FIG Commission 8 - Spatial planning and development

Work Plan 2011-2014

Original work plan in .pdf-format

Title

Spatial Planning and Economic Development

Mr. Wafula Nabutola, Chairperson of Commission 8

Terms of reference

  • Regional and local structure planning
  • Urban and rural land use planning and control
  • Planning policies and environmental improvement
  • Land use planning and implementation and control
  • Public-private partnerships
  • Informal settlement issues in spatial development,
  • Spatial planning and good governance
  • Re-engineering mega cities
  • Strategy for environmentally sustainable development
  • Disaster risk management and land use planning
  • Inter-relationship between Commissions

Mission statement

The activities of Commission 8 in the years 2011–2014 will involve all levels of physical planning, which enable environmentally sustainable development to occur.

Spatial Planning

Spatial Planning is all about governments (federal, central, state and local) using a series of techniques to influence optimum distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales. It encompasses all levels of land policies formulation, land use planning including urban planning, regional planning, environmental planning, national spatial plans and, in Africa and in the EU, international levels. In Africa the COMESA, IGAD, EAC nations are coming together to design, develop and implement cross-border corridors of infrastructure (roads, railways, oil pipelines, fibre-optic cabling) all running beyond nations and beyond regions.

Regional/xpatial planning gives geographical expression to the economic, social, cultural and ecological policies of society. It is at the same time a scientific discipline, an administrative technique and a policy developed as an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach directed towards a balanced regional development and the physical organization of space according to an overall strategy.

Physical planning establishes the ‘ground rules’ for environmentally sustainable development at all planning levels, including all actors (government, private sector and public/private partnerships). Traditionally the surveyors? role is most visible in implementation of plans and therefore Commission 8 will have more focus on issues that are closely related to the core disciplines of the profession.

Commission 8 will continue to assist in building the capacity of knowledge and skills via case studies, workshops, collaboration and consultation thus contributing, in a positive way, to environmentally sustainable development and living conditions of humans in a changing globalised world.

The challenge this presents is to protect our national heritage while permitting appropriate growth. This is sometimes referred to as ?smart growth,’ carefully planned growth to preserve the past for future generations. Yet, it seems, one person?s notion of ?smart growth’ may be, to another person, restraint of trade.

Throughout the world small communities are facing challenges from developers – both builders and land owners looking to make an honest profit – who seek to create commercial, industrial, and residential projects on water masses, former farms, pastureland, and forests.

Urban Development

The process of improving raw land to support construction or other improvement. It may include planning, acquisition of government permits, subdivision, construction of access roads, installation of utilities, landscaping, and drainage or the process of improving a large tract of land; includes clearing, grading, and the installation of sewers and utilities such as water, gas, telecommunications and electricity. .
Surveyors have a key professional role in the application and implementation of planning and development for optimum community living. The strategy today incorporates the importance of the environment and the requirement for environmentally sustainable developments (ESD) to be foundations of the habitat for future generations. This planning strategy for urban and rural transformation provides opportunities for surveyors.

The re-engineering of mega cities as places for people and the provision and location of infrastructure services involves all levels of Government and Private Sector to collaborate and deliver desired public policy outcomes.

The challenges of containing and eventually eliminating informal settlements ought to benefit from surveyors’ input in the aspects of planning and good governance.

In the period of 2011–2014 the focus of Commission 8 will be:

  • On all parties involved in environmentally sustainable planning and implementation;
  • To develop guidelines, methods, governances and good practice at the global level;
  • To reflect holistic skills in planning and development of the built environment, including informal settlements wherever they are to be found;
  • To emphasise that we, as surveyors and built environment experts have a leadership role in the collective responsibility for well-functioning mega cities; including integrated disaster risk management as a discipline
  • The Commission recognises the three pillars of ESD, i.e. balancing the competing development demands associated with economic, social and environmental aspirations.

Further, the integrating activities of FIG allow for adoption of a holistic approach to problem solving in the built environment be it rural, peri-urban or urban; – Focussing on surveyors’ role in the implementation of plans and the interaction between planning and real estate economics. Analyze success stories like Sao Paulo’s, Buenos Aires’s, New York City’s tackling of informal settlements and Norway’s prevention of the same.


Working Group 8.1 - Planning Strategy for Urban Development and Regeneration

Policy Issues

  • Planning urban development and renewal and their economic and social impacts
  • The role of partnerships and urbanization process is a role for surveyors in moving towards sustainability in urban development/community living for people and places.

Chair

Frank Friesecke,
GERMANY,
e-mail: frank.friesecke[at]steg.de 

Specific Projects

  • Identify a planning framework, which enables public-private partnership (PPP) to deliver tools for urbanization
  • Investigate key roles for surveyors within urban regeneration

Workshops

  • Develop a series of special papers for the FIG Working Weeks
  • To organise a round table discussion at 2011 Regional Conference in Marrakech.

Publications

  • Report on results at the FIG Regional Conference 2012 in Rome.

Timetable

  • 2011: Round table discussion at the Working Week 2011 in Marrakech
  • 2012: Final report and recommendations in Rome

Beneficiaries

  • FIG member organisations, UN, professional bodies, land owners, planners and developers.

Working Group 8.2 - Informal Settlements Issues in Spatial Development Planning and Governance

Policy Issues

  • Commission 8 contributions to the attainment of Millennium Development Goals, all of which have been set to be substantially realized by 2015. Evaluate progress thus far and suggest ways to improve the policies, laws, systems and procedures for their execution
  • to investigate initiatives that deliver land for housing and associated financial mechanisms that enable peoples’ settlements upgrading through participatory approaches to planning and development.

