Echoes of Empire: British Mandate planning in Palestine and its influence in the West Bank today

Almost 70 years after Great Britain gave up its Palestine Mandate, Regional Plans prepared under the Mandate still survive – as live statutory documents that are used to justify planning decisions. Behind them lies a story of how planning is unavoidably tied up with land, with rights, and with power. This article outlines the history of the making of these Plans, explores what the planners of the Mandate epoch thought they were doing, shows how the Plans have been used ever since, and provides an update in the light of a recent UN Habitat Mission to study the planning system under the Israeli occupation. The Plans were the output from the activity of the Mandate government’s ‘Town Planning Adviser’ in the late 1930s and the 1940s – during the period of both the Second World War and the worsening Jewish/Arab violence that led to war in 1947. It was very much a case of the ‘export’ of town planning from urban and industrial Britain to a society which was primarily rural. The Mandate Plans continue to be used in the formal process by the occupation authorities, but selectively: a selectivity which, unfortunately, the Mandate Plans enable by their flexibility. This bites directly on how Palestinians in the West Bank live – ‘the history in the present’.     

Rural ethos and urban development: the emergence of the first Hebrew town in modern Palestine

Since the late nineteenth century, the Zionist movement emphasized ruralism not only for the pastoral areas of Palestine, but also for its urban centres. This paper explores the emergence of Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew town, in the light of the Zionist rural/pastoral ideology and within the late nineteenth century discourse on city planning. It discusses early Tel Aviv’s rural images and the various means that were implemented by local and international planners, Zionist cultural agents, volunteer organizations and residents in order to materialize the green vision for the first Hebrew town. This paper argues that till the mid‐1930s, the development of Tel Aviv discarded the common modern dichotomy of nature/culture or pastoral/urban, proving that the development of the rural, agricultural landscape and the construction of the urban metropolis were complementary facets of the Zionist dream.     

Editing the African city: reading colonial planning in Africa from a comparative perspective

In order to understand the complexity of the colonial city in Africa, this article suggests a comparative study on two levels, corresponding with two important phenomena in the planning process of African cities. The first level can be described as the diffusion of planning models to the colonies, and the second as the actual implementation of these planning models on the colonial terrain. Each level requires different scales of research and frames of analysis. They are particularly valuable when examined together.     

Garden cities in colonial Africa: a note on historiography

While there is an abundance of published literature on the diffusion of planning modes and garden city notions in the western world, the corresponding literature on colonial (sub-Saharan) Africa is rather sparse. This brief paper, dealing with major historiographic trends in urban space and segregation in light of garden city literature proposes new directions for critical research on garden cities in colonial Africa. Both thematically and methodologically, the paper will highlight the importance of studying the influences of garden city ideas beyond the global North–West, and understanding the channels through which they were passed on to various colonial contexts in Africa, the circumstances of their application and the political interests they were meant to serve.     

Palestinian agriculture and the Israeli separation barrier: the mismatch of biopolitics and chronopolitics with the environment and human survival

Academic scholarship on Israel’s Separation Barrier has focused upon its legality and political impacts. United Nations agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations have been left to document its other actual/potential infringements. The natural environment has been secondary to higher profile issues, such as the intentions behind the structure and its implications for any future peace agreement. Yet, since environmental impediments can have serious long-term implications for natural resources and human subsistence, it is necessary to examine the barrier’s impacts after a decade of existence. This paper focuses upon the main human-environment system of agriculture. A multi-method approach reveals that the impacts constitute much more than the ‘population here, natural resources there’ thesis that has dominated narratives about the barrier’s environmental impediments. In fact, the barrier appears to be having dramatic and perhaps unexpected socio-ecological consequences.     

Israeli planning in the Shah's Iran: a forgotten episode

In the 1970s, while the rest of the world was undergoing recession, vast economic growth in Iran, leading to fast urbanization, generated a growing international building market in which Israeli construction firms and architects also participated, benefiting from the good bilateral relationships at the time. To examine the experience of Israeli architects working in Iran and how it influenced their professional practice, this paper focuses on two projects planned and built simultaneously by Israeli teams. The Navy project was comprised of three massive housing estates and public amenities for the Iranian Navy's troops and families on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Eskan Towers in Tehran was a complex of residential luxury towers and a commercial centre catering for the Iranian elite. Review of these cases indicates that national knowledge was not always the basis for transnational planning, and that the international arena itself became the source of knowledge and flow. In the Navy project, the architect derived his ideas from professional practices acquired back home, while in the Eskan Towers project the team was confronted with the free-market economy and a globalized practice.     

