Operationalizing strategic urban development planning:the case of Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania

One of the greatest challenges facing urban development planning in the developing world today is its effectiveness in guiding urban change. Strategic urban development planning (SUDP) approach is an alternative to master planning, in managing the process of urban change. This thesis has examined the performance of operationalizing SUDP in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It focussed on: Community Infrastructure Upgrading, Environmental Management, City growth and Stakeholder participation as key variables to this approach. The purpose of this study was to contribute to knowledge in general on the potential utility of SUDP and the reason for the return to master planning, its critiques notwithstanding. The case study method has been employed as a research strategy due to the context of the study and the type of research questions asked. The findings show that SUDP has been successful in community infrastructure provision and environmental management. The findings also show that inadequate awareness and resources, the need for institutionalization and the return to master planning, remain the major challenges of operationalizing the SUDP process. The successes attained and the challenges encountered have precipitated the hybridizaion of SUDP with master planning, a reality of our time. The study concludes that, operationalization of SUDP, singly or as a hybrid with master planning, requires changes in various aspects of urban development planning. In response to the changes, the study recommends reforming the urban development planning processes and outputs to integrate with key strategic objectives. Reforms are necessary for improving the performance of urban development planning in Dar es Salaam, specifically, and Tanzania, generally.