Biophilic assessment of urban planning in the El Kala world biosphere reserve (eastern Algeria)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18537/est.v015.n030.a09Keywords:
nature, urban planning, biophilic behavior, urban practice, AlgeriaAbstract
This study focuses on the El Kala World Biosphere Reserve, valued for its ecological and landscape importance, and intersected by the presence of the city of El Kala, which has been guided by an urban development master plan since 1990. The objective is to analyze the relationship between urban growth and natural spaces, highlighting the urgent issue of forest fires as a central challenge for sustainable planning. The method relies on a biophilic approach, which emphasizes the innate human connection to nature and uses documentary, landscape, and behavioral analyses to understand how architect-urbanists perceive and manage this environment. The results reveal three scenarios that show the standardized nature of the master plan, its adaptability to the surrounding ecosystems, and the persistent gap between projected strategies and actual implementation. In conclusion, the research underlines the need to integrate biophilic principles more deeply into urban planning, while stressing that effective responses to forest fires are essential to balance development with the ecological preservation.
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