Course Objectives

The course aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of the way in which the physical environment is managed in Norway. Land-use management is an important issue in the administrative sphere, and receives much attention in the media. The course will provide students with such knowledge that they will be able to understand and participate in such matters. The course will also provide students with knowledge of how public management is organised in general, and how physical planning is accomplished in the municipalities.

Course Description

Central themes:
 Physical planning and its legal foundation
 The history and theory of social and land-use planning, planning methods, concepts and associated issues
 The practical and formal aspects of municipal planning and administration with particular emphasis on land-use planning in keeping with the Planning and Building Act, the Pollution Control Act and the Conservation Act
 Specific land-use planning cases with an introduction to plan types and the planning process in accordance with the Planning and Building Act
 Laboratory exercises in the use of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with examples of how this can be used in land-use planning

Learning Methods

Forty hours of lectures.
Obligatory: Project assignment, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) exercises 20 hours, and a one-day field trip.
Lectures, project work, study trip and laboratory exercises. It will be demonstrated how a variety of professions contribute to land and resource management, and how the respective professionals contribute to the planning of our surroundings. In the project assignments, the student will work independently or in a group on a suitable land-use planning task.

Assessment Methods

Two graded assessments will be given: a project assignment counts for 40% and a written 4-hour final examination will count for 60% of the final grade. Both parts must receive passing grades. In order to sit for the final examination, participation in the obligatory parts of the course must be approved.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean