Page 12 - KZN Business Sense Vol.2 No.5
P. 12

SEEING PATTERNS IN URBAN-RURAL LANDSCAPES

                       Renee Hulley, CEO Black   However, if we pay closer           environment. KZN planners
                           Balance              attention to the spatial shifts and  and city leaders therefore
                                                dynamics, we begin to see a new      need to be forward looking,
     Have                                       spatial pattern emerge that does     planning for growing and
                                    you         not just challenge past patterns     changing populations and
                                                but is defining newer cities in      the impact on transportation,
                          noticed the           newer places that are organic        schools, hospitals, and many
                         emergence              and reflecting a more indigenous     other aspects of city life. They
                          of a new              city.                                also need to make sure those
                          spatial                                                    plans can be adapted over
                          pattern (of            These are South African             time to reflect
                          human                 townships emerging as                the changing
                          settlement,           secondary cities and or new          needs of the
                                                cities. They emerged as a result     city. The most
development and use of space)                   of historical spatial planning       effective cities
in the Province over the last                   but in the 21st century are          adopt a regional
few years? If you have, what are                emerging as locations that           perspective
your thoughts about the extent                  address not only the housing         and make the
to which city builders and or                   backlog but are new areas for        planning process
planners are geared towards                     economic opportunity for a           inclusive and
facilitating and embracing this                 large section of our population.     flexible. n
change?                                         In addition, these areas emerge
                                                as opportunities for us to           Black Balance Projects
 These are issues I have                        build more resilient even more       Tel: +27 (0)31 832 3450
tried to research and which I                   sustainable cities.                  E-mail: cnarain@blackbalance.co.za
have squarely faced through                                                          Website:
the spatial planning and                         In September 2015, the              www.blackbalance.co.za
development consulting work                     Department of Rural
completed at Black Balance. The                 Development and Land                                                     Map depicting urban-rural continuum with emerging peri-urban area
shifting spatial patterns are also              Reform, commissioned a study                                             Caption
an opportunity to support the                   on Development Edges: A
spatial transformation agenda                   Settlement Typology. In this
that is currently unfolding and                 study it is suggested that the
to try to better understand the                 urban rural continuum that
urban, peri-urban and rural                     we are experiencing today
continuum.                                      is in fact a historical spatial
                                                configuration. The opportunity
 There are intricate linkages                   this offers is that we can develop
between these spaces and the                    a spatial response to redress and
fact that these areas house a                   address the historical patterns.
large part of our population,
which is densifying at rates                      The location of the Traditional
similar to metropolitan areas.                  Council areas relative to road
In addition, the paper focuses                  systems and to existing urban
on the economies of these areas                 settlements (of all types) close
and the necessary support                       or adjacent to existing urban
required by local government to                 areas became the focus of urban
support these local businesses                  migrants. Many of these areas
and entrepreneurs. These spaces                 tend to exist at densities not that
are also becoming markets for                   different to the adjacent urban
business from metropolitan                      areas, and in some cases even
areas and the agricultural                      denser. In these cases settlement
activities that still occur in the              tends to be in the form of
peri-urban and rural spaces                     “peri-urban” transitional areas
are also able to use these                      between denser formal urban
metropolitan spaces as areas                    areas and the very low density
for selling their produce. The                  settlements “sprinkled” across
leadership that is required must                the majority of the balance of
in effect be visionary, have long               Traditional Council areas.
term plans that have a regional
perspective, but are flexible and                The graphic below depicts
able to accommodate dynamic                     the urban rural continuum in
socio-economic and population                   Estcourt, a large town in KZN
shifts within the short term.                   with an expanding peri-urban
                                                area. This is not unique to
 The spatial patterns of the past               Estcourt, but is occurring in
in KZN have meant that we                       other large towns within KZN.
have and continue to develop in
patterns that have been pre-                     The world has many examples
determined. There are historical                of cities that have expanded
areas of growth and investment                  rapidly without any kind of
and in areas we see historical                  planning. The result is chaotic
underdevelopment and lack                       at best, but too often it also
of investment. Recent spatial                   impedes further development
documents confirm this.                         and is detrimental to citizens’
                                                quality of life and the

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