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An Urban Monitor as support for a participative management of developing cities
A. Repettia,*, R. Prélaz-Drouxa
a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne,
CH-1015 Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland
* Corresponding author: Alexandre Repetti, HYDRAM - EPFL,
CH-1015 Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland.
Tel.: ++ 41-21-6933748. Fax.: ++ 41-21-6933739.
Email: alexandre.repetti@epfl.ch
Abstract
Urban management is a complex process, which requires a sizeable information base and a large coordination between the actors who are managing the city. In developing countries, this management is made even more difficult by a lack of financial means and technical skills. For this reason among others, the classical instruments for planning are by far inefficient. Starting from this fact, this paper proposes a participative planning and management tool, developed through a concrete case study: the city of Thiès, in Senegal.
Participation, individual capacities and coordination have been identified as key factors for improving the efficiency of the system of actors in charge of the urban management. Therefore, the proposed method focuses on information, communication and training. In parallel, an Urban Monitor (participative system of geographical information and indicators) has been developed and implemented, for an improvement of the information and communication structuring.
This original approach allows combining the concepts of Research Action Training with the participative methods and the new information and communication technologies. Based on a dynamic and geographical view of the urban planning, it integrates tools adapted to the contextual specificities. Through these original aspects, it opens great perspectives in the fields of participative urban management and good governance implementation.
1 Background
1.1 Urban management in developing countries
In developing countries, cities are experiencing a real demographic explosion. Today they shelter more than 40% of the population of these countries and are subjected to the doubling of their size every twenty-five years on average, and every fifteen years in East and West Africa (UNCHS, 2001).
The decentralization policies, which are being generalized, are giving the main urban management authorities to the municipalities. However, with very limited means and unqualified staff, they are unable to handle all the tasks allotted to them. In such a context, problems arise: informal settlements, construction of the unoccupied land (agricultural zones, land reserves, land unfitted for settlements), poorly maintained and insufficient infrastructures and equipments, lack of waste and wastewater evacuation and processing, natural resources degradation, etc.
Numerous experiences have attempted to provide solutions to these problems. But following the analysis of the UNECA 1 (Fourie & Nino-Fluck, 1999), the success rate is low, either because the tools are not adapted to the field reality, or because the capable staff is missing for their implementation.
1.2 The city of Thiès and the project IMAP
Tab 1: Development indicators for the city of Thies
Thiès, the second largest agglomeration in Senegal in terms of its population, is a classical example of middle sized developing city, as presented in table 1. Being managed with an annual budget of two million euros (a hundred to a thousand times less than a European city of the same size), the town has at its disposal a staff limited to four executives: an administrator, an engineer and two technical managers. They are in charge of several crucial problems:
Tab 2: Partnership and funding
2 Participation and information management for the implementation of good governance
2.1 Urban good governance
« Governance is defined as the way of exerting power in the social and economic resources management of a country for the development. And good governance, following the World Bank, is synonymous of judicious management of the development » (World Bank, 1992).
At the beginning of the nineties, the state of development after a decade of structural adjustments is not satisfactory, even disastrous in several African countries. The main reason 2 Republic of Senegal : loi portant code des collectivités locales du 22 mars 1996. invoked is not having taken into account all the institutional and social factors that are influencing the implementation of macro-economic policies. The strategy of adjustments is then refocused on the complementary implication of the governments, which should create the favorable conditions for the neo-liberal reforms. It follows three focuses: offer an efficient public service, establish free trade rules and correct the economic and social crisis.
The observers of the development have established the complementary strategy of good governance 3 following the principle of double negation 4 . Starting from empirical analysis, the symptoms of bad governance have been analyzed: bad public service management, lack of legal framework or its arbitrary application and lack of information and transparency.
Two paradigms complete these analyses: the first one can be called the political liberalization. It postulates that the political participation, the democratic systems and the economic and social development are reinforcing each other mutually. The second assumes that a strategy centered on the society is more efficient. It is based on the idea of social groups representative of their members, which are establishing and negotiating the policies. They can be identified as the economical and political stakeholders groups, the professional and employer’s associations, and the community associations.
On these bases, the good governance proposes an agenda of measures to be implemented in parallel with the structural adjustment, which should improve the conditions of development. Evan if the new agenda is not definitively set, it can be synthesized in five points: good management of public services, constitutional state, political liberalization, participation and information, and economical liberalization.
