TOWARDS A NEW

ROLE FOR
URBAN PLANNING
REPORTED BY TOTOY GWAPS
INTRODUCTION
This Global Report has sought to review recent and innovative
trends in urban planning which appear to have the potential to
address the urban challenges facing cities and towns in the 21st
century. While such innovative planning approaches and their
successes must always be seen as shaped by the very particular
contexts from which they have emerged, there are, nonetheless,
principles and concepts that may be shared across the globe. One
important conclusion of this report is that there are no models or
standard recipes for urban planning that can be applied
everywhere. In fact, a review of current planning practice shows
how the poor track record of planning in many parts of the world
is partly due to the belief that master planning and modernist
planning were such models that could be used everywhere,
regardless of context
 A central argument in this report is that, while in some parts
of the world, governments are using planning in positive
ways to manage change in cities and towns, in other parts,
little attention has been paid to the functioning of the
planning system, and as such, legislation, regulations and
processes are out of date, or are insufficiently reformed to
be able to deal with the major challenges of the 21st
century. Urban planning approaches in some parts of the
world are directly constraining the ability of governments
and civil society to deal with urban challenges and, indeed,
may be contributing to urban problems. Nonetheless, it is
also possible to argue that the challenges currently facing
urban settlements are of such a magnitude that
governments, in partnership with other sectors of society,
will have to play a stronger role in managing urban change in
the decades to come.
 The purpose of this concluding chapter is to suggest a
new role for urban planning. In many parts of the
world, a ‘paradigm’ shift in urban planning is required
to ensure tolerable urban living through the next
century. This chapter first summarizes the main urban
issues in various parts of the world to which planning
will have to respond. There are certain issues that are
important in all parts of the world and some that
differ depending upon whether countries are
categorized as developed, developing or transitional.
 The second section reviews the main findings of the Global Report,
as well as the recent and innovative planning practices which they
highlight. Although the ‘success cases’ in planning are not many,
they nonetheless serve to indicate that it is possible to use planning
as an institutional instrument to shift urban environments in a
positive direction. The fourth section, following on from the third,
draws out the main elements of more positive urban planning.
What is identified here are the main principles or concepts of
innovative planning which might stimulate ideas elsewhere,
although the actual form they would take will be influenced by
context. The fifth section identifies the changes which would need
to be in place, or the initiatives which might be supportive in
promoting new approaches to planning. The last section provides a
conclusion to the chapter.
THE MAIN ISSUES FOR
URBAN PLANNING IN
DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE
WORLD
Some of the most important issues that urban planning has to
respond to are relevant in all parts of the world, while others
vary according to the nature of regional political economies.
Common global issues include climate change, economic crises,
income inequality and cultural diversity, among others. Context-
specific issues range from urban informality, poverty and peri-
urbanization in developing countries, through environmental
pollution and urban shrinkage in transitional countries, to large
ecological footprints and an ageing population in developed
countries.
 GLOBAL URBAN
PLANNING ISSUES
 The various regions of the world are now highly interlinked in terms of economic
activity, information flow and population movement, giving rise to a common set of
urban issues. At the same time, all parts of the world are also affected by global
environmental change. While the nature of the impact of global environmental
change varies across regions, it also presents a common issue to which planning needs
to respond
Climate change

In responding to the impacts of climate change, urban areas need to take

action of two kinds. These are mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation consists
of measures and policies designed to reduce the emission of greenhouse
gases. Adaptation pertains to activities aimed at reducing the vulnerability or
strengthening the resilience of cities to the effects of climate change. Both
kinds of action require urban planning. Mitigation requires reducing the
ecological footprint of urban areas, which includes a shift to public transport-
based movement and planning for more efficient, compact and mixed-use
city forms. Adaptive measures include relocating vulnerable settlements,
improving drainage, hardening-up of infrastructure systems, and preventing
new developments in areas likely to be affected by sea-level rise or floods.
Global economic crisis

In 2008, the global economic crisis occasioned by the instability of unregulated

markets and banking systems caused by neo-liberal economic policies was
revealed. Consequently, many countries have moved into recession. This will
adversely affect economic growth, employment, foreign direct investment (FDI),
international aid and development programmes in countries across the world.
Less funding will be available for state-initiated urban and infrastructural
projects. This, in turn, reinforces the need for governments to act in partnership
with civil society and private-sector actors on urban development. It also
reinforces the need for a developmental role for governments, as opposed to
neoliberal approaches which assumed that the ‘market’ on its own could solve
most urban problems.
Energy supply and impacts

