Samoa – City Development Strategy.

The City Development Strategy (CDS) is a national policy with a cross-sectoral approach. The objective of the CDS is to provide a spatially orientated strategic framework for land use planning, development and environmental management for the City of Apia to transition to a more resilient climate and disaster proofed city. This Strategy was funded by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
The CDS aims to provide the Government of Samoa with an improved institutional and technical capacity to plan and manage land use, coordinate development and ensure sustainable management of existing resources for the City of Apia. To facilitate climate and disaster proofed sustainable urban development, the aim is to work toward generating an integrated Sustainable Management Plan (SMP) for the greater Apia urban area under the Planning and Urban Management Act, 2004. The CDS will provide the pathway for this integrated SMP through the scheduled generation of the more detailed Sustainable Management Plans (SMPs).
The institutional arrangements will be strengthened, partnerships will be promoted and lessons that support growth of Apia City will be shared. Stakeholder contribution, participation and support of CDS activities will be encouraged and engaged and their inputs will be identified into addressing issues. Urban development, growth and change for the greater Apia area will be enhanced through a climate proof CDS approach to ensure that the benefits are not limited to the Apia Central Area but also to the neighbouring districts. Streamlined decision-making based on technical knowledge, forward planning and coordination of government activities will be promoted through the Strategy.
Land use planning will be strengthened by completing a land use survey and updating land use maps and databases to accurately document land uses about the City, and using the updated land use mapping and buildings layers with the latest population statistics to quantify the numbers of people and buildings in each hazard classification area applied to the City. While preparing the Sustainable Management Plans (SMPs), social assessments will be conducted to assess local community attitudes towards proposed development and concerns expressed during community consultation processes. The settlement pattern, demographics, existing community infrastructure, services, access and mobility elements of the local community will be evaluated with stakeholders and addressed in the SMPs. The input of the village communities’ match confirmed Village Council boundaries with the District boundaries will be used to assist with future governance options. Measures will be taken to protect culturally significant traditional areas.
The Strategy addresses priority needs for future planning to assist with ecosystem based adaptation and to buffer against disasters. The mangroves, wetlands, waterways and drainage-ways will be filled over the coastal plains of the City. Community awareness will be raised on catchment and flood management. Ecological assessments and classification of urban ecology and aquatic ecology within the City will be prioritized. The Water Resources Division of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with the Samoa Water Authority will assist by reviewing the Structure Plan and identifying implications for groundwater protection. Flooding, inundation and sea level rise will be taken into account in the determination of the levels of hazards for the future development of the City. Modelling and vulnerability assessments will be undertaken for catchments covering the City. The hydrologic modelling will be used to address integrated catchment management, and conceptualise the form and location of catchment based water quantity and quality measures for the upper catchments and mid-slopes of the City. Groundwater resource assessments will be undertaken for the western catchments of the City to determine their status in terms of quality, yield potential and potential threats based on prospect land use changes. The infrastructure and services will be improved in the fields of effluent management, treatment and disposal, waste management, energy efficiency, renewable energy, stormwater drainage. The Land Resources mapping database will be enhanced to enable its use for urban land capability assessments. The mapping will be underpinned by soil mapping. In addition to climate change and natural disasters and risks there are a number of other hazards and associated risks that will be considered in City planning, such as: geotechnical hazards, contamination hazards, the impacts of extractive and mineral resource development, and land use hazards and buffers.