Aims and Scope

The Journal of Planner and Development (JPD) is a peer-reviewed, open access academic journal published by the Urban and Regional Planning Center for Postgraduate Studies, University of Baghdad. Established in 1995, the journal provides a scholarly platform for high-quality research in urban and regional planning, urban design, sustainable development, environmental planning, spatial analysis, geoinformatics, planning technologies, urban systems, and socio-spatial development.

JPD aims to advance scholarly knowledge, methodological development, and evidence-based planning practice. The journal welcomes manuscripts that make a clear contribution to planning theory, planning methodology, spatial decision-making, urban policy, environmental sustainability, governance, built environment studies, and planning practice.

Aims

The journal seeks to:

• Promote rigorous academic research in urban and regional planning and related fields.
• Support theoretical, empirical, spatial, analytical, and review-based contributions to planning knowledge.
• Encourage research that links planning theory with policy, governance, sustainability, spatial analysis, design, and practice.
• Provide a scholarly platform for researchers, academics, professionals, and policy-oriented scholars working on contemporary urban and regional challenges.
• Strengthen interdisciplinary research while maintaining a clear connection to urban and regional planning.
• Advance evidence-based approaches to spatial decision-making, sustainable development, environmental planning, urban design, and socio-spatial transformation.

Scope

JPD welcomes high-quality scholarly manuscripts that fall within one or more of the following thematic areas:

1. Urban and Regional Planning Theory and Practice

This thematic area covers research related to urban planning, regional planning, urbanization, urban transformations, contemporary planning systems, the history of planning thought, Arab cities and cultural transformations, urban governance, planning policies, and planning laws and regulations.

Manuscripts in this area should contribute to the development, critique, or application of planning theory and practice. The journal particularly welcomes studies that examine planning systems, governance structures, urban policy frameworks, institutional arrangements, regulatory mechanisms, and the spatial implications of urban and regional transformation.

2. Sustainable Development and Environmental Planning

This thematic area includes research on urban sustainability, climate change and urban adaptation, environmental planning, environmental pollution, urban resilience, green infrastructure, natural resource management, low-carbon planning, and urban environmental sustainability.

Submissions in this area should address the relationship between planning and environmental performance, climate responsiveness, ecological systems, sustainability transitions, resilience strategies, resource management, and environmental governance. The journal encourages research that provides evidence-based implications for sustainable urban and regional development.

3. Urban Design, Housing, and Built Environment

This thematic area includes research on urban design, public space design, housing planning, the built environment, quality of urban life, urban morphology, urban heritage, community-oriented design, and built environment studies.

Manuscripts in this area should provide analytical, spatial, design-oriented, social, or policy-related insights into the form, function, experience, and transformation of urban environments. The journal welcomes studies that connect urban design and housing with livability, identity, heritage, social interaction, spatial justice, and the quality of the built environment.

4. Spatial Analysis, Geoinformatics, and Planning Technologies

This thematic area covers research on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, urban spatial analysis, operations research in planning, urban modeling, smart cities, artificial intelligence in planning, urban big data, and spatial analysis of development.

Submissions in this area should demonstrate how geospatial methods, digital technologies, spatial models, artificial intelligence tools, or urban data analytics contribute to planning knowledge, policy, methodology, or practice. Purely technical applications are not sufficient unless they clearly address a planning problem and provide interpretable implications for spatial decision-making.

5. Urban Systems, Economy, and Socio-Spatial Dynamics

This thematic area includes research on urban economy, urban sociology, urban geography, rural–urban development, tourism planning, industrial sites and spatial development, spatial justice, demographic transformations, and the spatial dimensions of economic and social development.

Manuscripts in this area should examine the relationships between urban systems, economic structures, social processes, demographic change, spatial organization, and development policy. The journal welcomes research that clarifies how socio-economic dynamics shape urban and regional space and how planning can respond to inequality, transformation, growth, and territorial development.

Types of Manuscripts Considered

JPD accepts only the following manuscript types:

1. Original Research Articles
2. Review Articles

Submitted manuscripts must present a clear scholarly contribution, a sound methodological or review framework, and direct relevance to one or more of the journal’s thematic areas.

Manuscripts Outside the Journal Scope

To maintain academic quality and thematic coherence, JPD does not consider the following types of manuscripts for peer review:

• Descriptive reports without scholarly analysis.
• Consultancy documents or institutional reports without a research contribution.
• Opinion papers or essays without a clear methodology.
• Project summaries that do not develop a planning argument or analytical framework.
• Purely technical software or tool demonstrations without planning relevance.
• Manuscripts outside the journal’s thematic areas.
• Manuscripts with weak methodology, unsupported conclusions, or unclear academic contribution.

Editorial Scope Statement

JPD seeks to publish manuscripts that are theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous, analytically clear, and relevant to urban and regional planning scholarship and practice. Manuscripts must clearly define the research problem, explain the adopted methodology or review approach, present well-supported findings, and discuss their implications for planning theory, policy, spatial analysis, governance, sustainability, design, or development.

The journal encourages interdisciplinary research; however, all submissions must maintain a clear connection to urban and regional planning. Manuscripts from related fields are considered only when they demonstrate explicit planning relevance and contribute to spatial, urban, regional, environmental, socio-economic, design, technological, or governance dimensions of planning research.