Spatial planning in the global South: reflections on the Cape Town Spatial Development Framework (original) (raw)
Related papers
2002
Change and Continuity in Spatial Planning addresses a question of enduring interest to planners: can planning really bring about significant and positive change? In South Africa the process of political transition appeared to create the preconditions for planners to demonstrate how their traditional humanitarian and environmental concerns could find concrete expression in the reshaping of the built environment.
Abstract This study seeks to provide an introduction to spatial development planning; some of the gaps experienced within the South African context, the current challenges faced and particularly suggest recommendations on how to improve spatial development planning with the view to equipping planning stakeholders of their roles in this regard. This research study is not meant to replace the existing developmental planning strategies but rather aimed at complementing it towards a new developmental agenda (state) through a comparative look at some international best practices vis-a-vis local planning practices in South Africa. Spatial development planning operates within a policy and legal framework which aims to deliver services to the local people in a developmentally-oriented approach. However, this approach lacks strategic input, translating to the inability to provide policies that will enhance development at the local level to sustainably improve the living conditions of people. This has led to weaknesses in coordination of government programmes and in several cases, poor service delivery outcome. This calls for a concerted effort to get Spatial development planning back to glorification through citizen satisfaction. This study is purely qualitative in nature. It assumes a desktop review prose of various scholarly articles and government documents. A comparative case study mode is employed whereby a few cases are selected and analysed based on the available data. The research design culminates with a comparative analysis of three cases in an attempt to highlight the differences and similarities. For that matter, the cases chosen for this study are four. Johannesburg and Cape Town represent local cases while New Zealand and Kenya represent international cases. The two local cities are discussed comparatively so as to identify the gaps that we face when planning our municipalities. Through that discussion there were several planning issues that deemed acupunctural interventions. Its then that two international cases are brought on board and compared with South Africa. The study then culminates by suggesting some recommendations which could be adopted to seal the existing gaps in Spatial Development Planning in South Africa.
Spatial Futures: Aspirations and Actions Regarding Form and Spatial Change in Johannesburg
2016
Addressing the racially divided, sprawling and socially inequitable spatial form of South African cities has been key to strategic spatial planning and urban spatial frameworks in South African cities, including in Johannesburg. These ideas were included in the Johannesburg 2006 Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), and in the 2011 GDS, which focused more strongly on resilience, but making strong links to spatial form. They have also been a consistent element of various rounds of Johannesburg Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs). However, despite several of these concerns being embodied in national urban and city policies, objectives to restructure cities spatially have proven to be very difficult to achieve, and there is a growing frustration and questioning of whether some of these objectives are still appropriate. At the same time, the urban restructuring agenda, and the areas that spatial policy addresses have been constrained in practice, and there are several gaps and silences in the issues that are addressed. This paper provides a discussion of the choices, tensions, and trade-offs facing spatial policy in Johannesburg. It considers whether the policy objectives expressed in existing spatial policies (including the Johannesburg GDS and SDF) are still relevant, and address key spatial dynamics and issues. It does this by exploring several key areas of debate around the spatial form of cities and spatial policy internationally, examining how they manifest in Johannesburg, and highlighting these choices, tensions and trade-offs. It recognises, as a starting point, that while urban spatial policies have some power to shape spatial change, spatial trends and dynamics occur in a complex environment, where there are many drivers and shapers of spatial change. As emphasised in the position paper on 'Strategic Planning in a Turbulent and Uncertain Context', spatial policies that hope to influence spatial change need to understand the (shifting) key trends and drivers that affect space, including demographic, economic and social patterns that influence the demand for space. There are many examples of spatial plans which missed key trends, vastly over-or underestimated population growth, and consequently planned for spatial forms which proved to be inappropriate. The spatial form of cities is also shaped by markets of various forms. Planning may attempt to engage with and regulate or direct these markets in the interests of its social and spatial goals and objectives, but it does not have completely free reign. Further, there are frequently disjunctures between strategic spatial planning and implementation, reflecting limits in terms of capacity, political will, institutional cooperation/integration and other factors.
Urban Forum, 2016
In the 20 years since the advent of a democratic government in South Africa, planned expenditure on infrastructure projects by municipalities has been used in part to redress inequalities and socioeconomic distortions created by apartheid. Our purpose in this article is to assess the effectiveness of planning instruments to achieve desired transformation in the case of the eThekwini Municipality. We evaluated demographic, spatial regional economic, settlement hierarchy, accessibility and functional analysis indicators to assess the eThekwini Spatial Development Framework (SDF) as it applies to the city of Durban, making particular use of the National Population Census results for 2001 and 2011, municipal data on housing and settlement distribution, the municipal evaluation roll, the Industrial Land Study of 2014 and the Eskom household survey of 2009. These data sets were mapped using Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) GIS to analyse spatial changes over the decade from 2001 to 2011 to establish the ways and extent public investment guided by SDFs is responsive to spatial transformation imperatives. We found that, although there has been some economic and population growth, in-migration and densification of the inner city, there has been limited spatial transformation of the urban population, many communities still live in poverty, the traditional inequalities prevail and the benefits of democratic dispensation are elusive to many, despite substantial investment in infrastructure. Our analysis points to inadequacies of the planning tools and their application to spending public funds. Moreover, SDFs appear to be process and compliance-driven rather than inclusive of stakeholder concerns. We argue that they require substantial refinement to achieve the desired results.
