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Time-honoured university policies, such as the credit-hour and academic freedom, present challenges for professional education programs tasked with operationalizing entry-to-practice competence frameworks for professional accreditation. A single embedded case study was used to explore how professional programs from one mid-sized Canadian university are approaching and perhaps problematizing the development and assessment of competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with educational leaders (faculty and staff, n=21) from a sample of nine programs. Following a grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis, the constant comparative method was used to inductively discern similarities and differences across programs, and to begin building theory about approaches to operationalization. While limited in scope given the use of a single university, our findings highlight: (a) diversity in approaches to operationalization across programs, (b) common attributes which can be used to classify the manner in which these programs operationalize competence, and (c) challenges with supporting faculty to buy in to competency-informed pedagogy and assessment. Given these findings, it is recommended that professional accrediting bodies and education programs spend time to consider the role university-based programs play in determining competence for entry-to-practice, as well their intents for implementing a competence framework, to ensure sufficiency in the approaches being used.

The purpose of this study is to define the geographic boundaries of commercial areas by creating a consistent definition, combining various commercial area types, including downtowns, retail centres, financial districts, and other employment subcentres. Our research involved the collection of office, retail and job density data from 69 metropolitan regions across USA and Canada. Using this data, we conducted an unsupervised image segmentation model and clustering methods to identify distinctive commercial geographic boundaries. As a result, we identified 23,751 commercial areas, providing a detailed perspective on the commercial landscape of metropolitan areas in the USA and Canada. In addition, the generated boundaries were successfully validated through comparison with previously established commerce-related boundaries. The output of this study has implications for urban and regional planning and economic development, delivering valuable insights into the overall commercial geography in the region. The commercial boundary and used codes are freely available on the School of Cities Github, and users can reuse, reproduce and modify the boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research, it is unclear under which circumstances travel is most onerous. While studies have found that some individuals derive positive utility from aspects of commuting, others have shown that traffic congestion can entail important time, monetary, and mental stress costs. Moreover, responses to traffic congestion-related stressors differs by individual characteristics. In response, this research captures how exposure to traffic congestion events, the duration of this exposure, and individual trait susceptibility to congestion affect the utility of commuting. Working through the lens of individual satisfaction with the duration of their commute, we show that not every minute of travel is valued the same by car commuters in Canadian cities. Results suggest a complex relationship between travel time, congestion, and individual predisposition to congestion-related stress. While improvements in travel time matter for increasing commute satisfaction, it is reductions in travel in congested conditions that matter most, particularly among those susceptible to congestion-related stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater is widely used as a source of drinking water in North America. However, it can be contaminated by microbial or chemical agents potentially hazardous to human health. In recent decades, governments have developed better knowledge of groundwater and established measures to protect and preserve the resource. Several studies have shown that relevant information on groundwater might prove very useful for regional planning purposes. However, there is little information on how groundwater information contributes to decision making in urban and regional planning in Canada and the United States. The objective of this study is to explore the level of use of groundwater information for land use planning purposes in Canada and the United States and to identify the factors that may explain why some provinces or states are more proactive than others when it comes to using such data for groundwater protection purposes. This paper presents the results of a survey sent across North America to groundwater information producers. The resulting data from the survey were examined using descriptive analyses and multiple correspondence analysis, and illustrate how groundwater data can be integrated into land planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The concept of resilience has captured the imagination of urbanists and city managers. While the literature on urban and regional resilience has proliferated, our understanding of resilience trade-offs that elected municipal officials and city staff make in their daily practice remains limited. This article addresses this lacuna by examining specific and general resilience trade-offs through a case study of urban and regional planning for floods and sea-level rise in Canada's Metro Vancouver region. We identify the mechanisms that ensure the maintenance of long-term options that are essential to the development of general resilience and highlight the barriers and forces that constrain the investment in general resilience. We find that while there are many examples of nuance and depth in practitioners' deliberations about resilience trade-offs involving