The PPD Department, School of Social Ecology, and Southern California

The Department of Planning, Policy, and Design

The Department of Planning, Policy, and Design is organized around internationally prominent research and teaching strengths in four areas - design-behavior research, environmental policy, health promotion and policy, and urban and community development. Within those areas, students pursue in-depth learning in topics that include housing and community development, transportation planning, cultural aspects of environmental design, environmental policy and sustainability, planning and security, community health promotion, economics and regional science, and land-use planning, to name just a few.

Students benefit from exceptional access to faculty members. The department boasts an excellent faculty to student ratio. Approximately 25 master's students and 5-10 Ph.D. students are enrolled per year.

The School of Social Ecology

The department is part of the multidisciplinary School of Social Ecology, a bold and successful venture linking the planning, policy, and design department with departments in environmental health and science, criminology, and psychology in common pursuit of applied research on important social and environmental problems. The school's 60 full-time faculty members bring the diverse expertise that is required to effectively address the complex problems of today. Faculty include psychologists, sociologists, program evaluators, criminologists, lawyers, urban and regional planners, environmental health scientists, political scientists, economists, public health scientists, and environmental design researchers. Social ecology courses and research programs draw on these diverse fields to generate deep understanding of contemporary issues. Students have the flexibility to choose courses from within the department, the School of Social Ecology or from academic units on campus.

Orange County and Southern California

Located just five miles from the Pacific Ocean in sunny Southern California, the UC Irvine campus brings together the best of the built and the natural environment. The campus is designed as an arboretum of exotic and native plants that thrive in the Mediterranean climate. Top architects designed many of the buildings on campus - including buildings by Frank Gehry, Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, and Robert Stern. Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam Veterans' War Memorial, is currently designing a new public space for the arts on campus.

UC Irvine is located in Orange County - a thriving metropolitan region of three million residents. Orange County sits between the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, just two hours from the border of Mexico. The county is racially and ethnically diverse. It includes communities of all kinds - lively urban cities, small historic towns, planned suburban environments, and dynamic multinational businesses and industries. Diverse ecosystems - coastal, mountains, and deserts - surround the county and present excellent opportunities for study and for recreation.

Southern California has grown dramatically in the past three decades. Soon, it will become the nation's largest urban corridor. The region faces enormous challenges to maintain quality of life, provide employment opportunities, resolve pressing transportation challenges, preserve precious natural habitats, and reduce deep socioeconomic disparities of the binational, metropolitan, multi-ethnic region. No other region in the United States has been faced with the problems and future possibilities that now confront Southern California and its communities.

If the challenges presented by Southern California's problems are enormous, its promise is equally vast. The diversity of Orange County communities and residents, the energy and leadership of local institutions and industry, and the innovation and creativity that characterizes Southern California - all make UC Irvine a vital laboratory in which to study planning, policy, and design.