dc.description.abstract |
The study on “An Evaluation ofthe Applicability of Compact City Strategies in Sri
Lankan Urban Form” examines the key issues related to urban form of Sri Lankan
cities and evaluates the applicability of strategies adapted for compact city
development by the Western Countries in addressing the issues related to barriers in
optimization of scarce land resources with cost effective infrastructure usage and
meeting the challenges of exorbitant land prices prevailing in urban areas as against
the present practice of enforcing standards and regulations in such areas.
Urbanization and urban development is a continuous process throughout the World
which is occurring in an ad hoc manner and in haphazard way if the process could
not be regularized through planning which is the existing issues characterized by the
urban centres of Sri Lanka, thereby mostly cities are experiencing sprawling along
major transport corridors in an uncontrollable manner which does not make any
sense on sustainable development, strong urban- rural linkages or economic
development to the region so that the growth associated with commonly visible
problems where none of the urban centers provides or act as engines of growth for
their peripheral areas. This pattern of growth and inefficient use of urban space lead
to a multitude of problems which in turn affects to the wellbeing ofthe city dwellers
as well as commuters to the city daily. The projections and forecasts show that the
urbanization and related issues will become a severe threat in the quality of life in
the future of Sri Lankan cities unless otherwise the situation becomes unmanageable
to the city administrators and the city planners together with city designers and
architects as the cities make unsustainable in future.
Compact City Strategy is a basic model which involves with sustainable urban
design. European Commission introduced the “Compact City” concept as the
archetypal sustainable urban form for European cities by publishing the “Green
paper on the urban environment” in 1990. The basic idea of this model is to have
high density, mixed use development with high quality public realm. This approach
to urban planning and design is well established among proponents of the New
iv
Urbanism, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Smart Growth movement too.
Compactness is a way to save limited resources such as land, other natural
resources, and time, attracting people to enjoy with facilities developed in relation to
interchanges developed in expressways and highways as well as many valuable
aspects in urban areas. Compact City is a collection of coherent compact urban
districts and a compact form. Increasing densities requires improving the quality of
urban areas to attract people to live and work and its long term sustenance of its
existence.
This study examines how to incorporate the basic concepts and strategies of
Compact City Model in Sri Lankan urban form and discuss how it could be used and
what limitations exists in urban design point of view. The applicability of model,
methods and strategies in problem solving of the urban areas and the results
anticipated in adapting ofsuch a model will be analyzed by a case study conducted
in Bandarawela Urban Council area. The research methods ofthe case study evolve
mainly through an interview with a selected sample of knowledgeable people ofthe
locality who have the ground based knowledge of the area, in depth interview
method with the professional practitioners like planners, architects and designers
who have engaged in planning and developments of urban areas and direct
observations through field visits by the researcher. |
en_US |