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4. Brendan O'Sullivan

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Biography

Brendan O'Sullivan, a chartered planner with a civil engineering and urban design background, was educated at UCC and the University of Edinburgh. A native of Cork city, he has more than twenty years' experience of urban and rural planning both in Ireland and abroad. He has also worked as a civil engineer with a UK consulting firm and spent two periods of overseas development work (in Sri Lanka and in The Gambia) as a planner and lecturer. In recent years he has headed up the Planning Policy Unit of Cork County Council which prepared the 2003 County Development Plan (the first major plan in Ireland under the 2000 Planning and Development Act.

Brendan was part of the working / steering groups on a range of major planning initiatives and has led multidisciplinary planning projects covering subjects such as coastal zone management, stakeholder dialogue, planning for wind energy, and technical training. He also has experience of managing EU funded planning projects (LIFE, OUVERTURE, ALTENER) including the Bantry Bay Coastal Zone Charter in 2000. Both the Charter and the 2003 Cork CDP were overall winners of the Irish National Planning Achievement Award.

His teaching and research interests include topics such as planning theory, evolution of settlement planning, mediation and consensus building in planning, landscape and planning, forward planning practice, the use of spatial planning data, planning in rural areas and planning in developing countries. He has been a member of the technical and Education Committe of the Irish Planning Institute, and visiting academic at the Department of Géoarchitecture at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest.

Brendan is also Senior Lecturer in the UCC Department of Geography.

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Research Interests

My research interests cover a wide range of topics in the general field of urban, regional and spatial planning. Recent work has covered topics such as planning and landscape, the disciplinary identity of planning as a profession, spatial planning as a tool for metropolitan governance. I am also interested in cross disciplinary approaches to sustainable development, planning and urbanisation in the global south, planning history, planning theory, and international approaches to planning and sustainable development. A key focus is on the usefulness of planning research and evidence within the real world context of planning practice both in Ireland and abroad.                              
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Publications

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Book Chapters

	Year	Publication
	(2013)	'Local perceptions of landscape value: implications for decision making and participation' O'Sullivan, Brendan (2013) 'Local perceptions of landscape value: implications for decision making and participation' In: Newman, C; Nussame, Y; Pedroli, B (eds). Landscape and imagination: towards a baseline for education in a changing world. Pisa: Bandecci and Vivaldi.   [Details]
	(2009)	'Contemporary change and planning in the Iveragh landscape' O'Sullivan, Brendan (2009) 'Contemporary change and planning in the Iveragh landscape' In: Crowely, J; Sheehan, J (eds). The Iveragh peninsula: a cultural atlas of the ring of Kerry. Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]
	(2012)	'The Metropolitan Cork Green Belt: synergies and tensions between strategic and local undestandings of landscape value' O'Sullivan, Brendan; Ray, Karen (2012) 'The Metropolitan Cork Green Belt: synergies and tensions between strategic and local undestandings of landscape value' In: Mianowski, M (eds). Irish Contemporary Landscapes in Literature and the Arts. London: Palgrave Macmillan. [Details]
	(2013)	'Planning and place-making in Donegal: an exercise in democratic decision-making' O'Sullivan, Brendan (2013) 'Planning and place-making in Donegal: an exercise in democratic decision-making' In: MacLaughlin, J; Beattie, S (eds). Donegal: an historical, environmental and cultural atlas. Cork: Cork University Press. [Details]

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Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2014)	'Scale, governance, urban form and landscape: exploring the scope for an integrated approach to metropolitan spatial planning' O'Sullivan, Brendan; Brady, William; Ray, Karen; Sikora, Evelyn; Murphy, Eimear (2014) 'Scale, governance, urban form and landscape: exploring the scope for an integrated approach to metropolitan spatial planning'. Planning Practice & Research, 29 (3):302-316 [Details]

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Other Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2006)	'Planning: perpetually at a crossroads?' O'Sullivan, Brendan (2006) 'Planning: perpetually at a crossroads?' Pleanáil: Journal of The Irish Planning Institute, 17 .   [Details]

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Published Reports

	Year	Publication
	(2008)	Formal Submission for full accreditation to the Royal Town Planning Institute for the UCC Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development M.Plan. O'Sullivan, Brendan ; (2008) Formal Submission for full accreditation to the Royal Town Planning Institute for the UCC Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development M.Plan. UCC, UCC. [Details]
	(2003)	Cork County Development Plan 2003 (Principal author: four volumes- written statement and maps). O'Sullivan, Brendan ; (2003) Cork County Development Plan 2003 (Principal author: four volumes- written statement and maps). Cork County COuncil, Cork County Council, County Hall Cork. [Details]
	(2005)	Proposed Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development at UCC. Report prepared for the Departments of Geography, Applied Social Studies and Sociology. O'Sullivan, Brendan and Kelleher, Brendan ; (2005) Proposed Masters in Planning and Sustainable Development at UCC. Report prepared for the Departments of Geography, Applied Social Studies and Sociology. UCC, Departments of Geography, Applied Social Studies and Sociology. [Details]
	(2012)	The urbanisation of poverty: drawing on the skills and techniques of spatial planning to support the aid programme. O'Sullivan, Brendan; Slattery, Ciara (2012) The urbanisation of poverty: drawing on the skills and techniques of spatial planning to support the aid programme. UCC Centre for Planning Education and Research, Cork. [Details]

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Professional Activities

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Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	2000	National Planning Achievement Award: Overall winner	Irish Planning Institute
	2002	National Planning Achievement Award - Overall Winner	Irish Planning Institute

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Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	Irish Planning Institute	Corporate Member	/
	Engineers Ireland (Institution of Engineers of Ireland)	Chartered Engineer	/
	Royal Town Planning Institute	Chartered Planner	/

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Employment

	Employer	Position	From / To
	Cork County Council	Senior Planner	01-OCT-00 / 01-JAN-06
	Clare County Council	Senior Executive Planner	01-NOV-99 / 01-SEP-00
	Cork County Council	Assistant / Executive Planner	01-AUG-92 / 01-OCT-99

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Education

	Year	Institution	Qualification	Subject
	1988	University of Edinburgh	M.Phil.	Urban Design and Regional Planning
	1982	University College Cork	B.Eng.	Civil

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Journal Activities

	Journal	Role	To / From
	Pleanáil: Journal Of The Irish Planning Institute	Series Editor	-

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Teaching Activities

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Modules Taught

	Term (ID))	Title	Link	Subject
	2015	Planning Processes, Administration and Participation	PD6114	Planning Processes, Administration and Participation
	2015	Applied Discourses in Planning and Sustainable Development	PD6208	Applied Discourses in Planning and Sustainable Development
	2015	Introduction to Planning and Sustainable Development	PD6110	Introduction to Planning and Sustainable Development
	2015	Global Planning Practice and Issues	PD6115	Global Planning Practice and Issues
	2015	Landscape Character, Context and Change	PD6120	Landscape Character, Context and Change
	2015	Contemporary Concepts in Planning Theory	PD6111	Contemporary Concepts in Planning Theory
	2015	Regional & Local Planning: Issues & Policies	GG3027	Regional & Local Planning: Issues & Policies
	2015	Dissertation in Landscape, Built Heritage and Design	PD6123	Dissertation in Landscape, Built Heritage and Design
	2015	Spatial Planning for Rural Environments	PD6207	Spatial Planning for Rural Environments