AN APPROACH TO RESILIENT LAND COVER STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

International Conference on Planning and Design, 2015, NCKU, Tainan, Taiwan

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AN APPROACH TO RESILIENT LAND COVER STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

M. Salim Ferwati1, Vivek Shandas2, David Sailor3, Yasuyo Makido4

ABSTRACT

With globalization, research in urban sustainability shows rapid increase in studies seeking a

better transformative shift in social, cultural, and economic values for future cities. In this

context, our research pursues, in two sections, strategies for resilient neighborhood

development that is consistent with new approaches to urban and regional planning. We begin

with reviewing current and past urban development strategies from different regions of the

world, with emphasis on dimensions of urban design. These cases are Singapore, New York

(USA), and Southeast Creek (California, USA). We follow with our ongoing collaborative

research between Portland State University and Qatar University, which applies lessons

learned in analyzing neighborhood scale development strategies for sustainable urbanism in

the Gulf Region. The main question is what are the differences in development rates between

different neighborhoods in the city and how do the urban designs contribute to livability? With a

focus on the Greater Doha region, one of the fastest urbanizing regions of the world, we

examine the relationship between land cover change and the street temperature, as a proxy to

urban livability. The anticipated differences are explained by examining land cover attributes:

streets, buildings, surface materials, building construction materials, and building heights. The

findings from both sections lead to strategies that enable coping with the temporal changes in

the infrastructure to create habitable forms of development. To that end, we describe an urban

development strategy that considers a sustainable city starting from an understanding of

differences in neighborhoods, and scaling up to the whole city and region. This paper was

made possible by NPRP grant # NPRP 5-074-5-5015 from the Qatar National Research Fund

(a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of

the authors.

Keywords: sustainability urbanism, development strategies, land cover, resilient

neighborhood development, urban livability, infrastructure

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qatar University, Qatar, [email protected] 2 Associate Professor, Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, U.S.A, [email protected] 3 Professor, Director, Green Building Lab, Mechanical Engineering, Portland State University, U.S.A., [email protected] 4 Postdoc, Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, U.S.A, [email protected]


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Fig. 1. (source:

INTRODUCTION

In the early 1990s,the United Nation called for sustainable urban development to solve urban

multi-folded problems. These problem were related to health, pollution, safety, food water

shortage and natural disasters. Additionally, population distribution has impact on job

opportunities, crime rates, and slum area phenomena. There is an expectation that 70 % of the

world population will live in cities by the 2050s marking a significant jump from an even

population distribution between rural and urban areas marked in 2008 (UN Habitat, 2009).

This increasingly urges urban stakeholders, city planners and policy makers to set strategies to

insure future responsive designs to urban problems. Many cases require resilient and

sustainable development for climate changes and natural disasters (Pearson, et al. 2013 ).

Additionally, the role of urban planners is not limited to the recreation of a single dimension of

the city’s appearance for a single environmental phenomena. It goes beyond the physical entity

to include living conditions, whether on the local scale or the

international (Washburn, 2013). Maddox (2013) has defined

three essential targets for the future city that requires

precaution, consideration, and planning ahead to include

resiliency, sustainability and livability (Fig. 1).

1. PRINCIPLES FOR ECO-DISTRICT FROM URBAN

PERCEPTIVE

The continuous demand for sustainable urban development

does not stand at satisfactory solution but rather seek an

ultimate solution. One of the essential attributes to obtain a viable solution is the

consideration of local characteristics and sources. This does not mean we have to ignore

solutions from across the border, especially if the aim is to reach global standards. There are

current developments targeting urban sustainability, and others urban livability or resilient

design. In this study we propose that the ultimate development is the one that hits all three

targets. This is because sustainability looks at everlasting development, and resilient at the

continuous survival from unexpected hazardous hits, and livability at the urban quality of life.

These targets will be defined in this section with illustrative case studies to determine the

shared principles of these targets at the eco-district level.

