Educators, analysts, model builders, and users of information technology in urban and regional planning and policy formulation gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 2007, to present research that was later edited for the 11 essays in this volume. The topics include disseminating spatial decision support systems in urban planning, tools such as the land-use evolution and impact assessment model (LEAM), development control systems, and what practicing planners are looking for in these planning systems. Systems integrating spatial mapping, analysis, and visualization have been getting easier to use over the past decade at the same time public acceptance for them has been growing, although challenges remain. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editor Richard K. Brail has brought together the wisest of the fields thinkers, the most inventive of the toolmakers, the most experienced of those working at the interface with real clients, and the most battle-seasoned practicing planners (and many of these individuals occupy more than one of these niches). Together they present a broad view of support systems, in-depth developmental histories of the most important models and tools as told by their creators, and a provocative, in-the-trenches critique of the state of the art.
