For the outside onlooker Dubai is the city that arose miraculously from the desert sands, developing from a little spot on the map into a sparkling metropolis in the mere span of roughly 60 years. Today the city of Dubai has roughly 3 million inhabitants.
It is not quite as simple though and I was astonished when in April the new Dubai Master Plan 2040 for urban development was announced to the public, since I had never heard anything about it. This led me to dig a bit and I was surprised to find that this was already the seventh Master plan all in all.
But first a bit of history, since the outside world often likes to overlook that Dubai did not only come into existence with the building of the Burj Khalifa and the Palm Jumeirah and the onslaught of influencers who seemingly can not get enough glitzy shots in front of even glitzier interiors.
Dubais history goes back to at least the 1820s when the now sparkling city really only was a mud hut town. But obviously it fast became important as a mercantile city in the region and started growing already then, soon being of interest for the British to keep the trade in the region under control. By 1920 the sheikhs signed a contract, declaring that upon oil discovery, concessions would only be extended to British entities. This happened in 1966 and the British sought cheap labour from India and Pakistan, adding to the diversity of an already astonishingly diverse city population. The British then left the power over to the sheikhs by the end of the 60s due to anti-colonial movements, rather keeping a positive relationship with the emirates and thereby not risking the profitable exploitation of oil. This enabled the foundation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. So in short, this is a story of economical success, first of being an important trading town and refuge for many immigrants from Persia and Afghanistan, among others, and then due to the discovery of oil that the Europeans were so keen on exploiting.
I recommend reading the concise summary in the OpEds from Dubaization.
These developments lead however to the idea of developing the town with the help of Master plans. The first of its kind was presented 1960 and developed by John Harris on the initiative of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (John Harris - Dubai's Master Planner 1960s-70s). The goal of the plan was to establish an infrastructure of roads but also facilities like schools and hospitals. On a positive not it did not aim to obliterate the historical districts of Shindagha, Bur Dubai, Al Faheidi and Deira but rather expanded the city with new areas, designated to specific uses like industry, commerce and residential quaters. Still today there is indeed a constant thrive visible in the city to keep a connection to its history and heritage alive and present. But the plan soon proofed to be insufficient as it could not keep up with the actual growth of population. New plans followed and especially in the The Dubai Structural Plan also incorporated concepts for green corridors, connections to the water, and other sustainable features (The failure of the Master Plan). Again, the city grew faster than anticipated, making the plan in parts obsolete. This also lets Dubai still be a socially highly segregated city despite at least in theory aiming to become more integrated.
The Master Plan 2020 was presented in 2011 and addressed part of the challenges for a modern city. It aimed to improve walkability and possibilities for cycling as well as putting greater emphasize on public transport. The Dubai Metro is constantly being build out, Dubai Marina features a convenient tram system and is graced with a paved walk way, the bus system is actually also quite convenient. Still, one cannot overlook the smaller and bigger misses in the planing of these facilities and the constant priorisation of cars. Having lived here for six months I do have a certain sympathy for the preference of cars. There is indeed nothing more convenient in 40 to 50 degree Celcius heat than going from your ac'd home to your ac'd car to then deboarding it elegantly and unsweaty at your equally ac'd destination point.
But at the same time - coming from Stockholm, were the interconnection of different transport systems as well as the equal accessibility for both cars, walkers and cyclist (though there is much left to do for cyclists) to the city is quite good, Dubai undoubtfully has flaws and is very car-centric. The distances to the Metro stations are enorm and so far they are not conveniently connected to bus lines or other means of public transport. While I adore the long, air conditioned skywalks to and from the stations and the ever clean and convenient trains by themselves one is still missing that last hint of convenience and time-effectiveness when getting to and from the stations.
Also: climate change and the need for modified urban spaces!!!
Now the Master Plan 2040 promises to solve all this and even more. It promises the improvement of resource utilisation, to provide sustainable and flexible means of transportation, and enhance environmental sustainability. What excited me the most was the ambitious goal to let nature reserves and rural natural areas constitute 60 per cent of the emirate’s total area and that the length of public beaches will increase by 400 per cent. Again, coming from Sweden where nature is accesibel to everybody by the Right of Public Access (Allemansrätten, at least so far), accesiblity to natural environments indepentendly from your income status are a basic human right in my opinion. So I really hope that the Emirate of Dubai will be able to fullfil its ambitious goals and does not once again get outpaced by the exponential growth of its population.
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