Integrating environmental issues into urban planning and management: the case of the Sunyani municipality.

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Date
2010-08-11
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Abstract
The modern trends in urban planning and management is to achieve sustainable development of urban areas, the study therefore looked at how environmental issues can best be put at the forefront of urban planning and management in the Sunyani Municipality. The study also looked at the modern trends in urban planning and management with respect to sustainable development and the current state of urban planning and management in the Sunyani Municipality and the problems that confront planning. The study adopted the case study approach focusing on a specific geographic location to assess how environmental issues are integrated in planning and management of the Sunyani Municipality. The sources of data was basically from literature review, interviews, observation and questionnaires administered to the planning institutions in the area, the main focus was the Municipal Town and Country Planning Department (MT&CPD) and related institutions. An analytical framework for the study was also developed to direct the study and the tools for integration were also considered. This study, has revealed that urban planning and management requires inter sectoral and interdisciplinary approach and the need for partnership in urban planning and management by all stakeholders. Urban planning and management institutions have been making efforts at achieving improved standards of planning in the face of several constraints that bedevil them. Major constraints facing these institutions and urban planning and management were identified to include inadequate legal framework for planning, inadequate logistics and funding, inadequate human resource especially professional and technical shortages, weak institutional linkages and inadequate spatial information. The study clearly shows that moving from simple mechanisms to regulate land use to a healthy and sustainable urban planning process is not straightforward, but an appropriate national planning framework that encourages an integrated approach and puts the quality of life and sustainable development high on the urban agenda. From the foregoing, the study recommends among others sustainable urban planning and management with priority attention on the protection of the urban environment through the integration of environmental issues in urban planning and management. Planning laws should be revised to reflect current trends and provide the necessary framework for planning, the need for effective human resource development, strengthening of planning institutions, effective public participation in planning, and integrated urban planning and management. Finally, the purpose of land use planning is to select and put into practice those land uses that will best meet the needs of the people while safeguarding resources for the future. The driving force is the need for change, the need for improved management and the need for a quite different pattern of land use dictated by changing circumstances.
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A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development and Planning.
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