Rapid urban development and national master planning in Arab Gulf countries

In this article we review past and current master planning efforts in Qatar, highlighting the country’s inability to manage rapid urban development. We will argue that the failure to implement sound urban planning in Qatar – and by extension, in the rest of the Arab Gulf Region – is the result of a detachment between the master planning phase – usually sub-contracted to external consultants that are insensitive to Gulf dynamics – and the implementation phase – usually carried out by incapable and redundant local government agencies – all in absence of a serious discussion of ongoing mega-projects.

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