Skip to the content
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
Home / Reza Banai

Reza Banai

Reza Banai, Ph.D.,M.A., M.Arch. is Professor of City and Regional Planning, School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, and Smart Cities Research Fellow, FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis. He is principal investigator of a smart cities research project titled “A Planning Support System for Comprehensive Planning and Zoning: A Geospatial Simulation Model of Land Use, Land Cover Change for the Memphis Metropolitan Region.” Transit-oriented development site suitability, aided jointly by decision support and geographical information systems; evaluation of the new urbanism with performance dimensions of good settlement form–in the style of Kevin Lynch; assessment of the core commercial areas of the new urbanism, with perspectives from (retail) location and land use theories, and the conventional wisdom are among his publication. His research about light rail transit route alignment alternatives in Memphis TN, is a network model that captures feedback in evaluation of land-use and transportation systems. His recent research focuses on the connection of land use and transportation and the sustainability of the Aerotropolis as an urban form of the future, and on spatial structure of retailing activity with vitality even during economic downturn in the metropolitan region.