Overview
The Urban Planning and Development Authority, under the direction of Ali Abdulla Al Abdulla, Director-General, and Ali Al Mazrooei, Assistant Director-General for Planning Affairs, is currently overseeing and directing the preparation of the Master Plan for the State of Qatar.The Master Plan for Qatar is a comprehensive long term master plan that will guide the physical development of Qatar through the year 2025.
The Master Plan is an integrated
and proactive approach to ensure that :
-
Future development is timed to infrastructure and road capacity.
-
Adequate land, in suitable locations, is allocated for residential, commercial, industrial, and public services/facilities.
-
Cumulative impacts of recent development projects are evaluated to ensure negative impacts are mitigated
to minimal level.
Scope
The Master Plan will cover all aspects of development including transportation, infrastructure (sewer, drainage, water and electricity), environmental
protection, and land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, etc.). The Master Plan will analyze current demographic statistics and economic
issues, factors to project growth scenarios, propose solutions that mitigate negative impacts of traffic,
assess infrastructure capacity, and public service needs, and allocate land as needed to ensure adequate land availability and to be able to utilize them for
both present and future needs of the residents of Qatar. The Master Plan will incorporate and run a Transportation Model for both macro and micro planning analysis and to generate transportation
management solutions. The data collection and analysis process will also be upgraded to ensure optimal usage of information data through planning supportive information system that
has GIS applications.
With the exception of the Qatar Petroleum (QP)-controlled Planning Areas
(Dukhan, Ras Laffan, Messaeid) which have independent authorities for planning
purposes. The Master Plan will consolidate existing master plans (Education City, Pearl of the Gulf, Lusail Development,
New Doha International Airport, Doha Port, etc) into one intergrated blueprint for future development.
Aims & Objectives
of the Master Plan
Following are the aims and objectives intended to
be achieved through this Master Plan:
-
To implement a physical development plan that promotes the vision for Qatar as the academic center, sports center, and major tourist center of the Middle East, the state of the art industrial supplier for LNG in the global marketplace, and to place Doha as a capital city well renowned for its international influence in the political, corporate business, and cultural arena/spectrum.
-
To guide physical development that responds to the social and economic needs of Qatar through the year 2025. with 5 year interval updates,
and also build a solid foundation for future generation.
-
To harmonize all the different master plans currently in use so that
integrated and effective solutions could be devised to help mitigate negative impacts of recent development proposals
and to help ensure continuity in planning.
-
To schedule development projects by all agencies in an efficient manner rather than the current piecemeal manner.
Objectives include:
- To significantly improve the capability of the UPDA and related authorities that will effectively improve development objectives, policies, and regulations at all planning levels.
- To be better able to control, monitor, and assess development projects.
- To better recognize future development opportunities early on and plan accordingly
Five different levels of planning are being undertaken, each related and complementary to each other. The Planning Hierarchy includes the following:
A National Plan – documents National goals, policies, and strategies for development at
the national level and takes into account projects such as: the new airport, relocation of the Port, and
designates land for National needs such as National Parks, Corniche improvements, etc. to ensure that population and capital investment needs are met through the next twenty years. The
national Plan help ensure that the vision for Qatar is implemented through a series of planning levels.
Regional
Structure Plans – Framework for land use allocations (residential, commercial, industrial,
and recreational), and infrastructure, and transportation plans will be prepared
for each Municipality and Greater Doha. This will allow planners to allocate
land on a local level in areas where roads and infrastructure lines are in place
or will be in place.
Local Area Plans
- these will be a series of proposed plans for the cities and towns in Qatar. These plans propose new zoning (land uses, densities),
designates land for public facilities and other land uses, serve as one of
the tools to implement the Regional Structure Plans.
Detailed Area Plans – these will be a series of detailed plans for
QARS zones, downtown areas, and other areas that require detailed planning. .
Urban Design
Plans – these will be a series of planning solutions that will help alleviate particular neighborhood problems through proposed zoning, new planning and design regulations and standards.
The Master Plan of Qatar is a multi-disciplinary approach that will require cooperation and participation from the various authorities, municipalities, and local officials, an international team of consultants, in-house UPDA planners, all under the direction of H.E. the Emir. It is expected to be completed within the next three years.
Transportation Master Plan for Qatar:
The State of Qatar is experiencing unprecedented growth affecting all aspects of its physical development. Numerous Mega-projects are being built throughout the country, particularly Greater Doha. The resulting effect of these developments has been growing traffic congestion on the road network and at major intersections.
To cope with existing and anticipated congestion and acessibility problems, the Urban Planning and Development Authority is undertaking the development of a Transportation Master Plan for Qatar.
The Transportation Master Plan aims to develop a multimodal transportation system that would:
- Promote economic development of the country through the efficient and safe movement of goods and passengers.
- Serve existing, proposed, and future developments with efficient, safe, and attractive road network and public transportation system.
- Make optimal use of the existing roads and transportation services.
- Minimize the adverse economic, social and environmental impacts of the automobile dominated transportation system.
- Promote the use of public transportation, alternative modes of travel, travel demand management, and transportation system management.
- Ensure coordination between land use development decisions and transportation provisions.
- Develop short, intermediate, and long term plans for development of the transportation network.
At the center of this undertaking is the development of a multimodal Transportation Model to:
- Assess the impact of the changes in the pattern of developments on the transportation system.
- Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of proposed transportation projects and improvements.
The study covers all of the State of Qatar and it will take 18 months from start to end. It is anticipated that the project will commence in early 2006.
Current Situations
The UPDA Planning Department is currently relocating offices to a tower in West Bay, where a dedicated staff will be overseeing the master plan. This team will include new transportation planners that will be running the modeling necessary to ensure that roads will sufficiently serve the future development in Qatar.
Eight international consulting firms from various nations are currently competing to propose a Concept Plan for
Greater Doha Area 1. Submission of the Presentation Boards and the Reports are due on December 29, 2005. This will initiate the process to evaluate different visions of what Doha could become in the next 20 years. Physical models and 3D computer simulation models will be submitted in Feb 28, 2006. The top contenders will be able to bid on the Local Area Plans for Inner Doha and West Bay as well as refine their concepts for Area 1. The consultants are expected to be on board by March 2006.
In December, a consulting firm will be starting to evaluate the economic feasibility of an UPDA proposal for improving the vehicular traffic flow, including the use of public transportation for West Bay linkages to Inner Doha, and prepare alternative physical plans for meeting transportation needs.
Early 2006, a Master Transportation Consultant will be awarded the transportation component of the Master Plan. The
Consultant will immediately start data collection and prepare the macro and micro modeling for analysis purposes.
The National Plan for Qatar will be offered to the top consultants for bidding in March 2006.
