Resources & publications

The South African Cities Network (SACN) has recently launched the 2011 edition of its State of the Cities Report, subtitled ‘Towards Resilient Cities’.

The African Development Bank has recently approved its urban development strategy. The strategy is anchored on three ‘pillars’, namely infrastructure delivery, governance, and private sector development. The improvement of urban planning capacity is a broad aim within the governance theme.

From 28 to 30 March 2011, the African Centre for Cities (ACC) hosted delegates from Indian, Kenyan, Brazilian and South African higher education institutions to discuss the potential for comparative case research between the four countries.

The first AAPS online educational toolkit, for the theme of ‘actor collaboration,’ is now available for download. You may find the toolkit by clicking on the ‘Resources’ link above. Alternatively, click here to be taken directly to the relevant webpage.

UN-Habitat has devised the Habitat Partner Universities Initiative as a means of promoting cooperation between UN-Habitat and institutions of higher education, as well as facilitating exchange and cooperation between universities in developing and developed nations.

UN-Habitat recently announced the publication of ‘The State of African Cities 2010: Governance, Inequality and Urban Land Markets’, the latest report in the series.

In preparation for the upcoming AAPS 2010 conference on planning education (to be held from 5 to 8 October in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), a background paper has been prepared to inform debate around planning curricular reform in Africa.

The influential journal Planning Theory & Practice is offering free access to two important ‘Interface’ discussions: the first is entitled ‘Wind power: Is there a planning problem?’ (link here) whilst the second deals with ‘Health at the heart of spatial planning’ (link here).

The two articles chosen by the AAPS editorial board for re-publication in Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, volume 4, are:

Kamete, A. (2009). ‘Hanging out with “Trouble-Causers”: Planning and Governance in Urban Zimbabwe’, Planning Theory and Practice, 10(1), pp. 85-103.

Winkler, T. (2009). ‘For the Equitable City Yet to Come’, Planning Theory and Practice, 10(1), pp. 65-83.

The World Bank has provided planning practitioners and researchers with a vital information source in the form of the Open Data Initiative, which was launched on 20 April 2010 alongside the World Development Indicators 2010.

UN-Habitat commissioned a series of background reports to enhance the Global Report on Human Settlements 2009 (subtitled ‘Planning Sustainable Cities’) by illustrating ‘empirical conditions and trends, as well as effective policy responses’. These are now downloadable, free of cost, on the UN-Habitat website (click here to visit the download page).

Free access to the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER) is available to institutions in developing countries.

Prof Peter Robinson from the University of KwaZulu-Natal has just completed a book on strategic planning. This book will be of interest to anyone involved in built environment planning and development, to strategic planning theorists and practitioners in any field, and to urban historians and geographers who wish to understand the processes that drive the development of towns and cities.

It has been structured in the format of a textbook for students, a handbook for practitioners, or a training manual.

SAGE is currently offereing free online access to a selection of its journals.

The 2009 Global Report on Human Settlements, themed ‘Planning Sustainable Cities’, was released this week by UN-Habitat. Information is available online here.

The AAPS Editorial Board considered a number of journal articles submitted to it, and voted the following three in ranked order to submit to the International Editorial Board of Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, volume 4. We congratulate those who were successful.

NEW BOOK:

WHY PLANNING DOES NOT WORK. LAND-USE PLANNING AND RESIDENTS’ RIGHTS IN TANZANIA. BY TUMSIFU NNKYA (2008)

Published by Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd, Dar es Salaam. www.mkukinanyota.com

PO Box 4246, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. ISBN 978-9987-449-68-2

This book presents a detailed account of land use planning practice in the context of public land ownership policy in Tanzania.