2.2 Systems of actors: the unavoidable participation
Beyond the leading policies, it is interesting to focus on the implementation of an effective management of the development. In the particular context of urban areas in developing countries, it clearly appears that the management of the system of actors governs the efficiency of all the processes in term of urban management. It is neither the town executive, focused on politics, nor the administrative services, with their sector-based point of view, who will have a sufficiently complete knowledge to plan the development. It is all the political, economic and social actors, through the extremely complex relationships they have, who are organizing the development of the space and of the activities. In that direction, the observers are often recognizing the limits of the planners to manage the city or the territory (Bolay, 2000, Latouche, 2001, World Bank, 1992). Oppositely, the experiences resulting from the collaboration of the actors of the development are presenting convincing results. This theory is supported by Gaye (1996) who proposes the self-development of the city based on popular initiative and good management by the public authorities; by Bolay (1995) and Friedman (1996) who are basing the good urban management on the consideration of an actors’ trio: authorities, intermediaries and community groups; also by UN-HABITAT who in a synthesis of experiences (Mehta, 1997) proposes a new paradigm with the management of the development shared between the state, private sector, NGO sector and community representatives.
Concerning the operational plan, guaranteeing the functioning of an urban management system requires three key conditions:
2.4 Application and instruments
When the above meta-model is applied to urban management, as the one practiced in Thiès, the resulting scheme is as presented in figure 2. The relationship network is quite unorganized and can only transmit a limited amount and quality of information. The concept of the city project does not exist, substituted by a strategic vision particular to each actor. Consequently, numerous problems can be observed of inappropriateness between projects and needs (of the populations and of the economy) and the development of informal sectors. And the public service projects, when they are not blocked during the realization phases, are suffering from a high failure rate.
Facing this analysis, it is essential to reorganize the urban management process on the basis of the good governance principles and to promote a real city project, likely to motivate the
Fig. 2: systemic approach of the urban planning process applied to Thiès
actors to take part in a participative planning process and to unite the individual actions in a coherent and sustainable way. The proposed solution is to act at two levels:
The following chapters will present in detail the methodological process and the instruments. Both illustrate that the relations between the actors are carrying information and that their form, content, and distribution and communication modes evolve all along the process. The initiated approach results in the development of a strategic plan, which is uniting the projects of the forum. This plan is the first step toward the emergence of a real city project that gives a collective sense to the individual actions.
Fig. 3: systemic approach of the urban planning process modified with the IMAP project
3 Methodological approach and instruments
3.1 Intervention method
Starting from the working conditions of a system of actors, a method for participative urban management has been developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and its African partners.
Through the integration of information technologies, it focuses on three axes: ensuring the conditions for a good participation, reinforcing the individual ability of the actors and implementing an effective coordination system. The developments have been done through a Research Action Training approach (De Leener & al., 1999) in the process of participative management for the Senegalese city of Thiès, which started in 1998. Through that approach, the methods and instruments have been continually tested, evaluated and adapted, according to the in vivo reactions of the system of actors.
Fig. 4: Geographic participative planning method
The developed method is synthesized in figure 4. It is composed of a first part which is the creation and implementation of the project structure at the political and institutional levels, followed by an iteration of four stages, conducted through a forum of consultation, exchange and negotiation, with several discussion methods.
The first stage is so the elaboration of participative structures and their legitimization by the administrative and politic authorities. Figure 5 presents the organization implemented in Thiès on the basis of an order of council. It is based on an institutionalized central organ for participation, the forum, which brings together about a hundred participants on two or three days each three months (elected representatives, representative of the state, of the villages and districts, civil organizations, NGOs, etc.). These actors of the city are finding
Fig. 5: Partnership model with organizational structure
there a structured and instrumented space for discussion. They receive training and information and they can exchange their ideas about projects. The forum is accompanied with a direction board (strategic level), with a coordination committee (organizational and informational management) and with a technical commission gathering the main technical and administrative services for the implementation of the actions.
The second stage is the identification of the objectives. The forum, after being constituted, expresses its expectations regarding the process, through the identification of the strong points and weak points of the city and its management. This stage allows identification of the structuring elements of the city, with their potentialities and problems, so as to establish the terms of reference for the first iteration of the project. It will guide the discussion and organization of the forum in order to reach the targeted objectives.
The third stage arises in the form of a participative mapping of the territory. On the base of aerial pictures (from plane or satellite 5 ), the members of the forum are establishing in workshops an identification of the main elements of the territory, in relation with the identified problems and the fixed objectives. This geographical reading allows the constitution of a territorial information base (structure and data) and the establishment of a participatory diagnosis through the analysis of the problems, on which the actors are focusing.
The fourth stage consists of an identification of the possible solutions. On the basis of the established information system and targeted objectives, the needs are expressed and answers are proposed, in the form of a realization program. Driven within the participative forum, this planning action turns to the traditional instruments of urban management (plans, maps, standards, etc.).
