New book due out in October. See: https://www.routledge.com/Artificial-Intelligence-for-Urban-Planning/Sanchez/p/book/9781032760469

New book due out in October. See: https://www.routledge.com/Artificial-Intelligence-for-Urban-Planning/Sanchez/p/book/9781032760469
Proposal Submission Deadline: July 31, 2025
The Handbook of AI and Urban Planning edited by Thomas W. Sanchez (twsanchez@tamu.edu)
Introduction
The Handbook of AI and Urban Planning will provide a comprehensive and practice-oriented guide to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the field of urban planning. As cities become increasingly complex and data-rich, AI offers a broad range of tools to support analysis, design, decision-making, and community engagement. This edited volume will bring together contributions from scholars, practitioners, and technologists to explore how AI is being applied across a range of planning domains—from land use modeling and mobility systems to participatory planning and governance. While the focus is on practical applications, the book will also address the broader implications of AI, including ethical concerns, institutional readiness, and the evolving role of the planner. By providing real-world examples, emerging technologies, and global perspectives, the volume will provide urban planners, students, and researchers with fundamentals and examples helpful for engaging with AI as a tool for planning. Get the submission guidelines here.
Edward Elgar Publishing
Academia relies on a steady stream of reviews— journal articles, promotion and tenure packages, book proposals, research proposals—the list goes on. Every week, we are bombarded with requests to review, critique, and provide detailed feedback (I had 243 review invitations in 2024). It’s considered part of our service to the profession, a pillar of academic life alongside research, teaching, and administrative responsibilities. But here’s the question: do we really get credit for this work?
Universities often talk about the importance of service, but they rarely quantify the impact or quality of peer review. Whether we review for prestigious journals or lesser-known outlets, whether our reviews are rigorous or perfunctory, the effort often goes unnoticed in tenure and promotion discussions. There are no metrics or tangible recognition for the hundreds of hours spent guiding the research record and shaping the literature of our fields. It’s invisible labor, both expected and undervalued.
The irony is that without this work, the entire academic publishing ecosystem would collapse. Publishers rely on our willingness to review, often within short deadlines and without compensation. Meanwhile, the volume of requests has ballooned as more journals proliferate and expectations for detailed peer feedback increase. It’s not uncommon to feel like we’re doing publishers’ jobs for free—offloading tasks that in many industries would be paid positions.
So, what’s the answer? Perhaps it’s time for systemic change. Universities should explicitly recognize and reward peer review in annual evaluations, tenure dossiers, and merit raises. Professional associations could create standardized ways to quantify and verify review contributions, such as issuing certifications or service credits. Some journals and publishers offer tangible incentives, from reduced article processing fees to honoraria as well as “reviewer of the year” awards. These are a step in the right direction, particularly for junior faculty members.
At the very least, the conversation needs to shift. Peer review is essential intellectual labor, and it deserves more than a vague nod to “service.” Without recognition, this invisible work will continue to burden an already overstretched academic workforce, leaving us to ask: how much is too much, and when will enough finally be enough?
Below is my list of publication review invites. I’m especially flattered by Cogent Food & Agriculture, Dermatological Reviews, Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior, and Oncology and Translational Medicine for recognizing my expertise in these research fields. More than anything this points to sloppy work by journal editors who should be identifying appropriate and qualified reviewers – yet another problem with the system.
