Improving the Municipal Services in Nablus city: Exploring the Municipal Administration's Role in Reshaping the Urban Space

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the capacity of Nablus city`s urban administration to reconfigure its urban space, by revealing the extent to which the structural plans are implemented on the land as intended and in a way that results in sustainable urban development. Methods: The comparative approach was used, the study was conducted on the structural plan approved in 1996 and 2013 and compared with aerial photographs taken in 2011 and 2018, and three sectors were used for analysis and comparison: infrastructure (roads), public services (schools), and tourism and recreation (parks and green spaces). Results: The results showed concluded that successive administrations of Nablus city have failed to remodel the urban space since 1996. Only 45.8% of the proposed road network was built for the years of the first structure plan 1996-2012 and that 58.1% of the area destined for parks and green areas had been converted to other use. The analysis revealed that 83.6% of schools were built outside public service spaces, according to the 1996 and 2013 plans, and the green area decreased between 2013 and 2018 by an amount of 64,047 m², which corresponds to 32.8% of the total area, according to the 2013 plan. Conclusions: The study recommends reconsidering the fundamentals of drafting structural plans and supervising their implementation, and the need for municipal authorities to act more forcefully on green degradation.