- Integrating the City of Mitrovica    565 kb by    Mulliqi, Xhemshir | xhemshir_mulliqi@yahoo.com    Short Outline Mitrovica is a divided city that suffers from high unemployment, pollution, inadequate infrastructure. It will be attempted to use strategic spatial planning as a tool for reconciling the divided parts of the city. Abstract Kosovo nowadays is living the most significant moments of its history. A post conflict society that struggles in its aim to create a modern democratic community, during the past seven years faced all the consequences that transition period brings. In this context, the city of Mitrovica presents the most dramatic picture of the disintegrating city. Since the end of the war in 1999, unresolved political status and ethnic tensions along with the consequences of the deindustrialisation of the city resulted with the severe social and economic crisis. Once very developed city in this region is divided in two sides along the river Iber that have become a boundary between Northern part with mainly Kosovan Serbian inhabitants, and South part with mainly Kosovan Albanian inhabitants. Along the southern riverbed of the Iber lies a destroyed settlement of the Roma community that was displaced in Northern part during the war. The Roma Mahalla was a homogenous settlement of the Roma community that was developed during the past decades in the area that according to a spatial plan was dedicated for green spaces and recreation activities. The plan remained unrealised due to the limited implementation potential. This resulted in a large informal settlement with nearly 4000 inhabitants, living in poor conditions in the inner city space with no perspective for a better future. The return project of the Roma Mahalla is the most significant legalisation and formalisation in the Balkan. A divided city that has suffered a industrial collapse that left a legacy of heavy environmental degradation, degradation of the public spaces and green areas, puts in front of the city planners a real challenge of finding a way to create a new identity for the city that used to be one. The Municipal Spatial Plan of Mitrovica – “One plan for one city” with focus on the Roma Mahalla as an area for the future inner city development, is perceived as a way to reconcile different ethnical groups in an integrated multi-ethnic city by developing economically and socially sustainable strategies. A new strategic, inclusive, participatory approach to planning process is considered to be of a crucial importance for the future of Mitrovica Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper