- Ile Perseverance, new Town in Seychelles, innovative Way of avoiding urban Sprawl    717 kb by    Vuksanovic, Zoran | zvuk105@gmail.com    Short Outline Urban sprawl is endangering Seychelles' most precious resource - its world famous pristine environment. An innovative planning solution is found in the creation of a new settlement on a new island reclaimed from the sea. Abstract In addressing urban sprawl specific planning strategies have to be tailored to each situation. Seychelles is a small island nation with very limited potential for urban development yet a persistent demand for urban land is putting in danger the country’s most valuable resource – it’s environment. Famous as a tourist destination with pristine beaches and invaluable prehistoric rainforest Seychelles has also a need for housing of it’s 82 000 strong population. In fact over 90% of the population lives on Mahe Island which has only 155 km2 of land of rocky and mountainous landscape with very limited buildable land mainly concentrated on a narrow coastal belt where housing has to compete with agricultural, tourism and other development requirements. In a situation where increasing housing demand is seriously encroaching on it’s precious environment there is an alarming need for restricted urban development which would do least environmental damage yet be socially acceptable and economically viable. The solution is found in an original form of urban expansion on a new island of 92 ha reclaimed from shallow coral reef adjacent to the capital city of Victoria. Actually it is a new town for around 10 000 inhabitants , roughly 12% of the population of the country, which is presently under construction. The new settlement , called Ile Perseverance, will cater for most of the new housing needs and will allow to relocate some of the inhabitants from environmentally sensitive areas. This is a unique case of addressing urban sprawl by creating a new settlement on an artificial island which had to be carefully planed in order to be well integrated in the existing structures yet attractive enough to become a place of choice for the new inhabitants. It may look small in size compared to similar developments in other countries but for tiny Seychelles this is an endeavour of gigantic proportions which took enormous effort to plan, design and implement and is requiring huge financial sacrifices. The case covers the planning aspect of reclamation in Seychelles , land use patterns related to urban sprawl on Mahe Island, general planning and urban design aspects of Ile Perseverance project and it’s impact on reducing sprawl and improving environmental conditions on the island. Keywords Ile Perseverance,urban design,new towns,environment Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2008: Urban Growth without Sprawl   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper