Are planners ready for a digital transformation? An exploration of digital planning tools and urban planners’ confidence using ICTs

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) present planning professionals with increasing capacity to communicate, analyse, and collaborate. Although there is a plethora of ICTs available to planners, the planning literature has repeatedly asserted that planners are slow to adopt new ICTs. Despite this, little is known about planners’ actual usage of ICTs in practice, perceptions of ICTs, and confidence using different practice-relevant ICTs. This article draws on social cognitive theory and data collected through an online survey of planning practitioners in Australia and the United Kingdom, to explore how confident planners are using ICTs in practice and the degree to which their perceptions of ICTs influence their actual usage of ICTs. The paper argues that while challenges remain, a successful transition towards the use of new digital planning tools within planning practice in Australia and the UK is likely due to a high level of confidence by planners in the use of ICTs.