Developing Integrated Towns

This study has extended some of the earlier work conducted by Urban LandMark in metropolitan areas and cities to smaller towns. This research has found that small towns seem to be experiencing explosive growth which is not being handled appropriately in planning or implementation. There is significant evidence of fragmented, unsustainable, inefficient and sprawling, land extensive development, which results in the poor being located far from town. In many cases, the size of the municipality relative to other institutions such as traditional authorities, mining or manufacturing companies and private developers operating in the municipal area, means they are unable to have effective control over their own spatial development and land management. However, to a certain extent lack of control over land is also true of metropolitan municipalities. Related to this is the fact that municipalities, particularly those with small towns, lack capacity and are often under-resourced. This lack of control over land can be linked to the notion of a ‘soft’ state, put forward by Gunnar Myrdal in Asia.

Abstract based directly on source.