Water and Forest Urbanism in Maputo: a Geographical Introduction

WATER AND FOREST URBANISM IN MAPUTO A GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION

Nicolaas Van Orshoven Laura Ysenbaardt

Water and Forest Urbanism in Maputo: A Geographical Introduction Nicolaas Van Orshoven Laura Ysenbaardt

Eindwerk aangeboden tot het verkrijgen van het diploma Master in de Ingenieurswetenschappen: Architectuur Promotor: Bruno De Meulder Co-promotor: Wim Wambecq Local promotor: JosĂŠ Forjaz

Academiejaar 2013 - 2014

Master in de Ingenieurswetenschappen: Architectuur

KU Leuven Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen

2013-2014

Master’s thesis file

Students : Nicolaas Van Orshoven & Laura Ysenbaardt

Title: Water and Forest Urbanism in Maputo: A Geographical Introduction.

Abstract : How to deal with the landscape in a vibrant, modern African capital? How can landscape structures act as regulators to improve urban living conditions? The constantly evolving city of Maputo is and has always been characterized by contrasts. Contrasts between urbanization and nature, geometry and organicity, ‘European’ and ‘native’ leading to ‘cimento’ and ‘caniço’ during the Portuguese colonisation. The struggle for independence and the following civil war catalyzed an ever increasing opposition between formal and informal, high and low, dense and open, rich and poor, but also stressed the interdependence between them.

As the city keeps growing seemingly uncontrollably the balance between these contrasts slowly gets disrupted, leading to an exclusion of a high percentage of the population. To expand in a sustainable way the urban dynamics such as densification and transformation should be guided by infrastructural developments based on the physical specificities of places. The landscape provides valuable information on how urban change can be embedded in its local geography. Our hypothesis is that a reinterpretation of the implicit landscape to make it explicit could guide such transformations to a more sustainable future. Only in this way can the development of the city be uncompromised and can the geographic location restore its original function as raison d’être for the city.

Thesis submitted to obtain the degree of Master in Engineering: Architecture

Promotor : Bruno De Meulder Co-promotor : Wim Wambecq Local promotor : José Forjaz

Š Permission for Use of Content: The authors herewith permit that the present dissertation be made available for consultation; parts of it may be copied, strictly for personal use. Every other use is subject to strict copyright reservations. Particular reference is made to the obligation of explicitly mentioning the source when quoting the present dissertation’s rules.

Leuven, 2013 All images presented in this booklet are, unless otherwise credited, made or drawn by the authors.

Š Copyright KU Leuven Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to KU Leuven, Faculty of Engineering Science, department of Architecture Kasteelpark Arenberg 1/2431, B-3001 Leuven, +32-16-321361 or via e-mail to secretariaat@asro.kuleuven.be.

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.

Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to the people who made the outcome of this thesis possible.

To JosĂŠ Forjaz, our local promotor, for introducing us to the complex urban reality that characterizes Maputo today, and for making himself and his considerable knowledge available whenever we showed up on his doorstep unannounced.

To Bruno De Meulder, our promotor, for his constructive comments and his ability to conceptualize complex issues during our many meetings.

To Wim Wambecq, our co-promotor, for his critical insights in the field of landscape urbanism and his compelling enthusiasm. His inexhaustible energy truly inspired us to push our limits.

To Srini, our host and first friend upon arriving in Maputo, for giving us our own place to come home to after a long day in the field. His sincere interest in the cultures of the world and its inhabitants were inspirational and our worldly conversations over Indian dinner will stay with us forever.

To everyone at the Faculdade de Arquitectura e Planeamento FĂ­sico of Eduardo Mondlane University, in particular Luis Lage, for sharing his considerable experience in Mozambican urbanism and addressing his personal network to get us in contact with experts on certain matters.

To VLIR, ASRO, and OSA, for the institutional and financial support that made our stay in Maputo possible.

To BTC, Tom Smis, Verde Azul Consult, Wsup and everyone else who answered our quest for information, for providing us with the means to fund this thesis on accurate information.

