World Urban Forum

Mostly, the result is determined by the dynamics of population. If the popupation is young and rapidly increasing, the end result is an uncontrolled sprawl. Uncontrolled sprawl most likely to ruing ecological balance, deplete resources faster and increase infrastructure costs etc.

Of course, East Timor could be seen as an opportunity to design a territorial based policy which could serve as guidance to other policies.

Personally I think sometimes is better to work on a “virgin” place (where there are no legal national place based policies) rather than on a country with too many levels of government and too many instances which are related to urban and land policies and strategies.

I would first integrate the society and the main specialists on urban planning, environmental policies and public policies strategies to be on one side of the equation and then I would present the government a proposal to have a general “umbrella” urban regulation that could serve as the basis of others complementary laws.

A healthy urban planning should provide room for green space managers and planning should consider the amount of green space in urban disponiblesen attempt to improve
health of the elderly, and young people
disadvantaged.
A study in urban centers in the NETHERLANDS and JAPAN
have shown that there is a better health and lower mortality rates among people close to healthy urban planning areas verts.A Should Provide room for green space managers and Planning Should Consider the Amount of green space in urban disponiblesen Attempt to Improve
health of the elderly, and young people
Disadvantaged.

As a process of heading to the end of the week we are reducing the number of topics. This was moved from moses jaokoo, 2 hours ago
Integrated City Planning:

Current Reports indicate a growing mass of human population in cities. Currently cities are chocking with mushrooming slums and traffic jams. It is sad that most countries do not have Integrated Cities Development Policies in place. Kenya is currently undergoing fundamental constitutional changes that will usher in county governance. This will result in the transfer of cities planning modules problems to regional county headquarters if the issue is not addressed adequately. i wish that adoption of Integrated Cities Development Policy Framework will be a key resolution during the forth coming World Urban Forum

Moved by the moderator from the topic posted by Agbelu Olugbenga Yusuf, 10 May 2012 13:19 on Urban Social Perspectives on planning

Urbanization means the various processes and activites required to transform a rural setting into a modern society which serves the various zonal economic needs of an industrail.This process involves the provision of infrastructure like roads,electricity,telecommunication,water,health care,education,housing,e.t.c.However,three urban political components are reflected in the evolution of urban sociology namely the role of theory,processes and people in urban political.Firstly,at the overall level,planning is inevitably political because it is concerned with land and property,and has therefore been the subject of scrutiny by those corncerned with political theory.Seondly,at the implementation level,the planning process is political activity because it is concerned with allocation of scarce resource,the planner is seen to act as urban manager or social policy-maker.Thirdly,there is the political issue of the people involved in planning process,firstly the proferssional planners themselves and secondly the planned-that is,public on receiving end.Urban planning could be used as one of the means of helping to re-establish a sense of order in new urban areas,through well-planned districts and zoning controls,which,it is belived to reduce crime,disease,overcrowding.So urban planning has a specific role in dealing with some societal problems through physical changes in the built environment,but that does not preclude the need for other social,and economic and political measures as well.

Moved by the moderator from the topic posted by Frida Abilla from Kenya, 15 May 2012 12:26 on Poor Planning-Affecting both the Poor and the Powerful

The law makers in our countries have the power to make laws that are aimed at creating reforms in cities and urban areas in general. For a long time now, the powerful have been ignoring proper planning in cities as they seek their individual agendas to benefit the urban advantage- at least that's the way it has been in Kenya.

Now disaster has struck in form of heavy rains that have caused heavy flooding in many places. Of course the worst affected are the urban poor as many have lost their lives, homes and businesses as they have been swept away by the angry waters.

I can't help but be angry at the legislatures as I witness the ugly scenes of those affected especially in the slums...this time though, they haven't been spared as the urban advantaged have had to spend hours in traffic jams as they go to work and even return home...

Reasons: well, the roads they ignored are now impassable, the drainage systems they ignored are causing flooding and now even their cars are being damaged. An irony is that water, in form of rain, has caused a shortage of water in the city for 2 weeks and the worst affected are those in slums as they cannot afford to buy water.

Still the powerful don't seem to care as they are busy going round the country seeking for votes; and while this should be a pressing matter in parliament, they would rather attack each other in order to make each other look bad.

I am a youth and wondering how I can challenge my local government to pay more attention to better planning in our cities.

Hi. East Timor should start considering crafting the National, Regional or Local Framework for Physical Planning where urban planning should be anchored on. Land as a resource is finite while the population continues to grow. Because every individual added to the population requires additional space for living, space for making a living, and space for infrastructure support, the built environment increases in size while the unbuilt environment is correspondingly reduced. But even with the absence of a national framework for physical planning or a national land use legislation, the national government should start do: 1) projections of future demand for urban land, 2) assessment of land supply, and 3) matching the demand with available supply. Local/domestic planning experts can pool resources to do these steps.

BTW, the comments above are on demand-supply balancing. In the Philippines, we have a Bill on National Land Use Act still pending in Congress. While we have national and regional frameworks for physical planning, the national land use act should have substantially influenced the local government units (provinces, cities and municipalities) as they comply to requirements of law regarding crafting their comprehensive land use plans and comprehensive development plans. We have our local version of designing alternative urban forms and if you;re interested, I can send it to you.

Hi, thanks for all your comment here about the issues of urban planning importance in developing country. For prinscella, thanks for the comment and I do like and appreciate if you send me the said report. You can send me the report via this email address: (paituku_2004@yahoo.com). Thanks in advance, I will use this as a reference to learn more about planning, particularly in the physical development in Timor Leste.

We all are shouting for good urban planning and giving some suggestions to each other. But who knows which plan would be good for the developing countries. If there is no population control, if there is no transport/vehicle control, if law enforcement does not work properly, if government department will continue their corruption, then how we will expect that our capital city should be well planned city.
First, it is necessary to change people's attitude, behaviour, try to satisfy with small items and improved the facilities in the urban as well as rural areas.