N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6

4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6 1 10/13/2010
 N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T
The Urban Development Plan (UDP)
Concept
More elaborations of these guidelines will be made during fall 2010.onwards. It is
proposed that a working group with members from responsible authorities
(MININFRA; NLC, etc.) jointly will be working with the task.
The National Land Use and Development Master Plan is referred to as the Plan in the
text. STUDA is an abbreviation for the Plan being used in some cases. IDDP stands for
Integrated District Development Plan – the proposed modern concept for District planning
coordinated with the Plan..
Throughout Africa there is a trend away from the traditional master or structure planning
approach. Emphasis is now placed on strategic policies that supplement comprehensive
physical development planning with more deliberate attention being paid to achieving
Millennium Development Goals and National Vision (2020), especially in the spheres of
poverty alleviation, economic development and governance. Often plans are not
implemented and are then attacked as being poor plans, when in fact the implementation
constraints lie elsewhere. To make planning comprehensive, it is important to translate
‘planning jargon’ to a planning idiom that reflects ordinary people’s needs of shelter
(housing), job opportunities and service provision in a safe and healthy environment.
We advocate for an Urban Development Plan (UDP) to be prepared for all District Centres
that can be translated into an effective instrument to be used by district and local
management in daily decisions, annual programming and budgeting processes. The Plan
needs to reflect both the long term visions and the immediate and short term
implementation capacities. The Plan should, therefore, be more than physical plans with
zoning regulations and include components that directly address local authority
governance issues and implementation capacity. Technical capacities that include GIS
and LIS not only for planning but for implementation and land administration are part of
this institutional development process.
4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6
M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6
The implication of this perspective is that the project tasks must include a review of what
managers would like to see in a strategic plan. The approach also leads to a need at local
level to see planning as a continuous process within the framework of a long term vision
that may be periodically updated and renewed. In its character as a process it should be
linked to budgeting systems and annual work programs. Furthermore, the approach must
be supported by legislation that provides a legal framework for implementation and
enforcement activities. (This is being taken into consideration in the ongoing Project
where a new comprehensive legislation for synchronized planning will be presented at
Project closure).
With rapid urbanization and dramatic population growth in urban areas, Rwanda is
experiencing increased pressures on its natural resources that contribute to the
degradation of the environment. In addition, the problems being faced by urban societies
such as environmental pollution, congestion and traffic, crime, malaise and
unemployment are being aggravated by the lack of housing, transportation and
communications infrastructure, as well as poverty, disease and overall lack of basic
services. These problems thus, highlight the need for rational and efficient management
of urban and rural resources as well as the restoration of functions that will help these
urban areas implement sustainable development strategies to cope with the
consequences of rapid population growth and environmental consequences.
The ability to manage urban growth and change will depend on timely access to data on
the environment and on how effectively these data can be transformed into useful
information to support planning and decision making particularly at the district and local
level. It is in this area of acquisition, manipulating and displaying complicated interactions
between spatial and attributes data that geographic information system (GIS), has proven
to be an effective tool for a wide range of applications. When combined with other new
technologies such as global positioning system (GPS) and remote sensing (RS) it further
provides an enhanced and invaluable tool to use with other databases and spatial
information in, various stages of sustainable development planning and management of
the environment. However, the introduction of computerized GIS and LIS tools in planning
and land administration also take time, and usually more time than originally expected.
Training, database development, data acquisition and input, development of norms and
standards, and agreeing with data producers and consumers on standards for data-
2 10/13/2010
 N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T
exchange, all take unpredictable periods of time. Work must proceed on several fronts
simultaneously, always with a flexibility that allows for adjustments. It is also important for
managers to understand what the implications of this computerization have for working
processes, staff disposition, budgets and quality control mechanisms, besides becoming
aware of legal implications involved in data sharing. Any professional training or capacity
building program must, therefore have components directed at managers,
practitioners/direct users and technical support staff.
Any increase in true participatory planning approaches implies a lengthening of time
required for planning. Meaningful consultation and participatory planning requires time. If
time is not taken there is a high risk of disillusionment and even antagonism towards both
planning and planners. The benefits of constructive participatory approaches are
expected in implementation and enforcement activities, as well as in the development of
public-private partnerships that shift some of the burden of development to the private
commercial and civil society sectors.
Our understanding of the objectives and the expected outputs of a new concept for urban
development planning are summarized in the following planning methodology.
PLANNING METHODOLOGY
Physical planning should utilize the best available scientific information to identify and
protect significant natural resources and to ensure the viability of both human and natural
communities. Advancement in the fields of landscape ecology and conservation biology
have led to a greater understanding of the importance of protecting buffer areas, wildlife
corridors, and other landscape characteristics essential for healthy, functioning
ecosystems. New innovative attempts to ‘modernize’ planning and monitoring, such as
the Pressure-State-Response Model, promise to make the work more effective. Our
approach will introduce methods, which make it possible to predict the socio-economic
and environmental impact of various decisions and discuss alternatives at an early stage.
Indicators showing whether plans promote or work against the achievement of socio-
economic and environmental objectives are presented in different stages of the planning
process. Furthermore, our approach will introduce the means by which these planning
principles can be incorporated into the consensus-based planning process that ensures
protection of significant natural areas and human communities. It makes it possible to
determine the total urban land supply, consider monitoring of land use changes and
4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6
M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6
project compliance to land use policies and guidelines and consider monitoring the
deviation of the existing land use to the proposed structure plan or zoning.
Our approach will be primarily devoted to illustrating the use of GIS as a decision support
tool for sustainable environmental solutions and to developing generic procedures in
generating alternative spatial strategies by using GIS technology in all the plan
preparation steps. It will introduce the stakeholders to planning techniques and standards,
GIS analysis techniques in the assessment of socio-economic, institutional, infrastructure
and environmental conditions, graphic user interfaces and developed formal decision
