New Palestinian towns as one of urban development models

Other Title(s)

المدن الجديدة كأحد وسائل التطوير العمراني بفلسطين

Dissertant

Uthman, Husayn Ahmad

Thesis advisor

Awad Allah, Faysal

Comitee Members

Thawaba, Salim
Muhammad, Muhammad Abd al-Hadi

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department

Department of Architectural Engineering

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2009

English Abstract

The existing Palestinian towns despite their small size have the urban problems of big cities, rapid increase of population, and high population density with a limited available land, lack of planning, lack of basic services, and lack of infrastructure.

Due the rapid population increase there is a challenge to provide housing within the built up areas, since land is divided into small units which creates difficulties for larger housing schemes, the cost and finance are also another challenge to provide new areas for population overflow, and to provide new areas for urban expansion.

Most of urban development problems arise when the occupation authorities in Palestine since1967 have barred the expansion of Palestinians villages and towns, and has confiscated large tracts of their lands to establish settlements and to prevent Palestinians urban expansion on these lands in order to prevent forming wide Palestinian geographic areas.

To accommodate the increased numbers of population, Palestinians were forced to use all available models of urban development including; peripheral expansion, intensification of existing development, more intensive construction in all residential neighborhoods, behind taking advantage of all the empty land to build on, and the establishment of multi Storey apartment buildings, also linear development along and adjacent to the roads linking between cities and suburbs.

Neighborhoods overlapped with each other, commercial activities established broader than needed which held within the residential areas.

The residential neighborhoods turned into regions of mixed land use, the high prices of urban land was a reason for the establishment of scattered residences between cities and suburbs that set up without economic base to ensure work for its residents.

Palestinian cities and villages have lost their character of distinctiveness and physical beauty; most of its recent buildings do not belong to distinctive architectural pattern.

Planning for Palestinian returnees must be addressed; the area of land needed for this urban development will exceed many times the size of existing urban area, Palestinians must consider all models of urban development.

This research attempt to find the urban development models that is able to accommodate future urban expansion and developments and to utilize international experience in building and planning new towns, moreover to emphasize characteristics of recent urban development (1917-2009) and the used models of urban development and expansion of West Bank Palestinian towns and setting new towns site selections and locations criteria.

Public participation is essential in the planning process; questionnaire had been designed for this research to find Palestinians vision towards new cities and their perceived needs and preferences for future planning of new towns and residential areas.

Main Subjects

Architecture Engineering

No. of Pages

200

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-706553