Publication | Invites |
---|---|
Advanced Control for Applications | 1 |
Applied Economic Letters | 1 |
Applied Geography | 1 |
Applied Sciences | 3 |
Architecture | 1 |
Big Data & Society | 1 |
Buildings | 1 |
Cartography and Geographic Information Science | 1 |
Cities | 20 |
Cogent Food & Agriculture | 1 |
Data & Policy | 1 |
Data in Brief | 2 |
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery | 1 |
Dermatological Reviews | 2 |
Egyptian Informatics Journal | 1 |
Engineering | 1 |
Engineering Management Review | 1 |
Engineering Reports | 1 |
Environment and Planning B | 2 |
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators | 1 |
Environmental Research Letters | 2 |
Environmental Science and Ecotechnology | 1 |
European Journal of Education | 1 |
European Planning Studies | 2 |
F1000Research | 2 |
Frontiers in Computer Science | 1 |
Frontiers in Sustainable Cities | 1 |
Future Transporation | 1 |
Geocarto | 1 |
Geoscience Data Journal | 1 |
Habitat International | 1 |
IEEE Engineering Management Review | 1 |
IEEE Software | 1 |
IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy, and Regulation | 1 |
IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles | 1 |
IETE Technical Review | 1 |
IJUS | 1 |
Infodemiology | 1 |
Information System and Smart City | 1 |
Information, Communication and Society | 1 |
International Journal of Consumer Studies | 1 |
International Journal of Environmental Research | 1 |
International Journal of Sustainable Transportation | 1 |
International Journal of Urban Science | 1 |
International Planning Studies | 1 |
IT Professional | 1 |
JAPA | 3 |
Journal of Arid Environments | 1 |
Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering | 6 |
Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior | 1 |
Journal of Cleaner Production | 1 |
Journal of Data and Information Science | 1 |
Journal of Economy and Technology | 1 |
Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences | 1 |
Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management | 1 |
Journal of Housing & Society book | 1 |
Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making | 1 |
Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development | 5 |
Journal of Innovation and Technology Management | 1 |
Journal of International Development | 2 |
Journal of Knowledge Management | 2 |
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering | 1 |
Journal of Medical Education | 1 |
Journal of Planning History | 1 |
Journal of Planning Literature | 1 |
Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities | 2 |
Journal of Transport Geography | 2 |
Journal of Urban Planning and Development | 1 |
Journal of Urban Technology | 2 |
Journal of Urban Technology special issue | 1 |
JPER | 9 |
JPL | 1 |
Land | 46 |
Land Use Policy | 1 |
Landscape and Urban Planning | 3 |
Nature Cities | 1 |
Next Sustainability | 1 |
Oncology and Translational Medicine | 1 |
Open Journal of Political Science | 2 |
Planning Perspectives | 1 |
Planning Theory | 1 |
PLOS Climate | 1 |
Plos One | 1 |
PNAS Nexus | 1 |
Qeios | 2 |
Simulation | 1 |
Smart Sciences | 1 |
Social Sciences & Humanities Open | 4 |
Sociological Focus | 1 |
Survey Review | 2 |
Sustainability | 6 |
Sustainable Futures | 1 |
Technology | Architecture + Design | 1 |
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management | 1 |
Technovation | 1 |
Transport Policy | 1 |
Travel Behaviour and Society | 1 |
Urban Climate | 1 |
Urban Governance | 2 |
Urban Planning | 1 |
Urban Resilience and Sustainability | 2 |
Urban Resilience and Sustainability special issue (guest edit) | 1 |
Urban Science | 30 |
Value in Health | 1 |
Note: I am an editorial board member for Land and Urban Science, and do several pre-reviews for those journals.
The updated citation data have just been posted at ScholarMetrics. Thanks to those of you who provided corrections, updates, and other faculty information. As mentioned before, there is no (easy) way to provide real-time updates due to Google Scholar limitations. I scrape Google Scholar Profiles for faculty who maintain them (about 800 of you) and then I use Harzing’s Publish or Perish to search publications and metrics for those who don’t have profiles (about 250). There is a lot of manual work involved so I’m only able to provide updates twice a year. I focus on only active, full-time, tenure-track faculty because program comparisons are meant to reflect current faculty activities. This means adjuncts, retired, emeritus, lecturers, etc. are not included because the expectations for scholarly productivity are not the same as for current, tenured or tenure-track faculty. Links to previous years and more background are provided at Scholarmetrics. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions at: twsanchez@tamu.edu.
