Non-comprehensive Planning Approaches for Rapidly Urbanizing Communities

Abstract

This paper presents the experience of managing a process of extremely rapid urban development in one of the Gulf States. In such situations of rapid urbanization, past planning models have not proved appropriate and many planning professionals working in such situations have not been exposed to more recent theoretical developments in the field. In this context, urban planning professionals have been required to invent new approaches for specific contexts, for which the models provided in their training had left them unprepared.

Keywords:

• Rapid urban development
• United Arab Emirates
• strategic planning
• urban governance
• case-by-case planning
• action plans within a broad vision

Acknowledgements

Researching urban planning practice in Sharjah's context required researching the available resources in Arabic and a set of interviews with government officials that was only possible after years of trust, whilst the author was adviser to Sharjah Directorate of Town Planning and Survey. This article is his way of repaying their trust with a useful analysis and good understanding that might guide future urban planning actions in Sharjah.