support models. It will also explore the advantages of using remote sensing techniques,
such as change detection analyses, for environmental monitoring. It will utilize GIS in, for
example, the overlay analysis to determine suitable areas for the development of various
public services and utilities.
Recommended steps in a comprehensive and integrated development approach for land
use planning are outlined as follows:
The rationales for the UDP, which identifies and describes the steps of the UDP
preparation, are summarized below. Leads for GIS as a tool in the UDP preparation would
then be to prepare information products which reflect that
the Plan is both regulatory and catalytic at the same time ;
the Plan Process will include a substantial amount of participatory planning or
rather collaborative planning.
The following Steps are proposed and can easily be adopted into the
prescribed phases/tasks of the UDP Planning Process:
Information Products can be defined as the instructive
components that are needed to present a UDP Step in a
comprehensive way and will consist of tables, graphs and maps in
both digital and paper based formats.
3 10/13/2010
 N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T
STEP 1 - GETTING ORGANIZED TO WORK WITH THE UDP AND
IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS
Anticipating and preparing for the resources that will be needed for the surveying and
planning activities will lead to the smooth implementation and accomplishment of the
planning outputs on time. As regards data capture it is important to ensure that a ‘GIS
Start Package’ -the resources needed for GIS activities- are readily available. It will mean
that all the five components of GIS will be secured: hardware, software, human resource
development, data and methodology.
STEP 2 - SETTING THE VISION FOR THE UDP
The Ministry of Infrastructure, which has a leading role in the process, has a Vision and
Goal and Objectives. These visionary statements could (and should) not differ from other
visions provided for the country (Vision 2020) and be mirrored in the UDP. Also the
upcoming STUDA have goals, guidelines and planning standards that will have impact on
urban planning. This avoids Duplication of efforts and the risk of confusion among
stakeholders and the general public. Likewise, the UDP vision must reflect the NICI Plan -
2010 Plan in which the Rwandan Government is pursuing the creation of a knowledge-
based economy, and in which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will play
a central role. The objective is to use ICT for poverty reduction through its catalytic and
leveraging effect on improving access to basic services such as education and health.
STEP 3 – ANALYZING THE SITUATION
Step 3 of the planning process - Situation Analysis
- basically answers the question: Where are we
now? It is both analytical and diagnostic, geared
towards identifying issues, potentials and future
development needs and spatial requirements of
the city/nation. Assessment involves technical and
participatory methods.
In this step the first thing is to take necessary actions to gather the required data and to
prepare a digital UDP Base Map. It might be a lengthy process and it is, therefore,
important to ensure that a base map is readily available as soon as possible so gathering
4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6
M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6
of data for sector and cross sector analysis is not delayed. NLC National Base Map data
layers in combination with the Orthophoto portfolio will become useful sources of data for
the preparation of the UDP Basemap.
It is, likewise, recommended to prepare the demography data upon the base line studies
and sector analyses that education, health, transport, agriculture, etc. will be based on. As
there is only one vision set for the nation one population projection should be agreed on.
Technical assessment is based on factual data derived from surveys, official publications
and records of the national agencies concerned and other entities. Assessment involves
the use of indicators such as proportions, rates, frequency, quality/condition (e.g. severity,
critical, etc.), standards and other parameters that are vital in characterizing the situations.
The result of the consultation will hopefully bring out a tailored specification of data that
answers to the special requirement for sustainable development .The consultation will
also trigger the “search –for data’ activity and the secondary source data custodians
should then be approached as early as possible in order to get all necessary information
required for this step as the search and acquisition for the data is usually a lengthy
process.
In this Step, thematic spatial layers -Baseline Studies- need to be prepared for all sectors
and sub sectors included in the UDP. The locations of service facilities, infrastructure
utilities, environmental prospects and constraints and land management regulatory
options and limitations as specified in the ToR need to be defined with an accuracy that is
acceptable for UDP planning and analysis activities.
4 10/13/2010
 N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T
It is also recommended that a proper File and Folder system should be introduced for the
accumulated Project attribute and spatial data.
The Needs Assessment Information Products will be a comprehensive combination of
maps which will not only reveal weaknesses or gaps in the distribution of goods and
services of the urban area but also the District needs based on population projections.
GIS is a useful tool for this as it makes the plan more transparent to the general public.
The Risk & Suitability Analysis Information Products will focus on the limitations and
potentials originating from nature and man made/enforced restrictions/ rules and
regulations. These will provide the bases for some examples for the formulation of a
sustainable development plan for the urban area.
STEP 4 – SETTING THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE UDP
The next step after the data gathering and analysis is the formulation of goals and
objectives that will help the nation to achieve its vision. It is important that the goals and
4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6
M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6
objectives reflect the “common good” or consensus of the broader community so that
implementation of the plan effectively engages all sectors, and ownership is shared
community-wide. A good way to achieve this is to conduct participatory goal-setting
processes in public settings where the Situation and Risk & Suitability Analysis
Information Products can be presented.
STEP 5 – ESTABLISHING THE DEVELOPMENT THRUST AND SPATIAL
STRATEGIES
This step is critical in determining the future spatial development of the nation and
involves the understanding of what is appropriate, feasible and possible through an
exploration of different land use alternatives or scenarios. A draft plan will be prepared
based on a preferred way forward. Only the planner’s imagination can define the limits of
the use GIS in this step. Most probably the use of GIS will be limited to actual presentation
and display work in the beginning. When the planner acquires advanced skills in the use
of the GIS, more sophisticated spatial analysis is possible.
STEP 6 – PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS ON UDP
This involves a 3-stage process namely: public display and
information dissemination; conduct of hearings and consultations.
The process aims to inform the general public and ensure an
objective and participatory review of the draft UDP and to encourage
ownership of the plan and gain support for its implementation.
GIS will be a useful instrument to translate the plan into a format that will be understood
by the stakeholders. The information products in the above step can be printed out and
displayed and/or be included in a PowerPoint presentation.
STEP 7 - PREPARING THE DETAILED DRAFT UDP
It is at this stage where the location and details of the plan components
are put into final draft form. It also provides for more detailed information
on land use regulations/controls, among other things. The GIS will be
useful in furnishing templates which are based on map standards with
5 10/13/2010
 N A T I O N A L L A N D U S E D E V E L O P M E N T M A S T E R P L A N G E N E R A L A P P E N D I X 6

