ABSTRACT
Urban and regional planning faces complex ethical dilemmas related to public interest; professional integrity; obligations toward the community, clients, employers, and colleagues; intellectual property; as well as the environment, other forms of life, and future generations, both in strategic and daily decisions. Therefore, besides the fact that they have to obey and implement the law, the mission of planning professionals includes complex judgements over conflicting land uses, which makes this one of the areas in public administration and public policy where decisions are embedded in highly complex, multilayer, and multiactor decision-making processes. A planner often has to weigh personal values against those established in one's professional organization, or in the society. In spite of this, the discussion of ethical principles in urban and regional planning is a relatively recent fact, even in countries where the planning profession has been organized for a long time.