While the price of petroleum is relatively low (mid 2009), the volatility of oil prices in 2008
showed that price is no longer a predictable factor and that, in the long term, global oil
supplies will begin to decline. The impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from
petroleum-driven vehicles on climate change is becoming better understood and this will
also encourage a switch away from oil-dependent cities. The many towns and cities across
the world which were planned on the assumption of high levels of individual car
ownership will, at some stage, require retrofitting. Such urban settlement will have to
introduce forms of public transport and plan bicycle and pedestrian movement networks.
The growing costs of transporting food will increase the demand for urban agriculture
spaces in cities. Low-density, cardependent suburbs could be abandoned or turned to
other uses. Energy-efficient buildings (low rise, high plot coverage) will need to be
accommodated in different open space and movement systems.
Food security

The rising cost of food in all parts of the world is a response to both fuel costs
and the degradation of agricultural land, and is also likely to persist into the
future. This has several implications, with the poor being most affected. Urban
environments need to be planned so that they allow for urban agriculture to
become an accepted element of the urban open space system and local fresh
food markets a standard part of urban infrastructure.
Changing population size of towns and
cities

Urban population growth and decline are to be found in all parts of the world, although
the latter is more common in the developed and transitional regions. In the developing
regions, population growth through urbanization and natural increase is the dominant
pattern, and it has been recognized that in Africa and Asia urban growth rates will remain
high for some time to come. In these parts of the world, much of this settlement is, and
will be, informal and incomes will be generated largely through the informal economy. If
the issue of rapid growth of poor urban households is considered in combination with the
above environmental and resource issues, then it is clear that those cities and towns
which are able to plan where and how this new settlement takes place will be in a far
better position in decades to come. Urban shrinkage also requires planning. Properly
managed decline can open up important opportunities, such as releasing land for urban
agriculture.
Income inequality

 The changing nature of urban labour markets, which shows a growing polarization of
occupational and income structures has, in part, given rise to greater urban income
inequality in all regions of the world. This, in turn, has given rise to urban areas with
stark contrasts between areas of wealth and poverty, with escalating crime levels
fuelling the desire by the wealthy to spatially separate themselves from the poor. Thus,
income inequality and spatial fragmentation are mutually reinforcing, leading to
segregated and violent cities. Women, children and the aged feel the brunt of these
processes. The challenges for planning in addressing this issue are particularly difficult,
as urban planning cannot counter market forces. Rather, planning has to seek ways to
promote social integration and cohesion, perhaps through quality public space system.
Cultural diversity

 Growing volumes of global migration has meant that cities and towns in all parts of the
world have become much more multicultural. People from very different ethnic and
religious backgrounds now live together in cities. This is making participatory
processes around planning issues far more difficult. Cultural diversity has important
implications for how built environments are managed. Planners need to seek the right
balance between cultural groups attempting to preserve their identity in cities and the
need to avoid extreme forms of segregation and urban fragmentation. Cultural mix
also raises new demands on planners to mediate between conflicting lifestyles and
expressions of animal slaughter and building aesthetics are the new issues which
planners have to increasingly tackle. There preserving built environment heritage and
historically valuable urban areas, and protecting them from insensitive conversion or
invasion by incompatible uses
URBAN PLANNING
ISSUES IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
 While developing countries are affected by the issues discussed in the previous
section, they are also affected by a range of issues that are specific to these
regions of the world. These are highlighted below.
Urban informality

Urban growth in the developing regions of the world is distinctive in that much of the new
settlement and new job creation is informal, reflecting severe levels of poverty and
inequality. This is particularly the case in African urban areas, where urbanization is taking
place amidst relatively low levels of economic growth. This raises a particular challenge in
that conventional urban planning approaches are not designed to engage with informality
and, by contrast actively seek to formalize the informal sector.
This formalization process frequently destroys livelihoods and shelter, and serves to
exacerbate exclusion, marginalization and poverty. The notion that the poor have to step
outside of the law in order to survive in cities is an appropriate one, as is the suggestion
that conventional planning laws have often served to create informality and illegality, and
have been used in eviction and land grabs. An important task for planning is to devise new
forms of regulation that serve to protect both the rich and the poor, while at the same
time guiding urban growth in efficient and sustainable directions.
Urban growth

