ABSTRACT
Land use planning plays a central role in the social and productive system; without it the economic and financial system cannot develop. This chapter discusses the future of cities in planetary systems based on a standardising model, the need to live on Earth peacefully, the reductionism of urban planning, the limits of the biosphere’s metastable equilibrium, and the need for scientific independence in urban planning and political commitment. The historic urban revolution continues all over the world and changes nature: metropolitan areas, urban regions, ecumenopolis, where all forms of integration presuppose vast literature, supported by social, economic, formal, functional or structural analysis. The challenge is to reduce economic and financial exploitation and react to pervasive standardisation, indifference to multiple cultural identities which make cities and regions so fascinating. Ecology is necessary to fight disinformation and create awareness in societies that can propose and develop national objectives to give coherence to regional and local planning with a view to environmental protection.
