Metropolisation or Macrocephaly? Algiers: At the Edge of the Tragedy

ABSTRACT

Two strategic plans for Algiers: SNAT 2030, and PDAU 2015–2035 that seek to enhance its competitiveness to keep pace with other Mediterranean cities have been approved. A metropolisation process, as it is politically called, that would market the capital through a series of megaprojects is taking place. Such a tendency paradoxically counteracts previous planning instructions that strived for the control of its spatial expansion and avoid the scenarios of other underdeveloped megacities. This study examines the urban and environmental costs of such a policy that would lead to an unmanageable megacity, and thus, draws this tragic scenario.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban Primacy
• metropolisation
• Algiers
• urban Sprawl
• strategic Spatial Planning

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mr Matthew Skjonsberg, PHD EPFL-MAS ETHZ, Postdoctoral Researcher At the Laboratory of Urbanism, EPFL, Lausanne, for his writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In its basic form, primacy is expressed as a proportionate relationships between the large city and cities of its region that follow in size. This relationships is then developed into a rule that gives the ideal rank of a city according to its size. According to Zipf’s law, in a system of cities, the largest city should be roughly twice the size of the second-largest city, about three times the size of the third-largest city, and so on. In mathematical terms:

2. Two indicators were used to highlight the urban phenomenon and corroborate each other. Jefferson indicator concerns the expression of Algiers population in relation to Oran, the second city, Si = P1/(P2), whereas Stewart indicator (Stewart, 1958) consists of the ratio of the capital population to the sum of the combined populations of the three following largest cities, i.e. Oran, Constantine and Annaba. It is defined as: Si = P1/(P2+ P3+ P4) (Office Nationale des Statistiques, 2008).