Research Collection Journal Article A Critical Reconstruction of Modern Urban Settlement Patterns in Muscat and Al Batinah Based on Military Maps Author(s): Richthofen, Aurel von Publication Date: 2018-01-26 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000290644 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library A Critical Reconstruction of Modern Urban Settlement Patterns in Muscat and Al Bāţinah based on Military Maps Aurel von Richthofen ABSTRACT Urbanisation in Oman started shortly after 1970. The process of urbanisation changed the land-use and settlement patterns in Oman and in particular in Muscat Capital Area. Modern urban geography and urban planning in Oman emerged in the 1980s when the ‘rational’ Llewelyn-Davies plan of 1981 became the guiding planning framework. The main conceptual strategies and spatial imagination of the territory remained un-questioned in all subsequent plans and strategies up to the present Oman National Spatial Strategy. This article argues that the limited means of spatial representation of urban planners and geographers in the 1980s also limited the conceptualisation of the urban development strategies. These relied essentially on conventional aerial photography whereas the military already used systematic satellite imagery. US and Soviet military maps based on satellite images have been disclosed at the end of the Cold War and are now accessible. The evaluation of maps produced between 1943 and 1975 allows to reconstruct earlier settlement patterns preceding the 1980s. Hundreds of pre-existing settlement cores integrated hydrographic, topographic and agricultural features across the region of Muscat and Al Bāţinah. This reconstruction of settlement patterns is highly relevant today: Features of the pre-existing settlement patterns are still dominant in Muscat Capital Area. They form a ‘base-layer’ of urbanisation and indicate crucial intersections of hydrographic, topographic and agricultural features with settlement areas. This urban network is complex, functionally diversified and sustainable in its use of natural and spatial resources - qualities that are now being recognised as ‘remedies’ for urban sprawl. KEY WORDS: Oman, Muscat Capital Area, urbanisation, military maps, settlement patterns. اإعادة بناء ناقدة ﻻأمناط اﻻ�ستيطان احل�سري احلديث يف م�سقط والباطنة ً بناءعلى اخلرائط الع�سكرية امللخ�ص: بداأ النمو احل�سري يف �سلطنة عمان بعد عام 1970م ٍبفرتة وجيزة. وقد غريت عملية التح�سر اأمناط ا�ستخدام اﻻأرا�سي واﻻ�ستيطان يف عمان، ويف العا�سمة م�سقط ب�س ٍ كلخا�ص. وقد ظهرت اجلغرافيا احل�سرية والتخطيط احل�سري احلديث يف عمان يف الثمانينات من القرن الع�سرين عندما اأ�سبحت خطة ليولني-دافيز لعام 1981م اﻻإطار التخطيطي املوجه للتنمية. وظلت اﻻ�سرتاتيجيات النظرية الرئي�سية والت�سور املكاين للإقليم دون ت�ساوؤل يف جميع اخلطط واﻻ�سرتاتيجيات اللحقة حتى اﻻ�سرتاتيجية املكانية الوطنية العمانية احلالية. ويرى هذا املقال باأن الو�سائل املحدودة للتمثيل املكاين للمخططني واجلغرافيني احل�سريني يف الثمانينيات من القرن الع�سرين قد حدت اأي�س ًا من ت�سور ا�سرتاتيجيات التنمية احل�سرية. وقد اعتمدت و�سائل التمثيل املكاين هذه ا ًأ�سا�سا على الت�سوير اجلوي التقليدي، يف حني ا�ستخدمت القوات الع�سكرية ًفعليا �سور اﻻأقمار ال�سناعية املنهجية. وقد مت الك�سف عن اخلرائط الع�سكرية اﻻأمريكية وال�سوفييتية املعتمدة على �سور اﻻأقمار ال�سناعية يف نهاية احلرب الباردة، والتي ميكن اﻻآن الو�سول اإليها. وي�سمح تقييم اخلرائط التي مت اإنتاجها بني عامي 1943م و1975م باإعادة بناء اأمناط اﻻ�ستيطان املبكرة التي الثمانينات من القرن الع�سرين. وقد �سملت مئات من اﻻأمناط اﻻ�ستيطانية التي كانت موجودة من قبل اخل�سائ�ص الهيدروغرافية، والطوبوغرافية، والزراعية يف جميع اأنحاء منطقة م�سقط والباطنة. وتعترب اإعادة بناء اأمناط اﻻ�ستيطان مهمة اليوم: ﻻتزال ملمح اأمناط اﻻ�ستيطان املوجودة ً�سابقا وا�س ً حةاليوم يف منطقة العا�سمة م�سقط، وهي ت�سكل »طبقة اأ�سا�سية« للنمو احل�سري، وت�سري اإىل التقاطعات املهمة للخ�سائ�ص الهيدروغرافية، والطوبوغرافية، والزراعية مع امل�ستوطنات. وهذه ال�سبكة احل�سرية معقدة، ومتنوعة ًوظيفيا، وم�ستدامة يف ا�ستخدامها للموارد الطبيعية واملكانية- وتعترب هذه امللمح �سفات تعرف اﻻآن باأنها »معاجلات« للتمدد احل�سري. الكلمات املفتاحية: ُعمان، منطقة العا�سمة م�سقط، التح�سر، اخلرائط الع�سكرية، اأمناط اﻻ�ستيطان. The Journal of Oman Studies | Vol. 19 |2018 85 A CRITICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF MODERN URBAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS. INTRODUCTION [cite]. The current struggle to direct the urban planning for Muscat Capital Area into sustainable paths is a Urbanisation in Oman started shortly after 1970 further indication that the Llewelyn-Davies plan and as the country’s economy developed. In the following its successors might have overlooked specific spatial years the population of Oman grew rapidly with fertility features inherent