The Plannig Impact Of Military Areas On The Urban Fbric Of Greater Khartoum

Abstract

Military as an establishment has the sole responsibility of defense and protection of the country, subsequently, their location and influences within any set-up, be it urban, rural, or otherwise, will surely exert its impacts on that environment. The location of military districts within the urban fabric is a case to ponder, which necessitate, the study of this dissertation to be undertaken. Military functions within the urban fabrics offer impacts, negative in most cases, but a times positive too to the mechanisms of urban system. This is because defense, being the primary aim of military sector, it is also susceptible to attacks from external aggressors which does not augur well for the civilian population especially in the densely populated areas. However, on the positive side, being situated within this urban fabric itself, it offers some form of cover or disguise, for these military locations, which can then actively perform its duty towards the defense and protection of the country. In the urban context, there is the ever growing or the rapid growth in the population and in the economic activities. This usually necessitates the expansion of urban centers in order to accommodate these functions aimed at the socio-economic interactions of the people. With this rapid pace in urbanization of cities, military districts in urban fabric become invariably an obstacle in the development trend of the cities. They constitute an impediment to their own expansions as well as that of the urban expansions, which creeps towards these military establishments. Again, military districts themselves need large extensive areas for their activities, strategic locations for defensive purposes with effective and efficient interaction between the various units as well as to be able to respond promptly to civil defense from the external threats. Therefore, military districts are best located on the peripheral or the outskirts of the city well away from the civilian densely populated areas. Experiences have shown that these military districts especially in the advanced countries efficiently perform in this outside IV locations. These examples can be sited in the Arabian countries like Yemen, Egypt, Jordan etc, in the western countries such USA, UK, Germany, etc and in the eastern block like the Russian army. This dissertation concentrates on the military areas within the urban fabric of Greater Khartoum, their impacts and influences on the urban fabrics and how they are affected in the negative terms by being situated within the urban fabrics. It also points out how best efficiency can be achieved from the location principles of military strategy, how best they can interact with the civil population and their effectiveness in the performance of their responsibilities.