Sustainable Strategies for Urban Renewal

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Prof. Dr. Mohamed Salheen, Professor of Integrated Planning and Design, Ain Shams University Prof. Johann Jessen, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Stuttgart Dr. Marwa Abdellatif, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning Ain Shams University

Focusing on urban renewal projects in inner city markets in Addis Ababa, especially in Military tera, this thesis carefully assesses an already implemented user-based redevelopment scheme which has been deemed successful by many. The study approaches the issue of assessing sustainability through two major phases: the first is to identify the core issues that need to be deliberated, while the second is to design a tool used for assessment. An

8 Military tera is a local name given to a built-up outlet market for wholesale and retail located at the core of the central market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

indicator index classified according to the four pillars of sustainability (social, environmental, economic and institutional criteria) was designed, putting into consideration the key issues identified. The study also examines areas where high opinion discrepancy had been observed to provide recommendations on how these gaps could be narrowed towards developing a strategy within the framework of sustainable urban development.

Keywords: indicators, inner city markets, urban renewal, redevelopment sustainable urban development

In the last four decades, there has been an unprecedented increase in urban population. With no signs of slowing down, now more than ever, people are keener to live in cities than in rural areas. Despite the many possibilities that arise from urbanization, this change in socio-spatial dynamics, economic foundations and environmental presence comes with enormous challenges in providing a healthy liveable city for all. In response to these challenges and the imminent need to address them, the nature of the 21th century planning has taken a significant turn in considering changes, uncertainties, and future events by way of sustainable urban development. The foremost deliberation of such a way of planning is the uncompromised balance that it aims to achieve among the major aspects of human life affected by past, present and future urbanization.

By grounding its analysis on a comparison of the qualitative perceptions of key stakeholders, the aim of this thesis is to identify ways in which such a balance could be achieved while using urban renewal as a strategy for sustainable urban development.

In a nut shell, sustainable urban development, as a concept, is a reaction to the challenges such as rapid population, growth climate change and globalization faced by the rapidly urbanizing world. There are two categories of sustainability in an urban area, namely, i) urban sustainability or sustainable city and ii) sustainable urban development or sustainable urbanization (Whitehead 2003).

Urban renewal is one of the policies that are utilized in moving towards sustainable urban development (UNHabitat 2010). With sustainability as a recent addition to the whole picture of urban planning, it has been proven by time that it is important to measure all efforts in a solid means in order to identify a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ practice. In order to commend a good practice or learn from a bad one, understanding the objectives and impacts of the strategy is important.

Having said this, it is clear from the sheer magnitude and complexity of the concepts that are carried by sustainable urban development that achieving complete success is impossible. As the challenges keep morphing and widening, the issues that need to be solved keep changing as well, making sustainability a moving target. Moreover, since development in many cases doesn’t take place at the same time, realizing the principle of sustainable urban development faces more challenges in some areas than others.

Among the many research methodologies, the case study method was considered appropriate for this thesis because of the absolute need to look at the issue in the local sense as discussed above. Case study research allows the researcher to look at the phenomenon in context (Farquhar 2013).

The evaluation method, that is utilized and which has been found appropriate for data analysis, is the indicatorbased assessment method (Hemphill, Berry and McGreal 2004) for its ability to function better under circumstantial premise and effectiveness in a short time frame. In this regard, this thesis, as a major data analysis tool, formulates a set of indicators that are applicable and logical to the specific case of redevelopment project in Merkato.

Addis Ababa was established in 1886, during the reign of Emperor Menilik (Terefe 2005). Despite incidentally becoming a capital city, Addis Ababa grew to be the most permanent capital in the history of modern Ethiopia. The city’s strong population base that settled around the emperor’s court fleeing a famine which had happened from 1889 to 1892, as well as its suitable location are attributed to making it undoubtedly the most important urban centre in the country where political power and material wealth became more concentrated. The city has expanded horizontally, leaving a compact urban core or inner city.

What is referred to as the inner city today is this core that was neglected and, in a large part, the highly dense settlement. This inner-city Addis Ababa covers less than 12% of the 54,000 hhectar total area of the city but houses almost 40% of the total population (ORAAMP, 2000). Despite the exiting physical condition, the innercity also holds great potential due to the relatively available setup of infrastructure and utilities. As a result, there is an imminent pressure from both the government and private sector to redevelop and renew the innercity areas of Addis Ababa, making them prime sites for urban development.

