SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN TRIPOLI, LIBYA: ASSESSING, MONITORING, AND ANALYZING THE INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF URBAN SQUATTER AREAS IN THE PERI-URBAN FRINGE

Abstract

As a developing country, Libya has been dominated by a high rate of urbanization since it became an independent state in 1951, with vast improvements in all aspects of life. This phenomenon brought domination of some cities, such as Tripoli and Benghazi. Therefore, in a country with multiple large cities that “pull” migrants in, people have more than one choice of a final urban destination. Where urban primacy exists, this puts additional strain on that single primate city, encouraging people to migrate, often before the necessary infrastructure is in place. As a result of that movement, Tripoli has experienced the appearance of informal areas, and particularly squatter settlements, since the late 1980s. This phenomenon has had many negative impacts for Tripoli and its vicinity. This phenomenon has evolved to become a chronic problem. As a response to this problem, governmental efforts have been made to address and mitigate the situation through conducting planning schemes and housing policies and strategies. Despite those efforts and strategies, the success rate has been low, due to many factors. The ambition of this dissertation is to identify insights concerning the factors that led to the incidence and the prevalence of the squatter settlements. In this dissertation, a critical qualitative method included face to face interviews. The analysis pointed out the presence of multiple potential factors that contributed in the emergence and prevalence of the phenomenon. These factors are represented in the weakness of planning institutions in applying the planning policies, failure of planning schemes, corruption and bureaucracy, administrative instability, intensive state intervention, political transformation, and socioeconomic changes. All combined factors accelerated the incidence and thus manifested the prevalence of this phenomenon. In addition to the qualitative analysis, I performed quantitative analysis of multi-temporal Landsat images. Unsupervised image classification was performed in order to provide insight about unlawful urban sprawl that spread outside the planned areas due to limited arable land. Finally, this dissertation gives several recommendations for creating sustainable planning and finding an urgent appropriate solution to reduce the impact of the phenomenon.