Read an Academic Passage

The Rise of Urban Planning

Urban planning as a formal profession emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely in response to the dire conditions of industrial cities. During the Industrial Revolution, cities in Europe and North America grew at an unprecedented rate. This rapid, unregulated growth led to severe overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions, inadequate infrastructure, and high levels of pollution. Tenement housing was cramped and lacked basic amenities like clean water and sanitation, which contributed to the rapid spread of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. The chaotic urban environment created a need for a more systematic and thoughtful approach to city development.

Early urban planning movements aimed to alleviate these problems by imposing order and improving public health. One influential concept was the "Garden City" movement, proposed by Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. His idea was to create planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts," which would combine the best aspects of town and country living. In France, Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the mid-19th century involved demolishing crowded medieval neighborhoods to create wide boulevards, modern sewers, and public parks, drastically improving sanitation and traffic flow.

These early efforts laid the foundation for modern urban planning, which has evolved into a complex field addressing a wide range of issues. Today, planners are concerned not only with physical infrastructure but also with social equity, economic sustainability, and environmental protection. They use zoning laws to regulate land use, design public transportation systems to reduce traffic congestion, and create public spaces like parks and squares to foster community interaction. The goal remains to create cities that are functional, livable, and resilient for their inhabitants.