Scale and scope of environmental planning transformations: The Israeli case

This paper explores the scale and scope of transformations in the environmental planning field, and the factors that may advance or impede their widespread adoption. A conceptual model is offered which examines scope (defined as type, breadth and structure of the transformation), and the scale of its impact (categorized as stakeholder, organizational, institutional or societal) and applies it to the analysis of several cases in Israel where environmental transformations, affecting the way in which planning is conducted, have been adopted. Conclusions include identification of conditions for facilitating and advancing transformations, including knowledge of innovative alternatives, initiative, willingness to adopt new practices, and identification of policy windows that emerge during conflict, reform, or crisis. The fostering of relations between environmental non-government organizations and planning systems and leadership roles are also significant in catalyzing environmental transformation.     

Spatial analysis of urban stormwater quality: Ramallah district as a case study, Palestine

Urban runoff pollution sources are formidable obstacles to achieving water source goals in numerous municipalities. Ramallah district currently holds one of the highest rates of urbanization in Palestine causing a significant increase in surface runoff. Consequently, this causes increased flooding and a significant decrease in water quality due primarily to the accumulation of pollutants. To date, most research has focused on specifying temporal variations of stormwater quality parameters that include high uncertainties and also increase the risk of pollution control structures' failure. Spatial variations of the runoff quality are the key factor in nonpoint source pollution studies. This research investigates the spatial variability of urban runoff quality parameters in relation to land use of urban catchments. The research estimated pollutant concentration for improved and efficient design of pollution control structures for each land use.     

Multi criteria analysis for locating sustainable suburban centers: A case study from Ramallah Governorate, Palestine

Currently, over 65% of Palestinians live in urban areas, exceeding the international urbanization rate of 50%. The Ramallah Governorate is the most rapidly growing governorate within the Palestinian territory. This accelerating urban growth is accompanied by significant pressure on services, employment opportunities, and accommodations. This study aimed at finding sustainable areas for absorbing urban growth within Ramallah in order to alleviate the pressure on the city center as well as find accommodations for young families looking for better living conditions. This research was conducted in two major phases. Site selection was the first phase, using Geographic Information System (GIS to identify 13 sites according to the determined criteria. In Phase Two, Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) was applied to evaluate these sites considering a set of indicators, which were evaluated and assessed by a wide range of stakeholders. Expert and public participation were included in this study. As a result of consideration of over 20 variables, a site was selected to be the most sustainable place for developing a suburban center within the study area.     

Street names in Dakar-Plateau: a colonial and post-colonial perspective

ABSTRACT

This article revolves around the naming of streets in Dakar-Plateau. This was borne in mind as analysis considered the system of urban nomenclature applied in the colonial era, when the city was founded and shaped by France’s colonial administration; as well as the (re)naming process ongoing after Senegal’s independence. The approach thus applied quantitative verification methods to a thesis oft-repeated in the subject literature, that a French glossary of toponyms dominates the system by which streets in Dakar are named. Quantitative analysis here shows unequivocally that there is only a slight numerical prevalence of colonial-era names of streets over new names. Beyond that, clear evidence is offered for the idea that, in both colonial days and today, the symbolic urban landscape expressed with the aid of urbanonyms was shaped by authorities in a conscious manner, being pressed into the service of political objectives. To indicate the strength of this kind of linkage, the article engages in the detailed discussion of each change of name that certain streets have been through; the bases for this approach being reference to the historical town/city plans present in the Archives Nationales du Sénégal, as well as fieldwork carried out in the Senegalese capital.     

Bubonic plague,colonial ideologies,and urban planning policies: Dakar,Lagos, and Kumasi

The Third Plague Pandemic originated in Southwest China in the mid-nineteenth century, reached Africa's shores around 1900, and spread globally for about a century. This article examines three plague loci in colonial Senegal (Dakar, 1914), Nigeria (Lagos, 1924), and the Gold Coast (today's Ghana; Kumasi, 1924). A tripartite comparative analysis is made of French and British doctrines of colonial rule, colonial urban planning policies, and anti-plague practices. While some common features are demonstrated in the policies and practices of the colonizing forces such as the implementation of rigorous measures and embracing segregationist solutions, divergent features can also be distinguished. These relate to the methods of implementation of planning and anti-plague policies, in accordance with colonial ideology (assimilation, direct and indirect rule); and to the very nature of autochthonous communities, responses, and levels of agitation. Our both comparative and more nuanced site-related view is also based on a large collection of archival and secondary materials from multilateral channels.     

The Crete Development Plan: a post-Second World War Israeli experience of transnational professional exchange

The paper deals with the Crete Development Plan, prepared in the mid-1960s by a team of Israeli and Greek planners and funded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the context of post-Second World War development. It discusses the export of professional knowledge in the micro-/macro-political contexts of national and international processes. Analysis of controversies within the Israeli team draws attention to incongruities and dissonances between regional concepts and their applications. It emphasizes how professionals interested in democratic and participatory processes used data sources to guide implementation, but also had to rely on mediated information, were removed from actual decision-making and thus were not directly responsible for the implementation of such decisions. The paper highlights the political role of expertise in post-Second World War development, and the ambivalent position of international experts serving both their countries’ and their own professional goals.     