regard to format and symbology. The combination of attribute and spatial data, which is a unique
advantage of GIS, greatly facilities the measurement of development outcome and trends.
STEP 8 - REVIEWING, ADOPTING AND APPROVING THE UDP As the GIS software is developing strongly into more user-friendly interface it will also be
easier to meet a growing demand for ‘political transparency’ and participatory planning.
The mandatory and comprehensive review of the UDP will take place in
this step, after which adoption, enactment and approval of UDP by the
Client will take place but this is not included in the Tasks.

GIS benefits from the excellence of the digital mode compared to the
tedious process of reviewing analogue maps which might be useful in this
step.

The following steps will be catered for by the District Government:

STEP 9 - IMPLEMENTING THE UDP

Implementing the UDP requires resources, institutional structures and procedures. For
example a comprehensive land use plan has to be included in the District Development
Plans in order to provide a closer touch
base interpretation of the national and
local strategies. It is recommended that
the proposed planning legislation should
allow great flexibility for the
implementers to design and implement
their own organizational structure and
staffing pattern taking into consideration its vision, mission, goals and objectives as
contained in the UDP and accountability to the country.

STEP 10 – MONITORING, REVIEWING & EVALUATING THE UDP

The GIS enables the planner to readily extract data from the database and UDP project
profile, thus, it will be easier for MININFRA and agencies concerned to manage/
implement projects as well as share project information with stakeholders/contractors.

With the UDP and its implementation program established, assessment procedures for its
effectiveness must be instituted. Monitoring review and evaluation are performed to
assess how fully and how effectively a plan is being carried out.
4.6_UrbanDevelopemntPlanGuidelines_v6 6 10/13/2010