The Key to Effective City Governance

Conventional planning is not always the most effective way to guide decision-making. Khatib & Alami (K&A) has developed an approach which incorporates vast amounts of spatial data to give clients and stakeholders the benefit of fully-informed choices.

K&A experts, led by the Sectorial Planning and Proposal Manager, Hanadi Samhan, recently described this evidence-based planning methodology at the City Debates 2018 conference in Beirut. Hanadi explained how the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geo-design is becoming an indispensable tool for planners and architects.

K&A has been at the forefront of many data-driven spatial planning projects. Our specialist GIS expertise adds value by overlaying vast amounts of complex geographic data to predict and spatialize potential changes in a city’s future.

Such tools can significantly help policy and decision makers in the planning process with respect to urban development. Hanadi used two K&A case studies to help explain the approach to attendees at the City Debates event: the Saudi Arabia Provision of Social Facilities 2030 and Sharjah Spatial Plan 2040.

Specialist modeling techniques are used to link diverse socio-economic data, land uses, movement patterns and transportation networks. These techniques massively improve visibility and understanding of current and future factors which impact the decision-making process, enabling scientific justification for proposed solutions.
 

Equity in Social Infrastructure Planning in Riyadh

Trend Approach using Location-Allocation Model

K&A designed and built a Location-Allocation Modeling tool to support the planning process for the city of Riyadh, covering an area of over 5,700 km². The tool supports the selection of the best location for social facilities across eight main categories: education, health, mosques, security, recreation, administration, governmental, and culture. The Location-Allocation Model was used to identify served and unserved areas by type of service and population distribution (to 2030), based on planning standards and existing facilities’ parameters. The land bank data (empty public/private lots) for Riyadh city, formed the basis to project the best locations for facilities following an urban Service Priority Index, highest needs, and population density.

 

Spatial Plan for Nine Cities of Sharjah Emirate 2040

Trend Approach using a Land-Use Constraint Model

One of the main aspects of Sharjah’s Spatial Plan covered the mapping of existing and projected land uses, including residential, commercial and industrial areas, as well as sensitive areas which should be protected from future urban development. On this basis, it was possible to create, for the first time in Sharjah Emirate, an optimal tool for sustainable land management.

A Land use constraint model was built to allocate highly sensitive areas including agricultural lands, natural green open spaces and natural habitat zones, archaeological and heritage protected zones, and water resources.

This model was highly efficient to allocate available free areas for new developments by extracting actual built-up areas, committed areas and land having physical constraints like mountains and Wadis.