To Jan Cloin, for lending two complete strangers a bicycle for an extended period of time, without which our mobility in Maputo would have been seriously reduced.

To our family and friends, for their sincere interest and motivating encouragements.

And finally we would also like to thank our parents, for all the moral support and given opportunities.

During the summer of 2013 two Belgian students spent two months in Maputo City, doing research and fieldwork that forms the basis of this master thesis.

Focussing on the relation between habitation and landscape we spent our time looking, tasting, smelling, hearing and feeling the vibes produced by a two-faced city. One day we found ourselves interviewing slum inhabitants living under the 1$/day poverty line, the next we were lunching with Mozambican government officials in a nice restaurant or discussing diverse city dynamics with experts to obtain some necessary ‘official’ information. We traversed the city on foot, slogged through dusty dirt roads by bike, experienced the crowd management in the public transport system, drove up to the most northern suburbs by SUV, and while dry season slowly collapsed into its wet equivalent we still didn’t get everything done we had planned. On the other hand we had the chance to experience the real Mozambique, the kindness of people who had nothing, the empty eyes of adults struggling to provide for their families, the warm smiles of children screaming to get their picture taken.

The gap between these two worlds might not be clearly visible for the regular passer-by, but experiencing both day in day out, comparing opinions of inhabitants with statements of official spokesmen made us realize that the city is by definition contested. People exercise their right to it and they appropriate the landscape. The landscape from her part hosts both city and people, and from time to time takes revenge for the misbehaviour of a young metropole on the search for a new equilibrium.

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0 Preface

Mozambican children, eager to get their picture taken in bairro Magoanine A.

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0 Preface

Preface How to deal with the landscape in a vibrant, modern African capital? How can landscape structures act as regulators to improve urban living conditions? The constantly evolving city of Maputo is and has always been characterized by contrasts. Contrasts between urbanization and nature, geometry and organicity, ‘European’ and ‘native’ leading to ‘cimento’ and ‘caniço’ during the Portuguese colonisation. The struggle for independence and the following civil war catalyzed an ever increasing opposition between formal and informal, high and low, dense and open, rich and poor, but also stressed the interdependence between them. As the city keeps growing seemingly uncontrollably the balance between these contrasts slowly gets disrupted, leading to an exclusion of a high percentage of the population.

To expand in a sustainable way the urban dynamics such as densification and transformation should be guided by infrastructural developments based on the physical specificities of places. The landscape provides valuable information on how urban change can be embedded in its local geography. Our hypothesis is that a reinterpretation of the implicit landscape to make it explicit could guide such transformations to a more sustainable future.

Only in this way can the development of the city be uncompromised and can the geographic location restore its original function as raison d’être for the city.

Port of Lourenço Marques, ca 1900. The geographical accessability for large vessels was the reason the Portuguese settled here in the

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Structure of the books This masterthesis consists of four separate books. The first book aims to unfold the strong relation between landscape and city in order to support a framework that systematically deconstructs the interplay of the city with water and forest systems. At the same time it critically explores how the further development of the city can be embedded within and as much work with as benefit from the dynamic characteristics of the landscape.

The second book is more of a leaflet which represents our reading of the landscape with regard to the interplay of water and forestsystems as a tool to structure the city. A conceptual section summarizes our vision and demonstrates a possible scenario for the future.

Book three will look at the water situation in Maputo and explore to what extent an alteration of the most problematic water cycle can positively influence urban dwelling in the expanding city. An infrastructural intervention in one particular flood-prone area aims to explore the opportunities a more sustainable water management can offer for the intensification of urban agriculture. The struggle against water is converted into a symbiotic coexistence alongside it.

The last book is an investigation into the renewed structure between high and low and serves as a pars pro toto for the exploration of the eastern hillside as a whole. The relation between urbanization and the lowlying floodplain, and how the vegetation resonates with it, is differing in intensity; sometimes strong, sometimes weak. As such it can become a new green landscape infrastructure for Maputo.

