Urban planning in developing countries

There remains a huge gap in implementing sustainable urban planning between developed and developing countries (including newly industrialized countries). Municipalities in developed and developing countries pursue different aims in urban planning and management. Therefore they need geographic information of different type and scale. 

The lack of actual maps and geographic information affect urban planning in developing countries. As a result, planning, land management, and construction activities are diverse, uncoordinated, and based on traditional approaches.  Land distribution often pursues quick financial gains. The main and well-known problems are:

• lack of actualized large-scale (1:2,000...1:10,000) base maps
• where maps exist they are classified (Middle East, Central Asian countries) or outdated (Latin America); sometimes data store in hard copy registers
• shortage of environmental, demographic, water supply and demand, transportation, engineering geologic data
• disunity of land use, urban planning and population distribution maps
• no spatial information infrastructure
• limited funding and/or weak political will to implement urban planning systems.

It should be emphasized that in Turkey, Bahrain, and Malaysia many city authorities are enthusiastically introducing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and implementing programs for geospatial data collection. However, the urban planning in the most of developing countries is still in its infancy.

Seen that today’s cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America need a reliable data for sustainable urban development, Zesmill delivers a wide range of geospatial data and solutions for urban planning for newly industrialized and developing countries. We pay extra attention to establishing basic control networks, creating and actualizing base maps, mapping all types of urban landscapes, location of vacant or underdeveloped land. It is also important to obtain geological, hydrogeological and hydrological data for design and installation of infrastructure such as water, sewerage, drainage, and to detect flood and landslide prone areas.

Zesmill works with urban planning organizations, local authorities and municipalities in newly industrialized and developing countries to:

• create large scale topographic maps with aerial imaging, LIDAR imaging and ground survey
• convert hard copy maps and drawings into actualized maps to be used in GIS and CAD systems
• create large-scale topographic maps of urban “gray areas” like informal settlement areas, squatter settlements, urban periphery zones, growing unplanned suburban and coastal areas etc.
• carry out necessary topographic field surveys along with terrestrial laser scanning
• create land use, land cover (landscape), zoning maps
• carry out road and streets inventory
• acquire geospatial data to create a wide range of thematic maps for the master planning, urban development, civil and engineering sector
• generate 3D models for urban planning, geohazards assessment, visualization and evaluation to avoid planning errors
• detect landfills, uncontrolled dump sites, illegal quarrying sites etc.
• assess land subsidence zones, landslide and coastal erosion prone areas

Many of large cities in low- and middle-income countries are growing along shorelines. Coastal cities benefit from their location at the ocean front. Among the largest coastal cities are Accra, Chennai, Douala, Lagos, Mumbai, Manila, Surabaya and others. Many of them are prone to natural hazards including storms, floods and storm surges, coastal erosion and land subsidence. The situation is deteriorating by sea-level changes, environmental impacts and poor land use practice. The last translates into the poor living in lowland flood-prone and landslide-prone areas. That is why engineering surveying and protection, land improvement and sustainable land management based on actualized geographic data and digital terrain models are vital for the coastal cities.

Zesmill’s references include surveying and mapping for several regional and urban planning projects, including new master plan for the city of Springfield, MD, USA; KfW-German-Denmark-funded program for Accra, Ghana; Kobuleti seashore development project (Georgia), Malaki development project (Greece).