Of voids and solids: how to deal with an explosive urban growth and the aggravated regional imbalances?
Understanding the spatial dynamics existing in the Mediterranean requires taking the measure of the urban explosion that know all the countries of southern and eastern Mediterranean. This in turn affects all territories and cities including who must deal with this strong growth in population.
The limitations of the tools of urban and territorial planning
In most Mediterranean countries, states appear, sometimes for decades, their commitment to a balanced regional development and national urban systems. A wave Planner was born in the years following independence, the results are, and to put it mildly, far from conclusive beings.
A land issue insoluble without strong political
The land tenure system in the southern and eastern Mediterranean is a major impediment to rapid urban growth and balanced land tenure systems are everywhere "pluralistic".
Of urban and territorial policies still highly centralized and controlled by the State
Modes of spatial planning that have been used so far and, to a large extent, are still in force in the countries of southern and eastern Mediterranean, the result of a strong centralist tradition that endures today. From independence until the 1980s, states have established themselves as both guarantors of the unity of the nation, as engines of economic development and as responsible for the operation of basic public services (education, health, water, security ... ).
The territorialisation of public policies needed
Facing ux territorial imbalances that penalize their growth pattern and thus job creation, the South and East of the Mediterranean are gradually led to change their modes of governance. The current model of centralized planning and organization of space is now out of breath. He is unable to provide a better territorial balance, regulate urban growth, drive and impetus of shared and differentiated strategic approaches to different levels of public action.
A lack of shared reflection on the urban system Mediterranean
Beyond the analyzes that can be done on the effectiveness of different systems of spatial planning, it is clear that thinking in terms of systems of cities across the Mediterranean region is still in its infancy. There is very little analysis of urban form, except to emphasize their heterogeneity. Imbalances are often due to geographical and climatic constraints.
Training in urban planning inadequate
Noting the inefficiency or difficulty of implementation of public policies in the field of urban development, there has naturally questioned the adequacy of training in urban planning and the realities of the countries concerned.
Urbanism, which is derived from three parent disciplines, architecture, civil engineering and surveying, began to be taught at different times depending on the country. Currently, existing courses are great differences from one country to another, both in their general framework, by faculty and content of courses offered.
