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Abstract
Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, has been developed since the 1970s with typical characteristics such as high urbanization rate, low-density urban sprawl, and private car based mobility. Land-use patterns favour the separation of functions, creating long distances for daily trips and a high traffic volume. State investments went into developing and improving the road network while the public transport has been neglected for a long time. In light of depleting resources and the recent decline of oil revenues, however, a first rethinking of transport policies and land use planning has set in. Diversifying the economy has become a major aim and efforts are made to encourage the private sector and to attract foreign direct investment. With regard to urban development, these policies are reflected in increasing changes in land use patterns. The paper analyses ongoing land use changes in al-Ghubra North, a multifunctional neighbourhood in Muscat, and discusses how far these forms of land use change contribute to a more sustainable urban structure and more sustainable mobility patterns.
Notes
1 OECD Green Growth Studies, “Compact City Policies: A Comparative Assessment” (2012).
2 Sultanate of Oman, Supreme Council for Planning, “Oman Works on the National Spatial Strategy”.
3 Interview with a representative from MoTC (Ministry of Transport and Communication), Muscat, February 2016.
4 Didero, Nebel, and Pfaffenbach, “Urban Structure and Daily Mobility Patterns in a City of Long Distances: The Case of Muscat – Oman”, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 40.3 (2019), pp. 361–386.
5 Sultanate of Oman, “National Spatial Strategy”.
6 Vision 2020 sets out the main guidelines to steer the process of economic diversification specified in the five-year development plans; Sultanate of Oman, Supreme Council for Planning, Ninth Five Year Development Plan 2016–2020 (2016).
7 NCSI, Statistical Yearbook 2017 (2018), p. 190.
8 Dielemann and Wegener, “Compact City and Urban Sprawl”, Built Environment 30.4 (2014), pp. 308–332.
9 Cervero and Kockelman, “Travel Demand and the 3Ds: Density, Diversity, and Design”, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 2.3 (1997), pp. 199–219.
10 Ewing and Cervero, “Travel and the Built Environment: A Meta-Analysis”, Journal of the American Planning Association 76.3 (2010), pp. 265–291.
11 See e. g. Delatte et al., “Understanding the Needs of MENA Public Transport Customers: Culture of Service and Gender-Responsive Recommendations”, TeMA: Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Special Issue 1 (2018), pp. 8–28.
12 Scholz, Muscat, Sultanat Oman: Geographische Skizze einer einmaligen arabischen Stadt (1990); Scholz, Muscat: Then and Now: Muscat: Then and Now: Geographical Sketch of a Unique Arab Town (2014).
13 Petersen, “Oman: Three and a Half Decades of Change and Development”, Middle East Policy 11.2 (2004), pp. 125–137; Petersen, Historical Muscat: An Illustrated Gazetteer (2007); Petersen, “Life after Oil: Economic Alternatives for the Arab Gulf States”, Mediterranean Quarterly 20.3 (2009), pp. 1–18.
14 Al-Shueily, Towards a Sustainable Urban Future in Oman: Problem and Process Analysis, PhD thesis (2015).
15 Al-Gharibi, From Patchwork to Sustainability: Case Study Muscat, PhD diss. (2014).
16 Nebel and von Richthofen (eds), Urban Oman: Trends and Prospects of Urbanization in Muscat Capital Area (2016); also see: Benkari, “Urban Development in Oman: An Overview”, presented at the Sustainable Development and Planning 2017 conference in Sultan Qaboos University, Oman (2017).
17 Nebel and Scholz (eds), Oman- Rapid Urbanisation (2015).
18 Von Richthofen, Spatial Diversity and Sustainable Urbanisation in Oman, PhD diss. (2019); also see: von Richthofen, “Desert Sprawl. Rapid Urbanisation: The Transformation of the Desert in Oman”, Topos. The International Review of Landscape, Architecture and Urban Design 93 (2015), pp. 96–101.
19 Al-Rawas, Urban Transportation Problems in the Muscat Area, Sultanate of Oman, PhD thesis (1993).
20 Belwal, “Public Transportation in Oman: A Strategic Analysis”, Advances in Transportation Studies 42.3 (2010), pp. 99–116.
21 Scholz and Langer, Spatial Development in Muscat/Oman and Challenges of Public Transport, in Cummings, Richthofen, and Babar (eds), Arab Gulf Cities in Transition: Space, Politics and Society (2019), pp. 40–67.
22 Didero, Nebel, and Pfaffenbach, “Urban Structure and Daily Mobility Patterns in a City of Long Distances” (2019).
23 Scholz, Muscat, Sultanat Oman (1990).
24 Al-Rawas, Urban Transportation Problems (1993).
25 NCSI, Monthly Statistical Bulletin (2020), p. 3.
26 See e.g. Al-Shueily, Towards a Sustainable Urban Future (2015).
27 Scholz, Muscat, Sultanate Oman (1990).
28 Weidleplan and Muamir Consultancy, Muscat Area Structure Plan Phase 3 (1991); UN Habitat, Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Global Report on Human Settlements (2013); UN Habitat, Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements (2009).
29 Scholz, Muscat, Sultanat Oman (1990), p. 140 (authors’ translation).
30 Scholz, Muscat, Sultanat Oman (1990); Scholz, Muscat: Then and Now (2014); Nebel and von Richthofen (eds), Urban Oman (2016); Al-Awadhi, Charabi, and Ramadan, “Urban Development and Land Use Change Patterns in Muscat City”, International Journal of Geoinformatics 13.4 (2017), pp. 45–55; Al-Gharibi, From Patchwork to Sustainability, PhD diss. (2014).
31 Al-Awadhi, Charabi, and Ramadan, “Urban Development and Land Use Change Patterns in Muscat City”, p. 50.
32 Asphalted roads increased from 3,766 km in 1990 to 14,846 km in 2017, see: Ministry of Transport and Communication, Sultanate of Oman, E-Annual Report (2017), p. 10.
33 Von Richthofen and Langer, “Evaluating the Urban Development and Determining the ‘Peak Space’ of the Muscat Capital Area”, in Nebel and Scholz (eds), Oman- Rapid Urbanisation (special issue of TRIALOG 114: A Journal for Planning and Building in a Global Context, vol. 3/2013–June 2015), p. 5.
34 In the interview with a representative from Muscat Municipality (February 2016), the interviewee regretted the fact that a comprehensive vision for MCA is missing.
35 The Business Year, “Mixing It up” (2017).
36 Muscat Grand Mall, “About Muscat Grand Mall”.
37 Times of Oman, “Government Offers Land Plots in Muscat to Private Investors for Development”, 12 March 2018.
38 Muscat Grand Mall, “About Muscat Grand Mall”.
39 Jimenez, Hernandéz and Pecharromán, “Planning the Transport System in Muscat, Oman”, XII Congreso de Ingeniería del Transporte València, Universitat Politècnica de València (2016).
40 NCSI, Statistical Yearbook 2018 (2019), p. 80.
41 Research at the city quarter level, however, is challenging, as official data is not aggregated to this level. Thus we rely on census data at District level (“Wilaya” in Omani usage) or even Muscat Governorate level (metropolitan Muscat).
42 As case studies we selected Al-Ghubra North, Al-Maabela South and Al-Seeb Souq. In this paper, we only refer to the data collected in Al-Ghubra North.
43 For more details see Didero, Nebel, and Pfaffenbach, “Urban Structure and Daily Mobility Patterns in a City of Long Distances” (2019).
44 Muscat Municipality, Local Order No. 23/92.
45 Interview with representative from Muscat Municipality, Muscat, February 2016.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sonja Nebel
Sonja Nebel is an urban planner and architect who has worked at the German University of Technology in Muscat/Oman and the Technische Universität Berlin, resident in Berlin, [email protected];
Maike Didero
Maike Didero is a social geographer who has taught and researched at RWTH Aachen University, resident in Bonn, [email protected];
Carmella Pfaffenbach
Carmella Pfaffenbach is Professor of Cultural Geography in the Department of Geography, University of Aachen, Templergraben 55, D-52062 Aachen, Germany, [email protected].