Sandra Escorcia
Former Coordinator of the Urban Mobility Commission SPIA of Panama City (2017 to 2020); from 1994, General Director of Taller de Ideas, a design and construction company and later Project Manager of Lake View Estate, a project promotion company.
Luis Alfaro
Architect and landscape designer. Master in Landscape Architecture.
Edward McGrath
Founder and lead architect of McGrath & Associates. Specialist in sustainability, urban planning and construction. Bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Notre Dame.
Moderation:
Yadira Gratacos und Marcee Gómez
Project Coordinators of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Panama, Regional Program ADELA ("Alliances for Democracy and Development with Latin America")
The United Nations forecasts that by 2050 two thirds of humanity will live in urban areas. We are therefore discussing the following aspects with the architects Sandra Escorcia, Luis Alfaro and Edward McGrath:
- How must cities be planned to enable this growth, and what must be taken into account to meet basic needs such as water, energy, telecommunications, security and mobility?
- What are the main challenges facing city administrations?
- How can these objectives be achieved?
Strong Cities 2030
Urbanisation brings not only great opportunities and benefits, but also huge environmental, socio-economic and political challenges. This is also reflected in the UN's Agenda 2030, especially Goal 11: "Sustainable Cities and Towns". This includes the development of inclusive, safe and resilient cities. Since the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is committed to the implementation of the goals formulated in Agenda 2030, urban development is a major concern of the foundation. For this purpose, the KAS creates platforms to exchange necessary technical and practical knowledge and to initiate international cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development. A special focus is on adolescents and young adults who will determine the public policy of the future. For this reason, the Foundation created the network "Strong Cities 2030" in 2018, which held its first conference in Essen, Germany. In 2019, a second conference was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The aim of the initiative is to promote the exchange of knowledge, concepts and practices. The programme is currently coordinated by the KAS office in South Africa.
The decentralisation of the city
The United Nations forecasts that by 2050 two thirds of the population will live in urban areas. Against this background, how must the cities of the future be planned?
It is already clear that increasing urbanization is a huge challenge. The pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses of modern cities. The virus has made it clear that almost all cities have an enormous concentration of people in the city centres. In Panama, for example, 45 percent of the population live in the metropolitan region of Panama City, where 70 percent of GDP is generated. A large part of the people working in the city commutes every day from the outlying residential areas to the city centre. Traffic chaos is part of the normality of everyday urban life. To counteract this congestion, long-term complex planning is required at both the micro and macro levels: decentralisation of infrastructure (jobs as well as consumer supply) from the city centres to the outskirts of the conurbations, as well as investments in the interior of the country to create new regional centres as attractive alternatives for companies in the service and production sectors. The "mixed use" approach aims to achieve a greater mix of residential areas, shops and businesses that meet the needs of the surrounding residents and significantly reduce shopping and working distances. On a positive note, the pandemic has also shown that home office can be a real alternative for many occupations. In the future, therefore, it could also help to relieve the burden on city centres through progressive digitisation and location-independent work.
The optimisation of the transport infrastructure
A decisive factor in urban planning is also the optimisation of the transport infrastructure. In order to create cities worth living in, future-oriented urban planning should aim to ensure that citizens can reach their place of work within a maximum of 30 minutes. Against this background, the construction of the metro in Panama City was an important step. On the one hand, however, it is obvious that further expansion is needed to cover larger parts of the city. On the other hand, the subway only solves one of many traffic problems. In principle, a holistic approach is required in municipal traffic planning, i.e. in addition to major projects such as the metro, well-developed feeder systems (buses, park and ride) and alternative transport infrastructure such as cycle paths and sidewalks are needed to enable residents to get from their respective metro station to work or home in comfort. In Panama City, there is a particular lack of attractive cycle and footpaths. However, complex solutions are needed to solve the city's traffic problems in the long term, including the problems of regular flooding during the tropical rainy season, the new installation of electricity grids, the high level of privatization in public spaces and the unauthorized parking of cars on the sidewalks. Furthermore, the transport infrastructure in Panama City is designed for private transport. For example, there are no exclusive lanes for public transport, on which a majority of the population depends. As a result, public transportation is not an acceptable alternative due to its travel time and poor accessibility. As long as this does not change, a large part of the population will continue to use the car to get around the city.
Urban construction projects must be planned with care and foresight, otherwise they will miss their target or be poorly implemented. Urban development plans should generally be drawn up for a period of 20 to 30 years. Currently, however, in Panama it is rather the case that new plans are developed every 5 years when the government changes. In addition, in most cities, a single administration is responsible for public space. In Panama City, however, there are several institutions, such as the Department of Traffic, the Municipality and the competent Electricity Administration, which share the powers. This complicates coordination, since these institutions have partially overlapping responsibilities and unclear or conflicting regulations.
For this reason, on the one hand, public legislation is needed to ensure the control and regulation of urban planning. On the other hand, it is important that the population has a say in such decisions. In this context, however, citizens also have the responsibility to make their wishes public and to stand up for their needs.
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.
Gordian Kania
Intern at the KAS office ADELA, Panama
