4.9 Main Issues And Policy Options
The rapid growth and development of fringe rise to enduring, sensitive and at times controversial land use issues. Urbanization operating in the fringe brings a number of problems of housing, infrastructure, services and loss of agricultural land. These problems require immediate attention of the planners and administrators. Broadly, land use issues in the fringe may be categorized as follows :
- Protection of prime agricultural land.
- Control of sub-urban sprawl.
- Control of growth.
- Provision of adequate services.
- Maintenance of life style in the face of growth.
- Jurisdictional, legal and financial limitations.
- Maintenance of environmental quality.
In the context of urban land, one of the land use issue which has become of prime concern in recent times, is the concern about the loss of prime agricultural land due to urbanization. An estimated 75,000, hectares of land are being used each year which by and large mainly come from agriculture. In the fringe, there are tendencies for spot developments. Such spot growth is wasteful and is often of a sub-standard nature. The scattering of small settlements necessitates the residents to commute for a longer distance besides stretching of public utility services. Obviously such a state of affairs is neither in the interest of public authorities nor in the interest of individual. It is, therefore, suggested that the spot development should be discouraged and compact development encouraged which is one of the major issues which needs to be considered.
Decisions made today will either ensure future generations a choice of how they use the land or effectively limit their actions. Because many land use activities, specially in urban areas, result in irreversible changes, it is essential that the needs of future generations is considered. The dilemma in the regulations lies in balancing present versus future needs. Preservation of prime agricultural lands on the periphery of expanding cities and towns are necessary for maintaining open space and environmental quality. Land use control and regulation are important tools and instruments for planning of the cities and towns and to regulate growth and associated sprawl. Various development and legislative measures are to be adopted.
5.0 Recommendations
To stop land speculation, especially on vacant land on the fringe of the city, the following suggestion deserves attention.
- Restrictions on premature conversion on agricultural land;
- Taxes on land transfer to check speculation.
- The need for generation of digital topographical data base for various towns.
- use of high resolution data for planning and urban information generation.
- Needs on the utility of high resolution data/GIS techniques in the preparation of District Planning.
- Satellite based information system has flexibility to accommodate any new data and provides integration as well as updating.
- Training of manpower essential to adopt new technology of Remote Sensing and GIS in urban/regional planning.
- Digital database generation for cadastral applications.
- Promote use of remote sensing and GIS in urban authorities.
- Generation of data base for macro, meso, micro levels tasks pertaining to Regional, Urban and Zoning Planning.
References
- UNCHS (1992) "Sustainable cities" program outline for urban environment, Nairobi.June.
- UNCHS (1993) : "Improvement of Municipal Management", report of the executive director, Habitat International, Vol. 17 (1).
- Managing our metropolises : New directions for 21st Century, SPACE, Volume 8, No. 3 and 4, July and Oct. 1993.
- A new agenda for human settlement UNCHS (1992).