1-1. Resilient Development: Often, resilient development has been considered after the

occurrence of disasters. It concerns with rebuilding or redesigning a devastated area. “The

term was initially introduced in ecological studies to connote the capacity of a system to survive

because of its in-built adaptability” (Caputo, 2013). In that concern, the term has been carried

out by UNISDR (2012) searching for resilient solutions to avoid or reduce risks that may result

from natural disasters such as the case of some forests in Canada with a high population of


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tree species threatened by parasites (Caputo, 2013). In the title of his e-toolkit, Craig Applegath

(2012) defined resilient cities as “Strategies to help cities develop capacities to absorb future

shocks and stresses”. As global climatic changes influence our cities, the built environment

require pre-action of the resilient development for the future urban city. This highlights the

essential role of urban designers and city planners. In other areans, Maddox (2013) defines

resiliency, sustainability and livability, respectively as “bounce back”, “long-lasting”, and

“quality of life”. These targets are overlapped, so some principles of each target can be used

interchangeably with one another NYC represent such a case. In October 2012, “Hurricane

Sandy slammed into coastal New York and New Jersey, causing 147 deaths and an estimated

$50 billion in property damage” (Kiger, 2014).

1-2. Urban Livability: A space is livable if it can offer choices of social activities and prioritize

pedestrian movement over vehicular circulation (Jalaladdini & Oktay, 2012). Additionally,

“Livability refers to the urban system that contributes to the physical, social and mental

well-being and personal development of all its inhabitants.” (Timmer & Seymoar, 2006, p.2).

The studies of spaces are well-known by scholars in human geography, urban design, and

environmental psychology. Their concerns are to understand the spatial-behavioral

dimensions in order to improve the vitality of outdoor spaces. For example, some of the pioneer

researches that direct attention to the man-environment relationship are: “The Image of the

Cities” by Kevin Lynch (1960), “Topophilia” by Yi Fu Tuan (1974), “Place and Placelessness”

by Edward Relph (1976), and “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs

(1961). An example of the best livable and safe city is Singapore. It is a high dense

metropolitan area of 710 square kilometers and 7,130 inhabitants per square kilometer (IMCL,

2015). Its residential buildings consist of connected clusters of high-rise towers that some of

which reach up to 50 stories. The average building height is 18 storeies (Lehmann, 2010). In

2012, a joined effort by the Centre for Livable Cities (CLC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI)

sought the principles behind the success of Singapore’s urbanization. They ended up with a list

of 10 principles (CLC and ULI, 2013): 1: Plan for long-term growth and renewal; 2: Embrace

diversity, foster inclusiveness; 3: Draw nature closer to people; 4: Develop affordable

mixed-use neighborhoods; 5: Make public spaces work harder; 6: Priorities green transport and

building options; 7: Relieve density with variety and add green boundaries; 8: Activate spaces

for greater safety; 9: Promote innovative and nonconventional solutions; 10: Forge 3P

partnerships. These principles can be used as performance indicators of urban physical quality

including its functional, social, conceptual, and spiritual capability to support human needs,

spatial choices (CLC and ULI, 2013), way finding, and comprehending urban signs.

1-3. Urban Sustainability: With the lack of natural resources, researches in urban

sustainability become prominent to save the earth. Sustainability has been defined differently;

in generic terms, “Sustainable community development is the ability to make development

choices which respect the relationship between the three "E's"-economy, ecology, and equity”


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(Hart Environmental Data). In detailed terms Lehmann, Steffen (2010, pp. 231-240) stated 15

principles, most of them stated in the Berlin 2000 Urban21 conference as "Improving the quality

of life in a city, including ecological, cultural, political, institutional, social and economic

components without leaving a burden on the future generations. A burden which is the result of

a reduced natural capital and an excessive local debt." In this statement sustainability is an

investigating factor for the quality of life. In a third definition by UN/DESA, sustainability refers

to 21 attributes classified into four pillars. These are social development, economic

development, environmental management, and urban governance (UN/DESA, Development

