Urban, city, and town planning integrates land use planning and transport planning to improve the built and social environments of communities. Regional planning deals with a still larger environment, at a less detailed level. Urban planning can include urban renewal, by adapting urban planning methods to existing cities suffering from decay and lack of investment.

History

As an organized profession, urban planning has only existed for the last 60 years. However, most settlements and cities show forethought and conscious design in their layout and functioning.

Agriculture and other techniques facilitated larger populations than the very small communities of the Paleolithic. It may have caused stronger, more coercive governments at the same time. The pre-Classical and Classical ages saw a number of cities laid out according to fixed plans, though many tended to develop organically.