About the Institute of Urban and Regional Development

In 1963, the Institute of Urban and Regional Development was created as an organized research unit on the UC Berkeley campus. Faculty, staff and students conduct collaborative, interdisciplinary research and carry out practical work examining the dynamics of communities, cities and regions that informs public policy at the local, state and national levels. As urbanization has rapidly increased around the world and with it associated problems of housing, sprawl, transportation, environmental quality, poverty, and physical decline in inner cities, the Institute has increasingly become the access point to the University for those concerned about these issues, including public agencies, the media, foundations, community leaders, and citizens.

 The Institute supports an active program of faculty research, coordinates community partnership programs, and supports graduate education through research training and internships for students from the University’s many professional schools (among them city planning, education, law, architecture, social welfare, civil engineering, public health, and agriculture and resource economics). It also provides undergraduates with community service experiences through diverse community partnership projects. The Institute hosts a number of research- and community-related conferences and seminars annually on topics that range from improving statewide transportation corridors to implementing neighborhood improvement strategies. In 2004-05, IURD will host a colloquium series on California’s demographic, economic and environmental future, convening faculty, students, leaders from government, business, foundations and nonprofits and the community to prepare for the challenges that California faces as its population reaches 50 million. The Institute hosts a Visiting Scholar Program, which brings post-doctoral fellows and scholars from throughout the world to the UC Berkeley campus. It also administers a HUD-funded Community Development Work Study Fellowships Program for students from underrepresented backgrounds, with recipients chosen from the entering classes of the Master of City Planning degree program.

IURD’s research portfolio is rooted in the social sciences. Institute faculty and graduate students research addresses such issues as the costs/benefits of transit-oriented development, disaster planning models for US research labs, land use and infrastructure, housing, retention of women and minorities in the IT workforce, economic impacts of poor water quality on urban beaches and surrounding communities, effects of growth management policies on metropolitan growth, and consensus-building as a tool for regional decision- and policy-making. The Community Partnerships Office and the Cities & Schools Center facilitate collaborative projects with neighboring communities in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and San Francisco. Research is written up in a variety of publications: working papers, monographs, and reprints available in hard copy and electronically. The Institute maintains a library of publications dating back to 1963, with all reports published since 2000 available for downloading over its website.