artist director of the Rebuild Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cultural-driven redevelopment and affordable space initiatives in under-served communities.

100. Norman Krumholz - Professor in the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Long-time Cleveland planning director, serving under three separate mayors, and a leading proponent of equity planning.

Source: https://www.planetizen.com/features/95189-100-most-influential-urbanists