SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN TRIPOLI, LIBYA: ASSESSING, MONITORING, AND ANALYZING THE INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF URBAN SQUATTER AREAS IN THE PERI-URBAN FRINGE By Copyright 2015 Nouri A. Elfarnouk Submitted to the graduate degree program in Geography and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Stephen Egbert, Chair ________________________________ Garth Myers, Co-Chair ________________________________ Abel Chikanda ________________________________ Nancy Obermeyer ________________________________ Peter Ojiambo ________________________________ So-Min Cheong Date Defended: November 13, 2015 ii The Dissertation Committee for Nouri A. Elfarnouk certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN TRIPOLI, LIBYA: ASSESSING, MONITORING, AND ANALYZING THE INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF URBAN SQUATTER AREAS IN THE PERI-URBAN FRINGE ________________________________ Stephen Egbert, Chair Date approved: December 11, 2015 iii Abstract As a developing country, Libya has been dominated by a high rate of urbanization since it became an independent state in 1951, with vast improvements in all aspects of life. This phenomenon brought domination of some cities, such as Tripoli and Benghazi. Therefore, in a country with multiple large cities that “pull” migrants in, people have more than one choice of a final urban destination. Where urban primacy exists, this puts additional strain on that single primate city, encouraging people to migrate, often before the necessary infrastructure is in place. As a result of that movement, Tripoli has experienced the appearance of informal areas, and particularly squatter settlements, since the late 1980s. This phenomenon has had many negative impacts for Tripoli and its vicinity. This phenomenon has evolved to become a chronic problem. As a response to this problem, governmental efforts have been made to address and mitigate the situation through conducting planning schemes and housing policies and strategies. Despite those efforts and strategies, the success rate has been low, due to many factors. The ambition of this dissertation is to identify insights concerning the factors that led to the incidence and the prevalence of the squatter settlements. In this dissertation, a critical qualitative method included face to face interviews. The analysis pointed out the presence of multiple potential factors that contributed in the emergence and prevalence of the phenomenon. These factors are represented in the weakness of planning institutions in applying the planning policies, failure of planning schemes, corruption and bureaucracy, administrative instability, intensive state intervention, political transformation, and socioeconomic changes. All combined factors accelerated the incidence and thus manifested the prevalence of this phenomenon. In addition to the qualitative analysis, I performed quantitative analysis of multi-temporal Landsat images. Unsupervised image classification was performed in order to provide insight iv about unlawful urban sprawl that spread outside the planned areas due to limited arable land. Finally, this dissertation gives several recommendations for creating sustainable planning and finding an urgent appropriate solution to reduce the impact of the phenomenon. v Acknowledgment First of all, praise and gratitude be to Allah the Almighty the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful for His countless blessings on me. All my deeds, prayers, sacrifices, life and death are for Him the lord of mankind. Without His help, conciliation, and grace the completion of this dissertation would not have been possible. Thanks also goes to my parents who support me with their supplication to Allah so that I succeed in my studies and also all deepest thanks and gratitude goes to my lovely wife who supports me; her patience over long years of alienation helped me to reach my goals. I wish to express my sincere acknowledgment to my homeland, and my spiritual Libya which, despite its wounds, has carried the burdens of my study over the study period. I also express all my thanks and appreciation to the country of study, the United States of America, its government and people, for their warm welcoming hospitality; their humanitarian treatment contributed significantly to this scientific educational accomplishment. I would like to express all my thanks to those who have devoted their efforts and help to make this research come to the ground. My sincere gratefulness and appreciation goes to my dissertation committee for their advice and comments, particularly Dr. Garth Myers and Dr. Stephen Egbert for their supervision, guidance, and valuable comments. My sincere appreciation also goes to Dr. Nancy Obermeyer, Dr. Peter Ojiambo, Dr. Abel Chikanda, and Dr. So-Min Cheong for being members of my committee; I am proud for being under their supervision. Special thanks expressed to the first person I met, Dr. Barney Warf, who invited, welcomed and endorsed me during my admission search to the University of Kansas, and who introduced me to department staff and professors, especially Dr. Garth Myers and Dr. Stephen Egbert. vi I would also like to thank the talented persons with whom I have had the chance to deliberate issues about my research who have contributed many valuable suggestions. In specific, I hope to acknowledge my friends: Mr. Abdelkarim Khatir, Mahmud Elfituri, Osama Ismael, Saber Gdura, Dr. Ahmad Alhudairi, Dr. Mansur Albabour, Abdul-Hakim Algargouzi, Abdullatif Darmish, Abdul-Aziz Shakmak, and Abdul-Hafid Almodi, for their support and for providing valuable data. I wish also to express my sincere acknowledgment to Ms. Rhonda Houser and Ms. Pamela Rooks for their valuable support and assistance. Sincere gratitude also goes to all staff in the Department of Geography at the University of Kansas for making the school such a welcoming place to pursue an academic degree. Special thanks goes to Dr. Abubaker Al-Shawesh the former head of the urban planning agency for his encouragement and support to pursue post graduate study. vii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................................ v Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Preface......................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Hypotheses and Questions .......................................................................................... 4 Research Outline ......................................................................................................................... 5 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................................ 7 Objectives ................................................................................................................................. 10 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................. 10 Data type. .............................................................................................................................. 12 The Significance and Benefit of the Research .......................................................................... 15 Research Limitation and Obstacles ........................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Review of Associated Studies ................................................ 18 General Overview ..................................................................................................................... 18 The Experience of Urbanization and Urban Sprawl in Developing Countries ......................... 22 Informal Settlements in Developing Countries ......................................................................... 27 Lessons from North African Countries ..................................................................................... 29 Population growth and development situation. ..................................................................... 29 Urban sprawl and squatter settlements in northern African countries. ................................. 33 viii Housing demands. ................................................................................................................. 34 Studies of squatter settlements in the Maghreb states. ......................................................... 35 Efforts of Maghreb states. ..................................................................................................... 35 Specific context of Libya. ..................................................................................................... 44 Main thoughts and tenets of study. ....................................................................................... 45 Chapter 3: Evaluation of the Physical Setting of the Study Area ................................................. 51 Geographical and Historical Overview ....................................................................................