Rethinking master planning :the Bint-Jbeil region as case study -

Abstract

The sustainable development of human settlements in Lebanon has been undermined by a number of challenges such as unequal growth, rampant sprawl, land speculation, social exclusion, environmental degradation, and the unsustainable management of natural resources. Urban and regional planning strategies have to date failed in responding to these challenges in the way they address the organization of the territories. This thesis aims to explore an innovative planning and design approach that combines a two tier analysis looking at the intersections between on the one hand, ecological continuities (Makhzoumi and Pungetti, 1999) and on the other, the logic of the production of the built environment. Building on a case study of the agricultural fields connecting seven villages in the area of Bint-Jbeil (South Lebanon), the analysis identifies “conflict zones” and zooms in on one of these zones in order to propose an integrated set of planning incentives (taxation) and design (land use regulation-building regulations) interventions that work to reframe the organization of the natural and built environments in the area. The thesis concludes on the necessity to revise existing planning tools by conceiving (considering) of development areas and scales of interventions beyond the currently used logics of concentric zoning and administrative units. It also demonstrates the possibility of introducing property taxation systems that work in the form of incentives to facilitate the implementation of land use planning. The thesis is based on a detailed analysis of maps and aerial photographs, records of formal and informal building processes obtained from one of the local municipalities, as well as interviews with property owners in the investigated area.