Amman City Development Strategy Workshop Amman 8 February 2006

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Amman City Development StrategyWorkshopAmman 8
February 2006

• URBAN PLANNING ASPECTS
• 2 THE SITUATION
• Angelo DUrso
• Urban Planning Specialist

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THE EXISTING SITUATION.1

• The cumulative effects of external factors
  (immigration, weaknesses in the legislative and
  planning framework), and internal factors
  (weaknesses of the Departments) led to the
  creation of several problems in the urban
  development of Amman.

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THE EXISTING SITUATION. 2

• These can me summarized as follows
• Weak public transport system
• Few regional and inter-modal transportation
  systems
• Increased vehicular traffic
• Insufficiency of parking areas
• Scarce public safety
• Scarcity of green areas
• Weak urban design and heritage conservation
• Urban sprawl
• Water shortage and pollution
• Encroachment of agricultural land
• Informal settlements
• High prices of land.

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1. Weak public transport system

• In 1999, the private and public transport split
  in Amman was 70 private -30 public.
• The public transport was mainly taxi based. The
  1999 traffic surveys indicated the following
  shares
• Taxis 17.7
• Service Taxis 6.1
• Minibuses 4.2
• Buses 0.8.

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2.Few regional transport systems

• Few interregional transportation systems have
  been planned (i.e. Amman-Zarqa railway line).
  Although it is clear that transportation
  policies (especially the interregional ones) do
  not depend only from GAM, it is however necessary
  that interregional and new mode or inter-modal
  transportation systems are to implemented.

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3.Increased vehicular traffic

• The traffic in the town is increasing.
• A comparison between traffic data of 1999
  traffic surveys and 2004-2005 traffic counts in
  20 survey stations show (in those stations) an
  increase varying from 11 to 40. Of course this
  data is very limited and cannot represent a
  precise trend, however, it is felt that the
  present traffic volumes are increasing at a rate
  of 5.5 per annum.

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4.Insufficiency of parking areas

• In 1997 the vehicles registered in Jordan were
  307,000.
• In 2003 they were 566,600 with an annual average
  increase of 14.
• The majority of vehicles (67.5)were registered
  in Greater Amman.
• By applying this percentage to the 2003 number of
  vehicles , the vehicles circulating in GAM in
  2003 can be estimated at 383,000.
• In the same year, the households in Amman
  Governorate were 323,419.
• By comparing the number of vehicles to the number
  of households, it comes out that the average
  number of vehicles per household is greater than
  1.
• Although rough, this figure indicates that the
  parking standards for housing sectors
  established by the Amman Building regulations (1
  car park per household for sectors A-B-C-D) do
  not reflect the reality.
• Source Department of Statistics

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5. Scarce public safety

• The sidewalks are dangerous especially for
  children. The owners of land plots adjacent to
  the roads are free to implement the sidewalks
  based on their personal criteria
• The quality of horizontal traffic signs (zebra
  crossings, centre road lines and side road lines)
  is poor
• The power lines and sub-stations are not well
  located. There are frequent cases of exposed
  wires (very dangerous) and high voltage lines
  over residential areas.

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6. Scarcity of green areas

• The share of green area in the GAM (including
  gardens, parks and play grounds) is 7 m2 per
  inhabitant
• Within the zoned areas, the green areas amount to
  6,498,000 m2 with an average 4.8 m2 per
  inhabitant (out of which 2.4 m2 existing and 2.4
  m2 planned)
• The green areas are scarce and not evenly
  distributed within the town.
• The children do not have enough spaces and
  playgrounds in the proximity of their homes

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7. Weak urban design and heritage conservation

• Although there has been an increasing concern
  about the need of an urban design and of
  conservation of the heritage, the situation is
  still characterized by
• Few pedestrian areas
• Few squares
• Few meeting places
• Few community aggregation points
• Few landmarks characterizing new areas
• Scarce conservation of the old parts of the town
  
• Few examples of landscape design.

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8. Urban sprawl

• The urban density in Amman is low.
• There is an abundant availability of residential
  areas.
• The areas already zoned in the GAM may
  theoretically accommodate a population of more
  than 5 million people with a density or 15,000
  inhabitants per Sq. Km.
• The recent urban developments in Amman are
  characterized by the increase of the average
  housing size (151 sq.m.), by low density
  residential areas (A B) and increased car
  dependency.
• This phenomena is defined as Urban Sprawl
• Source Central Region Development Plan-2002

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9. Water shortage and pollution

• The increase of built up area and paved surfaces
  led to the reduction of water sources and to the
  pollution of surface and ground water.
• The extension of paved surfaces, associated with
  over abstraction from aquifers has reduced
  considerably the recharge capacity of the
  aquifers.

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10. Encroachment of agricultural land

• The agricultural land of the country represents
  about 6 of its total area ( around 5.400 Sq.
  Km.). Within the Central Region there are 3,000
  Sq. Km of agricultural land already organized
  
• If this rate of development is maintained, all
  agricultural land of the country may disappear
  within the medium period due to urban
  development.

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11. Informal settlements

• There about 40 informal settlements around
  Amman. In almost all settlements there are no
  schools, no health centers, no community spaces,
  nor green areas at all. It is very difficult to
  create green areas and play grounds because even
  within the informal settlements the price of land
  is high.

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12. High prices of land

• Despite the high rate of construction
  development, the demand of low cost housing in
  Amman is far from being satisfied.
• The main factor impeding such satisfaction is the
  high price of building land.
• As a consequence, the incidence of land cost on
  total house cost reaches 50. The high land price
  is due to the fact that people are not willing to
  sell their land waiting for further increase.