Towards a Climate-Sensitive Urban Design: The Need to Modify Current Planning Regulations

Due to climate change extreme weather events will be more common in the future. For example heat waves will be stronger and last longer. This is a problem especially in areas with high temperatures and the consequences include increased occurrence of heat stress and other heat-related diseases. Cities are especially vulnerable since they are also exposed to the urban heat island. With few exceptions urban planning systems all over the world have their origin in the Western town planning ideas that emerged during the beginning of the 20th century. In countries outside Europe and North America these planning ideas were either " copied" from the West or imposed by foreign powers during the colonial period. Although adjustments to local conditions have taken place after the colonial period the principles have to a large extent remained the same. In this paper the planning regulations in Amman, Jordan, Damascus, Syria and Fez, Morocco are analyzed. It is shown that in all three cities the planning regulations prescribe a highly dispersed urban form being very exposed to solar radiation which leads to a high thermal stress on both outdoor and indoor spaces. It is concluded that a swift towards more " compact" urban neighbourhoods is needed. Future planning regulations need to be revised to allow an urban design which provides better shade of buildings and urban public space. Shade can be created in different ways, e. g. through closer spacing which creates mutual shading by the buildings or through shading devices and vegetation.