Policy and Analysis Division). As different disciplines consider these pillars individually, the

urban designers’ perspective is confined to an eco-district scale. “Fundamentally, Eco-districts

are an effort to deploy high-impact, district-scale sustainable projects that drive

experimentation and innovation. They are a replicable model for cities to accelerate

neighborhood sustainability to achieve city-wide goals.” (Eco District, 2013, p.2 ). It brings to

the center of attention both the users and the built-environment. It has been increasingly

occupying contemporary research seeking a better transformative shift in social, cultural, and

economic values for future cities; for examples, Kronsberg District in Hannover, Germany;

Western Harbor in Malmö, Sweden; Southeast False Creek in Vancouver, Canada; and

Dockside Green in Victoria, Canada. The following is a close look at the case of Southeast

False Creek.

2. AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING CITIES

The previous three case studies represent different targets for different reasons. Since the

concern of this study is to define principles belong to the three targets, Table 1 lists 11 of these

principles concluded from these case studies. However, we are not suggesting that these

targets are identical because what is a resilient solution is not necessary sustainable or livable

one. In the case of NYC, the architect could have added a wall to protect the city from strong

storms, but his plan went beyond the resilient target to enrich the achieve with urban

sustainability and livability (Kiger, 2014 ). The six project visions proposed for NYC produce

excellent livable leisure parks which are also sustainable by their nature. In the case of

Singapore, perceived as one of the world’s noteworthy livable places, is also a regarded as a

successful sustainable development. However, targeting urban livability may end up with

development that requires continuous maintenance, energy consumption, and waste of natural

resources; such as the case of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an artificial island that caused

interruption to its marine environment (Salahuddin, 2006).

Table 1 lists the similarities of the principles applied in the above three case studies (Singapore, Southeast False Creek,

and NYC) that aimed a different target from one another for different reasons.

Principles from urban design perspectives

Targets

Urban Resilient:

NYC (Resilient City.Org)

Urban Livability:

Singapore (Krueger, 2013 )

Urban Sustainability/

Potential for Eco-district:


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No.

(Southeast False Creek 2012 &

Dan William and Barton in

Blazer, Tyler, 2011)

1 Density, diversity and mix Convenient schools, shops, and

services Mixed-use development

2 Pedestrians first An attractive, pedestrian-oriented

public realm Build vibrant public spaces

3 Transit supportive Low traffic speed, volume, and

congestion Vary transportation options

4 Place making Diverse, legible, and educative

built landscapes

- Create a neighborhood identity

- Create district centers

5 Complete communities Decent, affordable, well-located

housing Complete district

6 Integrated natural systems

- A clean natural environment

- Accessible parks and open

space

- Promote sustainability

- Conserve landscapes

7 Integrated technical and

industrial systems Design matters Design matters

8 Local sources Places that emphasize local

culture, history, and ecology

- Protect environmental

resources

- Build on your strengths

9 Engaged communities Environments that nurture human

community and interaction Engage people early

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Redundant and durable life

safety and critical

infrastructure systems

- Places that feel safe and

accepting to all users

- Manage, control, and coordinate

(ULI, 2012)

Integrate infrastructure

11 Resilient operations Manage, control, and coordinate

(ULI, 2012)

- Cutting greenhouse emissions

(Barton 2000)

- Creating a healthy environment

- Provide choices

In that respect, our research pursues strategies for eco-district development that is consistent

with new approaches to urban and regional planning. We follow with our ongoing collaborative

3-year-research grant sponsored by QNRF (Qatar National Research Found) between

Portland State University and Qatar University, which applies lessons learned from analyzing

neighborhood scale development strategies for sustainable urbanism in the Gulf Region. The

study seeks out not only strategies for the best urban land cover development (land cover,


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urban pattern, and land use), but also that comply with urban resilient and livability principles so

that we do not undermine the eco-district that city dwellers appreciate. This leads to the

question stating what are the differences in land cover rates between different neighborhoods

in the city and how do their urban designs contribute to urban livability? With the focus on the

