Basic Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Planners

Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367343248
• eBook ISBN: 9781000769357
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Methods & Materials

In most planning practice and research, planners work with quantitative data. By summarizing, analyzing, and presenting data, planners create stories and narratives that explain various planning issues. Particularly, in the era of big data and data mining, there is a stronger demand in planning practice and research to increase capacity for data-driven storytelling.

Basic Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Planners provides readers with comprehensive knowledge and hands-on techniques for a variety of quantitative research studies, from descriptive statistics to commonly used inferential statistics. It covers statistical methods from chi-square through logistic regression and also quasi-experimental studies. At the same time, the book provides fundamental knowledge about research in general, such as planning data sources and uses, conceptual frameworks, and technical writing. The book presents relatively complex material in the simplest and clearest way possible, and through the use of real world planning examples, makes the theoretical and abstract content of each chapter as tangible as possible.

It will be invaluable to students and novice researchers from planning programs, intermediate researchers who want to branch out methodologically, practicing planners who need to conduct basic analyses with planning data, and anyone who consumes the research of others and needs to judge its validity and reliability.

1 Introduction

Keunhyun Park and Reid Ewing

Overview

The distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods primarily lies in the type of data—simply described, numbers versus words. Reid Ewing, the chief editor of this book, has written in Planning magazine on the relative strengths of quantitative versus qualitative research. In October 2007, he took the side of qualitative research when the topic or data are inherently subjective. In January 2009, using the example of the transfer of development rights, he took the opposite side, arguing for quantitative research when the variables at play are easily measured. Then, in February 2013, another column addressed three different ways that quantitative and qualitative data can be combined in a mixed-method design.

While acknowledging that it is a spectrum rather than a dichotomy that classifies a variety of research methods, this book series primarily focuses on quantitative methods, from descriptive statistics to inferential statistics, to spatial econometrics, and to meta-analysis and meta-regression. At the same time, this basic quantitative research methods book, and its companion advanced research methods book, provide some fundamental knowledge about research in general, such as planning data sources and uses, research topics and journals in the planning field, conceptual frameworks, and technical writing.

As Tracy (2013, p. 36) notes, “quantitative methods use measurement and statistics to transform empirical data into numbers and to develop mathematical models that quantify behavior.” Many statistical analysis methods emerged as researchers sought more precise mechanisms to establish valid models. The objective of this book is to provide readers with comprehensive knowledge and hands-on techniques for a variety of quantitative research studies. The related objective is to present relatively complex material in the simplest and clearest way possible, and, through the use of planning examples, to make the theoretical and abstract content of each chapter as tangible as possible.

Quantitative Methods in Planning

Target readers include students and novice researchers from planning programs, intermediate researchers who want to branch out methodologically, practicing planners who need to conduct basic analyses with planning data, and anyone who consumes the research of others and needs to judge its validity and reliability. We dare to hope that this book, due to its ease of understanding and breadth of material, will be used not only by planners but also by those in fields related to planning, such as geography and public policy.

At present, there is a lack of textbooks on quantitative planning research methods. This might be because planning research has its roots in other disciplines. Quantitative research in planning emerges from methodologies used in medicine, public health, business, education, and other disciplines. While this condition requires (and enables) multidisciplinary learning, novice researchers need a core book of diverse methods more directly addressing how the methods are applied to planning issues.

Quantitative research methods are essential elements in planning program curricula. In the United States and Canada, there are 91 accredited planning programs (75 master’s and 16 bachelor’s) at 79 universities, as of December 2019 (www.planningaccreditationboard.org). Among them, about 20 schools have doctoral programs. The Planning Accreditation Board (PAB), founded in 1984, requires planning programs to teach a set of planning skills to be accredited. Relevant to the current boo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Technical Writing
• 3 Types of Research
• 4 Planning Data and Analysis
• 5 Conceptual Frameworks
• 6 Validity and Reliability
• 7 Descriptive Statistics and Visualizing Data
• 8 Chi-Square
• 9 Correlation
• 10 Difference of Means Tests (T-Tests)
• 11 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• 12 Linear Regression
• 13 Logistic Regression
• 14 Quasi-Experimental Research
• List of Contributors
• Index