Bicol to have its first Environmental Planning course by 2018

Legazpi City- Prior to the two years of no freshmen enrollee, the Bicol University Institute of Architecture plans to offer Bachelor of Science in Environmental Planning by 2018.

According to Architect Reynaldo 0. Nacional, Director of the Institute of Architecture, BU will be the first university in the region to offer BS Environmental Planning.

“Wala pang school na nag-ooffer ng Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental planning. Ang kaisa-isang school na nag-ooffer ng environmental planning ay UP pero it’s the School of Urban and Regional planning, wala naman silang baccalaureate program, meron silang post baccalaureate diploma tapos masters and then PHD in urban region planning,” Nacional said.

The idea to offer such course came from the faculty of the BU-IA since the institute may metamorphose into the college of architecture and the field environment so it would be encompassing the built environment.

Nacional explained that environmental planning is not a very popular profession and the concept is also very new to Filipinos, in fact there are only a very few licensed environmental planners in BU including him, Arch. Lagman and Engr. Abante.

When asked about the beneficiary through the offering of the course, Nacional said that everyone will be benefited.

He also said that normal people will not see the ill effect of urbanization to the totality of the environment. The construction of malls and other establishments should be planned accordingly to know how to deal with traffic and other negative effects.

Moreover, environmental planning is already being practiced throughout the world. In Great Britain it is called country planning, in the United States it is called urban planning and in the Philippines we call the profession as environmental planning.

“Environmental planning is about making the environment a better world to live,” Nacional concluded.