Urbanization and Environmental Master Plans

Urbanization has upset the balance of life, land and natural resources and directly impacted human behavior ecologically, sociologically and psychologically. Clearly, morally based isolated actions cannot lead to a sustainable world. The authors contend that master planning is needed to solve the problems of global-scale urbanization and sustainability. They suggest that the economic, social, cultural, political, ecological, technological, informational and communicative aspects of the solution require master plans that give full attention to the human psychology. Thus, in seeking an approach that is taken from a perspective that directly impacts the psychological processes of human beings, they propose an "environmental master planning model" for an urban network system that emphasizes bottom-to-top public participation starting at the family and neighborhood levels and encompassing the regional, national and eventually the global level.