Sustainable Planning of a New City in Mozambique

Abstract

Careful Land and urban planning is of extreme importance in developing countries with fast growing population as Mozambique. Environmental Strategic Assessment (SEA) and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) are management instruments to early predict urban development potential impacts and risks, contributing to support the shaping of sustainable planning, and avoiding the social and environmental havoc of inadequate development. The objective of this paper is to present the contribution of SEA and ESIA in the planning process of a new major city in southern Mozambique, in Katembe district, facing Mozambique's capital Maputo. The Katembe City's environmental and social assessment process highlighted the environmental, socioeconomics and cultural particularities of this territory and identified the critical constraints for urban development. A preliminary assessment avoided major negative potential impacts, but required specific environmental and social detailed studies to be addressed in the new city's partial urban plans. When these studies were completed, the new urban detailed plans included all the necessary environmental requirements to avoid/mitigate flooding, coastal erosion, and biodiversity loss and habitat fragmentation. It is expected that this experience will encourage the wider application of sustainable urban planning in shaping new urban areas in Mozambique and other fast developing countries.

The Key Factors Driving the Development of New Towns by Mother Cities and Regions: Evidence from China

“…Important papers are as follows: Review and prospects of the development and planning of new towns in China's Shanghai and Taiwan [19,20], the logic of green development mechanism and space production in China's new towns [21][22][23], China's national new district identification standards [24], and comparative study of South Korea and China, India, and China on the development and planning modes of new towns [25,26]. The second category is about the research on the sustainable development indicators and paths of the new town, including prediction of the potential impacts and risks of the development of new towns by SEA (Environmental Strategic Assessment) and ESIA (Environmental and Social Impact Assessment) [27], scenario prediction for the future development of new towns in Kuwait [28], new town planning methods for sustainable development of public space [29], role of participatory landscape in the sustainable development of new towns [30], forecast of carbon emissions for new town planning by system dynamics [31], measurement of diversity of new towns [32], evaluation of new town development sustainability [33], and new town development and sustainable transition under urban entrepreneurialism in China [34].…”