Concept Of Sustainable Urban Development Research Articles

Rethinking sustainable urban development: towards an integrated planning and development process

A city is the most dramatic manifestation of human activities on the environment. This human-dominated organism degrades natural habitats, simplifies species composition, disrupts hydrological systems and modifies energy flow and nutrient cycling. Sustainable urban development (SUD) is seen as a panacea to minimise these externalities caused by widespread human activities on the environment. The concept of SUD has been around over a considerably long time as the need to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviours made the international community commit to it. However, to date such development has not been achieved in large scales anywhere around the globe. This review paper aims to look at the SUD concept from the lens of planning and development integration to generate new insights and directions. The paper reports the outcome of the review of the literature on planning and development approaches—i.e. urban planning, ecological planning, urban development, SUD—and proposes a new process to support the efforts for achieving SUD—i.e. integrated urban planning and development process. The findings of this review paper highlight that adopting such holistic planning and development process generate a potential to further support the progress towards achieving sustainability agendas of our cities.

Borrowing from the past to sustain the present and the future: indigenous African urban forms, architecture, and sustainable urban development in contemporary Africa

Urban spatial expansion resulting from urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is not going to stop or stabilize in the near future. Efforts should therefore be concentrated on accommodating this phenomenon through the promotion of sustainable urban planning and development. Relying on secondary data, this paper examines models of indigenous African urban forms and architecture to understand these forms and their characteristics, and how these models and associated management, design, and planning principles can be adopted in contemporary SSA urban development in the quest to achieve sustainable urban development. This paper argues that planning is culturally and contextually defined and the specificities of a place are critical in planning. Developing strategies based on indigenous urban forms which embody local peoples’ culture, aspirations, experiences, and values is consistent with the concept of sustainable urban development. The article concludes that there exist clear elements of socially, politically, economically, culturally, and environmentally sound and responsive sustainable planning principles to be derived from indigenous urban forms and architecture which can inform current urban development process in SSA.

Sustainable Upgrading of Informal Settlements in The Developing World, Case Study: Ezzbet Abd El Meniem Riyadh, Alexandria, Egypt

One of the biggest obstacles for development in the developing countries is the rapid population growth. This, together with continuing poverty and lack of basic needs for an acceptable life imposes a great challenge for sustainable development.The paper deals with the problem of the informal settlement phenomenon in Egypt and the means of its upgrading by adopting the concept of sustainable urban development through firstly analysis for relevant example, secondly setting a criteria and guidelines to be applied finally on a case study of an informal settlement in Alexandria, Egypt.

Sustainable Urban Development in the UK: Rhetoric or reality?

ABSTRACTThe concept of sustainable urban development represents a major challenge for governments throughout the contemporary world. Despite the rhetoric of sustainable development over the past two decades, the gap between public declarations of principle and implementation of concrete measures remains significant in most cities. This article first examines the complex concept of sustainable urban development then charts the emergence of a sustainable development philosophy within UK urban policy. The theoretical and structural level analysis is complemented by consideration of current strategies aimed at sustainable development in part of the Thames Gateway. Finally, a number of conclusions are presented on the prospects for sustainable urban development in the UK.