Core Faculty

Arnab Chakraborty

Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning
PhD, University of Maryland-College Park, 2007


Arnab Chakraborty’s teaching and research focus on how plans are made and used, the mechanics of their relationship with the larger forces of development, and ultimately, their impact on people. His work has been published in many impactful journals including, Journal of the American Planning Association, Urban Studies, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, and Land Use Policy. His recent projects have been supported by the Federal Highway Administration, the Urban Institute and, most recently, the National Science Foundation. An abstract of the NSF-funded study is available here.

Professor Chakraborty's current research is concerned with: (i) identifying planning practices that can prepare us better for the next housing crsis, and (ii) understanding the impact of recent federal initiatives on the practice of regional planning in the US. In the past, his research has involved identifying effective frameworks of scenario planning, empirical analysis of zoning restrictions and its outcomes, and evaluation of regional and mega-regional planning efforts. He is also interested in the role of governance in the megacities of developing countries, in particular, India. His past international projects have been in China, Curacao, and The Netherlands.

Professor Chakraborty typically teaches the following courses: Plan Making (UP 510), Regional Planning and Policy (UP594AC), and Communication for Planners (UP 312). In Spring 2013, he will also teach Environmental Policy and Planning (UP543). In the past, he has taught Growth Management, Microeconomics of Public Policy and Planning, and GIS. His courses stress the importance of critical thinking and collaboration, and the need to connect techniques learnt in the class to real world planning situations. Professor Chakraborty also serves as the Director of MUP Admissions.

Prior to his PhD, Professor Chakraborty received a master's degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor in architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. In the past, he has taught at the Johns Hopkins University and worked for the Chicago Transit Authority. In addition to DURP, at Illinois Chakraborty is associated with the Center for Global Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Land use Evolution and impact Assessment Modeling Laboratory and the Urban and Regional Sustainability Lab. He is also an affiliate faculty of the National Center for Smart Growth and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Contact Information
Room M230, Temple Buell Hall
611 Taft Drive, Champaign, IL 61820
E-mail: arnab@illinois.edu
Phone: +1.217.244.8728; Fax: +1.217.244.1717

Current Research Projects

  • An evaluation of the influence of zoning and local regulatory environment on housing price and foreclosure risk (funded by the National Science Foundation, abstract)
  • An assessment of USHUD-EPA-DOT funded Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant program (with Urban Institute and Living Cities Foundation)
  • Testing policy choices using a mega-regional model and development scenarios for Mid-Atlantic States. FHWY Exploratory Advanced Research Program 4B – Mega-regional Travel (with University of Maryland, LEAM Lab at UIUC, ECONorthwest and others)

Links to selected ongoing projects: md-LEAM, Mid-Atlantic Megaregions Project, and Maryland Scenario Project

Selected Publications

Chakraborty, A., Allred, D. and Boyer, R., “Zoning Restrictiveness and Housing Foreclosures: Exploring a New Link to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis” Forthcoming in Housing Policy Debate

Kim J. H., Deal, B. and Chakraborty, A., “Parsing Density Changes: A framework for outcome-oriented growth management policy analysis,” Forthcoming in the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment

Chakraborty, A., and Mishra, S., “Land Use and Transit Ridership Connections: Implications for State-level Planning Agencies,” Land Use Policy (2013) 30 458-469.

Chakraborty, A., Mishra, S., and Kim, Y.W., “Planning support systems and planning across scales: Comparing scenarios using multiple regional delineations and projections,” URISA Journal: Special Issue on Bridging the Gap Between Modeling and Planning Practice (2012) 24:1 49-58

Chakraborty, A., “Recognizing uncertainty and linked decisions in public participation: A new framework for collaborative urban planning,” Systems Research and Behavioral Science: Special issue on Collaborative Problem Solving amid Conflicts (2012) 29:2 131–148

Chakraborty, A., Kaza, N., Knaap, G. J. and Deal, B., "Robust Plans and Contingent Plans: The promise of scenario planning," Journal of the American Planning Association (2011) 77:3 251-266

Chakraborty, A., "Enhancing the Role of Participatory Scenario Planning Processes: Lessons from Reality Check Exercises," Futures (2011) 43:4 387-399

Chakraborty, A., "Scenario Planning for Effective Regional Governance: Promises and Limitations," State and Local Government Review (2010) 42:1 156-167

Deal, B., and Chakraborty, A., "Cyber-Physical Planning Support Systems: Advancing participatory decision-making in complex urban environments," International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management (2010) 16:3 353-367

Chakraborty, A., Knaap, G. J., Nguyen, D., and Shin, J. H., "The Effects of High Density Zoning on Multifamily Housing Construction in the Suburbs of Six U.S. Metropolitan Areas", Urban Studies (2010) 47:2 437-451

Deal, B., Kim J. H. and Chakraborty, A., "Growth Management and Sustainable Transport: Do growth management policies promote transit use?" Journal of Public Transportation (2009) 12:4 21-40

Bento, A., Lowe, S., Knaap, G. J., and Chakraborty, A., “Housing Market Impacts of Inclusionary Zoning”, Cityscape (2009) 11:2 7-26 [A version of this article was later included in a book, The Affordable Housing Reader, edited by J. Rosie Tighe and Elizabeth Mueller and published by Routledge in October 2012]

Knaap, G. J., Chakraborty, A., "Comprehensive Planning for Sustainable Rural Development", Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Special Issue on Rural Development Policy, Edward Feser and Andrew Isserman (eds.), (2007) 37:1 18.20

Shiffer, M., Chakraborty, A., McNeil, S., Srinivasan, S., Donahue, B., Garfield, G., "A Spatial Multimedia Representation of the Chicago Transit Authority's Rail Infrastructure", Transportation Research Record 1838, (2003) Paper# 03-2582: pp 1-10

 

Arnab Chakraborty