This thesis discusses and presents the different methodsrnof computer assisted generation of vocabulary controlrntools, particularly thesaurus and it variations, as wellrnas their application in designing and developingrndatabases and user interfaces to support urban planningrnactivities. The various features and attributes of onlinerndatabases and search services are examined with arnview to assessing their relevance to the informationrnneeds of specialized institutions, such as the NationalrnUrban Planning Institute (NUPI). The need for localrndatabases to provide the type of information needed forrnspecialized local/sectoral institutions and the role ofrnvocabulary control tools in facilitating the design andrndevelopment of such databases is discussed. The variousrntypes of information needed for preparing urban plans,rntheir sources, and the need for an effective informationrnsupport systems are discussed. Different types ofrnvocabulary control tools, their structure and display,rnand procedures for designing and developing them arernmentioned. Also discussed are the features of selectedrnsoftwareâ€™s and programs useful in the design, developmentrnand maintenance of thesauri. Particular attention isrngiven to CDS/ISIS Pascal thesaurus programs (Thes, Mthes,rnThesl and Thes2) used in the current work. A classaurusrnfor the field of urban planning has been developed usingrnMthes pascal program. The terms were collected fromrnspecialized documents i n urban planning and queriesrncollected from potential end-users of the system at NUPI.rnThe classaurus was used to update the OECD Macrothesaurusrnrnto enhance its utility in the urban planning field.rnDirect thesaurus generation, with the assistance ofrncomputer, from texts and their abstracts without using arnlanguage parser is demonstrated. This method of thesaurusrngeneration is found to be effective and time saving.rnPrototype urban planning databases made up of referencernand specialized object-oriented databases (OODBs) havernbeen developed. The integration of the databases was madernwith the help of ABNCD+ database structure. Thernintegrated database allows search in the differentrnrecords of the database with a single query. Two userrninterface facilities are provided: (1) A thesaurus-likernsearch facility to facilitate browsing and navigatingrnthrough the subject areas into which the records in thernOODB have been divided. They can also be applied to thernreference records with modifications and editing of thernsearch expressions provided by Mthes.pas; and (2) Arnstructured query worksheet based on the structuredrndivisions of urban planning information. In this context,rnvocabulary control tools have more potential applicationsrnthan their usual applications; for example, in databaserndesign, user interface, etc. Advances in informationrntechnology and development of different thesaurusrnsoftware have renewed the interest in the application ofrnvocabulary control tools, particularly thesaurus and itsrnvariations. This study also presents examples ofrnthesaurus generation, retrieval of records from thernintegrated database, the use of the user interfacernfacility, the applications of queries to the data basesrnand flexible outputs from the OODB.