Western Illinois University Department of Geography

Posted September 22, 2006

Dr. Lewis Hopkins visit to Western Illinois University

Dr. Lewis Hopkins. Lewis D. Hopkins, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigns and Associate Dean College of Fine and Applied Arts will make several presentations. He received his Ph.D. at University of Pennsylvania in 1975, published over 45 articles and book chapters as well as the book Urban Development: The Logic of Making Plans. Dr. Hopkins investigates how plans are made and used, how these processes could be improved, and how computing tools can enhance these processes. More detailed information about Dr. Hopkins can be found at http://www.urban.uiuc.edu/faculty/hopkins/.

On Wednesday September 27, Dr. Hopkins will be visiting Western Illinois University and give two presentations.

Information System of Plans (ISoP), Morgan Hall 109, 3:00-4:15: Organizing the information in plans to enhance decision making (approximately 45 minutes with Q/A afterwards). An Information System of Plans (ISoP) organizes the content of the many plans of the various organizations in a region into a spatial database. An ISoP is designed to support the deliberative processes of making of plans. It is also designed to provide ready access to the content of plans pertinent to a particular decision, such as a zoning decision by a planning commission or an investment decision by a county board. An ISoP is spatial and thus has many attributes of a geographic information system, but it also includes other data items about agendas, policies, designs, visions, and strategies.
Making plans that are useful, usable, and used. McDonough County Courthouse: Main Courtroom, 6:30 pm (approximately 30 minutes with Q/A afterwards). Decisions impacting urban development get made by many people, including McDonough County, the cities in and near the county, Western Illinois University as well as other public organizations, and the private sector. All of these organizations make plans. Plans by the county, cities in the county, as well as plans made by others should be useful when making decisions about regulation and investments in highways, sewers, and other public services. We will illustrate ways to think about plans and to express planning ideas so as to help make plans that are useful, usable, and used.