Roundtable discussion: progress of urban informatics in urban planning

AbstractWith the rapid development of computer technology, urban informatics, as a new discipline in the field of urban planning, has gradually attracted academic attention. The rise of urban informatics puts new pressures on urban planning, but it also provides a new perspective of analysis. This paper is a summary of a panel discussion among scholars in urban informatics held at the 2020 International Association for China Planning(IACP).In this context, the panel outlines the definition of urban informatics, and the difference between urban informatics and urban analytic and computing, and found that urban informatics pays more attention to end user. This indicates that urban informatics has been more than a supporting role in urban planning or design, and is increasingly integrated with urban planning. The panel also discusses the connotation of urban informatics and its wide application in practice, and illustrates with examples. At the same time, the team identifies the difficulties of its development mainly reflected in the two aspects of resources and talents, and the learners of urban planning discipline have natural advantage in learning urban informatics. Finally, the panel discusses how to improve teaching, and concludes that the promotion of good cases, discipline integration, training data thinking rather than focusing too much on methods and other concepts. All in all, this panel's report contributes to the wider discussion about the role of urban informatics plays in urban planning.