Abstract
Oman is a country of stunning beauty and close-knit communities, which has decided to embrace its own unique path towards development: actively participating in a globalising world and at the same time strongly advancing its own culture, identity and way of life. As part of this drive, the Sultanate initiated a process of national and regional strategic spatial planning: new plans are at present in the final stages and will be just completed in the months before the start of the Congress. It will be therefore a great opportunity to hear about something just ‘off the press’ and to reflect on the aspiration, process and methodology used. The Oman National Spatial Strategy (ONSS) and the associated Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) aim to provide a framework for balanced land use and development that will ensure sustainable socio-economic growth at both the national and regional levels and specific policies that aim to achieve the goals set in the Oman 2040 Vision. The process was unique in the Gulf Region as it involved a double process of bottom up / top down analysis and option exploration involving a great variety of stakeholders: from centrally organised National Debates sessions to local level engagement including for example community representatives, women’s associations and small local businesses as well as local administrations. This process helped shaping the strategies around the best possible balance between economic growth and equitable distribution of economic drivers, with progressive and integrated social and economic policies. The strategies also embraced an ambitious framework for environmentally aware planning, which is likely to reach and exceed the Aichi targets for environmental protection and set an example for the region. The planning outcomes are an hybrid between strategic planning, driven by an integrated framework of actions and accompanied by measurable targets, and nearly local-scale land use planning, especially for secondary settlements, where there is no short term prospect of further Local Plan development in the short term as planning efforts are concentrated in the main cities in the first period after completion of the Spatial Strategies. This aims to establish new planning principles of liveability, land efficiency and balanced development – introducing new practices which will change the future of development in the country. The proposed session will be articulated around 6-8 presentation by the leaders and planners of the Oman Supreme Council for Planning (including young planning professionals) and by the consultants who supported the technical work. This will be followed by a debate on lessons learned and on future steps towards implementation, in which the audience will be invited to take an active part and contribute to furthering the thinking of the team. The session will be facilitated by Martina Juvara, ISOCARP member and one of the planning consultants involved in the preparation of the Regional Strategies. Martina was the General Rapporteur of the ISOCARP World Congress in Jakarta (2019) and a passionate believer in knowledge sharing.
