Sustainable Development Policy Institute

Policy makers must give weight to Proposals of Local Communities
Recorder Report, Islamabad

January 05, 2005"Planners and policymakers must give weight to the proposals of local communities while planning or redesigning urban cities". This was stated by an expert on expend on town planning, Professor Dr Bruno De Meulder while giving lecture on "Strategic Interventions for the Development of Medium Sized Cities", organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Tuesday.Dr Bruno is a professor at the Katholieke University Leuven Belgium, and Technical University Eindhoven Netherlands, where he teaches Urbanism (Urban design and planning, history and theory). Currently, he is visiting Pakistan and working on two projects for developing the curricula for Pakistani academic institutions on Urban Design and also working with Karachi City Government to identify problems along with suggesting strategic interventions.During the lecture, Dr Bruno presented the model of Essaouira, a Moroccan coastal town and said Essaouira was an 18th century planned medium-sized city with a fairly compact structure. The problems of the Essaouira were similar to that of Pakistani cities, where demographic growth was moderate, urban employment was limited and unemployment was high. The current economic decline has had severe repercussions, both on the quality of life and the environment.He added the cultural heritage of the cities had suffered important degradation. He further said the continued expansion of cities was threatening fragile eco-system and in turn, their very survival. The professor further said, "These developments present several contentious issues and the geographical and ecological setting of the city generates severe development constraints."He suggested planners to come up with creative ideas like to build play areas, informal park and market adjacent to cultural heritage areas, in order to preserve them.He described that nearby villages to the urban areas should be planned without waiting for the developments to touch the countryside. He suggested "Nearby villages could be converted into satellite towns, in order to contain urban areas."

Sonia Lioret of SDPI facilitated the seminar and said the city of Essaouira was composed of two towns, separated by an open and empty space, and stuck between the sea and the dunes of sand. She said the basic aim of the architect of the city was to create a linkage between the old towns and to open greeneries.

People-friendly Urbanization urged
Statesman Report, Islamabad
January 05, 2005

Planners and policymakers must include the voice of the local communities, while planning or redesigning urban cities and their plans should have the capacity to absorb emerging problems. This was stated by a scholar and a modern town planner, Professor Dr. Bruno De Meulder at a lecture entitled “Strategic interventions for the development of medium sized cities”, organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), here on Tuesday.

Dr. Bruno De Meulder is a professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and at the Technical University, Eindhoven, Netherlands, where he teaches urbanism (Urban design and planning, history and theory). Currently, he is visiting Pakistan and working on two projects regarding developing curricula for Pakistani academic institutions on urban design and also working with Karachi City Government to identify and formulate problems and suggesting strategic interventions.

Dr. Bruno presented the model of Essaouira, a Moroccan coastal town and said that Essaouira is an 18th century planned city and is a medium-sized city with a fairly compact structure. The problems of the Essaouira are similar to problems of Pakistani cities, where demographic growth is moderate. Urban employment is limited and unemployment is high.

He said the current economic decline has had severe repercussions, both on the quality of life and the built environment. Cultural heritage of the cities has suffered important degradation. "These developments present several contentious issues and the geographical and ecological setting of the city generates severe development constraints and provokes outcry to limit the growth of the city. On the other hand the general economic stagnation and population increase calls for increasing urban development, which can only jeopardize the ecosystem." He added.