Editorial

Digital Planning is coming of age. When Online Planning was developed, as a result of research at Cardiff University in 1995, the prospect of a multi media development plan being delivered on the World Wide Web was merely a research proposal. Using Mosaic as a Browser, the possibilities of  presenting information on urban form on the World Wide Web were limited to a basic  hypertext system. While this was a move forward towards a digital planning system, today (May 1998) we have more sophisticated communication and visualisation tools to enhance the digital planning process.

Professor Tony Hall explores the use of hypermedia to develop development plans on the World Wide Web. Hall states that longer term developments lie in the direction of virtual reality and the three-dimensional computer based model. Jennifer Whyte and Dr. N.M. Buchlagem of Lougborough University show that the use of three dimensional visualisation on the World Wide Web is already a reality. Such developments are moving towards the virtual city where, as Rob Ingram of  Nottingham University states that designers of virtual cities will have an opportunity that rarely arises in city planning - to build their own space from scratch.

The ability to design in cyberspace is the ultimate goal of digital planning - the ability to mimic and construct urban form in virtual space within  a shared collaborative virtual reality environment. This is the aim of a development at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College. The Collaborative Virtual Design Studio (CVDS) is currently experimental but is looking for participants to take place in experiments in virtual design. More information is available on their CVDS page.

Such developments are bringing the prospect of a global digital planning and design system closer - the ability to plan and build in the Metaverse may be the most important development in planning since the formation of the town planning movement itself.

Andrew Smith
Editor