ABSTRACT
Urban planners, social scientists, engineers, and professionals in many other fields of endeavor need to have a clear perspective of existing conditions to be in a good position to recommend improvements that are necessary to fulfil community needs and aspirations. Although there are many and ever-growing sources of available information, not all analyses of planning issues can completely depend on available information. In planning, surveys contribute to the determination of existing conditions, needs, and aspirations (or what is) before the development of a set of recommended solutions (or what should be). Whether the survey is conducted in-house or contracted out, it remains an important means of obtaining primary data, and planners need to be familiar with the major components of the survey process. Chapter 2 focuses mainly on what planners need to pay attention to in the development and execution of a survey. The development phase touches on establishing clear objectives for the survey which lead to the design of the survey instrument or questionnaire. The execution phase describes the framework for the survey procedure which covers a series of decisions on type, size, population, technique, and administration of the survey.
