urban_managua

Rapid urbanization process and a fast-growing population are the results of uncoordinated and unplanned development of Central American agglomerations. Another phenomenon is the internal migration due to employment opportunities at tax-free production sites (i.e. Managua’s zonas francas), which causes spontaneous population growth and informal settlements at marginalized areas. This development lacks an appropriate urban planning of these settlements, which itself causes a range of legal, ecological, hygienic and social problems.

In the specific case of Managua, the local metropolitan planning department reports a number of about 300 so-called informal settlements with approximately 800.000 inhabitants (2008) affected. Informal settlements are mainly located along those places in cities which are excluded from development under conventional planning aspects: these are risk zones, hardly constructible areas flood plains, areas in the vicinity of airports, train stations, industrial areas or motorways or even nearby or on top of a landfill. Most of these settlements are to be developed under high threats of natural disasters and ecologic damages.

As a response to the absence of adequate land use and urban planning in Nicaragua this academic partnership in integrated urban development technologies focuses on the research of methodologies for the sustainable development of urban areas. The common goal is to strengthen the local capacities in interdisciplinary research and urban planning technologies. Since the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) established a postgraduate programme in urban planning in March 2011, the common goal is to promote and exchange “know how” (research) and “know why” (practical work) in following areas:

• Integrated urban development

• Sustainable energy supply

• Development of technical and social infrastructure

• Local economic development

• Participation techniques and project ownership (ie. bottom-up principle in planning)

• Sociology and social mapping including basic GIS technologies

• Architectural interventions and urban design

• Research and documentation of informal settlements

• Establish an annual urban planning congress in Central America

On both academic and governmental level urban planning is a new discipline in Central America. It is the long-term objective to educate well-trained professionals in the field of urban planning, which is internationally linked to other Latin-American partner planning institutions (ie. South-South cooperation) and locally connected to the respective local planning departments on both municipality and national level. 

The present proposal for preparatory funding is focused to establish a future academic partnership between the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), Institute of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Vienna University of Technology (UDLA_UT Vienna) and Instituto de Estudios Interdisciplinarios (IEI). The three institutions are willing to jointly plan and develop a common project proposal in the discipline of integrated urban planning, a complementary strategy to local and rural development policies. 

The proposal is fully aligned to the thematic focus of the current APPEAR call for proposals and all activities are targeted at strengthening the institution capacities in higher education and development research. Sanitation and water supply (ie. technical infrastructure), rural and urban development, private and public sector development (institutional development and paradigm shift in local and planning policies), participation and project ownership (“bottom-up principle”) are components of the programme. Integrated Urban development means sustainability in land use, environmental and natural resources, conflict prevention and gender equality.

A main target within the project work will be training students to develop and strengthen their analytic capabilities in terms of exploring social settings and defining social problems.