A PROCESS BASIS FOCUSED UPON PLANNING AS A GENERAL HUMAN ACTIVITY HAS BEEN ADOPTED IN THE BOOK RATHER THAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION BASIS FOCUSED ON PARTICULAR GROUPS OF PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS TO WHICH THEY BELONG. URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING IS VIEWED FROM A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE. IT IS ONLY BY SEPARATING THE PROCESS OF PLANNING INTO ITS CONSTITUENT PARTS (PROCESS AND PURPOSE) FOR ANALYSIS AND RECOMBINING THEM WITH MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING BY THOUGHTFUL SYNTHESIS THAT THE POTENTIAL OF PLANNING CAN BE DETERMINED. THE PLANNING PROCESS IS ONE OF BOUNDED RATIONALITY, INVOLVING HUMAN JUDGMENTS AT ALL POINTS AND RATIONAL ARGUMENT WHERE POSSIBLE. SPECIFIC TOPICS OF CONCERN ARE PHYSICAL CHANGE AND HUMAN ECOLOGY, THE DEFINITION OF PLANNING, SYSTEMS, PLANNING AS A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM, SPACE AND SPATIAL PLANNING, GOALS, PROJECTION OF THE FUTURE, MODELS AND THEIR UNDERLYING THEORIES, MODELING THE WHOLE SYSTEM, EVALUATION, SATISFACTION VERSUS OPTIMIZATION AS THE BOUNDS OF RATIONALITY, MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING, AND MIXED PROGRAMMING. A GLOSSARY AND AN INDEX ARE INCLUDED. (DEP)