 This Global Report has emphasized the impact which urban growth will have upon
towns and cities in the developing world, particularly in Africa and Asia. This growth is
opening up challenges as well as opportunities for cities, and planning needs to be
able to identify and respond to both of these. The need to deliver urban land at scale,
linked to networks of public infrastructure, in ways which address both the mitigation
and adaptation demands of environmental change is probably the biggest issue that
planning is facing in these parts of the world. Significantly, earlier predictions of
exploding megacities appear to have been off the mark, and much of this growth is
taking place in smaller cities. For instance, most urban dwellers in Africa reside in cities
of less than 500,000 people. This, in turn, increases the scale of the demand for urban
professionals and managers.
Income inequality and poverty

 This issue has been identified earlier as critical in urban areas in all parts of the world.
However, it is a particularly important issue for urban planning in developing countries,
given suggestions that the planning systems there often neglect the poor or even
worsen their situation. Inequality is high in Latin America and Africa, while the latter, in
addition, experiences high levels of poverty and prevalence of slums. In some
countries, the solution to this is seen as excluding poor people from cities by
implementing antiurban policies, or focusing on rural poverty in the hope that this will
discourage people from migrating to cities.1 However, no country in the world has
ever managed to stop urbanization through either of these measures. The solution is
to accept that urbanization will occur, and to use planning to address both the
problems and opportunities that it presents.
The ‘youth bulge’

 An important demographic trend in developing cities and towns is the increasing

proportion of young people (aged 15 to 29) relative to the adult population. While the
youth can form the most energetic and innovative segment of the population, where
they also comprise the bulk of the unemployed, they can be a source of social unrest
and deviance, including crime. Planning for a youthful population places particular
demands on urban development – in terms of the need for education and training
facilities, and sport and recreational investments. It also raises demands to cope with
the negative side of the youth bulge through a focus on safe public spaces and
movement networks.
The peri-urban areas

 The bulk of new growth in rapidly urbanizing cities is taking place on the urban edge,
and in some parts is linking up existing settlements to form extended urban corridors.
This form of growth presents a host of new planning issues in that much of this new
settlement is informal, un-serviced, fragmented, has a mix of tenure systems and is
beyond the boundaries of municipal governments. These areas are extremely difficult
and expensive to service in the conventional way. New and incremental approaches to
service and infrastructure delivery, in partnership with local communities, will have to
be found. The opportunity here is that the more distributed service networks and
alternative technologies (solar or wind energy) may be the most appropriate way to
service these areas. A further issue is whether the planning of peri-urban areas calls
for local or regional planning action, and which level of government is best placed to
deal with such areas. A combination of regional and local planning approaches may
well be required.
 Linking the green and brown agendas

 This is an issue that is relevant to cities in all parts of the world, but is a particular
challenge in developing countries where the development imperative is often seen as
more important that achieving sustainability. However, the pace and form of urban
growth in developing contexts puts even greater pressure on ecosystems. An
important role for planning in these contexts is to mediate the conflicts between these
often different agendas. This requires new participatory processes and partnerships,
new institutional arrangements for planning, and new ways of linking planning to
other relevant professionals, particularly engineers.
Institutional and professional capacity

 In many developing countries, the decentralization agenda has not progressed very far,
and many urban planning decisions are still taken by central government. In a context
of rapid urban growth, the centre cannot cope, and the planning and land
development system becomes slow, bureaucratic and unresponsive to local needs. This
is often justified by citing the lack of trained planning and urban professionals to staff
municipal planning offices. Some developing countries (e.g. China) have accelerated
the training of urban professionals to address these growing needs; but in other parts,
there is a serious shortage of supply (particularly of professionals trained to address
current urban issues) and this is a hindrance to effective urban planning. The issue of
planner/urban professional training, along with decentralization of decision-making, is
a key one.
 Planning capacity at the local level is also dependent upon the strength of civil society
as this forms a critical source of input and knowledge to the planning process. In some
parts of the developing world, such as Latin America, civil society has been successfully
mobilized around planning and urban development issues; but in others it is weak and
fragmented. How to shift from technocratic and top-down approaches to more
inclusive planning processes is an important issue.
URBAN PLANNING
ISSUES IN TRANSITIONAL
COUNTRIES
 Planning issues in these parts of the world tend to be a combination of those found
in developed and developing regions; but the political history of these regions has
also influenced their current planning concerns.
Slow population growth and declining cities

 Slow or reduced population growth, the phenomenon of shrinking cities and ageing
have presented problems of dealing with deteriorating buildings and infrastructure in
a context where the local tax base in severely constrained. A rapidly ageing population
places an increased demand on healthcare and other facilities relating to the needs of
the elderly.
Urban sprawl, fragmentation and inequality