Greater Doha region, one of the fastest urbanizing regions of the world, our ongoing research

planned three aims: one, define urban challenges for Doha’s Eco-district; two, find out if there

are general changes in Doha’s urban land cover; and three, recommend methods for

describing intra-urban variation of thermal conditions. Eco-district assessment includes five

points: one, complete high-resolution landscape characterization; two, identify locations for

intensive field campaign (neighborhoods, and specific sites); three, deploy equipment at 10

select locations; four, examine the relationship between land cover change and the street

temperature; and five, data analysis: Develop thermal comfort index, urban heat island index,

and air quality assessment. This paper will only focus on the first two aims in the context of the

development principles indicated in Table 1. Some of the findings of the land cover of our

ongoing research will be also utilized to show urban filled land. Finally in reference to the case

of Msheireb Downtown Doha, a local urban sustainable development, we will highlight the

successful application of urban elements derived from the traditional architecture as a solution

that pertains to the region and its culture.

3. QATAR’S AMBITIONS FOR URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

Qatar is an Arabic country and one of the GCC Countries. It occupies the small peninsula on

the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, the only land border to the south. The rest of its territory

is surrounded by the Persian Gulf. The country is hot, flat, and undergoes rapid growth. Doha

isthe capital of Qatar. Since 2005, Qatar has the highest urban growth rate among the other

States of the GCC Countries. In 2013, Qatar's total population was 1.8 million: 278,000 Qatari

citizens and 1.5 million expatriates, with a high presence of youth as a result (Population-Qatar,

2013). Even though Doha cannot yet be considered among the highly populated cities in the

region, with its continuous growth, its major urban problem is to meet the increasing demand

and future city characteristics (UN-DESA, 2009). Through rapid urbanization, Doha faces four

main challenges:

1. High population increase rates and population segregation

2. Assignment for sustainable and livability development / technological and scientific

3. Integrative World City

4. Responsive design for regional hot climate that require a resilient solution

3-1. Meeting the Challenge of High Population Increase Rates and Population

Segregation: In addition to the public effort, the private sector has worked on the availability of

adequate housing for expatriates (18 different major nationalities) forming 86 % of the total

population (Population-Qatar, 2013); this resulted in rapid urban sprawl. There are three

factors which impact people’s spatial distribution in Doha. First, the employers’ responsibility


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for his employees’ accommodations. Second, every Qatari is eligible for free land to build a

house. The government prepared residential subdivisions from which people select. Qatar is

still a closed society, so segregation from expatriates is possible, but not investigated yet.

However, with such an affluent society, the size and location of their houses is well selected.

Their houses have two or more car parking spaces and a small annex for drivers. There are

only a few projects that can be owned by non-Qataris, such as the Pearl District, Msheireb, and

Lusail. Finally, low income workers mostly work in construction, custodial, or landscaping

sectors. They are mostly singles and to save money, they tend to share rooms. These three

factors work as a filtering system based on income a occupation. Income connotes social class

which allows the filtering and categorizing the population based on social classes.

3-2. Meeting the Challenges with Assignment for Sustainable and Livability

Development / Technological and Scientific: Due to the fast expansion with the old planning

system, the city encounters typical urban problems related to traveling time, crowdedness,

maintaining a healthy environment, shortage of car parking, insufficient open public spaces,

quality of urban districts, etc. Any solution for these development problems must achieve at

least a minimum satisfactory level of urban livability, sustainability, and resilient planning. In

response to the problems that Doha is facing, the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning

has already adopted the decentralization approach and worked on an official plan for 2032. Fig.

7 shows the already fulfilled planning development up to 2013, while the plan 2017 will consider

expansion and development that includes a green belt and the creation or revitalization of multi

urban centers such as Lusail Metropolitan Center, West Bay Capital City Center, and

Downtown Capital City Center. Additionally, to solve the traffic problem, the city is improving

the radial roads crossing the already existing ring roads. These improvements (including the

subway transit system that is under construction to cover all of Doha) will give drivers and

people choices to escaping form crowded streets.