The last stage is a formalization of the planned realizations in a strategic development program (local Agenda 21). Some of them are identified as priority projects, and a budget is proposed for the approbation of the internal financial units (city budget) or external ones (funding partners).
The system is iterative. Therefore, after each realization of priority project, a new identification of the objectives is possible. It will govern new needs and other potential realizations.
The entire process is done with an important training component for the actors participating in the approach, mainly oriented towards the planning tools used in the method. Aerial pictures and the Urban Monitor can in this way be used by all the actors, who are trained, through seminars for the identification of the components of the territory. In order to ensure the best conditions of technological access, some selected people have been identified to serve as relays with the actors. They get a particular training during a couple of days on the specific instruments.
3.2 An Urban Monitor for the information management
The methodological developments are based on a geographical and territorial approach of urban management. For the analysis of space, communication and planning, they are based on aerial pictures, on cartographic representation (land-use, land-use planning, conflict areas, etc.), on data associated to the territorial elements and on geographical and statistical indicators. All this information, collected or produced through the method, must be structured and stored in order to be fully accessible for the actors.
Fig. 6: Urban Monitor
In order to allow an efficient structuring and manipulation of the information, a specific tool called the Urban Monitor has been developed by the Swiss federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. This tool is based on a geographic information system and has been adapted to the territorial understanding of the actors. The consultation, modification and addition of information are made possible to all the actors through a graphic interface, which also integrates a set of geographical indicators for urban management. Very easy to manipulate, it allows to users without any technical or computer skills to work with the information: data manipulation, access to the indicators, cartographic stacking, specific mapping, proposal and follow-up of projects and realizations. It is thus used as platform for exchange and storage of information.
The proposed indicators are oriented towards an objective of local management. They are based on four types of comparison: statistical in comparison to standards, norms or other cities; geographical between the different districts and sectors of the city; time-related shown by the evolution of the indicators; and transversal with the comparison among the intervention sectors.
Figure 6 presents the tool such as it appears to the users. The central part is a graphic window, in which the spatial information layers are being stacked. A tool bar is present on the left, allowing navigation in the geographical space and the displaying of the data. On the right a window allows the selection of the picture that constitutes the background (aerial pictures, topographic maps or blank), and a choice of menus that display windows for data access, data addition and modification, access to the indicators or to projects proposals consultation and addition. All the functions are accessible graphically, following a logic emerging from the reaction of the users.
This Urban Monitor is developed with Visual Basic and MapX. It interacts with a database stored in MapInfo format. At the level of the users, none of these software products are required; the tool is relatively light with a total of 50 Mo including the reduced aerial images covering a total area of 300 km 2 with a resolution of 0.5 meters. Regarding the poor Internet coverage in the targeted areas, it is not available online yet, even if this option is considered in the medium term.
The instrument is available to the actors who ask for it. In the case of the city of Thiès, it is installed in the city hall, in the prefecture, in several administrative services and in a cyber coffee, where the inhabitants can freely access it. Its installation is accompanied with training: on one side, the software as been presented to all the members of the forum, who have all spent two hours manipulating the tool; on the other side, at the level of each installed computer, one or several relay-people have been trained during one day, which allow them to have a good mastery of the functionalities and to be able to assist new users.
A GIS-database manager ensures the maintenance of the system. It consists in gathering the information and ensuring the linking between the project proposals and the institutionalized structures (forum, project). In the case of Thiès, this task is taken over by the technical services of the city, assisted by a local NGO and the researchers. They get some training in the field.
4 Conclusion
4.1 Influences on the urban management system
This method developed and applied to the city of Thiès is not the simple sum of the different elements (instruments, discussion methods, planning, training…), but a whole that guarantees the functioning of the urban management system by providing solutions to the main constraints.
Participation is a founding principle of this methodological approach. It is implemented as a way of strengthening the process rather than as an aim in itself. To achieve it, the process is based on a strong and institutionalized partnership between the public authorities and the civil associations. This type of structure has proven its effectiveness for many years (Abbott, 1996, Gaye, 1996), and is taking the place of the centralized structures based on state only, or at the opposite, centered on a civil society that is lacking of technical, legislative and financial means.
The proposed method of urban participative management is founded on two primary concepts: a dynamic planning and a spatial approach of the territory. The first idea follows the direction of the optimality principle of Bellman (cited by Saint-Paul 1992): « An optimal policy is characterized by the fact that for each initial state of the system and each initially taken decisions, the following decisions must be optimal for the system and for the constraints resulting from the first decisions.» In this sense, the method proposes a planning by iterations. Being a flexible and simple approach and allowing a rapid adaptation to the city evolution, it is an alternative to the classical methods for crisis situations – the long term plans, heavy, rigid and excluding a large participation have shown their ineffectiveness in developing urban situations, with rapid demographic growth, strong pressure on land-use, strong informality and lack of rigor in the controls.