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0 Preface

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16

Preface Structure of the Books

12 14

I

20

Situating

Mozambique Climate and Climate Change Precipitation Rivers Vegetation Maputo City

22 26 26 30 32 34

II

Geographical Context

45

III

A Geographical History

61

IV V

Underlayers Topography Geology

Timeline Charts Post Colonial Era

Maputopia[?]

66 70 80

85

Present Developments Road Expansion Network Katembe Masterplan Maputo Waterfront

Landscape in the Urban Tissue Samples

Polana Cimento B Mafalala Inhagoia B Ferroviario Laulane Magoanine

Epilogue Bibliography

46 50 56

86 90 96 104

109 110 112 116 120 124 128 132 137 142

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SITUATING

I

Maputo

20

I Situating

Left: Mozambique and its most important cities.

Right: Mozambique in its African context.

0 100

350

850 km

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MOZAMBIQUE

Between the first and the fifth century Bantuspeaking clans migrated from the west and north to the coastal areas of South-Eastern Africa currently known as Mozambique. They established agricultural communities and societies based on herding cattle and got involved in trading activities with subsequently Swahili clans, Arabs and Persians, who held a belt of trading posts along the East-African coast for the next couple of centuries. During the age of discovery the Portuguese started to interfere with the power balance in the Indian ocean by overthrowing the Arabic commercial and military hegemony. From about 1500 they installed trading posts and forts of their own as stopovers on the new European sea route to the east.

Only few individual settlers penetrated deeper into the interior territory, looking for gold. Real organized settlements didn’t really appear and from 1700 the Arabs regained a lot of their former territories, driving the Portuguese back south and thus making their influence in the region almost negligible. Around this time the colonial ambitions of the Dutch, French and British in Southern Africa increased significantly which led in the early 18th century to the first European settlements in the region. Finally in 1781 the Portuguese established a permanent settlement of their own, Lourenço Marques, named after one

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I Situating

of the early navigators. [Jenkins, 2000] The local community thrived and the colony expanded, being considered an ‘overseas province’ of the Portuguese realm. The country was under Portguese rule until its independence in 1975 when Portugal was forced to give up Mozambique as a colony due to the ‘Estado Novo’ dictatorial regime being overthrown.

The country is, in clockwise direction, bounded by: the Indian Ocean, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Mozambique has 2470km of coastline and a surface area of approximately 800,000 km2. Due to its geographical position and the proximity of the ocean Mozambique has always been a key player in international transport routes from the harbours on the Mozambican coast to its neighbouring countries. This the main reason why almost the entire Mozambican population lives along this coastline and the biggest cities are situated here as well. Maputo, in the utmost south of the country, is the capital city and has the largest numbers of inhabitants and population density. Nowadays, about 2.5 million people live in the Greater Maputo Area and this number is still increasing. Statistics predict a continuing exponential growth to 4 million people by 2035. [INE, 2014]

Right: Mozambican stamp designed in honor of the Portuguese president when he visited the country, 1939. Next page: Maputo seen from across the bay.

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CLIMATE AND CLIMATE CHANGE PRECIPITATION Mozambique has a tropical to subtropical climate with two seasons, a warm wet season from October to March and a cooler, dry season from April to September. [Faria & Gonçalves, 1968]. The further south the more distinguishable the difference between both seasons becomes. The amount of rainfall in the wet season depends on the altitude and the geographical position. The highest precipitation rates occur in central Mozambique and along the coast; they decrease further north and south. During the wet season tropical storms and cyclones occasionally hit the Mozambican coast, however not all of them necessarily cause severe damage.

an annual rainfall over 1000mm. In 1984 the total amount of rainfall got as high as 1261.3mm and in 2000 it even reached 1600.6mm, causing severe floods in the low-lying bairros of Maputo. In only four days 502.1mm was registered due to a tropical depression that became trapped and remained stationary for a rather long time, causing continuous rains that raised the groundwater tables. It was this rainfall that was responsible for problems of landslides on densely inhabited slopes that were not constructed in a resilient way. The unsustainability of the situation became clear by the emergence of gully erosion as a consequence of the same problem [Vicente, 2011].