Merkato, an indigenous market, is believed to be used, in average, by five hundred thousand people per day (Angélil and Hebel 2009). After the end of the occupation, Merkato continued to be the major national, regional and city-wide market. Having the main bus station located within its vicinity, Merkato became the main arena, not only for economic processes but also social transformations from rural to urban Ethiopia. Military tera is located in the core of the central market Merkato. The site is defined on four sides by main vehicular roads, giving it a good connectivity to other parts of the market (Figure 1).

In summary, urban renewal intends to create better environmental, social, environmental and institutional aspects of urban areas through various actions including redevelopment, urban redesigning, and cultural conservation. In these respects, urban renewal can, significantly, contribute to sustainable urban development if it follows a sustainable path (Zheng, Shen and Wang 2013). The indicators for sustainable urban renewal must, therefore, measure the elements of the concept of renewal in accordance with the principles of the present four pillars of sustainability. As discussed, one of the advantages of the indicator-based system is that it accommodates the interrelated nature of the issues within these pillars – one indicator could serve to measure various issues and later be addressed with a comprehensive decision-making solution.

The evaluation, as already mentioned, will be a qualitative one in which indicators will be rated by identified stakeholders (traders and policy makers) on a scale of insufficient to excellent, where 1 will be the point given to indicators that are deemed unsuccessful, parallel to the aim of the renewal strategy, and 4 represents the ‘maximum’ contribution to a sustainable urban renewal strategy (see appendix 6 for rating framework). The indicators and rationale behind the selection, along with the points allocated, will be discussed briefly before the outcome of the evaluation itself.

Figure 1: Inner city Addis Ababa Photo credit: Marcin Szczepanski

This manuscript argues that one way to attaining progress towards sustainable urban development is regular assessment of strategies through a set of relevant parameters crucial in decision-making in sustainable urban development.

As end users of the renewal strategy, the traders are the ultimate stakeholders. Whether the user-based renewal strategy is sustainable or not, it primarily influences their way of doing business, their space of doing business and their very existence, in general. The second group of stake holders that were identified to be highly influenced by the state urban policy and strategy, the decision–making body of the strategy (i.e. in this case, the municipal policy makers) are also crucial stakeholders.

Therefore, the thesis uses qualitative rating of these groups of stakeholders in order to identify the points of success and failure of the strategy. Since military tera has already gone under the renewal process, a clear temporal comparison could be made by both stakeholders in order to evaluate the strategy followed.

Using the index produced following the methodological approach, a set of indicators, that correspond to the general criteria or pillars of sustainability, were produced. The assessments of this thesis depend on the results obtained from the qualitative rating of these indicators by the stakeholders identified as decisive. In this accord, 20 traders, that are part of the association, and 8 policy makers, were given a list of the indicators in which they were required to qualitatively rate what they had thought of the impact of the renewal strategy was, regarding that specific indicator. The assessment was carried out via one-to-one interview. In order to make the findings value-based, a numerical value was set to each quality ranging from 1-4. This enabled to gauge the approximate maximum value that could be attained in each sub criteria. Moreover, these values, that were designated, made the identification of areas of discrepancy from the ones that were agreed upon by each stakeholder.

Table 1: Pillars of sustainability and indicators index General criteria Sub-criteria Environmental aspects Built-up fabric Institutional aspects

Economic aspects

Social aspects Land tenure Organizational structure Capital gain Employment and work ‘the market’ Community involvement Heritage and conservation No. of indicators 8

9

10

6

Source: The author

The qualitative assessment of the renewal strategy in military tera was conducted to identify the perceptions of the two major stake holders in the renewal process. Identifying areas where both agree on a plausible success and areas where clear-cut contradiction exists on the level of success is vital for taking lessons in devising future strategies towards a sustainable urban renewal project? Quality assessment was picked as an assessment method for it provides a subjective opinion of the end users as well as policy makers, regardless of the intent of the

renewal manual. However, since the number of participants from each stake holder (20 in the case of traders that were part of the renewal process and the subsequent association and 8 policy makers within the Municipal lease office) is not equal, a direct comparison of the values obtained is not conducted. Instead, the comparisons are made based on the overall highest value that can be obtained within each sub criteria, depending on each stakeholder. The evaluation of this thesis, therefore, aims at finding a middle ground between how the strategy is devised and how it is implemented while, in the end, directing it towards a sustainable urban renewal.

