Regulating informality - the influence of planning standards on long term suitability of urban settlements - the cases of Dar es Salaam/Tanzania and Durban/South Africa

• Applicant: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Sabine Baumgart
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2010 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 155854974

In Sub-Saharan Africa urbanisation is progressing at a rate unprecedented in human history. In most countries, the state is not in a position to apply a responsive legal framework and to mobilise adequate resources to guide this rapid urbanisation. Some of the obstacles are the outdated legal framework and the inappropriate planning concepts inherited from colonial governments. They often contradict post colonial policies and are unsuitable to respond to rapid urban growth. The chronic underperformance of the public sector vis-à-vis rapid urban growth causes a large cumulative backlog in the provision of formal building land and basic services and leads to growing informal settlements. The outcomes of uncontrolled informal urbanisation are dysfunctional settlements and urban structures. The designation of specific land uses by planning authorities, the range of plot sizes and the reservation of space for public uses such as social and technical infrastructure, however, are important tasks to organise a harmonious urban development for the benefit of all. Currently, in Tanzania as well as in South Africa there is a discourse on planning norms and standards appropriate for sustainable urban development. Socially and economically adequate requirements including the livelihood strategies of households and the need to satisfy public interests with regard to land use and provision of infrastructure facilities have to be appropriately taken into consideration to relaunch and implement urban planning regulations and their procedures. The second phase of the research will focus on the current practice of urban land use planning and implementation of plans including the challenges associated with and the potentials embedded in local decision making processes in rapidly urbanising poor economies using Tanzania as a paradigmatic case and South Africa as the comparison case. It will seek to explore opportunities and limits of the principle of subsidarity in the urban land development and livelihood activities of the settlers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: South Africa, Tanzania
• Participating Persons: Dr. Susanna Godehart; Professor Dr.-Ing. Wilbard Kombe