Experiencing the hot climate with a rapid increase in population, Doha has a long way to meet

the urban livability standard as a whole. But, on the district scale, the new built up areas are

planned for livability. Just to show an example, Abdelbaset, Maha (2015) examined West Bay

Tower District. By examining the livability of the high-rise in these districts, Abdelbaset (2015),

proved that 9 principles of livability are fulfilled with the exception of principle 10 (Integrated

technical and industrial systems). We believe, however, that this principle also exists since all

high-rise buildings have sophisticated high technology structures to cope with the climate,

safety code, and building heights, such as the use of double skin façade in Doha Tower.

3-4. Meeting the Challenge with Responsive Design for Regional Hot Climate: The

eco-district concept is a responsive solution for the negative consequences of global warming

and climate change. It provides a livable built environment by mitigating the harsh hot days.

The average temperature in Doha ranges between 17-35º C. The average daily hours of

sunshine is 9.5. The average yearly rainfall is 98 mm with the prevailing wind blowing form


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N/NE with an average speed of 8-24 km/h. Qatari traditional architecture has been long tested

for its suitable adaptation to the hot desert climate that has the most significant impact on living

conditions. Several urban climate scholars (e.g. Hart and Sailor, 2009; Stone, 2013, etc.)

emphasize that being familiar with the land cover of Doha is the first step of research.

Searching for the different district land covers and linking them to the varying temperatures on

the street level will help the search for strategies to be applied in new development. This

section focuses on the land cover and takes Msheireb Downtown Doha as an example of the

newly sustainable district development that has compact development with high density.

3-4-1. Cluster Analysis Using Urban Land Cover Change: This section illustrates the

application of principles 1 and principle 6. Our approach to the study of the Doha land cover

relied on satellite sensor imagery and a series of geo-statistical analyses. We acquired

30-meter resolution satellite sensor imagery from the US Geological Survey’s Landsat TM,

ETM+ and OLI files from the years 1987, 1991, 1998, 2003, 2009, and 2013. To develop some

specific categories of urban morphology, we integrated the results of the land cover change

analysis with a statistical method called a k-means cluster analysis. The k-means algorithm is

widely used as a clustering method because it iteratively places cluster centers so that they

converge to a local minimum of the objective function (Bacao et al., 2005). In this study, the

percentage of urban land (PLAND) was computed for each 600m grid cell, with each grid cell

containing a quantifiable amount of developed (or urban) land for each study year. We then

created five images that show the differences between two consecutive years for each image:

1991/1987, 1998/1991, 2003/1998, 2009.2003, and 2013/2009. These five images were the

source for the k-means cluster analysis, and we subsequently calculated the mean urban

PLAND value of each cluster area for each year. Those grid cells that had identical trends in

their amount of PLAND per year were combined to create a single spatio-temporal series of six

typologies of urban development in Doha: C1) no change, C2) early adjacent development, C3)

Continuous growth, C4) Expansion and Infill, C5) Infill development C6) expansion/urban

sprawl (Table 3). The six clusters were then mapped (Fig. 9).

Table 3. New categories based on mean value of PLAND and total urban area in each category.

Categories Mean value of PLAND in each year Area in km2

C1: No change Unchanged in all years 43.02

C2: Early adjacent development Rapid increase between 1987 to 1991 73

C3: Continuous growth Gradual increase (not year specific) 48

C4: Expansion and infill Rapid increase after 1998 145

C5: Infill development Rapid increase after 2003 38

C6: Expansion/Urban sprawl Rapid increase after 2009 234


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Fig. 10. Results of k-mean

cluster analysis, combined to

aforementioned six Fig. 9. Land cover development from 1987 to 2013

3-4-2. Mean urban PLAND for Each Cluster Group (for the reference purpose):

