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Abstract

In this thesis, a monitoring system is designed and implemented for the Community Development Plan for the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The literature review first provides the context for plan monitoring by showing that the complexity of urban systems necessitates a continuous planning process, i.e. a cyclical or iterative linking of decision-making, implementation and monitoring in order that planning can adapt to changing community goals, issues, and trends. The role of monitoring in this continuous planning process is initially reviewed in terms of systems feedback and control. However, the complexity of urban systems suggests that concentrating on the goals and objectives of a plan provides too narrow a perspective for monitoring. An expanded role for plan monitoring, one that also addresses assumptions, policies, decisions and issues of concern, is reviewed in the context of a general monitoring system model. This model incorporates four sub-systems: information collection; technical evaluation; provision of advice; and monitoring system improvement. The case study is conducted in three stages: first, a monitoring system based on the four function model is designed for the Mount Pleasant Plan; second, monitoring systems requirements are specified for one section of the Plan, the Mount Pleasant industrial area strategy; and third, data are collected and analyzed for the still more specific policy to maintain existing residential use in the industrial area.