In the territorial urban management, the spatial (or geographical) approach is unavoidable, as attested by the most frequently used instruments: maps, plans and geographic information systems. Developing cities are faced with particularly complex situations that demand appropriate tools, adapted to the contextual specificities, especially in the case of participative planning. Starting from the idea that modern information technologies must be made available to the management processes of developing cities, the approach is based on the use of adapted tools: aerial images, participative techniques for spatial analysis and planning, geographic information systems, monitoring and observatories. These tools have been selected or developed on the basis of their accessibility for the actors of the city who do not have any specific skills. An example of this is the Urban Monitor, which has demonstrated its user-friendliness for the actors, and another one is the aerial images, which are easier to understand than maps. This has been observed in the experiences conducted in Thiès as well as in other ones (Aberley, 1993, Chambers, 1994). This spatial approach allows the realization of a pertinent model of the territory and a planning that is appropriate for the different expressed needs.
In comparison with the initial modeling of the city and its management, figure 3 presents the system modified by the proposed process, based on the implementation of the method in the city of Thiès. In this special case, information and relationships are closely connected, because the information on the city has been collected through the actors’ network workshops. There has been since the start a discussion and a negotiation at the information level. The network was able to work in this may, elaborating and bringing to surface a participative diagnosis and a real city project. The individual actions have thus become the components of a whole.
4.2 Implementation of the technologies, durability and perspectives
The instruments and methods developed in the urban context of Thiès are opening the field of the implementation of the new information and communication technologies for the good governance of developing cities. Based on the consideration of the system of actors, they create a dynamic and participative management of the city from the stage of territorial analyses to the planning of new realizations. The spatial component, introduced as a communication base between the actors, increases the comprehension capacity and the collective communication. The result is a strong implication during the entire process and a better integration of the civil and political representatives, due to their assimilation of the classical instruments of urban management.
At the implementation level, this type of process requests a particular attention, especially in term of durability. Although it is still too early to reach an opinion, it is observed that the ease of use is favorable, but that other more complex factors are more difficult to analyze, such as the influence of the project on the system of actors, the power relationships and the individual interests. These factors are particularly pronounced in the case of the city of Thiès, because, in terms of urban management, the political constraints are very strong. In the case of more sector projects (waste management, urban agriculture planning, market infrastructures management, etc.), where a technical structure is generally appointed to be in charge of the process, the developed instruments are presenting a strong use potential due to their easy implementation capacities, their low cost and the potentialities of the geographic approach.
Finally, the developed methods and instruments open numerous and promising perspectives of applications for the implementation of local observatories for participative and effective urban management. Their application to the city of Thiès, registered in the network of urban observatories in West Africa OVAF 6 , has allowed their refinement, in order to be able to apply them to other cities of the network, and then to all the cities that desire it.
Literature
An Urban Monitor as support for a participative management of developing cities
A. Repettia,*, R. Prélaz-Drouxa
a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne,
CH-1015 Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland
* Corresponding author: Alexandre Repetti, HYDRAM - EPFL,
CH-1015 Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland.
Tel.: ++ 41-21-6933748. Fax.: ++ 41-21-6933739.
Email: alexandre.repetti@epfl.ch
Abstract
Urban management is a complex process, which requires a sizeable information base and a large coordination between the actors who are managing the city. In developing countries, this management is made even more difficult by a lack of financial means and technical skills. For this reason among others, the classical instruments for planning are by far inefficient. Starting from this fact, this paper proposes a participative planning and management tool, developed through a concrete case study: the city of Thiès, in Senegal.
Participation, individual capacities and coordination have been identified as key factors for improving the efficiency of the system of actors in charge of the urban management. Therefore, the proposed method focuses on information, communication and training. In parallel, an Urban Monitor (participative system of geographical information and indicators) has been developed and implemented, for an improvement of the information and communication structuring.
This original approach allows combining the concepts of Research Action Training with the participative methods and the new information and communication technologies. Based on a dynamic and geographical view of the urban planning, it integrates tools adapted to the contextual specificities. Through these original aspects, it opens great perspectives in the fields of participative urban management and good governance implementation.
1 Background
1.1 Urban management in developing countries
In developing countries, cities are experiencing a real demographic explosion. Today they shelter more than 40% of the population of these countries and are subjected to the doubling of their size every twenty-five years on average, and every fifteen years in East and West Africa (UNCHS, 2001).
