Advantages And Disadvantages Of Town Planning

Since the 1970s, South Africa with Durban in particular, has experienced a rather rapid population growth. It is evident that the city of Durban needs to address the current and future cases of urbanization which would present major challenges that governments and urban planners need to be more aware of. It has been understood that the actual problem regarding town planning schemes is to find the best balance between the requirements of matters of amenity, convenience, economy and costs.

The problem that we are faced with is how town planning fails to adequately address the growing population which in turn creates difficulties for members of the built environment. It is known that architects and engineers give the appearance that cities have, to a rather large extent.

Town planning is about creating a balance, such balance means generally good but not perfect traffic movement and rather better organized street scenes and a more comfortable flow in our everyday life. “Planners need to be cognisant of the challenges that lie ahead. Around half the world’s population is already living in cities, and the number looks set to rise. In SA we estimate that 8 million more people will live in cities by 2030,”

The result is cities characterised by urban sprawl, spatial exclusion and growing traffic congestions. South Africa’s current spatial models are based on the concept of creating compact cities by applying conceptual frameworks of nodes and development corridors with the aim of creating densification and developmental infill. These nodes and corridors are located on assumptions about how people and goods will move, how employment will be generated and located, and what people need in order to improve their everyday