Global perspectives and international experiences in the field of participatory planning of urban environment

Citizens activities affects the environment and cities. Hence, to have a good city development planning for the current and future generations, people should consciously participate in the process. Involving people is necessary to achieve the general consensus. In other words, planners should help all interested parties to agree on the nature of the problem and an affordable plan. The presence of citizens in the different stages of urban development, increases public confidence in decision-makers, provides transparency and better accountability in decision-making, reduces conflict through the early identification of issues, obtains local and traditional knowledge before decision-making and ultimately advances the aims faster. This paper which was prepared through library research and analytical methods, aimed to investigate the concept and theory of participatory planning and its role in urban development. In addition, experiences of different countries in this field have also been discussed. The results of these studies indicates the effective role of participatory planning at different levels of planning and urban development.