The combined effect of high urban population density with season-related factors can be worsened by climate change. Consequently, the risk of severe impact on the urban poor will increase, especially considering their incapacity to improve their dwellings or move to safer areas [da Conceição Junior, Spaliviero, 2009].

Maputo has a steppe climate with temperatures ranging between 24 degrees in the dry season and 31 degrees in the wet season. The normal annual precipitation rate for the city is approximately 720mm.

However, there have been some years recorded with 350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0 1908

26

1913

1918 1921

I Situating

1935

1941

1953

1965

1972

1984

2000

Left: Maximum daily rainfall in Maputo between 1907 – 2000. Right: Precipitation in Mozambique, depending on the topography.

400mm 0 20

80

200 km

2000mm

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30

I Situating

0 20

80

200 km

Rovuma

Lurio

Zambezi

RIVERS Of the 104 Mozambican river basins the nine biggest are internationally shared. Being the downstream riparian state on all of them means that the country has no complete control over quantity nor quality of the water. The majority of the rivers have a torrential regime and evacuate water from the central African plateau into the Indian Ocean. They have high waters during 3-4 months and low flows for the remainder of the year corresponding to the marked wet and dry seasons [Tauacale, 2002].

The South is substantially dryer than the North. Southern rivers are characterized by low runoff coefficients due to high evaporation losses and significant water abstraction in the upstream countries. Most basins are wide and shallow with large floodplane areas and a high flow variability, hence water availability in these basins is reduced and increases the water vulnerability of the southern region [World Bank, 2007].

Save

Limpopo

Previous page: Limpopo river during the The indicated ones have a catchment area

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VEGETATION The big cities in Mozambique are mainly situated along the coast and occupy only a fraction of the total surface area of the country. Vegetation on the other hand occupies about 70%. On the vegetation map, we notice that the main part consists of deciduous and evergreen forests. In general, the inland regions are more densely vegetated because of difficult access of the Northen inland plateaus and the mountain ranges near the Zimbabwean border. According to a study of the Mozambican National Directorate of Lands and Forests in 2007, the forest cover surface is 40.1 million hectares, 51% of the country. Half of these forests are considered ‘productive forests’ that are logged on a regular basis for timber wood or other commercial purposes. The other parts are conservation forests (27%) or multiple-use forests (17%) [DNTF, 2007] Maputo province has the lowest forest cover rate (3%) of the country, mainly due to wood harvesting during the civil war.

The majority of the vegetation consists of field crops and smaller groups of deciduous forests. Since the independence in 1975, large forest areas in the Greater Maputo Area have disappeared.

During the civil war (1975-1992) a lot of people fled to the city and used the wood from the surrounding forests as fuel for cooking etc. Over the past 40 years the situation has worsened.

Before the war numerous forests were found approximately 30 km away from the city. Nowadays charcoal and fuelwood have to be imported from Chokwe, Inhambane or Chicualacuala on the Zimbabwean border, almost 550 km from Maputo. These logging activities are actually illegal and a threat to the still existing forests.

Moreover Mozambique lacks large scale working afforestation and reforestation programmes that can reduce the scarcity of wood and restore the forest cover as a self renewing ecological reference [Sitoe et al, 2012].

Deciduous forest Evergreen forest Field crops Shifting cultivation forest

Grasslands Shrublands Urban areas

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I Situating

Right: Vegetation cover map with precipitation lines based on forest cover map provided by DNTF.

Chicualacuala

Inhambane Chokwe

0 20

80

200 km

Forest cover decrease since 1975

Precipitation lines

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MAPUTO CITY

Maputo province is situated in the southernmost part of the country and doesn’t include Maputo City, which is administered as a separate province.