Top schools by median citations
Top faculty by total citations and H-Index
See our new open access article in the Journal of the American Planning Association on the ethics of AI in planning. Co-authors Marc Brenman, Xinyue Ye, and I welcome your comments. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2024.2355305
The updated citation data have just been posted at ScholarMetrics. Thanks to those of you who provided corrections, updates, and other faculty information. As mentioned before, there is no (easy) way to provide real-time updates due to Google Scholar limitations. I scrape Google Scholar Profiles for faculty who maintain them (about 800 of you) and then I use Harzing’s Publish or Perish to search publications and metrics for those who don’t have profiles (about 250). There is a lot of manual work involved so I’m only able to provide updates twice a year. Usually after I post updates I’ll receive several corrections which take a couple of weeks to clean up. A common question I get is about who is included. I try to only include active, full-time, tenure-track faculty because program comparisons are meant to reflect current faculty activities for assistant, associate, and full professors. This means adjuncts, retired, emeritus, lecturers, etc. are not included because the expectations for scholarly productivity are not the same as for current, tenure or tenure-track faculty. Links to previous years and more background are provided at Scholarmetrics. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions at: twsanchez@tamu.edu.
Figure 1. Top schools by median citations
Figure 2. Top faculty by total citations and H-Index
Download the call for chapters here.
Special Issue “Big Data in Urban Land Use Planning” in Land.
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/8947MIE392
With the development of urbanization and population growth, the problem of human–land conflict has become increasingly serious, and it is restricting the healthy and sustainable development of the urban landscape. Since the urban land use planning process is complex and involves social, economic, environmental, and political systems, knowledge of how these systems interact is the domain of professional planners. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology present planners with a ripe opportunity to critically assess their approaches and explore how new data collection, analysis, and methods can augment their understanding of places, as they seek to anticipate a future with an overall improved quality of life. Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technology can offer access to more and enhanced information regarding travel patterns, energy consumption, land utilization, and environmental impacts, while also helping to better integrate these systems.
For this Special Issue, we invite you to submit original research articles and reviews that provide insights into big data and urban land use planning. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
The recently updated citation data have been posted at ScholarMetrics. Just over 76% of the faculty being tracked (802 out of 1,054) have Google Scholar Citation Profiles and the rest of the faculty included are updated manually. I greatly appreciate those of you who send updates and corrections. Please let me know if you have any suggestions at: twsanchez@tamu.edu.
All Schools (Total Faculty Citations)
Planning School | Faculty | Median | Mean |
---|---|---|---|
The New School | 6 | 3,845 | 5,060 |
USC | 15 | 3,501 | 4,573 |
Arizona State University | 16 | 3,348 | 6,080 |
MIT | 32 | 2,954 | 4,692 |
UCLA | 28 | 2,862 | 6,031 |
New York University | 7 | 2,722 | 3,495 |
Georgia Tech | 15 | 2,460 | 2,776 |
University of Toronto | 8 | 2,371 | 2,037 |
