Towards More Resilient Cities: Land Use and Urban Efficiency

Abstract

High rates of urbanization lead to a fragmented urban form with unequal access to jobs, amenities and public services. The lack of efficient and adaptive layout and design, integrated land uses (Paton et al., 2013; Saunders & Becker, 2015), urban connectivity (Taaffe et al., 1963) and sufficient forward planning at all levels of government is identified as a shortcoming which only exacerbates the consequences of urbanization. Based on an analysis of spatial planning principles, this paper proposes a practical and policy-related set of tools for improved forward planning, promoting resilient layout planning and smart land use management as a means to enable diverse settlements to respond to events such as intense levels of urbanization. The case study is focused on the dualistic urban settlements of South-Africa, but principles proposed could be applied to other settlements with similar spatially distorted patterns. The proposed set of tools could potentially improve urban resilience and efficiency.