Sustainable spatial planning for urban expansion in The West Bank 2023-2050
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22320/07183607.2025.28.52.08Keywords:
spatial planning, land suitability, urban development, residential areasAbstract
Palestinian cities, regardless of their small size, struggle with high population density and fast population growth due to a lack of control over the land because of the Israeli occupation constraints. Accordingly, Palestinians must use all the available urban development models within city limits to accommodate the growing population. This involves expanding residential neighborhoods in all directions and developing the least developed lands. This paper examines the need of the Palestinians in the West Bank for urban expansion based on natural growth and the availability of land, taking into consideration sustainable urban development that enhances the quality of spatial areas through sustainable planning and an integrated environmental system, as well as the political constraints based on two scenarios: the first (2023-2030) considers planning under Israeli occupation restrictions; the second (2030-2050) envisages planning with full sovereignty over the lands of the West Bank following the 1967 borders. The paper outlines a model to assess land suitability for urban expansion and development, and to build new cities using Geographic Information Systems. This approach guarantees a balanced development and improves the overall spatial urban development plan for the West Bank, circling new city sites, areas, and other vital features.
Downloads
References
ABDO, H. G., TARAN, A., ALJOHANI, T. H., MAYA, R., ALMOHAMAD, H., PRAMANIK, M., BHATTACHARYA, R. K., ALI, S. A., KAYET, N., ISLAM, A. R. M. T., & ALSAFADI, K. (2025). Spatial analysis of the land suitability for sustainable urban construction in the mountainous regions of the Eastern Mediterranean: a case study. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 18(3), 96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-025-09701-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-025-09701-2
ABUSADA, J., & THAWABA, S. (2011). Multi-criteria analysis for locating sustainable suburban centers: A case study from Ramallah Governorate, Palestine. Cities, 28(5), 381-393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2011.05.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2011.05.001
AL-GHORAYEB, A., AL-SHAAR, W., ELKORDI, A., FAOUR, G., AL-SHAAR, M., & ATTALAH, Y. (2023). Land suitability analysis for sustainable urban development: A case of Nabatiyeh Region in Lebanon. J — Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal, 6(2), 267-285. https://doi.org/10.3390/j6020020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/j6020020
Applied Research Institute- Jerusalem [ARIJ]. (March 2023). A database of Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank (1967-2022). https://www.arij.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Israeli-Settlements-Database-1967-2022.pdf
CHEN, S. (2016). Land-use suitability analysis for urban development in Regional Victoria: A case study of Bendigo. Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, 9(4), 47-58. https://doi.org/10.5897/JGRP2015.0535 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5897/JGRP2015.0535
DUTTA, V. (2012, June). War on the dream–How land use dynamics and peri-urban growth characteristics of a sprawling city devour the master plan and urban suitability—speech made at the 13th Annual Global Development Conference, Budapest, Hungary. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0975425312473226
EKLEEL, A. R., & TARIQ, F. E. (2025). Land Suitability Analysis using Analytical Network Process (ANP) to Support Afghanistan Urban Development Context. Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Abdul-Raqib-Ekleel/publication/393140872_Land_Suitability_Analysis_using_Analytical_Network_Process_ANP_to_Support_Afghanistan_Urban_Development_context/links/6861635ae4632b045dc868c9/Land-Suitability-Analysis-using-Analytical-Network-Process-ANP-to-Support-Afghanistan-Urban-Development-context.pdf
GHODIEH, A. (2020). Urban built-up area estimation and change detection of the occupied West Bank, Palestine, using multi-temporal aerial photographs and satellite images. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 48(2), 235-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-019-01073-8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-019-01073-8
JABBA, R. J. (1997). Suitability Analysis for Determining New Residential Developments in the Gaza Strip, Palestine [Master's Theses, The University of Rhode Island]. DigitalCommons@URI. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/583
Ministry of Local Government [MoLG]. (2022). National spatial development plan for Palestine state 2050.
Ministry of Local Government [MoLG]. (2023). National urban policy for Palestine. Towards Sustainable Urban Development, Enabling Sovereignty and Resilience of Palestinian Cities and Communities. UN-HABITAT. https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2023/01/nup_palestine_english.pdf
OMAR, N. Q., & RAHEEM, A. M. (2016). Determining the suitability trends for settlement based on multi-criteria in Kirkuk, Iraq. Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards, 1(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40965-016-0011-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40965-016-0011-2
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics [PCBS]. (March 2019). General census of population, housing and establishments, 2017: population final results-detailed report. Ramallah-Palestine. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book2425.pdf
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics [PCBS]. (Nov 2022). Israeli settlements in the West Bank - Annual Statistical Report 2021. Ramallah-Palestine. https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Downloads/book2629.pdf
RABAYAH, A. (2006). Sustainable Land-Use Planning Using GIS [Master's Theses, Birzeit University]. Birzeit University institutional repository. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11889/1691
RADDAD, S. (2016). Integrated a GIS and multi criteria evaluation approach for suitability analysis of urban expansion in southeastern Jerusalem region-Palestine. American Journal of Geographic Information Systems, 5(1), 24–31. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ajgis.20160501.03.html
YOUNES, A., KOTB, K. M., GHAZALA, M. O. A., & ELKADEEM, M. R. (2022). Spatial suitability analysis for site selection of refugee camps using hybrid GIS and fuzzy AHP approach: The case of Kenya. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 77, 103062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103062 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103062
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Iman Khudeish, Zahraa Zawawi, Ali Abdelhamid
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The content of articles which are published in each edition of Habitat Sustentable, is the exclusive responsibility of the author(s) and does not necessarily represent the thinking or compromise the opinion of University of the Bio-Bio.
The author(s) conserve their copyright and guarantee to the journal, the right of first publication of their work. This will simultaneously be subject to the Creative Commons Recognition License CC BY-SA, which allows others to share-copy, transform or create new materials from this work for non-commercial purposes, as long as they recognize authorship and the first publication in this journal, and its new creations are under a license with the same terms.