University of Colorado, Denver | 6 | 2,359 | 3,010 |
McGill University | 7 | 2,288 | 4,817 |
University of Minnesota | 11 | 2,178 | 3,727 |
UC Berkeley | 14 | 2,107 | 6,116 |
University of British Columbia | 14 | 2,067 | 3,850 |
Tufts University | 8 | 2,018 | 4,666 |
Universite Laval | 13 | 1,994 | 2,394 |
UNC | 17 | 1,889 | 4,645 |
Rutgers University | 19 | 1,809 | 2,727 |
University of Massachusetts-Amherst | 7 | 1,731 | 1,699 |
University of Pennsylvania | 15 | 1,703 | 2,946 |
University of Maryland | 10 | 1,682 | 2,386 |
Virginia Tech | 12 | 1,665 | 2,523 |
University of Michigan | 15 | 1,646 | 2,740 |
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York | 12 | 1,622 | 1,848 |
University of Delaware | 4 | 1,602 | 1,397 |
Northeastern University | 10 | 1,580 | 1,467 |
Harvard University | 9 | 1,524 | 3,378 |
University of Waterloo, Ontario | 19 | 1,370 | 1,811 |
Florida State University | 10 | 1,367 | 1,397 |
Ohio State University | 14 | 1,330 | 1,431 |
University of Saskatchewan | 5 | 1,314 | 1,086 |
Queen’s University | 7 | 1,270 | 1,506 |
University of South Florida | 4 | 1,259 | 1,216 |
University of Iowa | 5 | 1,224 | 1,394 |
University of Utah | 9 | 1,200 | 5,984 |
Portland State University | 17 | 1,170 | 2,134 |
Florida Atlantic University | 6 | 1,129 | 1,665 |
University of Alberta | 14 | 1,121 | 2,624 |
York University | 10 | 1,108 | 2,262 |
Michigan State University | 9 | 1,096 | 1,263 |
University of Washington | 13 | 1,095 | 3,654 |
University of Illinois, Chicago | 17 | 1,086 | 2,958 |
University of Oregon | 14 | 1,042 | 1,403 |
San Diego State University | 4 | 1,035 | 1,153 |
Temple University | 3 | 1,012 | 702 |
University of Virginia | 10 | 979 | 2,742 |
University of Louisville | 12 | 967 | 1,185 |
University of Texas, Austin | 11 | 916 | 1,496 |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 11 | 900 | 1,802 |
Cornell University | 18 | 867 | 2,004 |
Simon Fraser University | 7 | 844 | 1,232 |
UC Irvine | 21 | 815 | 2,950 |
Texas Southern University | 8 | 811 | 4,004 |
Texas A&M University | 24 | 807 | 2,339 |
State University of New York at Albany | 4 | 799 | 1,596 |
Northern Arizona University | 8 | 711 | 660 |
San Jose State University | 11 | 675 | 1,061 |
Hunter College | 8 | 618 | 780 |
Rowan University | 4 | 610 | 637 |
University of Texas, San Antonio | 4 | 583 | 562 |
University of New Orleans | 6 | 570 | 596 |
University of Hawaii | 8 | 569 | 1,020 |
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo | 8 | 551 | 902 |
Clemson University | 5 | 536 | 755 |
Cleveland State University | 7 | 535 | 859 |
Miami University | 6 | 518 | 549 |
University of Arizona | 7 | 517 | 457 |
University of Wisconsin, Madison | 13 | 513 | 1,039 |
University of Toledo | 9 | 496 | 1,472 |
Wayne State University | 5 | 478 | 897 |
University of Florida | 12 | 476 | 1,432 |
University of Massachusetts-Boston | 11 | 468 | 1,143 |
Virginia Commonwealth University | 9 | 468 | 507 |
University of Guelph | 8 | 454 | 483 |
University of Texas, Arlington | 6 | 452 | 1,073 |
Dalhousie University | 6 | 451 | 563 |
Morgan State University | 6 | 451 | 617 |
Universite de Montreal | 12 | 432 | 1,181 |
University of Memphis | 5 | 430 | 618 |
University of Missouri-Kansas City | 4 | 411 | 1,007 |
Iowa State University | 10 | 404 | 591 |
UC San Diego | 11 | 395 | 5,340 |
Alabama A&M University | 6 | 346 | 711 |
University of Calgary | 8 | 337 | 975 |
California State University, Northridge | 7 | 320 | 407 |
University of Nebraska | 3 | 296 | 1,694 |
University of Pittsburgh | 3 | 292 | 298 |
University of Kansas | 4 | 272 | 534 |
University of Manitoba | 6 | 265 | 883 |
Eastern Washington | 3 | 255 | 296 |
East Carolina University | 4 | 244 | 389 |
University of New Mexico | 7 | 239 | 384 |
