Urban Planning (Non-Thesis): Transportation Planning (M.U.P.) (60 credits)
Offered by: Urban Planning (Faculty of Engineering)
Degree: Master of Urban Planning
Program credit weight: 60
Program Description
The Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.) Urban Planning (Non-Thesis); Transportation Planning option enables students to specialize in this field as part of their course of study for the Master of Urban Planning degree (M.U.P.). Studio courses, an internship, and a final project involve real-life applications and research.
Required Courses (49 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| URBP 605 | Geographic Information Systems. | 3 |
Geographic Information Systems. Terms offered: Winter 2027 An introduction to fundamental geographic information system (GIS) concepts and a range of GIS applications in urban and regional planning. | ||
| URBP 609 | Visual Communication 1. | 1 |
Visual Communication 1. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Techniques used for visual communication in planning practice, including a basic introduction to software. | ||
| URBP 610 | Visual Communication 2. | 1 |
Visual Communication 2. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Refinement of techniques used for visual communication in planning practice, including basic use of software. | ||
| URBP 611 | Data Visualization for Planning. | 1 |
Data Visualization for Planning. Terms offered: Fall 2026 An introduction to data visualization for planning, using computer applications. | ||
| URBP 612 | History and Theory of Planning. | 3 |
History and Theory of Planning. Terms offered: Fall 2026 A review of planning history and theories of planning. These are examined under three categories: explanation of urban phenomena, substantive theory, and theories of process. | ||
| URBP 619 | Land Use and Transport Planning. | 4 |
Land Use and Transport Planning. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Analysis of transport and land use interactions in urban areas. Study of the impacts of transport systems on travel behaviour, residential and work location decisions, and urban form; discussion of implications for planning practice. | ||
| URBP 622 | Planning Studio 1. | 6 |
Planning Studio 1. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Introduction to planning practice based on real-world urban research and planning at the neighbourhood level. Topics: problem definition, methods for data collection and analysis, goal setting, design and analysis of alternative plans, public policy, plan implementation, and professional presentation techniques. Students work in interdisciplinary teams on assessments of current living conditions and on plans to improve them, including policies and projects related to housing, public space, infrastructure and services, and community development. Research and recommendations are presented in oral presentations and written reports. | ||
| URBP 623 | Planning Studio 2. | 6 |
Planning Studio 2. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Research and planning techniques for land development. Students work in teams to do research on context, program and precedents and develop a detailed plan for a site that poses urban and/or environmental challenges. Topics: site analysis, market analysis, and financial analysis; land-use regulation, real-estate development, residential planning, and housing policy; data collection and analysis, design and evaluation of alternatives, and project implementation. | ||
| URBP 624 | Planning Studio 3. | 6 |
Planning Studio 3. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Exploration of complex planning problems at the local or regional scale, chosen depending on the experience and research interests of the participants, for the acquisition of research and planning skills in greater depth. Students work in teams to fulfill a mandate for a public, private or third-sector client. Substantive issues vary according to clients. Topics: project management, client-consultant interactions, and professional communication. | ||
| URBP 628 | Practical Experience. | 0 |
Practical Experience. Terms offered: Fall 2026 An internship related to the practice of urban planning is required. The practical experience must be of at least 360 hours' duration and be supervised by a professional in the planning field. An evaluation of the student's performance by the supervisor, as well as a short report by the student, forms the basis for assessment. | ||
| URBP 630 | Supervised Research Project 1. | 3 |
Supervised Research Project 1. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Supervised research project, providing foundations to focus on a particular area of enquiry in planning. | ||
| URBP 631 | Supervised Research Project 2. | 3 |
Supervised Research Project 2. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Continuation of the requirements for the Supervised Research Project. | ||
| URBP 632 | Supervised Research Project 3. | 6 |
Supervised Research Project 3. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Continuation of the requirements for the Supervised Research Project. | ||
| URBP 635 | Planning Law. | 3 |
Planning Law. Terms offered: Winter 2027 A comparative study of private and public control of land use and development, including master plans, zoning bylaws, subdivision control, urban redevelopment, expropriation, regional planning, environmental protection, and heritage conservation. | ||
| URBP 640 | Introduction to Planning Statistics. | 1 |
Introduction to Planning Statistics. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics, focusing on building confidence and intuition in using and manipulating quantitative information. Correlation, t-tests, chi-squared tests, and bivariate regression. | ||
| URBP 641 | Reading the Urban Landscape . | 1 |
Reading the Urban Landscape . Terms offered: Fall 2026 An overview of selected passive techniques that may be used to assess the congruence between urban environments and people as they go about their daily activities. These techniques include: (1) observing physical traces, (2) observing behaviour, (3) cognitive mapping and wayfinding, and (4) the assessment of the overall quality of urban environments. | ||
| URBP 642 | Introduction to Planning Data. | 1 |
Introduction to Planning Data. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Techniques of exploratory data analysis. Data cleaning and transformation. Visualization techniques. Census data and the methods most commonly used to analyze them. Principles of reproducible research. | ||
Complementary Courses (11 credits)
Group A
5-11 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CIVE 540 | Urban Transportation Planning. | 3 |
Urban Transportation Planning. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Process and techniques of urban transportation engineering and planning, including demand analysis framework, data collection procedures, travel demand modelling and forecasting, and cost-effectiveness framework for evaluation of project and system alternatives. | ||
| CIVE 561 | Greenhouse Gas Emissions. | 3 |
Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Greenhouse gas inventories at various scales from national to institutional. Emission estimation methods including field measurements and engineering calculations for anthropogenic sources including fossil fuel combustion from transportation and energy production, cement production, hydroelectric reservoirs, oil and gas systems, landfills, wastewater treatment and sewer systems, and agriculture. Technical and policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Group project. | ||