The decentralization policies, which are being generalized, are giving the main urban management authorities to the municipalities. However, with very limited means and unqualified staff, they are unable to handle all the tasks allotted to them. In such a context, problems arise: informal settlements, construction of the unoccupied land (agricultural zones, land reserves, land unfitted for settlements), poorly maintained and insufficient infrastructures and equipments, lack of waste and wastewater evacuation and processing, natural resources degradation, etc.
Numerous experiences have attempted to provide solutions to these problems. But following the analysis of the UNECA 1 (Fourie & Nino-Fluck, 1999), the success rate is low, either because the tools are not adapted to the field reality, or because the capable staff is missing for their implementation.
1.2 The city of Thiès and the project IMAP
Tab 1: Development indicators for the city of Thies
Thiès, the second largest agglomeration in Senegal in terms of its population, is a classical example of middle sized developing city, as presented in table 1. Being managed with an annual budget of two million euros (a hundred to a thousand times less than a European city of the same size), the town has at its disposal a staff limited to four executives: an administrator, an engineer and two technical managers. They are in charge of several crucial problems:
- Firstly, a constant demand for new settlements, which is inducing a multiplication of the informal settlements, a strong land speculation, and that is degenerating after some years into a conflict with the surrounding rural villages;
- A second conflict pits the city against the neighboring rural communities, due to the problem of city expansion that lacks consultation and transparency;
- Concerning the environment, the nonexistence of any dumps and the accumulation of wastes on the vacant land requires an urgent action;
- Finally, several town districts have become unhealthy because of the lack of wastewater evacuation systems and of the frequent flooding due to the deforestation of the surrounding hills.
Tab 2: Partnership and funding
2 Participation and information management for the implementation of good governance
2.1 Urban good governance
« Governance is defined as the way of exerting power in the social and economic resources management of a country for the development. And good governance, following the World Bank, is synonymous of judicious management of the development » (World Bank, 1992).
At the beginning of the nineties, the state of development after a decade of structural adjustments is not satisfactory, even disastrous in several African countries. The main reason 2 Republic of Senegal : loi portant code des collectivités locales du 22 mars 1996. invoked is not having taken into account all the institutional and social factors that are influencing the implementation of macro-economic policies. The strategy of adjustments is then refocused on the complementary implication of the governments, which should create the favorable conditions for the neo-liberal reforms. It follows three focuses: offer an efficient public service, establish free trade rules and correct the economic and social crisis.
The observers of the development have established the complementary strategy of good governance 3 following the principle of double negation 4 . Starting from empirical analysis, the symptoms of bad governance have been analyzed: bad public service management, lack of legal framework or its arbitrary application and lack of information and transparency.
Two paradigms complete these analyses: the first one can be called the political liberalization. It postulates that the political participation, the democratic systems and the economic and social development are reinforcing each other mutually. The second assumes that a strategy centered on the society is more efficient. It is based on the idea of social groups representative of their members, which are establishing and negotiating the policies. They can be identified as the economical and political stakeholders groups, the professional and employer’s associations, and the community associations.
On these bases, the good governance proposes an agenda of measures to be implemented in parallel with the structural adjustment, which should improve the conditions of development. Evan if the new agenda is not definitively set, it can be synthesized in five points: good management of public services, constitutional state, political liberalization, participation and information, and economical liberalization.
2.2 Systems of actors: the unavoidable participation
Beyond the leading policies, it is interesting to focus on the implementation of an effective management of the development. In the particular context of urban areas in developing countries, it clearly appears that the management of the system of actors governs the efficiency of all the processes in term of urban management. It is neither the town executive, focused on politics, nor the administrative services, with their sector-based point of view, who will have a sufficiently complete knowledge to plan the development. It is all the political, economic and social actors, through the extremely complex relationships they have, who are organizing the development of the space and of the activities. In that direction, the observers are often recognizing the limits of the planners to manage the city or the territory (Bolay, 2000, Latouche, 2001, World Bank, 1992). Oppositely, the experiences resulting from the collaboration of the actors of the development are presenting convincing results. This theory is supported by Gaye (1996) who proposes the self-development of the city based on popular initiative and good management by the public authorities; by Bolay (1995) and Friedman (1996) who are basing the good urban management on the consideration of an actors’ trio: authorities, intermediaries and community groups; also by UN-HABITAT who in a synthesis of experiences (Mehta, 1997) proposes a new paradigm with the management of the development shared between the state, private sector, NGO sector and community representatives.
Concerning the operational plan, guaranteeing the functioning of an urban management system requires three key conditions:
- The first one is the participation of all the different actors. Their consultation from the first strategic planning stages until the implementation limits the risks of a later refusal of the proposed solutions. If an efficient partnership does not have a priori established rules, the synthesis of experiences shows that it is necessary to pay attention to the following points: Firstly, direct implication of the citizen, through information and consultation processes and possibilities for peoples’ initiatives. Secondly, the guarantee of the participation of the community associations, even to the point of the co- responsibility of the presented results. Thirdly, the decentralized authorities must be the driving force of these partnerships; the observed trend of excluding them in favor of the third-party organizations has generally hindered the good coordination of the different intervention sectors and actors, as well as the adaptation of the public strategies.
- The second condition is the skills of each of the actors in his specific field. In the first place, authorities and public administrators must have a clear perception of the interests and hindrances in order to propose policies and ensure their implementation, in a perspective of continuity. This requires the development of transparent and appropriate funding systems, competent administrators, and the regulation and coordination of the different sectors of activity. Then, the civil and private associations must also bring their respective competences, technical or lobbying. Finally, citizenship can bring out the sum of all the individual abilities, in particular through the popular initiative. Beyond the specific fields, it is important to guarantee each actor access to a knowledge base that allows the understanding of the points of view and analyses of the other actors. This base requires large information and the specific training of some targeted actors.
- The third key condition is the development of an efficient coordination system. A complex and efficient system is not based on the extraordinary competences of an individual, but on the integration of the individual skills through a system of coordination and communication. Communication must be effective at several levels, from the technical information sharing to the consultation or negotiation processes.
- a physical plane that contains the physical systems (or sub-systems), as well as the
human activities in the territory,
Fig. 1: meta-model systemic approach of the urban planning process
- a logical plane, made of communication, modeling and intervention methods in which the relationships between the actors are central,
- and a holistic plane that represents the territory in its own identity and in its entirety.
2.4 Application and instruments
When the above meta-model is applied to urban management, as the one practiced in Thiès, the resulting scheme is as presented in figure 2. The relationship network is quite unorganized and can only transmit a limited amount and quality of information. The concept of the city project does not exist, substituted by a strategic vision particular to each actor. Consequently, numerous problems can be observed of inappropriateness between projects and needs (of the populations and of the economy) and the development of informal sectors. And the public service projects, when they are not blocked during the realization phases, are suffering from a high failure rate.
Facing this analysis, it is essential to reorganize the urban management process on the basis of the good governance principles and to promote a real city project, likely to motivate the
Fig. 2: systemic approach of the urban planning process applied to Thiès
actors to take part in a participative planning process and to unite the individual actions in a coherent and sustainable way. The proposed solution is to act at two levels:
- On a better structuring of the actors’ network, through the implementation of participative structures of exchange between the actors and through the animation of the formalized consultation spaces.
- For a better quality of the information transmission. The potentialities given by the new information and communication technologies are opening interesting opportunities. Databases allow the integration of individual knowledge in an information base and its restitution according to the demands of the actors. The uses of geographic information systems and of aerial imaging are permitting the integration of a geographic component in databases, necessary for land-use planning. Indicators and observatories are offering synthesized and accessible information for the evaluation and the monitoring of the city. These technologies have demonstrated their potential of application when sufficient attention is paid to the interface between technology and users (who often don’t have any technical education) and to the ease of operation and maintenance. To achieve these aims, an interface call Urban Monitor has been developed and made available to the actors’ network.
The following chapters will present in detail the methodological process and the instruments. Both illustrate that the relations between the actors are carrying information and that their form, content, and distribution and communication modes evolve all along the process. The initiated approach results in the development of a strategic plan, which is uniting the projects of the forum. This plan is the first step toward the emergence of a real city project that gives a collective sense to the individual actions.
Fig. 3: systemic approach of the urban planning process modified with the IMAP project
3 Methodological approach and instruments
3.1 Intervention method
Starting from the working conditions of a system of actors, a method for participative urban management has been developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and its African partners.
Through the integration of information technologies, it focuses on three axes: ensuring the conditions for a good participation, reinforcing the individual ability of the actors and implementing an effective coordination system. The developments have been done through a Research Action Training approach (De Leener & al., 1999) in the process of participative management for the Senegalese city of Thiès, which started in 1998. Through that approach, the methods and instruments have been continually tested, evaluated and adapted, according to the in vivo reactions of the system of actors.
Fig. 4: Geographic participative planning method
The developed method is synthesized in figure 4. It is composed of a first part which is the creation and implementation of the project structure at the political and institutional levels, followed by an iteration of four stages, conducted through a forum of consultation, exchange and negotiation, with several discussion methods.