to urbanisation in the region. rates of 3% annually (Bertelsmann Stiftung 2016; Oman This article aims to critically reconstruct settlement Census 2016). This economic and demographic growth patterns preceding the Llewelyn-Davies plan using demanded not just the provision of housing but also the source material that has not been evaluated in the allocation of land resources and the development of road discourse on urbanisation in Oman to date: Satellite- infrastructure. The process of urbanisation changed the based military maps produce between 1943 and 1975. land-use and settlement patterns in Oman dramatically These maps have been digitalized and entered into a over a few decades (Nebel and von Richthofen 2016). geo-information system (GIS) for further evaluation. Previously concentrated settlement cores and vast arid This historic source material is used to underscore an landscapes soon became a continuous urban fabric argument about the planning genesis and present spatial known as Muscat Capital Area. The resulting urban structure of Muscat Capital Area. The article is not form has been criticised as un-sustainable urban sprawl meant to be an historical research but to contribute to the (Gharibi 2014) and there are doubts that urbanisation urbanisation discourse with an alternative lecture of the can continue like this in the future (Cummings and von contemporary urban fabric. The evaluation of preceding Richthofen 2017). settlement patterns visible in the military maps allows Current discourses on the development of urban to reconstruct modern settlement patterns that preceded form in Muscat Capital Area point to a succession of the official planning of the 1980s. The compilation urban plans and strategies that originate in the Capital of these settlement patterns shows an extended urban Area Structure Plan: Major Road Network and network with hundreds of settlement cores. These pre- Predominant Land Use designed by Llewelyn-Davies existing settlement patterns integrated hydrographic, in 1983 (Scholz 1990, Belgacem 2010, 2011, 2013, topographic and agricultural features across the region Abdelghani 2013, Wippel et al. 2014, Gharibi 2014, of Muscat and Al Bāţinah. The importance of this ETH Studio Basel 2015, Al Shueili 2015, Jafari et al. article lies in the understanding and re-evaluation of 2017). This plan determined the future zoning of Muscat pre-existing settlement patterns that can lead to a better Capital Area. This urban planning document and its understanding of the present urban morphology, indicate successor plans were based on the spatial imagination trends of urban spatial development and contribute to a of the territory of the time, an imagination that relied more sustainable urbanisation of Muscat Capital Area on conventional aerial photography as a means to and Oman in the future. produce maps. Llewelyn-Davies’ spatial imagination was matched by prevailing urban planning doctrines METHODS AND SOURCE MATERIALS that favoured a modernist approach to planning. Conceptualisation of space for development as clean This article reconstructs the spatial urban structure slate or ‘tabula rasa’ and the ideology of Rationalism of Muscat and Al Bāţinah by comparing two groups of in planning can be traced in Llewelyn-Davies’ source materials: Available urban planning documents work. This modernist gaze obliterated attention to and related literature on Oman on one side and hydrographic, topographic and agricultural features in previously undisclosed military maps on the other. The relation to urban planning. Present-day Muscat Capital contribution of this article is to present the previously Area is indeed full of examples where the city ‘meets’ undisclosed military maps as source material for a hydrographic, topographic and agricultural features reconstruction of settlement patterns and to compare in rather unplanned and accidental ways. The original these to the prevailing discourse on urbanisation in urban plan had to be adjusted time and time again to Oman. This comparison is done by extracting relevant account for ‘unprecedented’ challenges encountered features of spatial urban structure from each set of during the implementation of the planning strategies source material sand entering them into the GIS. 86 The Journal of Oman Studies | Vol. 19 |2018 The sources of available planning documents be traced, counted and compared. This process studied and translated into the GIS include maps from was first undertaken using object-based image Scholz’s geographic description of Muscat of 1990, analysis (OBIA). A second visual comparison of Weidleplan’s Structure Plans of 1991, the Physical recognised map features and original maps assured Planning Standards by the