Therefore Matola, situated more to the west, is the capital of Maputo province. Maputo City lies protected from the Indian Ocean by Maputo Bay, which is bordered by rio Incomati in the north, Inhaca island and the Machangulo peninsula in the east, the EstuĂĄrio do EspĂ­rito Santo in the west and the mouth of rio Maputo in the south.

The 40 km from Maputo City to Inhaca Island are considered biological heritage. It is possible to admire magnificent multicolored corals, spot sea turtles, experience a diversity of marine mammals and catch shrimps and fish. The geographical position made from Maputo a harbour of great importance for the surrounding countries and constitutes the motor for its economy. In spite of a number of shallows the bay is accessible to large vessels at all seasons of the year. This explains the big interest of the Portuguese after discovering the bay and the reason for its development until today.

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I Situating

Right: Maputo City, situated along the bay. Left: Maputo province and Maputo Municipality.

Next pages: Avenida Eduardo Mondlane in the city center, Maputo city hall with statue of former president Samora Machel, the cement city seen from bairro Mafalala, Maputo seen from the estuary of Rio Infulene.

EN 1

EN 4

Rio Incomati

Matola

Maputo

Maputo Bay Inhaca

Boane

Machangulo

Bela Vista Rio Maputo

Indian Ocean

0 2

Elephant Reserve

8

20 km

Maputo Municipality

Province

Paved road

Sand road

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GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT

II

UNDERLAYERS

This second chapter deals with the specific properties and characteristics of the landscape in and around Maputo. Topography, geology and hydrology form the basis on which the landscape analysis is anchored.

Maputo is the capital of a country with an exponentially growing population. The population density is about five times greater than planned [E.M. Vicente et al, 2006]. In order to guide the city towards a sustainable future, the implications imposed by landscape and geology are important factors that should not be underestimated. In general they hold intrinsic characteristics that can restore/requalify the landscape to make it resilient and receptive for sustainable urban development and thus suggest ways to cope with nowadays frequently occurring problems like landslides, coastal erosion, groundwater pollution and inappropriate waste management.

46

II Geographical context

Urban structure

Topography

Geology

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48

II Geographical context

Maputo City itself is situated in the low-lying plain along the coast. The city’s topography is marked by an asymmetrical north-south oriented sand ridge. High and low elongated areas alternate in the east-west direction towards the Lebombo mountain range on the South African border.

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TOPOGRAPHY A big sand ridge constitutes the spine of the city and stretches in the north-south direction, flanked by two lower-lying areas: a large floodplain that gradually slopes down towards the ocean in the east and the Infulene river valley with her natural floodplain in the west. The sand ridge originates in the southernmost point of the city with a height of about 60 meters and expands in the direction of the Infulene valley to eventually become a plateau. This plateau continues to the west and eventually merges with the Lebombo Mountains on the border with South Africa.

From east to west we can differentiate several geomorphological structures. A tidal zone that mainly consists of wetlands where deposits and sediments are accumulated and that at the same time forms the preferred habitat for mangrove. Dunes with a maximum height of 8 meters which are nowadays severely affected by coastal erosion and human activities, followed by the eastern escarpment which bridges the height difference between the floodplain and the centrally situated Ponta Vermelha sand ridge. Finally, the sand ridge that inclines slightly to the West in the direction of the valley of Rio Infulene. The next pages give an impression of these geomorphological structures.

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II Geographical context

Topographical map of Maputo

0 0,5

1,5

3 km

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3

1

5

2

4

52

II Geographical context

6

1. Valley of Rio Infulene 2. Mafalala depression 3. Magoanine depression 4. Ponta Vermelha sand ridge 5. Eastern escarpment 6. Floodplain

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1 Agriculture along the valley of Rio Infulene

2 Canal drainage system in bairro Mafalala

3 Flood event in the Magoanine depression

4 Gully erosion on the eastern escarpment

5 Formal urban tissue on top of the sand ridge

GEOLOGY The majority of the geological formations in the greater Maputo Area are sandy tertiary and quaternary dunes with a very low clay content. In a few specific regions, like the valley of Rio Infulene, the sandy soil contains higher concentrations of clay and alluvial deposits. However, in general this sandy soil is loose and normally consolidated. The development of the dune fields along the Mozambican coast are resulting from regression and transgression events. Regression periods occurred in combination with cold and dry climatic conditions while the transgressions are associated with hot and wet climate and with the presence of sandy and gravelly deposits, as well as with periods of intense weathering [Momade et al., 1996].

Maputo nowadays still has to cope with an enormous population growth and corresponding land pressure.

People settle on slopes, in floodplains and other flood prone areas resulting in a decreasing vegetation cover and increasing paved surface area. This is one of the main causes of landslides and slope instability. In the following paragraph the main formations appearing in and around Maputo will be discussed along with their characteristics and origin.

The Ponta Vermelha formation equals the sand ridge which stretches in the north-south direction.

This formation is constituted in the upper part by ferruginous sandstones and red silty sand grading down into yellow to white sand and is remarkably uniform in its composition. Locally the sand and stones are conglomerated with iron oxides giving rise to horizons of red ferruginous crust with a depth of 3 to 5 m. The Malhazine formation is part of the interior dune cordon and consists of coarse- to finegrained sands, poorly consolidated with whitish to reddish colours. The dunes have visible expression and

are longitudinal in type, reaching up to 30 meters in height, with ridges systematically oriented north-west.

The intradune depressions are filled with very fine white sands and are also oriented north-west attaining several kilometers in extension. The fact that the crests of these dunes are parallel to those occurring at the surface of Ponta Vermelha Formation suggests that both were affected by a similar wind regime, and that the reddish intercalations in the Malhazine Formation could result from the remobilization of the Ponta Vermelha Formation.

The Congolote Formation consists mainly of internal dunes comprised of poorly consolidated aeolian silica sands with brownish, yellow, orange and whitish tones, fine- to medium-grained. These dunes are located not far from the present shoreline but they are not part of the active dune system. The Congolote Formation is considered to be the lateral equivalent of the Malhazine Formation in terms of age, as they show the same morphological pattern comprising alternating longitudinal dunes and elongated depressions, thus they are probably from the same dune cordon. The elongated hills are not derived from dune migration, but rather from consecutive dune formation along a migrating shoreline. Migration of the shoreline denotes a regressive movement.

Finally, the coastal dune cordon forms the Xefina Formation and comprises quicksand, very loose saturated sand, white in colour. The beach sands, generally unconsolidated, originate from the combined action of fluvial supply, wind, sea waves, tidal and along-shore currents. Unlike the red and brown colours of the internal dunes, the recent dunes have white, light grey or yellowish colours [Vicente, 2011].

Section AA’

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II Geographical context

Geological map of the Greater Maputo Area, Oliveira et al, 1996.

A

A’ 4

1

3

2

Congolote

Alluvial deposits

0 0,5

2

4 km

Malhazine

Intradune deposits

Ponta Vermelha

Flooding area

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1

2 Left: Machava formation in the valley of Rio Infulene, Vermelha formation, intradune unit with white sand in

58

II Geographical context

3

4

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A GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

III

62

III A geographical history

Left: Maputo (Lourenรงo Marques) seen from the Ponta Vermelha sand ridge towards the Baixa, 1881. Right: Maputo from the same point of view, 1968.

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URBAN STRUCTURE

A lot has already been written about the establishment and history of Maputo City. Therefore it is not within the scope of this thesis to reconstruct the general evolution of the city over time, but rather to provide a light reading in relation with the geographical aspects that were illustrated in the previous chapter: geology and topography.