The first stage is so the elaboration of participative structures and their legitimization by the administrative and politic authorities. Figure 5 presents the organization implemented in Thiès on the basis of an order of council. It is based on an institutionalized central organ for participation, the forum, which brings together about a hundred participants on two or three days each three months (elected representatives, representative of the state, of the villages and districts, civil organizations, NGOs, etc.). These actors of the city are finding
Fig. 5: Partnership model with organizational structure
there a structured and instrumented space for discussion. They receive training and information and they can exchange their ideas about projects. The forum is accompanied with a direction board (strategic level), with a coordination committee (organizational and informational management) and with a technical commission gathering the main technical and administrative services for the implementation of the actions.
The second stage is the identification of the objectives. The forum, after being constituted, expresses its expectations regarding the process, through the identification of the strong points and weak points of the city and its management. This stage allows identification of the structuring elements of the city, with their potentialities and problems, so as to establish the terms of reference for the first iteration of the project. It will guide the discussion and organization of the forum in order to reach the targeted objectives.
The third stage arises in the form of a participative mapping of the territory. On the base of aerial pictures (from plane or satellite 5 ), the members of the forum are establishing in workshops an identification of the main elements of the territory, in relation with the identified problems and the fixed objectives. This geographical reading allows the constitution of a territorial information base (structure and data) and the establishment of a participatory diagnosis through the analysis of the problems, on which the actors are focusing.
The fourth stage consists of an identification of the possible solutions. On the basis of the established information system and targeted objectives, the needs are expressed and answers are proposed, in the form of a realization program. Driven within the participative forum, this planning action turns to the traditional instruments of urban management (plans, maps, standards, etc.).
The last stage is a formalization of the planned realizations in a strategic development program (local Agenda 21). Some of them are identified as priority projects, and a budget is proposed for the approbation of the internal financial units (city budget) or external ones (funding partners).
The system is iterative. Therefore, after each realization of priority project, a new identification of the objectives is possible. It will govern new needs and other potential realizations.
The entire process is done with an important training component for the actors participating in the approach, mainly oriented towards the planning tools used in the method. Aerial pictures and the Urban Monitor can in this way be used by all the actors, who are trained, through seminars for the identification of the components of the territory. In order to ensure the best conditions of technological access, some selected people have been identified to serve as relays with the actors. They get a particular training during a couple of days on the specific instruments.
3.2 An Urban Monitor for the information management
The methodological developments are based on a geographical and territorial approach of urban management. For the analysis of space, communication and planning, they are based on aerial pictures, on cartographic representation (land-use, land-use planning, conflict areas, etc.), on data associated to the territorial elements and on geographical and statistical indicators. All this information, collected or produced through the method, must be structured and stored in order to be fully accessible for the actors.
Fig. 6: Urban Monitor
In order to allow an efficient structuring and manipulation of the information, a specific tool called the Urban Monitor has been developed by the Swiss federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. This tool is based on a geographic information system and has been adapted to the territorial understanding of the actors. The consultation, modification and addition of information are made possible to all the actors through a graphic interface, which also integrates a set of geographical indicators for urban management. Very easy to manipulate, it allows to users without any technical or computer skills to work with the information: data manipulation, access to the indicators, cartographic stacking, specific mapping, proposal and follow-up of projects and realizations. It is thus used as platform for exchange and storage of information.
The proposed indicators are oriented towards an objective of local management. They are based on four types of comparison: statistical in comparison to standards, norms or other cities; geographical between the different districts and sectors of the city; time-related shown by the evolution of the indicators; and transversal with the comparison among the intervention sectors.
Figure 6 presents the tool such as it appears to the users. The central part is a graphic window, in which the spatial information layers are being stacked. A tool bar is present on the left, allowing navigation in the geographical space and the displaying of the data. On the right a window allows the selection of the picture that constitutes the background (aerial pictures, topographic maps or blank), and a choice of menus that display windows for data access, data addition and modification, access to the indicators or to projects proposals consultation and addition. All the functions are accessible graphically, following a logic emerging from the reaction of the users.
This Urban Monitor is developed with Visual Basic and MapX. It interacts with a database stored in MapInfo format. At the level of the users, none of these software products are required; the tool is relatively light with a total of 50 Mo including the reduced aerial images covering a total area of 300 km 2 with a resolution of 0.5 meters. Regarding the poor Internet coverage in the targeted areas, it is not available online yet, even if this option is considered in the medium term.
The instrument is available to the actors who ask for it. In the case of the city of Thiès, it is installed in the city hall, in the prefecture, in several administrative services and in a cyber coffee, where the inhabitants can freely access it. Its installation is accompanied with training: on one side, the software as been presented to all the members of the forum, who have all spent two hours manipulating the tool; on the other side, at the level of each installed computer, one or several relay-people have been trained during one day, which allow them to have a good mastery of the functionalities and to be able to assist new users.
