- Nairobi - Emerging Metropolitan Region: Development Planning and Management Opportunities and Challenges   1199 kb by    Omwenga, Mairura | mairurao@yahoo.com    Short Outline Nairobi is an emerging metropolitan region that is experiencing massive growth. The metropolitan region has no spatial framework. What spatial policies should be adopted to accomodate opportunities and tackle challenges in the city region? Abstract Nairobi - Emerging Metropolitan Region: Development Planning and Management Opportunities and Challenges Mairura Omwenga, University of Nairobi For the last 10-20 years, world surveys indicate that developing countries have been experiencing the highest rate of urbanization compared to the developed north. Nairobi is one such city that has recorded one of the highest rate of growth in Africa. The population of Nairobi was 2.1 million in 1999 and this has rapidly increased to about 3.6 million in 2010. The city built up area of 686 km2 has expanded into a huge metropolitan region of about 3,000km2 in 2010. The emerging Nairobi metropolitan region is estimated to have over 8-10 million people. Nairobi has grown to be a major international business and service hub in Kenya and Africa. The Nairobi metropolitan region commands 30-40% Kenya national GDP. Nairobi metropolitan region is now faced with numerous development planning and management challenges. The new and emerging metropolitan region is faced with development and management opportunities and challenges that were not anticipated. Some of the challenges include- ƒ{ The new and emerging metropolitan region has no spatial and strategic framework. ƒ{ The metropolitan region is spread over different 15No. local authorities and administration institutions that are not coordinated. ƒ{ The metropolitan region is faced with major social disparities, deterioration of infrastructure and services that cannot meet the rising demand. ƒ{ The environmental and ecological system is stressed- diminishing water resources, food supply, pollution etc. What spatial and strategic planning policies can be adopted to accommodate the growing opportunities in the emerging metropolitan region? How can spatial planning be adopted to tackle the challenges and achieve sustainable development in the new emerging metropolitan region? Keywords Nairobi, Metropolitan Region Spatial Plan Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2010: Sustainable City - Developing World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper