Issues Of Urban Planning And Development Of Our City In The Globalizing Era
Water is not only important for human life but also for city and living habitat. Such importance of water as an essential element of the city has been long recognized.
One of the many reasons to select "Chaktomuk River" to build the current Royal Palace, the origin of the now capital city of Cambodia, was based on its ideal strategic location. Such a waterfront location plays important roles in life support, trade movement, leisure activity and ecology.
Debates about livable cities put emphasis on a balance between the built and natural environments, as well as human being. That is, the physical development of any city needs to take into account the natural environment such as blue-green networks and their potentials, if it is to achieve "urban sustainability"goals. Can Phnom Penh be characterized as a livable city? The answer is still uncertain.
The current city development trend, which is apparently in favor of the "land-fill city-expansion strategy implemented throughout the city planning and development history of Phnom Penh following previous governments to make ways for new land-based developments, is not innovative enough to respond to high magnitudes and scales of development, as well as urban population growth and economic growth pressures at the present time. Regional planning that goes beyond the city core should be advanced in the city development framework and governance systems in this globalizing era.
Flooding in Phnom Penh city can be expected in at least rainy reasons due to the filling of natural lakes, which functioned as water reservoirs. The national and city government must not overlook the ways in which our city is moving and developed without properly being planned. The solution to flooding by constructing costly pumping stations to pump the water out is absolutely unsustainable. The lack of disaster and where are resilient planning for our city, the magnitude of natural disasters is unpredictable but surely giant. Then, how can the city function? How much will city economy be affected? How many people will be victims of such an reactive city development approach? How much money will the government spend to recover from disasters and where are sources of the money? To be resilient, our city must be planned properly and readily to cope with natural disasters. Before flooding starts and then worsens our city function, development should favor the public interest. Lakes as well as natural water catchments should be preserved so that they can continue to play their roles in storing million cubic meters of water, thereby preventing from flooding the city.
Another aspect of city development should look at the transportation planning issue. The efforts to expand road capacity and direct traffic flow at many intersections in Phnom Pneh are well recognized. Still, everyone who goes to work in the central areas of the city in the morning during peak problem. What are the root causes of these problems?
The question is simple, but of course it is not easy to answer and I am not trying to answer it either. However, a few main ideas are important for consideration in urban policy-making, if the city government wants to ease the traffic tension.
The city government should ask itself that: "Are all the developments, residential housing and employment and commercial centers, for example, taking place in an ad hoc or planned manner?" and "how such developments change the traffic pattern in the city?" In short, land use planning and transport planning should be considered as important steps towards an environmental sustainability. Then, tools for implementation must be put in place development control.
It is then urgent that the city government should not undermine what is happening in the city, if future development still follows the same track of the current development trend; it must take the above issues into account in its policy-making in order to provide a sake of our city's future. Without a true vision and a plan to achieve it, our city will become a mother of traffic jam in Asia, a stage at which we can only see environmental degradation and its impact on the public health.
The "Pearl of Asia City" or the now so-called "Diamond City" status will never return or even think of. In the mid-1960s, the first Singaporean Premier Lee Kuan Yew used to visit Phnom Penh and considered Phnom Penh to be a model of his city. Now, Singapore is far ahead of Phnom Penh, in terms of the city development and planning context, and it is, to many, known as a "garden city" on small tiny island in Southeast Asia. Why does Singapore reach this stage in history? Of course, the political will and commitment are fundamental; that I, the will and commitment to make a change for the public interest.
In fact, do not encourage to plan and develop Phnom Penh to be the second Singapore, as our city has its own unique potentials, just yet to be capitalized on.
By Meng Bunnarith
Reference
One of the many reasons to select "Chaktomuk River" to build the current Royal Palace, the origin of the now capital city of Cambodia, was based on its ideal strategic location. Such a waterfront location plays important roles in life support, trade movement, leisure activity and ecology.
Debates about livable cities put emphasis on a balance between the built and natural environments, as well as human being. That is, the physical development of any city needs to take into account the natural environment such as blue-green networks and their potentials, if it is to achieve "urban sustainability"goals. Can Phnom Penh be characterized as a livable city? The answer is still uncertain.
The current city development trend, which is apparently in favor of the "land-fill city-expansion strategy implemented throughout the city planning and development history of Phnom Penh following previous governments to make ways for new land-based developments, is not innovative enough to respond to high magnitudes and scales of development, as well as urban population growth and economic growth pressures at the present time. Regional planning that goes beyond the city core should be advanced in the city development framework and governance systems in this globalizing era.
Flooding in Phnom Penh city can be expected in at least rainy reasons due to the filling of natural lakes, which functioned as water reservoirs. The national and city government must not overlook the ways in which our city is moving and developed without properly being planned. The solution to flooding by constructing costly pumping stations to pump the water out is absolutely unsustainable. The lack of disaster and where are resilient planning for our city, the magnitude of natural disasters is unpredictable but surely giant. Then, how can the city function? How much will city economy be affected? How many people will be victims of such an reactive city development approach? How much money will the government spend to recover from disasters and where are sources of the money? To be resilient, our city must be planned properly and readily to cope with natural disasters. Before flooding starts and then worsens our city function, development should favor the public interest. Lakes as well as natural water catchments should be preserved so that they can continue to play their roles in storing million cubic meters of water, thereby preventing from flooding the city.
Another aspect of city development should look at the transportation planning issue. The efforts to expand road capacity and direct traffic flow at many intersections in Phnom Pneh are well recognized. Still, everyone who goes to work in the central areas of the city in the morning during peak problem. What are the root causes of these problems?
The question is simple, but of course it is not easy to answer and I am not trying to answer it either. However, a few main ideas are important for consideration in urban policy-making, if the city government wants to ease the traffic tension.
The city government should ask itself that: "Are all the developments, residential housing and employment and commercial centers, for example, taking place in an ad hoc or planned manner?" and "how such developments change the traffic pattern in the city?" In short, land use planning and transport planning should be considered as important steps towards an environmental sustainability. Then, tools for implementation must be put in place development control.
It is then urgent that the city government should not undermine what is happening in the city, if future development still follows the same track of the current development trend; it must take the above issues into account in its policy-making in order to provide a sake of our city's future. Without a true vision and a plan to achieve it, our city will become a mother of traffic jam in Asia, a stage at which we can only see environmental degradation and its impact on the public health.
The "Pearl of Asia City" or the now so-called "Diamond City" status will never return or even think of. In the mid-1960s, the first Singaporean Premier Lee Kuan Yew used to visit Phnom Penh and considered Phnom Penh to be a model of his city. Now, Singapore is far ahead of Phnom Penh, in terms of the city development and planning context, and it is, to many, known as a "garden city" on small tiny island in Southeast Asia. Why does Singapore reach this stage in history? Of course, the political will and commitment are fundamental; that I, the will and commitment to make a change for the public interest.
In fact, do not encourage to plan and develop Phnom Penh to be the second Singapore, as our city has its own unique potentials, just yet to be capitalized on.
By Meng Bunnarith
Reference
- Norton University Newsletter, September 2010 / January 2011, p.112, 113