A GIS-database manager ensures the maintenance of the system. It consists in gathering the information and ensuring the linking between the project proposals and the institutionalized structures (forum, project). In the case of Thiès, this task is taken over by the technical services of the city, assisted by a local NGO and the researchers. They get some training in the field.
4 Conclusion
4.1 Influences on the urban management system
This method developed and applied to the city of Thiès is not the simple sum of the different elements (instruments, discussion methods, planning, training…), but a whole that guarantees the functioning of the urban management system by providing solutions to the main constraints.
Participation is a founding principle of this methodological approach. It is implemented as a way of strengthening the process rather than as an aim in itself. To achieve it, the process is based on a strong and institutionalized partnership between the public authorities and the civil associations. This type of structure has proven its effectiveness for many years (Abbott, 1996, Gaye, 1996), and is taking the place of the centralized structures based on state only, or at the opposite, centered on a civil society that is lacking of technical, legislative and financial means.
The proposed method of urban participative management is founded on two primary concepts: a dynamic planning and a spatial approach of the territory. The first idea follows the direction of the optimality principle of Bellman (cited by Saint-Paul 1992): « An optimal policy is characterized by the fact that for each initial state of the system and each initially taken decisions, the following decisions must be optimal for the system and for the constraints resulting from the first decisions.» In this sense, the method proposes a planning by iterations. Being a flexible and simple approach and allowing a rapid adaptation to the city evolution, it is an alternative to the classical methods for crisis situations – the long term plans, heavy, rigid and excluding a large participation have shown their ineffectiveness in developing urban situations, with rapid demographic growth, strong pressure on land-use, strong informality and lack of rigor in the controls.
In the territorial urban management, the spatial (or geographical) approach is unavoidable, as attested by the most frequently used instruments: maps, plans and geographic information systems. Developing cities are faced with particularly complex situations that demand appropriate tools, adapted to the contextual specificities, especially in the case of participative planning. Starting from the idea that modern information technologies must be made available to the management processes of developing cities, the approach is based on the use of adapted tools: aerial images, participative techniques for spatial analysis and planning, geographic information systems, monitoring and observatories. These tools have been selected or developed on the basis of their accessibility for the actors of the city who do not have any specific skills. An example of this is the Urban Monitor, which has demonstrated its user-friendliness for the actors, and another one is the aerial images, which are easier to understand than maps. This has been observed in the experiences conducted in Thiès as well as in other ones (Aberley, 1993, Chambers, 1994). This spatial approach allows the realization of a pertinent model of the territory and a planning that is appropriate for the different expressed needs.
In comparison with the initial modeling of the city and its management, figure 3 presents the system modified by the proposed process, based on the implementation of the method in the city of Thiès. In this special case, information and relationships are closely connected, because the information on the city has been collected through the actors’ network workshops. There has been since the start a discussion and a negotiation at the information level. The network was able to work in this may, elaborating and bringing to surface a participative diagnosis and a real city project. The individual actions have thus become the components of a whole.
4.2 Implementation of the technologies, durability and perspectives
The instruments and methods developed in the urban context of Thiès are opening the field of the implementation of the new information and communication technologies for the good governance of developing cities. Based on the consideration of the system of actors, they create a dynamic and participative management of the city from the stage of territorial analyses to the planning of new realizations. The spatial component, introduced as a communication base between the actors, increases the comprehension capacity and the collective communication. The result is a strong implication during the entire process and a better integration of the civil and political representatives, due to their assimilation of the classical instruments of urban management.
At the implementation level, this type of process requests a particular attention, especially in term of durability. Although it is still too early to reach an opinion, it is observed that the ease of use is favorable, but that other more complex factors are more difficult to analyze, such as the influence of the project on the system of actors, the power relationships and the individual interests. These factors are particularly pronounced in the case of the city of Thiès, because, in terms of urban management, the political constraints are very strong. In the case of more sector projects (waste management, urban agriculture planning, market infrastructures management, etc.), where a technical structure is generally appointed to be in charge of the process, the developed instruments are presenting a strong use potential due to their easy implementation capacities, their low cost and the potentialities of the geographic approach.
Finally, the developed methods and instruments open numerous and promising perspectives of applications for the implementation of local observatories for participative and effective urban management. Their application to the city of Thiès, registered in the network of urban observatories in West Africa OVAF 6 , has allowed their refinement, in order to be able to apply them to other cities of the network, and then to all the cities that desire it.
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