This track within the Geography Major is designed to meet the interests of students who wish to pursue careers in urban and regional planning.It provides students with: 1) the intellectual platform from which they can select more specific paths to follow within this field at the graduate level, and 2) the technical skills and professional training that might allow them to obtain entry level positions with a widerange of planing organizations.This track focuses on community (urban, city, or regional) planning and deals with issues which impact the character of communities. Urban and regional planning is a systematic, creative approach and method used to address and resolve social, physical, and economic problems of neighborhoods, cities, suburbs, and metropolitan regions.Planning is a problem-solving profession that deals with the forces that influence the quality of life at scales ranging from the neighborhood to the nation. Many geographers have entered the planning field bringing with them their special ability to determine where things should be located and what locational impact an item has on the overall character of a community.

Planners formulate plans and policies to meet social, economic, and physical needs and they devise ways to make the plans work. Planners play a number of roles – technical analysts, researchers, designers, program developers, agents of social change, managers, and educators. Planning has many dimensions, almost too numerous to mention here. The most popular specializations are the following: land use planning, policy planning and management, transportation planning, housing and community development, health and human services development, historic preservation planning, economic and resource development planning, environmental planning, third world development planning, natural hazards and emergency planning, and urban design and physical planning.

Most planners today work for city, county, or regional planning agencies, although states and the Federal government also employ planners in their various departments and bureaus. One such Federal agency is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A number of opportunities in private business and research organizations exist. Businesses such as banks, industrial firms, service and retail activities, airline companies, utilities, and other firms which deal with locational issues need the services of planners. At the international level, organizations such as the Agency for International Development (AID) and the World Bank hire planners particularly for research and work on developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.