fiscal, equity, spatial, temporal, and design dimensions, examples of the application of a consistent transparent framework to incorporate these trade-offs to support overall decision-making are lacking. We find that in the absence of such explicit frameworks, fiscal and political considerations tend to dominate. While there were some clear mechanisms to articulate trade-offs leading to specific resilience gains at the municipal level, the losses to general resilience at the regional level remained somewhat unintended and implicit. • The concept of resilience has captured the imagination of urbanists and city managers. • Our understanding of resilience trade-offs that elected officials and city staff make remains limited. • We examine specific and general resilience trade-offs in planning for floods and sea-level rise in Metro Vancouver, Canada. • We identify resilience trade-offs involving fiscal, equity, spatial, temporal, and design dimensions. • In the absence of an explicit decision-making framework for trade-offs, fiscal and political considerations tend to dominate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite the growing recognition that metropolitan real estate markets are segmented spatially and that property development is still profoundly local, research has taken little notice of agents that actually initiate and propel the development process. Earlier studies that aimed at identifying metropolitan segmentation employed statistical techniques whilst ignoring the practices of agents that might shed light on the notion of segmentation. Greater Toronto’s office market, which is Canada’s largest, exemplifies a real estate market far more spatially segmented than the downtown–suburban framework, a dichotomy so extensively use in research. Locational preferences of the numerous developers that work in this market tend to be highly localized, confirming deep-rooted segmentation. Their preferences correspond to submarket classification and follow dividing lines that crisscross the metropolitan region, emphasizing the extent and the power of parochialism, which defines the nature of real estate development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article reports on a survey of the readings that have most influenced the professional development of Canadian planning practitioners. Results indicate that influential writings originate from a wide diversity of sources, both inside and outside the discipline. We also detect a relationship between the age of respondents and that of the works mentioned, pointing to the determining effect of influences encountered during formative years. Works published in the 1960s, which are critical of previous approaches, are widely cited in the survey. A large selection of subsequent works proposing alternatives to mainstream planning suggests a lasting adherence to critical perspectives launched in the 1960s. Consequently, few foundational texts, and more generally works predating the 1960s, figure in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from case studies of communities with access-controlled developments, the paper explores the ways respondents talk about the functions of gates in access-controlled developments in Canada. Security may be less overtly a motivation for gating in Canada than investigators report for other countries. Planners and elected officials usually deny security justifications for gates. Respondents marketing or inhabiting enclaves are conflicted in their sentiments about the relationship of gated projects to security concerns. Pervasive assumptions about class and status and about the significance of life cycle status in shaping behaviour appear to influence explanations for the appearance of gates in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural-urban fringe poses numerous legal, political and procedural challenges regarding its proper governance and planning. This paper focuses upon the rate, form and location of fringe developments in British Columbia's unincorporated areas. It is argued that the chaotic nature of development results from a messy and uncoordinated governance structure where unincorporated territories are concerned. The paper concludes that a superior coordinated approach could be achieved by incorporating into provincial thought a sound planning vision regarding the development of the unincorporated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines urban design practice in Canada and takes stock of its nature and scope. This is accomplished through a survey of urban design regulations in municipalities across the country with populations greater than 25,000. Urban design regulations are municipal tools for shaping the physical and visual quality of urban spaces and the built environment. Municipal urban designers responding to the survey had to indicate how urban design is regulated, state factors that determined the substance of regulations, and select design principles that underlie the regulations. In addition, they identified design features that are regulated and individuals involved in design review. The results show that the majority of Canadian municipalities have urban design regulations in place, although mostly for their downtown and historic areas. Municipalities tend to emphasize historic architectural characteristics and do not attend to certain basic challenges such as providing safeguards against cold climate, caring for sensitive environmental conditions and respecting cultural diversity. The study also reveals that the provincial planning statutes, although influential, provide no clear guidance as to what urban design regulations should entail and how they should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information related to the regional plans for documentation in Canada. Periodical literature such as 200 scientific and technical periodicals, is the back-bone of information service, which is regionally oriented, because of great distances, a relatively small population and historic differences between the regions.