Abubakari Mohammed, Ibrahim Abdul-Salam, Dosu Benjamin, Mahama Mudasiru
Huts and Cities Ghana Limited, Accra, Ghana.
School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
Heliyon. 2023 May 4;9(5):e15895. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15895. eCollection 2023 May.
With global urbanization on the increase and cities now hosting more than half of the planet's population, there are concerns regarding the protection of urban commons as part of sustainability efforts, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Decentralized urban planning is a policy tool and practice that is used to organize urban infrastructure for sustainable development. Yet, how it can be used to sustain the urban commons remains fragmented in the literature. This study reviews and synthesizes urban planning and urban commons literature using the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and the non-cooperative game theory to identify how urban planning can protect and sustain the urban commons - green commons, land commons, and water commons - in Ghana. The study, based on the determination of different theoretical scenarios for the urban commons, identified that decentralized urban planning can help sustain the urban commons, but it is operationalized in an unfavorable political environment. For green commons, there are competing interests and poor coordination amongst planning institutions, and the absence of self-organizing bodies in managing the use of such resources. For land commons, increased land litigations are characterized by corruption and poor management of land cases in the formal land courts, and despite the existence of self-organizing institutions, these institutions have failed to act responsibly to protect land commons due to the increasing demands and values (profitability) of lands in urban areas. For water commons, urban planning has not been fully decentralized and there is also the absence of self-organizing bodies in urban water use and management. This is coupled with the waning of customary water protection provisions in urban centers. Based on the findings, the study generally proposes institutional strengthening as the bedrock for enhancing the sustainability of the urban commons through urban planning and should therefore be of policy focus moving forward.
随着全球城市化进程的加快，城市如今容纳了全球一半以上的人口，人们对作为可持续发展努力一部分的城市公地保护表示担忧，特别是在撒哈拉以南非洲地区。分散式城市规划是一种政策工具和实践，用于组织城市基础设施以实现可持续发展。然而，在文献中，关于如何利用它来维持城市公地的讨论仍然零散。本研究运用制度分析与发展框架和非合作博弈论，对城市规划和城市公地文献进行了综述和综合，以确定城市规划如何在加纳保护和维持城市公地——绿色公地、土地公地和水域公地。基于对城市公地不同理论情景的确定，该研究发现，分散式城市规划有助于维持城市公地，但它是在不利的政治环境中实施的。对于绿色公地，规划机构之间存在利益竞争和协调不力的问题，而且在管理此类资源的使用方面缺乏自组织机构。对于土地公地，土地诉讼增加的特点是正式土地法院存在腐败和土地案件管理不善的情况，尽管存在自组织机构，但由于城市地区土地需求和价值（盈利能力）的增加，这些机构未能负责地采取行动保护土地公地。对于水域公地，城市规划尚未完全分散，而且在城市用水和管理方面也缺乏自组织机构。再加上城市中心习惯性水保护规定的削弱。基于这些发现，该研究总体上建议加强制度建设，作为通过城市规划提高城市公地可持续性的基石，因此应成为未来政策的重点。
