Land planner

Land planners visit sites: they walk the plot or the wider area, check the shape of the ground, the access, the neighbouring uses and whatever already stands there, and then collect and analyse land data: maps, survey results, records of ownership and information about buried utilities. Survey calculations from different sources are compared, because a discrepancy in a boundary or in a ground level carries through the whole design.

The planner works in geographic information systems, stacking layers in them — ownership, utilities, flood extent, protected habitats — and only then draws the pattern of roads, buildings and open space. Geography and engineering principles both come in, so that the plan accounts for gradients, drainage and the bearing capacity of the ground.

Urban planning ties into environmental policy and green building standards, so a land planner accounts for permeable surface, planting and noise. The findings go into development plans and, where no plan covers a site, into individual permissions.