 Population shrinkage has occurred along with growing demands for space and facilities
by an emerging wealthy class. Urban development is now strongly driven by foreign
investment, which has fuelled new property development, primarily for the wealthier
groups. This new growth has focused on suburban development and upmarket inner-
city neighbourhoods, raising issues for planning of sprawl containment, the
preservation of heritage buildings in older inner-city areas, and dealing with rapidly
increasing car ownership. At the same time, planning needs to address derelict
industrial sites, deteriorating public housing estates, aged and failing infrastructure,
and informal settlement on the urban edge.
Environmental issues

Communist-era industries were some of the worst polluters in the world, and while some
of these have closed, many still remain and present serious environmental problems for
planning. The rapid growth of vehicle ownership has worsened air quality, and
unconstrained private property development, particularly in the form of sprawl on the
urban edge, has encroached upon many open spaces and agricultural land.
Decentralization of government
and resource constraints

Decentralization to local governments has been strongly promoted, but has not been
matched by adequate funding. Consequently, local governments have relied on privatized
measures to provide and run services. Urban development has become the concern of
multiple parties – the once powerful public authorities, private owners, builders,
developers, non-profit organizations and various interest groups. This greatly complicates
the terrain within which planning has to operate. Adding to this is the fact that urban
planning has been shifted to local governments which have no previous experience in
dealing with these matters. New local regulatory systems and administrative processes
have had to be developed from scratch.
The changing legislative framework
for planning

Many transitional countries have now produced new planning legislation as the effects of
a lack of planning became increasingly evident. Frequently, this new legislation reinforced
the conventional master planning approach; but several countries adopted strategic
planning in addition to master plans at the behest of international development agencies.
Strategic planning has introduced new issues of city competitiveness, economic growth,
municipal financial reform, improved quality of life and citizen participation. Given that
strategic plans are not legally recognized, their coexistence with master plans greatly
complicates the legislative environment for planning.
URBAN PLANNING
ISSUES IN DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES
 In these regions, high incomes and steady growth have helped to avoid certain
urban issues experienced in developing and transitional countries, but have
also brought a different set of urban planning problems.
Socio-spatial inequalities and
urban fragmentation

 City competitiveness, the desire to attract foreign investment and urban

development, fuelled by a booming property market (until recently) have
segregated many cities and towns into elite enclaves and sprawling middle-class
suburbs. But the changing structure of labour markets has left many urban
residents poor and unemployed, and deteriorated public housing estates now
coexist with new urban mega-projects. Achieving integrated and equitable urban
environments is a major challenge for planners.
 Environmental issues

 Urban areas in the developed regions, particularly the US, have the largest ecological
footprints in the world. High levels of resource consumption and car dependence,
largescale waste generation, and low-density suburban sprawl eroding agricultural
land are all serious planning issues. Urban sprawl in the US has been a particularly
problematic feature and has led to major loss of natural resources. Both mitigation and
adaptation strategies in relation to environmental change will have to be
mainstreamed into planning if it is to affect these patterns.
Population decline and shrinking cities

 Migration from poorer regions means that slow population growth, ageing and
shrinking cities are less extreme than transitional regions. Nonetheless, industrial
restructuring and offshore relocations have left many older industrial and mining
towns without a viable economic base. In such contexts, planning has to strategize for
population outflow, abandoned homes and areas, and a declining support base for
commercial activities and public facilities. In many cities, migrant inflow is supporting a
youthful population; but this coexists with an older cohort now making increasing
demands on health facilities and retirement homes.
Integrating sectoral policy
within governments

 As city governments have become increasingly complex and sophisticated entities in

charge of managing large resource flows and budgets, so the problem of achieving
integration between various line-function departments, and between different levels
of government has increased. This is an important issue for planning as it relies on the
relationships between functions and tiers in order to achieve spatial coherence and
integration on the ground. Potentially, planning can play an important role in
encouraging sectoral alignment and coordination if the function is correctly positioned
within governance structures.
SUMMARY :
 Common global issues include climate change, economic crises, income inequality and
cultural diversity, among others
 In responding to the impacts of climate change, urban areas need to take action of two kinds.
… mitigation and adaptation
 Cultural mix also raises new demands on planners to mediate between conflicting lifestyles
and expressions of culture
 Urban growth in the developing regions of the world is distinctive in that much of the new
settlement and new job creation is informal
 An important demographic trend in developing cities and towns is the increasing proportion
of young people
 Many transitional countries have now produced new planning legislation as the effects of a
lack of planning became increasingly evident
 Communist-era industries were some of the worst polluters in the world, many still remain
and present serious Environmental problems for planning
 Urban sprawl in the US has been a particularly problematic feature and has led to major loss
of natural resources