| CIVE 661 | Modelling of Transportation Emissions. | 4 |
Modelling of Transportation Emissions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Interactions between transportation modeling and emissions modeling; models for on-road and non-road emissions; impacts of technology, fuel quality, and driving behaviour on the generation of vehicle emissions. Effects of alternative fuels. | ||
| URBP 503 | Public Transport: Planning and Operations. | 3 |
Public Transport: Planning and Operations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Overview of topics in planning and operations for public transport with special emphasis on best-practice strategies of contemporary urban systems. | ||
| URBP 504 | Planning for Active Transportation. | 3 |
Planning for Active Transportation. Terms offered: Winter 2027 The importance of transit, walking, and cycling as modes of transportation in sustainable urban environments. Planning, design, and operation of mass transit systems, bikeways, and footpaths. | ||
| URBP 506 | Environmental Policy and Planning. | 3 |
Environmental Policy and Planning. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Analytical and institutional approaches for understanding and addressing environmental issues at various scales; characteristics of environmental issues, science-policy-politics interactions relating to the environment, and implications for policy; sustainability, and the need for and challenges associated with interdisciplinary perspectives; externalities and their regulation; public goods; risk perception and implications; the political-institutional context and policy instruments; cost-benefit analysis; multiple-criteria decision-making approaches; multidimensional life-cycle analysis; policy implementation issues; conflict resolution; case studies. | ||
| URBP 536 | Current Issues in Transportation 1. | 2 |
Current Issues in Transportation 1. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from practitioner and academic perspectives. | ||
| URBP 537 | Current Issues in Transportation 2. | 2 |
Current Issues in Transportation 2. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Current transportation issues and topics are addressed from the perspectives of both professional practitioners and academics. | ||
| URBP 581 | Principles and Practice 1A. | 1 |
Principles and Practice 1A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to a current and relevant professional, practical or applied theoretical topic. | ||
| URBP 582 | Principles and Practice 1B. | 1 |
Principles and Practice 1B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to a current professional, practical or applied theoretical topic. | ||
| URBP 583 | Special Topics 2. | 1 |
Special Topics 2. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning. | ||
| URBP 586 | Planning Theory and Practice 1A. | 2 |
Planning Theory and Practice 1A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptual or theoretical issue in urban planning, its wider context and implications, and its relation to current planning practice and policy. | ||
| URBP 587 | Planning Theory and Practice 1B. | 3 |
Planning Theory and Practice 1B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A conceptual or theoretical issue in urban planning, relating it to planning practice and policy. | ||
| URBP 591 | Principles and Practice 2A. | 1 |
Principles and Practice 2A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to a current professional, practical or applied theoretical topic. | ||
| URBP 592 | Principles and Practice 2B. | 1 |
Principles and Practice 2B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to a current professional, practical or applied theoretical topic. | ||
| URBP 593 | Special Topics 3. | 1 |
Special Topics 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning. | ||
| URBP 596 | Planning Theory and Practice 2A. | 2 |
Planning Theory and Practice 2A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptual or theoretical issue in urban planning, its wider context and implications, and its relation to current planning practice and policy. | ||
| URBP 597 | Planning Theory and Practice 2B. | 3 |
Planning Theory and Practice 2B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptual or theoretical issue in urban planning, its wider context and implications, and its relation to current planning practice and policy. | ||
| URBP 608 | Advanced Spatial Methods for Planning and Policy | 3 |
Advanced Spatial Methods for Planning and Policy Terms offered: Fall 2026, Winter 2027 Advanced methods for research and analysis of complex, real-world urban planning, policy, and design problems. | ||
| URBP 620 | Transport Economics. | 4 |
Transport Economics. Terms offered: Fall 2026 Economic and financial aspects of urban transport policies and planning. Introduction to impact assessment techniques for major transport projects and policies; discussion of political debates concerning transport financing. | ||
| URBP 643 | Selected Geographic Information Systems Applications . | 1 |
Selected Geographic Information Systems Applications . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected applications in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) related to urban planning. | ||
| URBP 655 | Futures, Time and Temporalities in Urban Planning. | 3 |
Futures, Time and Temporalities in Urban Planning. Terms offered: Winter 2027 Conceptualizing cities and time in view of thinking about urban futures. Cities as complex systems. Regulating and constraining the future. Politics and power. Impact of the future on current decision-making. Past future thinking (essentially 19th and 20th century 'western' futures). Current future thinking. Incorporating future thinking into planning practice. Visioning, scenario building and strategic planning. Roles, uses and limits of prediction; modelling; trends; foresight; scenarios; forecasting and backcasting. | ||
| URBP 684 | Advanced Special Topics 1A. | 1 |
Advanced Special Topics 1A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning, policy or design. | ||
| URBP 685 | Advanced Special Topics 1B. | 2 |
Advanced Special Topics 1B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning, policy or design. | ||
| URBP 694 | Advanced Special Topics 2A. | 1 |
Advanced Special Topics 2A. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning, policy or design. | ||
| URBP 695 | Advanced Special Topics 2B. | 2 |
Advanced Special Topics 2B. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced topic or issue of immediate relevance to current urban planning, policy or design. | ||
Group B
0-6 credits of coursework at the 500 or 600 level offered by any offered by any academic unit at McGill or another Montreal university, with the approval of the School, if they help students to develop an in-depth knowledge of one or more subject areas in the field of planning. Choices usually include courses in real-estate analysis, urban geography, sociology, anthropology, law, politics, and environmental science. Students must confirm prior to registration that the selected course(s) can be counted toward the M.U.P. degree.