Sustainable Urbanism in Abu Dhabi: Transferring the Vancouver Model

ABSTRACT:

Notwithstanding the role of cross-national transfer of planning knowledge globally, there is a dearth of in-depth research that examines the transfer process. In recent years, Vancouver has garnered international acclaim as one of the world’s emerging “eco-cities,” and the planning model applied there has begun to be emulated in numerous foreign contexts. As the capital of the United Arab Emirates and an emerging global business center, Abu Dhabi has sought the expertise of leading Vancouverite planners to develop a design and regulatory framework that is culturally distinctive. This article examines the knowledge transfer process with particular emphasis on the authority hierarchies formed and their impact on the adaptation of transferred knowledge. Using in-depth interviews and an analysis of the planning documents, this article provides a micro-level investigation of the interpersonal and institutional relationships. Such relationships explicate the tools utilized by the transfer agents in their attempts to contextualize, adapt, and operationalize imported knowledge. We propose a model that maps the various levels of authority and links them to the knowledge flow between local acquiring agents and foreign transferring agents. The application of this model to the Abu Dhabi scenario reveals a complex web of interactions between the local and foreign planners involved, across multiple institutional levels.

Notes

The term “parastatal” refers to corporations that are owned and partially operated by the government. Companies such as Aldar are included in this definition.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luna Khirfan

Luna Khirfan is an Assistant Professor at the School of Planning, the University of Waterloo, in Ontario, Canada. She received her PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan in 2007 and since then, her research has focused on urban planning and urban design in the context of Middle Eastern cities. She investigates the cross-national transfer of planning knowledge particularly, from Toronto to Amman and from Vancouver to Abu Dhabi. She also investigates urban governance and participatory planning in Middle Eastern cities especially, in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan. Additionally, her research addresses the challenges that face historic cities as they adapt to meet the needs of their residents and to mitigate the pressures of tourism. Luna has been a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University Middle East Research Center in Amman during 2011–12.

Zahra Jaffer

Zahra Jaffer is a graduate student in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. She has previously worked in the private environmental consulting and NGO sectors in the United Arab Emirates, and holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Toronto, Canada. Her graduate research focuses on environmental policy formulation and decision-making in Nairobi, Kenya.