Pierre Gauthier
URBS240 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
URBS240 Planning
SHORT ESSAY | EXECUTIVE BRIEF ASSIGNMENT
(Total 20 points)
Keeping with the topic chosen for the Annotated Bibliography assignment, you will write a
short essay on planning and climate change.
Please stick to the topic chosen for your annotated bibliography assignment:
1. Urban Sprawl and Climate Change
2. Dependence to the Automobile (a.k.a. Automobility) and Climate Change
4. Alternatives to Automobility: Active Transportation and Planning
5. Urban Vulnerabilities to the Effects of Climate Change
6. Urban Adaptation to Climate Change(Selected topic!)
Nature, Content and organization of the short essay
Nature
Please produce this essay as if you were given the mandate to write a long executive
summary of 8 to 10 pages (usually executive summaries are 2 pagers) for the newly elected
Mayor of Montréal, whom is set to attend an international conference of experts and mayors
on your chosen topic. The Mayor is a well-educated person, but she is not a planning expert
and isn’t familiar with the topic. In short, she needs a Brief to read in the plane while
travelling to the conference that will: 1. teach her about the topic and its importance for
contemporary planning in times of climate change, and; 2. provide a general overview of key
research themes pertinent to the topic.
In brief, in this essay you are not asked to develop a “thesis” or to answer to a research
question, but rather to define and explain the chosen topic, and to highlight key research
work – or research streams – that investigate the said topic.
Content and organization
Your essay should have the following sections, appropriately identified with headings.
Remember that you have to substantiate any claim that you make by properly referring to the
sources you are using, as usual in an academic paper.
Introduction
In a brief introduction, identify your chosen topic and provide definitions of the core
concepts that will be discussed in your paper (e.g. “Climate change is understood
as…”, “Urban sprawl could be defined as…” “Active transportation is defined by
author X as…” “Climate change reveals urban vulnerabilities, which can be defined
as…”).
In one sentence or two, establish the link(s) between your topic and climate change
(with proper reference[s]).
Core of the essay
The core of the essay will be comprised of four sections.
URBS 240 Forth assignment 2
Pierre Gauthier
URBS240 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
1. In the first section, identify at least one key author/research group/research institute
that was/is instrumental in developing theory on the subject.
Situate this (these) author(s) in time (e.g. late 1990’s), with respect to its (their)
disciplinary affiliation (e.g. a geographer, a planner), and provide information about
the context of seminal research (e.g. “X came to develop an interest in this
phenomenon at the occasion of her famous study of Los Angeles…”) and/or current
research efforts (“the research group X from Cornell University leads the effort to
assess public policy initiatives aimed at adapting to climate change”.
This section is meant to talk about an important body of research produced on the
topic or some key aspects of it.
2. The second section will either: a. discuss further (based on relevant scientific
references), how/why your topic is relevant within the context of climate change (“the
research has identified four categories of urban vulnerabilities to the impacts of
climate change that will be discussed in the coming paragraphs…”), or; b. identify
and describe briefly several research “streams” that look at different aspects
pertaining to your topic (the research focused the links between urban sprawl and
climate change, revolve mainly around three main aspects that will be discussed in
the following paragraphs…”)
3. The third section will discuss the resonance of your topic in a Canadian context (refer
yourself to at least one text that discusses the issue in Canadian cities, or in one
Canadian city…).
4. The fourth section should discuss the links between the topic/issue and the
contemporary planning practice (i.e. how Planning has been/is contributing to the
problem, and/or how Planning is/could try to tackle/address the issue).
5. Conclusion
In the conclusion, discuss briefly, based on the references consulted, the relative
importance of this topic for the future of planning over the next 20 years.
The essay will include a comprehensive bibliography of all the material referred to or
quoted in the essay. The report will be no longer than 8 to 10 pages (1.5 space).
The name of the topic discussed will clearly appear in the title.
Your name and student number should appear on the first page.
No cover page please
Your report will be evaluated based on – in decreasing order of importance:
Fulfillment of the listed requirements;
Thoughtfulness of the analyses;
Originality;
Quality of the presentation (writing 20%).
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