Urban Planning and Safety in Practice (BYS225)

Content

The course comprises several field trips exploring safety and security issues in the built environment. Students will be required to consider practical, cost-effective, and proportional solutions to the safety and security issues identified and present their ideas orally. Proposed interventions must be compliant with Norwegian planning laws and based on core concepts, principles, and theories in planning and safety. Interventions may include, for example, surveillance technologies, site-specific crime prevention strategies, or climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that are sensitive to the urban fabric and local politics. Issues such as crime, terrorism, traffic safety, flooding, noise pollution, and toxic emissions are explored.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

After completing the course, students are expected to have knowledge of and understand:

• Local problems concerning safety in the built environment and its wider impact on quality of life.
• How principles of and concepts in sustainable urban development, resilience, and safety are applied in a solution-oriented, evidence-driven way, with consideration for their wider consequences.
• How urban design, spatial planning, and zoning are considered in these processes.
• How climate adaptation and mitigation strategies can be applied and address projected forecasts and worst-case scenarios.
• Methods and approaches to analyzing risk in the built environment.
• Knowledge and application of Norwegian planning laws and regulations in the context of urban safety and security.
• The stakeholders normally involved in such processes.

Skills:

After completing the course, students are expected to be able to:

• Analyze data concerning safety and security in the built environment from academic and web-based sources.
• Conduct field research in various urban settings.
• Devise interventions that are feasible within real-world constraints, such as budget and local context.
• Ability to critically evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability of proposed safety interventions.
• Ability to combine both pragmatic and idealistic solutions creatively through multi-purpose solutions.
• Basic proficiency in presenting ideas and proposed solutions clearly and persuasively in an oral format.
• Group work skills.

Competencies:

After completing the course, students are expected to have:

• Basic proficiency in conducting field research and analyzing safety and security data from various sources.
• Ability to identify potential risks, evaluate their impact, and develop mitigation strategies that are both effective and sustainable.
• Design theoretically sound interventions that are also practical, implementable, and legally compliant.
• Capability in designing solutions that are sensitive to local politics and dynamics.
• In-depth knowledge of Norwegian planning laws and regulations as they relate to urban safety and security.
• Group work and taking responsibility for specific tasks.

Required prerequisite knowledge

None

Recommended prerequisites

BYG100 Computer-Aided Design (CAD), BYS120 Risk and vulnerability analysis

Exam

Coursework requirements

Students will be required to submit a signed timesheet showing workload per group participant.

Course teacher(s)

Course coordinator:

Tegg Westbrook

Method of work

Field trips

Group work

Lectures

Course assessment

There must be an early dialogue between the course supervisor, the student union representative and the students. The purpose is feedback from the students for changes and adjustments in the course for the current semester.In addition, a digital course evaluation must be carried out at least every three years. Its purpose is to gather the students experiences with the course.

Literature