The Arab world has played a very important role in the history of urbanization. It is the region where urban civilization was born and where urban matters have been addressed for centuries. The Arab urban civilization, as it has evolved over the past millennium, has generated some of the most beautiful cities in the world. This publication is the latest of a series of regional reports documenting the state of the world cities, and the first to comprehensively analyze urbanization processes in the Arab States through the review of its four sub-regions: the Maghreb, the Mashreq, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the least-developed Arab countries of the Southern Tier.

(The Lincoln Institute for Land Policy released the final working paper in July 2013. Click here to read the report)

This spring, as part of our research on climate change adaptation in the Andes, I traveled to the sister cities of El Alto/La Paz, Bolivia. I landed at 5am in the dark at the El Alto airport, seeing only a sea of street lights that plunged into darkness where the La Paz Valley was covered by mist. When I opened the curtains that morning in La Paz, broad daylight revealed a honking metropolis surrounded by snowy mountain peaks and cliffs.

I’m here with colleagues from the Stockholm Environment Institute to understand the relationship between future water shortages and land use planning in El Alto. On this trip, we organized a workshop with diverse stakeholders to introduce the project, and met with community associations, local planning and environment offices in La Paz and El Alto, and international stakeholders to begin understanding the situation in El Alto. So far what we’ve found is that the relationship between too much water has much clearer implications for land use decisions – don’t build in flood zones, protect coastal habitat, enhance permeability. But what about drought and water scarcity? In this modern era, does a city with few water resources look inherently any different from cities with ample water supplies? Is planning for droughts purely a task for water infrastructure engineers, or does it have implications for urban planning?

Founded in 1548, La Paz grew as a halfway point between Lima and the Spanish Empire’s mines in Potosi. The plateau of El Alto, located at 4,080 meters above sea level and 400 meters above the La Paz valley, attracted industrial uses early on due to its flat terrain. The country’s first airport, the Aviation School, the Navigation Company of Lake Titicaca, and a rail company were some of the first to locate here. In the last 40 years, El Alto has grown from an empty plain to a city of over 1 million people, 85% of whom are Aymara and Quechua. Now larger than La Paz, El Alto remains one of the fastest growing cities in the Western Hemisphere. As ever, its development is tied to the needs of the capital city, serving in turn as the dormitory, railroad, airport, customs depot, and production center of La Paz. Most of the economic activity takes place near “La Ceja” (the eyebrow, or rim of the plains), where roads traversing the mountainside link El Alto with La Paz. When I drove through the rest of El Alto, down the wide, dusty, over-sized roads, I found the city emptied of its inhabitants.

For El Alto, the answer as to how the city should physically respond to drought is not at all clear. In some countries, such as the United States, single family homes with lawns consume significantly more water than urban condo residents. But here in El Alto, there are no pools, no grassy lawns, no ostentatious consumption of water by some land use zones versus others. Although the census hasn’t been taken in over 10 years and disaggregated data is not available, the city appears to be relatively economically homogenous – the inhabitants are the poor who can’t afford to live in La Paz. In fact, nearly 90% of households consume less than 15 cubic meters of water per month – or less than 100 liters per person per day, a level set by the World Health Organization as a minimum amount for healthy and hygienic living. Accordingly, “demand side management” or efforts to reduce consumer water demand will have limited impact. Instead, the focus will be on physically expanding the city’s supply of water by building or expanding new reservoirs and supply lines.

At the same time, it is also clear that the flat terrain of plains cities such as El Alto that makes them susceptible to drought also fosters extensive development. In the peri-urban areas, “loteadores” (or subdividers) will buy land from a farmer, get someone to draft a plan meeting minimum zoning standards, and sell the lots to rural migrants. Once settled, new communities demand services from the municipal government. A property with services is twice as valuable, and many migrants will then choose to sell the property at a profit and move to La Paz, and then on to Santa Cruz, repeating the cycle each time. No one wants to live 4,000 meters above sea level, I’m told, where it never warms above 60°F. Sixty degrees isn’t so cold – until you realize no one in the city has heating.

The fact that there are no natural limits to growth – and that there are substantial investment in ample road networks – incentivizes peri-urban expansion. This, in turn, dramatically increases infrastructure costs that local communities cannot afford to pay. The question of who should pay for water services is one of the most contentious in the country.

