Abstract
Over recent decades, planning practitioners have stumbled across a range of terms from Sustainability to Resilience, which are constantly evolving. Do these approaches to planning urban areas, regions and nations carry any weight during the time of the current COVID-19 pandemic? Economies and societies that have been drastically affected by pandemics in the past have overcome various challenges associated with it. What has become increasingly more evident though, is how inter-dependent environments, economies and societies remain, and this interdependence operates at all scales across formal borders and boundaries. However temporary the idea of social / physical distancing may be, it is imperative that planning practitioners account for how our spatial strategies can adapt and accommodate changes over time, and yet retain fundamental principles that retain what constitutes ‘’healthy’’ communities over sustained periods of time. How do we ensure that we utilize what we have efficiently, and effectively purge redundant regulations moving forward? Although urban contexts across the globe differ drastically, a common element across the board is that cities function well as an agglomeration of a wider range of uses, providing access to a wide range of amenities (housing, employment, healthcare, education, recreational uses etc.), (Lehmann S, 2020). What is also common is how communities are intrinsically divided due to vast inequalities in terms of wealth and therefore well-being. In Gulf cities, similar to other urban areas across the globe, these inequalities are evident spatially, but the pandemic has further highlighted how co-dependent we really are. Exposure to the virus by affluent members of society who travelled frequently and contracted the virus early on, as well as those who provide regular services to the larger populations were affected by each other, but the spreading of the virus was more rapid in lower income ‘’forgotten’’ neighbourhoods, exposing the harsh conditions that were invisible for the past decades (Correa C, 1989). If one were to examine the situation in Gulf cities more closely, this phenomenon is made more evident by the fact that poorer industrial areas and lower income neighbourhoods had rapid COVID-19 infection rates, as many migrant workers are forced to reside in what was planned as single dwelling units in lower income neighbourhoods. It is of my opinion that further control, through monitoring and regulation, will only result in bandaid solutions, and cause the phenomenon to recur. Harsh policing will not overcome this challenge, as it overlooks fundamental planning deficiencies and overarching policies underlying such informal activities, which will emerge time and again. Planning in a more socially-integrated and equitable manner may be a way forward. City planners and decision makers could influence the outcome spatially, by ensuring that every neighbourhood accommodates a mix of incomes and providing access to a range of public amenities adequately (as has been carried out in the past for more privileged sections of society residing in affluent areas of our cities). In addition to greenfield development, Redevelopment initiatives of mature neighbourhoods need to consider adaptive planning approaches as we move forward. Overall, the strategic policies at a National level should not be overlooked. Spatial approaches alone will not resolve the real global pandemic of inequality, but start to address equitable distribution of space and amenities within the realm of planning practitioners in a variety of specific local contexts. Although privileged members of societies across the globe may have the luxury of self-isolating, it is clear that inequalities are no longer invisible. To put a spin on a recent Damian Barr poem - Even if we are in different boats, we are all in the same storm.
