Computational and Modeling Tools How effectively are Urban Designers and Planners using them Across the Design Development Process?

Abstract

Literature suggests that despite the increasing range and variety of computational tools and technologies, they have not really been employed for designing as extensively as it might be. This is due in part to the numerous challenges and impediments limiting their effective usage such as the methodological, procedural, and substantive factors and limitations, and skepticism about their impact of usage on the design process and outcome. The gap in our understanding of how advanced computational tools could support the design activities and design decision-making has expanded considerably to become a new area of inquiry with considerable room for the expansion of knowledge. This research is a single-case study that has been pursued in two phases: literature review and survey followed by analysis and discussion of the empirical results. The empirical observations were compared to the theoretical propositions and with results of similar research to highlight the areas and the extent to what the IT tools' usage have influenced the outcome of the design process. The comparison has helped highlight, explain, and justify the mechanism and improvements in the design outcome. Please write your abstract here by clicking this paragraph.