Assessment of national urban planning standards in structure plan preparation: a study of major urban centers in Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Many scholars, experts, and policymakers usually discuss about poor implementation of structure plans of urban centers. According to these scholars, experts, and policymakers, most urban centers in developing countries are unordered, unplanned, and disorganized mainly because of poor implementation of structure plans of the urban centers. This study aims to look into the urban planning standards in preparing structure plans in selected seven major urban centers in Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. Based on their sizes, rapid growth and their proximity to the capital city of the country, Adama, Asella, Bishoftu, Jimma, Nekemete, Shahamene, and Woliso are selected. Secondary data was collected from Oromia Urban Planning Institute and from ministry of urban and infrastructure. The reliability and validity of the data was checked and data was analyzed by combining the content and narrative analysis. Although some complexities, challenges and the peculiar characteristics of the urban centers are expected, the study mainly found that the structure plans of these urban centers are not prepared based on the manuals and standards. It can be concluded that urban centers are unordered, unplanned, and disorganized mostly because of poor preparation of the structure plans rather than the poor implementation of structure plans..