The land cover change analysis provided a means of spatially articulating six categories of

urban growth (Fig. 10). While the core areas of the West Bay, the central business district

(CBD), and the hinterlands remain unchanged over the study period, all of the other areas

could be placed into one of five development patterns. Early adjacent development (C2, 73km2)

was sporadically distributed in areas that were developing (or being developed) in 1987, the

first year of our study. A 48 km2 continuous growth development (C3) occurred over the study

period, mostly located between the CBD and expansion/urban sprawl development. Expansion

and infill development (C4, 145km2) was located mostly adjacent to the continuous growth

development, but its rapid growth took place after 1998. Infill development (C5, 38 km2)

occurred after 2003, and located around the Pearl and the New Hammad airport, both in the

Eastern area of Doha. Finally, the largest growth of an urban development pattern over the

study period was the expansion (C6, 234km2 ) that occurred mostly on the outskirts of the city

after 2009. Table 4 details the total area of land cover conversion.

Table 4. Total area of land cover conversion in Doha (km2)

Discussion: the rapid change is fluctuated during 1987, 1991, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2013. Early

in the process of development, between 1987 and 1998, the Doha region grew outward,

creating an overall increase in the distance between development areas (as measured by

1987 1991 1998 2003 2009 2013Total urban 60.55 64.18 107.28 147.15 211.82 330.56Total vegetation 8.12 11.64 21.36 18.57 13.01 13.05Converted to urban 17.51 52.59 53.11 90.09 131.11Converted to vegetation 4.81 7.79 11.88 7.48 7.55Proportaion of urban change (%) 78.45 87.10 81.72 92.33 94.55Proportaion of vegetation change (%) 21.55 12.90 18.28 7.67 5.45


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Mean Nearest Neighbor, MNN). The major change took place along Salwa Highway and Doha

Expressway. The expansion comes in the form of low-density suburban development that is

relatively far from the CBD, while the aggregation of development comes in the form of small

and large scale projects, relatively close to the CBD, such as the Hammad Airport and Pearl

District. In terms of land cover change, the patterns of growth are largely urban (concrete),

which have grown by 18 times (60km2 to 330km2) over the study period. Since the areas

surrounding Doha do not contain vegetation, the development has brought an increase in

vegetation, although only modest gains. Unlike Dubai (Nasser et al., 2014), the amount of

vegetation increased until about 1998, and then started to decline, apparently as the speed of

urban development increased. The total vegetation, approximately 21km2 in 1998, was

approximately three times 1987, and declined to 13.5km2 by 2013. The proportion of

vegetation on the landscape also decreased from 21% in 1987 to 5% in 2013, suggesting major

implications of the type of development occurring. For example, while the urban core may

contain larger proportions of vegetation, the outskirts do not, and that intra-urban variability in

vegetation may also impact many localized metrological conditions, such as microclimates.

3-4-2. Msheireb Downtown Doha: The responsive design for hot climate is taking action in

several projects, the leading of all is Msheireb Downtown Development. It is an eco-district that

mainly integrates seven main principles: 1,2,5,6,8,10, and 11. To save the historical heritage

of Doha Downtown, Souq Waqif was reconstructed or rather resurrected. It brought live,

peculiarity and revival to the CBD. It is now one of the main tourist attractive districts; with its

success catalyzing the thought for similar actions. Just beside the next inner corner of Souq

Waqif, the Msheireb project has been taking place since 2011, but with a rather global depth. It

is expected to finish in 2016 with the occupation of 31 Hectares of land and an estimated cost of

$ 5.5 billion. The aim of the project is “to bring people back to their roots – to make Doha unique

and rediscover a sense of community and togetherness” (Msheireb Properties, 2015). The

importance of the project is two folds, one is its location as the center of the CBD, and two, it is

targeting the LEED Gold standard. Its objective is to integrate traditional urban patterns and

modern architecture with eco-friendly technology in order to ensure community living,

sustainability and harmony with the built environment (Msheireb Properties, 2015).

