City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

impossible. This prevents a better understanding of urban agriculture’s contribution towards more sustainable resource flows, and remains a barrier to the spread of the practice.

The practice of wastewater-fed agriculture in Accra has offered a possible solution to excess sewage water in the city, closing the resource loop by turning a waste product into a productive input, and potentially lessening the strain on sewage infrastructure in the city. Urban agriculture is a primary livelihood activity for many urban citizens, and a cornerstone of the local food economy. However, without consummate support from institutional bodies at the municipal and national level, urban farming in Accra is at risk from increasing land pressures posed by continued urbanisation. As a result there is little desire to pursue longer-term sustainable farming practices in many cases, with agricultural plots seen as transitional land awaiting further development. Crucial to the success and continuation of agricultural activities in Accra, is gaining institutional recognition of the valuable role the sites perform in the metabolism of the city, particularly through the recycling of wastewater. Recognising urban agriculture as a valid livelihood activity and supporting its development could enhance this role and the contribution of the practice to the sustainability of the city. Having already united the members of AWGUPA, the issue of wastewater reuse provides grounds for engaging new stakeholders around a common concern, and turning it to the benefit of the urban system.

8. Shifting urban development away from automobiles in Bangkok, Thailand

By Dr. Apiwat Ratanawaraha (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Chulalongkorn University)

Since the 1980s, Bangkok has been infamous for its ever-worsening traffic congestion. As Thailand embarked on modern economic planning in 1961, Bangkok rapidly became a modernized and motorized city. The Thai government imported an American approach to urban planning, with an emphasis on automobile-oriented infrastructure as well as zoning-style land use controls. New urban development and transport projects were aimed at facilitating the efficient flow of people, goods and services in support of economic production. These projects led to a geographical separation of commercial, industrial and residential areas, reinforcing the spatial 'division of labour' and a physical separation between living and working locations. Since then, Bangkok’s built-up area has extended along the main inter-urban roads beyond the traditional core areas. This has been driven by various factors, including the shortage of land for housing in the city, the construction of expressways linking suburban locations with the central business districts, and the lack of land-use controls, particularly restrictions on the locations of subdivision projects. While road development was planned and generally financed by the government, housing development was led by the private sector. Housing projects followed the construction of roads, expanding the city’s boundaries to the suburbs. These projects were implemented with little consideration for urban development implications, let alone environmental consequences. Even with the power to control land-use planning, urban planning agencies did not have authority over infrastructure development by other agencies, thereby leading to the proliferation of subdivision projects on green field sites.

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