University of Quebec in Montreal | 16 | 235 | 617 |
University of Cincinnati | 12 | 225 | 818 |
Columbia University | 6 | 221 | 2,721 |
Western Washington University | 5 | 214 | 323 |
New Jersey Institute of Technology | 7 | 197 | 594 |
Auburn University | 5 | 189 | 278 |
University of Oklahoma | 3 | 166 | 128 |
Toronto Metropolitan University | 16 | 162 | 720 |
Jackson State University | 6 | 142 | 538 |
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee | 3 | 130 | 1,065 |
Minnesota State University, Mankato | 6 | 101 | 184 |
Rutgers University, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences | 7 | 100 | 826 |
West Chester University | 7 | 87 | 216 |
Indiana University of Pennsylvania | 4 | 87 | 164 |
Kansas State University | 4 | 87 | 114 |
University of Georgia | 7 | 79 | 221 |
Cal Poly, Pomona | 7 | 75 | 562 |
Pratt Institute | 5 | 75 | 160 |
Ball State University | 5 | 60 | 253 |
Westfield State University | 8 | 28 | 332 |
University of Puerto Rico | 6 | 11 | 107 |
Appalachian State University | 2 | 676 | 676 |
University of Northern British Columbia | 2 | 644 | 644 |
University of Southern Maine | 2 | 484 | 484 |
Missouri State University | 2 | 300 | 300 |
Eastern Michigan University | 2 | 6 | 6 |
Savannah State University | 1 | 275 | 275 |
Salisbury University | 1 | 220 | 220 |
Georgetown University | 1 | 51 | 51 |
The updated citation data are now available for Summer 2023. Citations are tracked for “regular” (i.e., tenure track) faculty in urban planning programs and departments in the U.S. and Canada. Nearly 75% of the faculty being tracked (790 out of 1,057) have Google Scholar Citation Profiles. See the ScholarMetrics page to look up individual faculty and planning program data. Figures 1 and 2 display citation and H-Index by rank with median number of citations for assistant, associate, and full professors is 197, 675, and 1,971 respectively. The median H-Index for assistant, associate, and full professors 6, 12, and 19 respectively. The data are available here in case you would like to do your own analyses. Please contact me if you have questions, comments, or corrections.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3 Total Citations
Name | School | Citations | H-Index |
---|---|---|---|
Michael Storper | UCLA | 52,629 | 85 |
Lawrence Frank | UC San Diego | 48,271 | 99 |
Reid Ewing | University of Utah | 38,713 | 72 |
Stewart Fotheringham | Arizona State University | 38,369 | 75 |
Carlo Ratti | MIT | 32,703 | 91 |
Martha Feldman | UC Irvine | 32,089 | 49 |
Nik Theodore | University of Illinois, Chicago | 29,117 | 54 |
Robert Bullard | Texas Southern University | 24,428 | 56 |
Julian Agyeman | Tufts University | 23,012 | 47 |
Marta Gonzalez | UC Berkeley | 21,828 | 51 |
Figure 4 H-Index
Name | School | Citations | H-Index |
---|---|---|---|
Lawrence Frank | UC San Diego | 48,271 | 99 |
Carlo Ratti | MIT | 32,703 | 91 |
Michael Storper | UCLA | 52,629 | 85 |
Stewart Fotheringham | Arizona State University | 38,369 | 75 |
Reid Ewing | University of Utah | 38,713 | 72 |
Ahmed El-Geneidy | McGill University | 14,786 | 67 |
Robert Noland | Rutgers University | 17,046 | 66 |
Daniel Rodriguez | UC Berkeley | 15,967 | 64 |
Dale Whittington | UNC | 14,381 | 64 |
Mindy Fullilove | The New School | 16,036 | 60 |
Figure 5 Schools
School | Faculty | Median | Mean |
---|---|---|---|
The New School | 6 | 3,669 | 4,928 |
USC | 15 | 3,426 | 4,442 |
Arizona State University | 16 | 3,205 | 5,801 |
UCLA | 27 | 2,804 | 5,978 |
MIT | 32 | 2,768 | 4,504 |
New York University | 7 | 2,625 | 3,411 |
Georgia Tech | 15 | 2,306 | 2,668 |
University of Maryland | 9 | 2,303 | 2,540 |
University of Colorado, Denver | 6 | 2,249 | 2,897 |
McGill University | 7 | 2,139 | 4,600 |