北欧可持续城市规划案例研究与启示

通过阐述可持续发展在城市规划方面的相关理论,对比归纳出可持续城市规划的定义与规划特点,并结合北欧国家在其方面的先进性,选取北欧城市的两个优秀可持续城市规划实践案例进行研究分析,总结出其成功建设经验供日后规划设计工作借鉴。     

中西城市规划理论对比研究

归纳总结了西方城市规划理论及发展,分析了中国古代规划思想及现代城市规划理论的变化与发展,通过中西方城市规划理论的对比研究,并结合我国的自然人文环境,从而找到适合中国特色的城市规划方法。     

虚拟现实技术与全球化下的中国城市规划教育

介绍了虚拟现实技术的概念及基本特征,阐述了虚拟现实技术应用于城市规划教育中的意义,并提出虚拟现实技术应用于城市规划教育的目标和主要建设内容,以提高国内城市规划人才的竞争力。     

理想、现实与理智--城市规划与建设中的政策思路

城市规划必须有理想,但理想要变成现实就必须研究规划实施的可能与途径.规划的理智和公共政策的制定既是规划师的责任,也是政府的职责.     

Phronetic planning research: theoretical and methodological reflections

One of the key agreements adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992 was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Both in practice and research biodiversity has been mainly addressed in a non-urban context, often discussed in relation to issues such as the depletion of rainforests and desertification. However, as more than half of the world population are urban dwellers, it is increasingly urgent to discuss the application of the concept of biodiversity within an urban context. Issues approached in this article are: What does it mean to talk about biodiversity in an urban context? Is biodiversity a meaningful goal for urban politics and planning? Is there empirical evidence of implementing biodiversity in urban politics and planning. After an introduction, the article is organized into four sections. In the second section the concept of biological diversity is defined with special reference to its application in an urban context. Biodiversity and its relationship to urban governance is the topic of the third section, followed by a section analysing examples of how this relationship is practised in selected Swedish cities. The final section highlights five major conclusions with regard to the application of biodiversity in an urban context: (1) that all cities studied have adopted overall ‘green’ policies, including biodiversity as one component; (2) that local coalitions in favour of implementing biodiversity have been established between employees at different offices, between employees and politicians, and between employees and NGOs; (3) that there are in all cases tangible signs of spatial patterns and structures that are favourable to biodiversity; (4) that urban biodiversity, for its successful implementation, needs to be related, and accommodated to other values given priority in current policymaking, such as recreation; (5) that mainstream biodiversity analysis should be complemented by an urban landscape approach. Finally, the article returns to the more general question of what biodiversity could and should mean in urban planning.     

国土空间规划背景下城乡规划专业本科课程体系优化探索——以河北建筑工程学院为例

国土空间规划的推进对学科交叉融合与专业人才培养提出了新要求,城乡规划学科在新时代背景下面临重大机遇和挑战。从国土空间规划切入,论述了城乡规划学科的重要性和人才培养的新要求,剖析了城乡规划本科教育需要解决的四个主要矛盾——传统人才培养模式与创新教学方式、理论类课程与设计实践类课程、旧知识体系与新规划体系、单一学科框架与交叉学科知识,从而得出了城乡规划学科亟待进行人才培养模式转型和课程体系优化的结论。根据新时代城乡规划专业人才培养需求,河北建筑工程学院及时调整培养方案,确定了兼具实践思维、理论思维、逻辑思维和运算思维的复合型高素质人才培养模式,从理清课程体系脉络、增设学科交叉类课程、促进理论和实践的融合三个方面对专业教育课程体系进行了重构。学校依托新的培养方案与课程体系进行了教学改革,取得了良好的教学效果,提升了专业人才培养水平。     

城市滨水地区生态景观规划设计初探

通过对武汉市环金银湖地区景观开发生态化规划设计及其决策过程的研究,探索了尊重城市滨水地形地貌特征的规划设计方法与手段,寻找生态化开发建设的模式,以促进城市开发建设与生态环境的协调健康发展。     

新形势下城乡规划专业本科教育的改革与探索——解析天津大学城乡规划专业新版本科培养方案

针对城镇化发展的新常态对城乡规划专业人才的需要,以及城乡规划一级学科教育的目标,文章分析了当前城乡规划专业本科教育面临的发展机会和挑战,并以天津大学城乡规划专业本科培养方案的修订为例,探讨城乡规划专业本科教育改革。通过对原版培养方案的解析,对比介绍了新版培养方案的改革思路、办学思想、培养目标等概况,重点阐述了新版培养方案在教学安排、课程组织和教学方法上的探索与尝试。