Beyond master planning? New approaches to spatial planning in Ekurhuleni, South Africa
Habitat International, 2010
Traditional master planning has been criticised, but continues in various forms. This paper critically assesses an initiative by a South Africa metropolitan municipality to develop 'local spatial development frameworks': comprehensive integrated plans, dealing with 22 sectors, for some 103 areas, to guide land use decisions and to provide a framework for development. The paper concludes that despite some innovative aspects, several elements of traditional master planning were evident. New approaches to spatial planning were being shaped by older thinking, but also by the impact of a traditional land use management system. The findings point to the need for greater attention to debating alternative forms of spatial planning and their appropriateness in various contexts.
Addressing the racially divided, sprawling and socially inequitable spatial form of South African cities has been key to strategic spatial planning and urban spatial frameworks in South African cities, including in Johannesburg. These ideas were included in the Johannesburg 2006 Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), and in the 2011 GDS, which focused more strongly on resilience, but making strong links to spatial form. They have also been a consistent element of various rounds of Johannesburg Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs). However, despite several of these concerns being embodied in national urban and city policies, objectives to restructure cities spatially have proven to be very difficult to achieve, and there is a growing frustration and questioning of whether some of these objectives are still appropriate. At the same time, the urban restructuring agenda, and the areas that spatial policy addresses have been constrained in practice, and there are several gaps and silences in the issues that are addressed. This paper provides a discussion of the choices, tensions, and trade-offs facing spatial policy in Johannesburg. It considers whether the policy objectives expressed in existing spatial policies (including the Johannesburg GDS and SDF) are still relevant, and address key spatial dynamics and issues. It does this by exploring several key areas of debate around the spatial form of cities and spatial policy internationally, examining how they manifest in Johannesburg, and highlighting these choices, tensions and trade-offs. It recognises, as a starting point, that while urban spatial policies have some power to shape spatial change, spatial trends and dynamics occur in a complex environment, where there are many drivers and shapers of spatial change. As emphasised in the position paper on 'Strategic Planning in a Turbulent and Uncertain Context', spatial policies that hope to influence spatial change need to understand the (shifting) key trends and drivers that affect space, including demographic, economic and social patterns that influence the demand for space. There are many examples of spatial plans which missed key trends, vastly over-or underestimated population growth, and consequently planned for spatial forms which proved to be inappropriate. The spatial form of cities is also shaped by markets of various forms. Planning may attempt to engage with and regulate or direct these markets in the interests of its social and spatial goals and objectives, but it does not have completely free reign. Further, there are frequently disjunctures between strategic spatial planning and implementation, reflecting limits in terms of capacity, political will, institutional cooperation/integration and other factors.
Post-Apartheid National Spatial Development Planning in South Africa - A Brief History
European Spatial Research and Policy, 2000
Since coming to power in 1994 successive ANC-governments have engaged in a series of attempts at national spatial development planning in South Africa. These engagements have received scant treatment in the planning literature. In this paper a broad overview of these initiatives is provided, with an emphasis on the different instruments; the context in which they were developed; the institutions that were proposed and/or created in support of the instruments; and the extent to which the instruments were implemented and what their levels of success were. The paper concludes with a call for comparative research, including South Africa, in this arena.
Town and Regional Planning, 2021
South African cities are faced with complex challenges of facilitating spatial transformation, in order to redress the negative spatial implications of the apartheid planning legacy. Efforts aimed at an improved understanding of the legislative policy contribution in respect of promoting sustainable urban development has been biased towards major cities at the expense of secondary, small medium-sized towns in the world. This article seeks to contribute to the debate on sustainable urban development by drawing empirical experiences on legislative policy directions for spatial transformation in Polokwane, an intermediate city in South Africa. A literature review method, underpinned by the pragmatic research paradigm, was adopted in this article. A database with a total of 116 documents was established from files collected during expert interviews and additional literature from Google, Google Scholar and library databases-EBSCOhost, JSTOR, Web of Science. Twentyeight papers, dissertations, as well as legislative and policy framework plans were identified as relevant for review, through a thematic analysis approach guided by deductive reasoning. Lefebvre's production of space theory, the spatial triad and discourse analysis constituted the theoretical framework in analysing Polokwane City's legislative policy directions with respect to spatial transformation and sustainable urban development covering the period 1996-2016. Findings show that spatial transformation legislative policy systems play a framing role in Polokwane City, in terms of promoting urban containment as a practical sustainable urban formmaking and shaping tool to ensure sustainable urban development. This resultant 'desired and crafted' urban form is implemented through strategic development areas, spatial targeting, housing development, densification, sustainable transport, greening, and smart city concept.