Consequently, Msheireb Downtown Doha has adapted Principle 2: the pedestrian first principle;

Principle 5: a complete community district; and Principle 1: mix-use development with a typical

layout of traditional Arab neighborhoods and architectural elements. The height of the buildings

range between 3 to 30 storeys with various functions which include: commercial and

government (280,000 m2), retail (94,000 m2), hotel accommodation (117,000 m2), residential

(220,000 m2), community, cultural, educational, religious and exhibition buildings (47,000 m2)

in addition to al-Barahat Square (65,000 m2). There are three essential elements from the

traditional city applied in Msheireb project. First, Al-Barahat Square as an equivalent to the

traditional inner courtyard, the place that brings together three main natural elements (trees,


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water, and the sky) besides flower scents, shadows, sunlight, and the sound of nature.

Msheirbe project fulfilled principles 2, 6, 7, and 8 when it centered al-Barahat Square to

accommodate a crowd of 25000 people. It combines all the elements of the traditional inner

courtyard beside some urban amenities to add life to the square in a way that is more likely to

cause head turning situations (Ferwati 2010). Positioning Al-Barahat Square north-east and

south-west helps protect its confining elevations from a long exposure to the sun. Second, the

Qatari traditional façade that is characterized by a projected grid (ribs and studs) creates a

self-shading surface which protects building occupants (Ferwati, 2013). Third, the concept of

Sikkak (a local narrow alley that is noticeable in Fig. 12), which was introduced to provide

shade to the street while channeling the wind that contribute to street psychological comfort.

CLOSING STATEMENT

Economic prosperity and employment opportunities in Qatar is leading to the increase in

population mainly by the continuous influx of expatriates. Since 1987, Doha has shown

inconsistency in modern urban development. The Qatari economy relies mainly on the

construction sector, caused by the need to accommodate upcoming big events such as the

FIFA World Cup 2022. The government has dramatically increased efforts in infrastructure

development in order to meet international standards. In this study, our research responds to

the question which asks: How many design resilient, sustainable, and livable principles apply

to eco-district development in Doha? The research examined Doha as a whole in response to

four challenges facing rapid urbanization. When it comes to the examination of the climatic

issues as the fourth challenge facing the city, the research is still underway analyzing

physical changes in the Doha Metropolitan region over time, and characterizing intra-urban

development patterns by using landscape metrics of a 600m grid. The last section presented a

cluster analysis with gridded landscape metrics that will enabled us to examine spatial patterns

of each development phase. The early sections of this research led to principles that can target

urban sustainability, livability, and resilient development that enables the city to cope with the

temporal changes in the infrastructure to create habitable forms of development. To that end,

we described urban development strategies that consider a sustainable, resilient, and livable

city starting from an understanding of differences in neighborhoods, and scaling up to the

whole city and region. Four strategies for future eco-district considerations can be concluded:

1. Apply regional traditional architecture to benefit from traditional planning principles for

new development that determines both place identity and climatic adaption (such as

urban layout, building self-shading facades and public inner open space).

2. In reference to the spatiotemporal analysis for different districts with different land covers,

reinforce planning principles for best possible development.

3. Develop city and land use planning that prevents additional heat volumes such as hard

land covers and still wind as a result of of poor wind channeling.


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4. Going along with the UNISDR (2012, p 44) recommendation for future development we

state two strategies:

• “Flexible regulatory frameworks that accommodate changing economies,

environments, and building densities”.

• “Plans, codes, and standards that are developed with and include the perspectives

of businesses, residents and diverse communities.”

The current growth of Doha may create many opportunities for understanding how different

designs impact microclimates, and through conducting more monitoring of those designs we

may find novel ways for create more resilient , sustainable, and livable cities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # NPRP 5-074-5-5015 from the Qatar National

Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the

responsibility of the authors.

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AN APPROACH TO RESILIENT LAND COVER STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

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