Bolivia’s first War on Water in Cochabamba, the one in which local riots and protests ousted the private water company Suez, is pretty well known. But few are aware of the country’s second War on Water, which took place in El Alto to oust the private company Aguas de la Illimani. Before Aguas, El Alto and La Paz had SEMAPA, a public water company, and since then, it’s been replaced by another public water and sewerage company called EPSAS. Whether public or private, water services will always be a challenge to finance given local levels of consumption and ability to pay. It’s a story familiar to informal settlements and slum communities worldwide. For residents in El Alto and elsewhere, the prices for water – as well as food and energy – will only increase with projected climate change.

Distinct from other cities, however, are El Alto’s exceptionally strong social movements and community associations. Every day of my visit, there are protests, blockades, marches, anything from asking government for support for families of political detainees, to stopping price hikes in private transport. These protests have been effective in forcing local governments to respond to their requests, including to lower tariffs and extend basic services. However, this development strategy poses a challenge to much needed longer-term planning, particularly given that the city will double in population by 2025, but will exceed its available water supply by 2018.

In this context, we are working with the Stockholm Environment Institute to research how strategic land use planning in El Alto can support more efficient and equitable use of water. We are gathering information that will serve as the basis for modeling water consumption patterns in El Alto, as well as planning and zoning information that will help inform potential points of intervention in land use planning that will have impacts on water supply.

The project is funded by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in Cambridge, MA. Learn more about this project here.

This year the I2UD Board of Directors explored 1000 km of the diverse Hungarian and Romanian country side travelling from Budapest, Hungary to Bucharest, Romania.

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Starting in the historic Hungarian city of Budapest, perched on both sides of the beautiful Danube River, the city came alive when Dr. Katalin Pallai (an expert on Local Governance) guided us through a walking tour of the old neighborhoods. We were awed by the historic Parliament buildings, the unique Turkish baths, the cathedrals and synagogues and the elegant private villas, so rich in history and unique in their geographic setting. Dr. Pallai explained the challenges encountered in the transition from communism to democracy over the past 25 years and what that meant in redefining government and private housing and redesigning the urban landscape. After learning about this beautiful city we finished our stay in Budapest with much Goulash, wine and Hungarian music as we were privileged to celebrate professor Vigier’s 80th birthday with him.

On our way to Romania the next day we visited historic wine cellars in the Tokay wine region of Hungary where the viticulture tradition has existed for at least 1,000 years and where we tasted what King Louis XIV called the “King of all Wines”. Then we crossed the Hungarian border into the Romanian town of Oradea where we were met by an old friend, Dr. Andrei Luncan, the former Chief Architect of Oradea, who had worked with John Driscoll and the I2UD on many Romanian projects in the past. Dr. Luncan accompanied us for the rest of our trip in Romania and his knowledge, experience, and history with various villages and towns proved invaluable.

We were privileged to meet with the Deputy Mayor of Oradea and the new General Manager of the Oradea Metropolitan Area who thanked John Driscoll and Dr. Luncan for their early efforts in creating the framework for Metropolitan Oradea. The success of the program developed in Oradea has begun to spread to other municipalities in Romania and it was very encouraging for the Board Members to see how the efforts of the I2UD live on in a country even after the initial projects have been completed.

Continuing our tour we visited Sighisoara, Transylvania, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, infamous as the birthplace of Dracula. Then we travelled a short drive down the road to Viscri, an ancient Saxon village, at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains where we explored the famous fortified church of Viscri, built in the 12th century. The local farm houses surrounding the village have been the recent recipients of funding from many organizations who have aided in their restoration and preservation. Some are now used as lodging for hikers and other tourists and are an example of how Romanians are thinking of new ideas to sustain their existence in these rural areas. Our next stop was the city of Sibiu, Romania which was awarded the European City of Culture in 2007. This designation is the design and urban planning equivalent of winning the bid for the Olympics and the resultant face lift that the city underwent for the events in 2007 helped to emphasize the uniquely European flare in its architecture and culture. What a varied and beautiful country Romania is.

Leaving Sibiu we embarked on a spectacularly scenic drive through the Carpathian Mountains, finally entering the resort town of Sinaia. This is the home of the overwhelmingly ornate Peles Royal Castle, summer home of the Romanian Royal Family for decades, and other beautiful historic buildings. Unfortunately, during the Communist Era large and unattractive egalitarian hotels were built that remain to this day, giving the town the feeling of a poorly planned tourist destination.