Provisional Terms of Reference

  • Build negotiation mechanisms with Traditional Leaders to enable the expansion of urban areas onto customary owned land by identifying ways in which Customary ownership could be realistically converted to release land for formalised housing, (in collaboration with Commission 7).
  • Explore rapid, new approaches to forward planning and upgrading initiatives that provide places for the poor by partnering with sister organisations of like minds.
  • Deliver environmental sustainable house plots by working with partnership forums to find ways to upgrade infrastructure achieving this by addressing both physical and financial mechanisms.

Chair

Eugene Silayo,
TANZANIA,
E-mail silayo[at]aru.ac.tz  

Specific Projects

  • To participate in special workshops in Africa
    To provide leadership at the FIG Working Week 2011 and thereafter at the Working Week in Rome in 2012 or at the regional conference in South America in 2012, in this key issue.

Workshops

  • To participate in special workshop in Africa
  • To provide leadership at the FIG Working Week 2008 in this key issue.

Publications

  • To produce a working discussion paper ‘White Paper’ on the key element of effective governance.

Timetable

  • 2011: To organise a round table session at FIG Working Week 2011
  • 2012: Final report and recommendation for significantly better Practice.

Beneficiaries

  • United Nations, the World Bank, governments, humanity and FIG member organisations.

Working Group 8.3 - Re-engineering Mega Cities

Policy Issues

  • To provide opportunities for surveyors to play a key role in solving problems and implementing infrastructure in environmentally sustainable projects/developments in mega cities (large sprawling habitats with two distinct types being economically wealthy and dramatically poor).

Chair

  Enrico Rispoli,
ITALY,
Email: e.rispoli[at]cng.it 

Specific Projects

  • To study the World City Report for identifying opportunities for surveyors to be contributors towards improving infrastructure and sustenance of the environment;
  • To create methods of identifying causes of infrastructure damage within mega cities;
  • Identify the planning framework and recommend changes which will enable
  • Implementation of Environmentally Sustainable Development;
  • Develop a policy framework to enable sustainable cities.

Workshops

  • To contribute to the proposed Commission 8 workshop on mega cities at the FIG Regional Conference in Rome in 2012. Synergize with Commission 3

Publications

  • Report on results of working group investigations and report at the FIG Regional Conference in Abuja in 2013.

Beneficiaries

  • FIG member organisations, United Nations and the World Bank.

Working Group 8.4 - Land Policies; Land Use Planning Control and Implementation

Policy Issues

 

  • To increase Surveyors‘ contribution to formulation and implementation of land policies in the world in general and in Africa in particular; land use planning and better integrate surveyors expertise in implementation of these policies, plans, implementation processes and agreements and real estate management
  • To increase surveyors’ and planners’ awareness on sustainable planning and implementation of plans based on modern knowledge, technical solutions, rules and legislation, traditions, equity and development and implementation processes in different countries.

Chair

Mr. Ibrahim Mwathane,
KENYA,
Email: mwathane[at]landsca.co.ke

 


Commission Officers

Commission Chair

Wafula Nabutola, M.Sc.
Consultant-in-Chief
MyRita Consultants, Inc
P. O. Box 8824 00100
Nairobi
KENYA
Tel +254 20 352 5515
Cell: +254 722 617 444
Cell: +254 735 328 359
Skype: wafula.nabutola
Email: wafulaluasinabutola[at]gmail.com

Vice Chair of Administration and Communication

Ms. Mercy Muthoni Njamwea
Assistant Commission
Land Reforms ands Transformation Unit
Ministry of Lands and Settlement
P. O. Box 30089
00100 Nairobi
P.O. Box 41119, 00100 Nairobi, KENYA
Email: mercym.desire[at]gmail.com
Tel +254 20 2718050 Ext 64480
Fax: +254 20 272 5700
Mobile:: +254 721 481 715

Vice Chair and Chair of WG 8.1 - Planning Strategy for Urban Development and Regeneration
Dr. Frank Friesecke
die STEG Stadtentwicklung GmbH
Olgastr. 54
D-70182 Stuttgart
GERMANY
Tel. + 49 71121068118
Fax + 49 71121068112
Email: frank.friesecke[at]steg.de
Vice Chair and Chair of WG 8.2 - Informal Settlements Issues in Spatial Development Planning and Governance
Mr. Eugene Silayo
Ardhi University
P. O. Box 35176
Dar Es Salaam
TANZANIA
Tel- + 255 22 2771272
Fax + 255 22 2775391
E-mail: silayo[at]aru.ac.tz 
Web: http://www.aru.ac.tz
Vice Chair and Chair of WG 8.3 - Re-Engineering Mega Cities
  Geom. Enrico Rispoli
Consiglio Nazionale Geometri e Geometri Laureati
Piazza Colonna, 361
I-00187 Rome
ITALY
Tel. + 39 06 4203161
Fax + 39 06 48903894
E-mail: e.rispoli[at]cng.it
Vice Chair of Administration and Chair of WG 8.4 - Land Policies; Land Use Planning Control and Implementation
Mr. Ibrahim Mwathane
Managing Director
Landsca Land Surveyors
P.O. Box 12524 00400
KENYA
Tel. + 254 20 2714 976
Fax + 254 20 2714 975
Mob + 254 722 744 019
E-mail: mwathane[at]landsca.co.ke

9 August 2011