Urban and Regional Planners Career

In the career as urban and regional planners, regional planners work with local governments and work for land use, regional development, community development, environmental planning, long-range planning, social and economic planning. They also plan to build constructions like schools, houses, roads, or other infrastructures in a specific region for specific kinds of people. They help the communities to decide how to use the available land and resources and reutilization of the resources. The urban and regional planners are in great demand as the social, economic and environmental problems have to be solved and these planners can help the citizens in making the environment clean and a better place to live in.

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Tasks:- In the career as urban and regional planners, the tasks that are carried out are as follows:- They advice the citizens on how to use the land for agriculture, commercial or recreational purpose. They plan and design ways to develop a specific region or an under-developed town and advance it in transportation to help the citizen in their economic growth. They solve the problems related to population growth, and other social, economic and environmental problems. Develop plans and programs for adding facilities of local jurisdictions such as town, rural areas, or specific large areas. They help to make decisions to develop resources and protecting available land and other resources. They solve environmental problems like planning providing shelters to slums, and making the region, or town more attractive. Prepare reports that include information like location and capacity of streets, highway roads, airways, railways, schools, construction sites, and other infrastructures.

Qualification:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, most of the times a master's degree is necessary in urban or regional planning. These candidates can easily get jobs in federal, state and local government agencies. The courses in urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, public administration, political science, economics, and geography are also beneficial for regional planning jobs. A bachelor's degree in architecture or engineering is also considered for some of the jobs. The knowledge of computers and other related software like GIS will be an added advantage.

Other necessary skills:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, the skills that are necessary are as follows:-

• Good communication (both oral and written) skills.
• The have to travel extensively for field work, so should have a good physical stamina.

Place of work:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, the planners spend most of the time on fields. Their main job is the city, town and region planning, so they have to travel to different places for field work. They visit places and construct buildings or reuse the land for residential, commercial, agricultural, and recreational purposes.

Planners do work for 40 hours a week, but working for longer hours and on weekends is common for them.

Job Opportunities:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, they have a great scope in state, local, or federal government agencies. Others may also work independently as consultants. The regional planners are needed in large numbers in architecture, engineering and related services for the proper city planning. Related Occupations:-
The career of regional planners is similar to occupations like:-

• Architects
• Civil Engineers
• Urban planners
• Landscape architects
• Environmental engineers
• Surveyors
• Geographers
• Property and real estate managers
• Market and survey researchers

Remuneration:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, the planners get a handsome salary. However, the salary also depends on different factors like type of education, experience, type of work and employer. Those working in architectural, engineering and other related services are expected to get above than average salaries. On the other hand, those working as consultants are paid on the basis on number of hours they work. The benefits include paid holidays and vacations, health insurance plans, and pension plans.

Job Progress:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, the entry-level jobs include assisting the senior planners, or handle simple projects. These jobs are given to fresh graduates with specialization in architecture, urban design or engineering. With years of experience, they can be promoted to senior positions and handle more critical projects independently. Some of the public sector planners are promoted as community planning director. Further they get promoted as larger jurisdiction and handle more complex problems and greater responsibilities or into related jobs like director, or head of the economic development.

Employment forecast:-
In the career as urban and regional planners, the employment growth is expected to grow at a good pace. The demand for these planners is expected to increase more in state and local governments. The need to provide public services such as regulation of commercial development, housing, environment, transportation, and proper use and development of land for the growing population will increase the demand for regional planners. Thus, planners have a great scope in local governments because they will be needed to solve problems related to population growth, land use, and building of different infrastructures in a specific region as per the need of the specific communities. They are needed in large numbers to solve problems related to population growth, transportation and other social, economic and environmental problems.

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