It was in Sinai, a town which seemed to represent both the best and worst of architectural design and planning in Romania, where we participated in the I2UD Seminar on Urban and Regional Challenges and Opportunities in Romania. Presentations were made by various members of the Romanian Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism, the President of the Romanian Register of Urban Planners and our own Professor Frank Vigier. Many of our Board Members shared their own experiences of developing land and doing business in Canada and the United States. A stimulating discussion of life in the new urban Romania, with its goal to be a vital player on the eastern European and world markets led to further analysis of the effect of post Communism politics on the urban landscape and expansion throughout Romania.

After the Seminar we headed for Bucharest, the largest and most prosperous city in Romania. The city’s elegant architecture, so reminiscent of Paris, had long ago earned it the nick name of “Little Paris”. Today the city is the centre of Romanian mass media, culture and arts. In addition, Bucharest is one of the main industrial centers and transportation hubs of Eastern Europe. Here the Board held its final meeting and goodbye dinner in the company of Professor Liviu Inasi, Secretary, Romanian Professional Association of Urban Planners, who gave us first hand accounts of the tumultuous transitions that have occurred in Romanian cities and society over the past 30 years. Once again the Board Members were pleased to hear how the I2UD had participated in the transitions the country and its cities have made. We also came to understand that the unending dedication of citizens like Dr. Katalin Pallai, Andrei Lucan and Liviu Inasi has helped Romania reach its full potential as a player in the world markets.

Thank you to Professor Frank Vigier, John Driscoll, and Mary Shia for all the hours of planning and preparing for this exceptional trip from Budapest to Bucharest!

This semester, I am studying language and economics in one of West Africa’s largest political, business, and cultural capitals. As an International Affairs and Environmental Studies major, my classes focus on development theories and practice. At I2UD last spring, I researched the classic characteristics of developing cities around the world. And now that I live in Dakar, I have a front row seat to observe just how uneven development affects people’s every-day lives.

From I2UD’s research, I knew many African cities have high urbanization rates and struggle to provide adequate infrastructure like housing and electricity to the influx of migrants. But what does that look like? As home to 25% of the country’s population, Dakar is one such magnet: villagers from the underdeveloped interior come hoping to find upwardly mobile jobs and the basic social services they lack.

Dakar – with its paved roads, cosmopolitan restaurants, nightclubs, and bustling markets – seems like a country apart. But it’s clear the city cannot provide the services demanded by the booming population. Electricity cuts are very common: my house loses power frequently and I have studied by lamplight numerous times. The cuts are new to Senegal and seen as a sign of the state’s corruption. My Senegalese host grandma curses the President every time the lights go off, and riots have occurred on the main road near my school in protest to long outages. Trash collection is also insufficient here: I remember cringing when I discovered that trash is dumped in the street and burned for disposal; now I know that Friday is trash-burning day. Many people even herd goats and sheep in the city, letting them graze through household trash. Despite the construction boom as demand for housing soars, the cluttered slums on the city’s outskirts continue to grow and pose political, health, and planning concerns. I have seen many squatter shacks built in ditches on the side of the road or standing precariously near the edges of sea cliffs.

“Youth bulge” encapsulates Senegal’s population pyramid in an easy textbook phrase; in reality, it is one of the most tragic aspects of Dakar. Many rural families either cannot afford school for their children or don’t live near a school, so they send kids to cities to receive religious educations. Many of these schools, overwhelmed by students or harboring selfish interests, send the children out in droves to beg. Thousands of talibe (religious students) work the streets of Dakar and city officials are unable curb the begging. Outside of a shop or while waiting for a taxi, talibe ask me for money every day.

On a more hopeful note, numerous NGOs and aid agencies work here together with the government, and the country’s solid democracy and stability allow it to implement programs that improve people’s living conditions. And while Dakar could certainly use I2UD’s spatial planning support, the city has many charms. I enjoy the bustling downtown market, a labyrinth of shops bulging with wares from around the world, from vibrant wax-print fabrics and Turkish candies to soccer jerseys and cellphones. The glowing reviews of Senegalese hospitality are all true, as is the great reputation of the food. Dodging chaotic traffic and racing donkey-pulled carts, I know I could never have as fun jogging in Boston as in Dakar. In all, this semester has been a great way for me to connect my schooling and work at the I2UD work to real world phenomena, and I look forward ever more enthusiastically to a career in development.

• Overview of Brazil’s contemporary human rights challenges
• The agricultural frontier in Brazil’s Central West region and its human rights impacts
• Urban human rights issues, particularly the sociological problem of tolerance for police violence
• The persisting problem of slavery in rural Brazil
• The human rights of Brazil’s indigenous peoples

Photo by Linda Shi