As expected, there were various issues that have both been rated as sufficient, if not excellent, and various other issues in which one stakeholder has been rated excellent, while the other nothing close to the aimed result. Issues that mainly focus on the physical improvement of the market are widely agreed upon by both stake holders as sufficient, if not excellent, in many cases. On the other hand, institutional transparency, fairness in capital gain and possibilities of future improvement were widely labelled insufficient by traders, while the policy makers similarly labelled issues such as the motivation of traders and the willingness to cooperate. This work, therefore, concludes by making two sets of recommendations. The first set will be on what could be included in devising a relevant sustainable strategy for future renewal of inner-city market areas. The recommendations will mainly focus on enhancing the exciting experience of a user-based redevelopment scheme. Since their development is a major part of the research, a recommendation on the indicators themselves as future monitoring and evaluating tools for sustainable urban renewal is the second set.

While considering urban renewal as a strategy in sustainable urban development, it is very important to address the planning subsystem and social subsystem properly in order to achieve sustainable urban renewal in a city (Zheng, Shen and Wang 2013). Furthermore, as identified from an extensive, onsite interview and a thought analysis of the urban renewal manual of Addis Ababa in framing the site-specific concept being assessed, the above-mentioned issues are structured as policy related issues and socio-cultural issues. These issues then relate directly with the identified indicate index that is used in assessing the strategy in the framework of sustainable urban development. As a result, the recommendations of thesis are categorised as such and will be discussed below as: on policy, related issues and on socio cultural issues.

On policy, related issues

Based on the overall qualitative assessment, it is seen from the conclusion that the renewal strategy is, more or less, successful in realizing its objectives – economic and capital gain. However, from the qualitative assessment of the user-based redevelopment scheme, it was synthesized that there are still gaps that needed to be addresses in making the strategy a ‘good’ practice in sustainability. Below are strategies that ought to be included in devising a renewal strategy that progresses in the quality of the indicators that showed conflicting values in the assessment.

Parallel to the above inputs to the policy-related issues, these recommendations focus more on the human dimensions of the strategy. From the qualitative assessment, there are different issues regarding the social and institutional aspects of sustainability that were given low-quality values. In order to improve these indicators

with such results, it is recommended that the strategy becomes more inclusive, participatory and engaging. This can only be achieved by motivating the traders involved in the renewal and by setting up reliable support systems that ensure progress in all aspects of their lives. The following are some recommendations that are deemed necessary to be included in a sustainability market renewal strategy.

The multi-dimensional facet of sustainable urban renewal has, throughout this thesis, proved how intricate the assessment of an urban renewal strategy is. Drawing a conclusion of either the ‘good’ practice or the ‘bad’ practice is highly dependent on the specificity of a case. This is because the issues that are to be assessed will only make sense if found relevant to the context. Additionally, while the locality is the setting where the strategy will be implemented, the existing problems and potentials will guide the coining of a strategy. Priorities and objectives of the renewal strategy have, therefore, showed to be the decisive issues that one needs to look at while conducting an assessment.

However, looking at these successes of the strategy in claiming full success of the entire strategy will not be ideal. Since the principles of sustainable urban development dictate a considerable balance between elements of the four pillars of sustainability, it is important to examine the effect the strategy has on all aspects of this framework set up for sustainable urban development.

Despite the improvements, primarily in the economic and environmental aspects, the perceptions, as identified by the assessment of this thesis on institutional and social aspects, are with clear discrepancies. The study process of this thesis has clearly illustrated that there will always exist a difference in perception between end users and policy makers. Varying qualitative values given by traders, on one hand, as end users and the lease officers, on the other hand, as policy makers, shows that there is a questionable gap in approach in the overall strategy of the user-based redevelopment strategy. Issues such as the transparency and the fairness of the entire system are the main points of discrepancy regarding the institutional issues, while historical and cultural values are the primary gaps in the social aspects.

In conclusion, the renewal strategy in military tera – a user-based renewal strategy that has aimed at being participatory and inclusive – has, to the most part, achieved a considerable success regarding the economic and environmental aspects towards sustainable urban renewal, while there needs to be improvements in the aspects regarding institutional organization and socio-cultural values. Achieving an optimum success in urban renewal strategy could, therefore, be linked with creating an optimum balance between the issues concerned in these important stake holders. In the process of addressing the concerns that each stakeholder has, a stagey would, therefore, be closer to attaining a sustainable urban renewal.

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