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MALIK ASGHAR NAEEM: City regions in developing countries
are experiencing tremendous urbanization
that contributes to sprawled development,
a daunting challenge posing a threat to sustainable
urban growth.
Take the example of Malaysia.
Nearly 73% of its total population
lives in cities, making it one of the most urbanized countries
in Southeast Asia.
The Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region
witnessed a higher rate of increase in its physical area
than that of its population over a period of 20 years.
During that time, the population approximately doubled,
but the area increased by two and 1/2 times.
Urban sprawl is characterized by an inefficient use
of land resources.
For example, building low-density housing
and commercial buildings will lead
to the horizontal expansion or sprawl of the city.
Look at the example of two cities-- Atlanta, the capital
of the US state of Georgia, and Barcelona, the capital
of Catalan in Spain.
The same number of people resides
in each of these cities, but the built-up area for Atlanta
is about 26 times greater than that of Barcelona.
This is a typical illustration of sprawl
versus compact development.
Urban sprawl leads to the depletion of green area
on the urban periphery.
It also contributes to lengthier commutes and higher energy
consumption for commuting.
It makes public transport financially unfeasible,
which leads to an enormous increase in private car
ownership.
This trend results in traffic congestion
and increased pollution due to vehicular emissions.
Limiting urban sprawl is, therefore,
key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and increasing the overall environmental sustainability
of a city.
Compact development is a helpful response to urban sprawl.
Let's discuss the concept of compact development.
The prominent features of compact development
include mixed land use, well-developed public
transportation infrastructure, efficient use of land,
and strict controls on development
outside city boundaries.
Now I'll explain these three features
of compact development.
Mixed land use-- mixed land-use development
means placing residential, commercial,
and recreational uses in close proximity to one another.
This promotes walking, biking, and helps
reduce commuting for a number of people
who find their workplace nearby in the neighborhood.
Emphasis on public transportation--
the most important feature of compact development
is having efficient rail and bus-based public
transportation.
This helps reduce private car ownership.
The concept of transit-oriented development
promotes having reasonably dense development surrounding
mass transit stations as a desirable feature
of a compact city.
This kind of development provides easy and efficient
access to transport facilities for residents and workers.
It can also increase ridership and help
make public transport financially viable.
It ultimately leads to less energy consumption
and less pollution.
Efficient use of land resources and control
on development outside the city boundary--
single-story buildings interspersed
with patches of undeveloped land wastes precious land resources.
Such development patterns also contribute to urban sprawl
by creating more demand for development on green fields
on the outskirts of cities.
Compact development, in contrast,
uses land more efficiently by having high-rise buildings that
can accommodate more people and by developing vacant land.
Demarcation of city growth boundaries
also helps promote compact development,
thereby optimizing the utilization of available land
within the boundary.
Planning departments in KL Metropolitan
are committed to achieving compact urban development.
Provision of efficient public transport,
therefore, is a top priority.
Heavy investments in mass transit systems
have already been made to increase the public transport
ridership rate from the current 20% to 50% by the year 2030.
The rail-based public transport system in KL Metropolitan
came into operation about 20 years ago, in 1996,
and has expanded incrementally.
The central area of the city is served by a light rail transit
system and KL Monorail.
Together, they provide approximately 60 kilometers
of rail network.
A commuter train, namely KTM Komuter, on the other hand,
makes the city core accessible for suburban areas of the KL
metropolitan area.
Similarly, a dedicated express train
connects the city center to the KL International Airport.
The mass rapid transit system started in 2011.
Once completed, it will comprise of three rail lines connecting
suburban areas in the greater KL to the federal territory.
The first line to be completed in two years
will serve a population of about one and 1/2 million people.
A single train on the line with a maximum capacity of 1,200
passengers can replace 12 buses, or approximately 700 cars.
In addition to improving its rail-based public transport,
KL is also increasing the share of public buses.
Five bus express transit routes are currently in operation
to reduce travel time from outer areas to city center.
Moreover, a comprehensive bus rapid transit plan
with dedicated bus lanes has also
been proposed to make buses a fast and efficient mode
of public transportation.
Kuala Lumpur's city government has also
started to pay more attention to transit-oriented development
and, as a first step, has a identified nearly 70 Transit
Planning Zones.
What is a Transit Planning Zone?
It is an area of 250 meter radius around a mass transit
station.
Its development is characterized by high building density
along with mixed land uses.
The work on intensification of land use
by replacing the single-story buildings with high-rise ones
and having mixed land use is in progress in the identified
Transit Planning Zones.
Usually, the city center is the focal point
of most economic activities.
The use of precious land in this area
needs to be intensified in order to make room
for increased demand for new residential
and commercial development.
Therefore, vacant and other inefficiently
used land parcels needs to be identified in order to convert
them to productive uses.
The KL city government, for example,
created an inventory that identified
821 hectares of vacant and abandoned land in the city core
and surrounding area that can now be used efficiently.
In addition, it is also replacing
single-story buildings with multi-story ones.
Similarly, due attention is being
paid to rehabilitation of historical buildings
and public open spaces.
Central Market, Petaling Street, and Masjid Jamek
are some of the examples of rehabilitated areas
This effort promotes walking and makes the city center
a more attractive and livable place.
So how can city governments in developing countries,
such as Malaysia, encourage compact development
and tackle the issue of urban sprawl?
Here are some of the key strategies to be adopted.
Strategy number one-- urban planning authorities
in the metropolitan region should establish
growth boundaries for their cities,
and development should be allowed only within the city
boundary to intensify development and use
land more efficiently.
Strategy number two-- the proposed policies of one agency
need to be planned and implemented
in coordination with the relevant federal, state,
and local government departments.
The 2006 National Urban Policy of Malaysia
emphasized the need for setting urban growth limits for each
of its cities and towns.
However, this has yet to be translated into practice
because of lack of implementation of policies
by the concerned state and local level planning agencies.
Strategy number three-- the practice
of building new expressways should
be discouraged as it promotes sprawl along the highways.
Instead, heavy investment should be
made in intracity and inter-region rail services that
help control sprawl and make compact development
sustainable.
Similarly, increased taxes on new cars, parking fees,
and a road user tax for cars entering the city center
could help reduce the increase in private vehicle ownership.
Regulating measures such as a ban on single occupancy
cars in the city center could be used
to avoid traffic congestion and discourage car ownership.
Strategy number four-- special measures discussed earlier
also need to be complemented by incentives, fees,
and regulatory policies.
Incentives could be provided for mixed-use development,
multi-story buildings, and for the preservation
of historic buildings.
However, along with increasing building density,
utmost attention needs to be paid
to provision of sufficient public open spaces and parks
with equal distribution within the city.
It also needs to be ensured that open space and public park
facilities should be accessible to all residents of the city
within walking distance in order to make cities attractive
and livable places.
In conclusion, urban sprawl is an undesirable phenomenon
taking place in most of the cities,
especially in developing countries.
It is a threat to sustainable development
as it causes a number of problems in cities.
The blight of urban sprawl can be controlled
by pursuing a compact development approach that leads
to making cities sustainable.
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