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III A geographical history

Urban structure

Topography

Geology

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1887 1876 First Portuguese settlements raised to town status

Maputo receives the status of city, introduction of a new urban plan for the enlargement of the city by major Antonio José de Araujo (see pages 72-73)

1925 Planta Geral de Cidade e Porto de Lourenço Marques

1912 Cadastro Geometrico de Lourenço Marques (see pages 74-75)

1933 ‘Estado Novo’, Portuguese dictatorial regime opposed on the colonies

1895 Construction of the Transvaal railway to Pretoria

1898 Lourenço Marques becomes the capital of the Portuguese Province Moçambique

1870

1880

1890

1900

1910

1920

1930

Portuguese Colonial Period

Portuguese Crown 66

III A geographical history

Estado Novo Portuguese dictatorial regime

1940

1952 Plano Geral de Urbanização de Lourenço Marques, Arq. João Aguiar (see pages 76-77) Population

1992

Greater Maputo Area

The General Peace Accords signed in Rome make an end to the civil war

2.500.000

1969 PDULM - Plano Director de Urbanização de LM, Eng. M. Azevedo (see pages 78-79)

1960 Industrial ‘boom’ in Matola.

Important industry and port for resources coming from South Africa and Swaziland.

1985 PEM - Plano de Estrutura de Maputo

2008

2.000.000

PEUMM - Plano de Estrutura Urbano do Municipio de Maputo

Maputo City

1975

1.500.000

1.000.000

Moçambique gains independence and start of the civil war

500.000

0 1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

Civil war period

Portuguese second republic (Eduardo Mondlane FRELIMO)

Samora Machel

2010

Democratic Period

Joaquim Chissano

Armando Guebuza

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CHARTS The following maps demonstrate the expansion of the city since its formation. Was the urban expansion underpinned by topographical logics or did people settle in a rather random pattern? These charts give an overview of Maputo’s growth in relation to the specific landscape conditions of the area and the corresponding structural plans. The chart on the right page illustrates the implementation of the first permanent Portuguese settlements along the bay in 1876.

These settlements were situated in a marshy area where decades later Maputo’s lower cement city or Baixa was established.

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III A geographical history

Right: First settlements in 1876. Previous page: Maputo skyline with the sub- and peri-urban areas in the background, 2006.

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Eucalyptus plantations

1887 When Maputo attained the status of city in 1887, the layout of the streets was an orthogonal grid in the lower lying coastal area. Plano Araujo is often referred to as the first real urban plan for the city and forms the basis of several incoherent urban development attempts until a new plan was drafted in 1952 [Vanin, 2013]. Large squares, orthogonal streets and geometric shapes created a matrix that was superimposed on the local landscape conditions. However, a green sequence of Eucalyptus plantations, natural landscape and jardims intersects this matrix, following the topography of the escarpment that separates the Baixa from the higher areas. The Eucalyptus trees were mainly used to drain the marshy area in order to gain more arable land close to the sea. The green structure forms the demarcation line between the higher grounds that are still in their natural condition and the existing urban center where vegetation had to make way for urban development.

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III A geographical history

Green escarpment

Orthogonal city expansion

Existing urban center

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First informal settlements Bushes

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III A geographical history

New ring road

Indigenous settlements Construction project in Caniço

1912 As more and more Portuguese citizens emigrated to Mozambique, the city required expansion. The existing matrix was therefore extended with as little alterations as possible. The orthogonal street grid that gradually expanded up to the new ring road marked the boundary between cimento and caniço and is still visible today due to its circular shape. At that time the higher areas were mainly inhabited by smaller groups of indigenous people who lived in thatched huts, except for an orthogonal expansion of the grid that tried to incorporate the Ponta Vermelha formation as a part of the city. Only a single construction project was carried out in the caniço on top of the sand ridge on the place where nowadays the Eduardo Mondlane University is situated. The native vegetation in the caniço was a combination of bushes with larger tree species which these indigenous people used as fuelwood. The first consolidation of informal settlements arose west of the grid in locally very low areas. The reason why these informal settlements are situated west of the cement city is probably because the main access road from South Africa was situated on this side. On this map the slope in the Cimento is clearly visible separating high and lower city, however it is remarkable that further north this slope isn’t indicated.

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1952 The population in the outskirts of the city keeps growing from 1915 onwards. People also started to settle further away from the city center and the access roads. The valley of rio Infulene became more popular because of its fertile soils which were ideal for agricultural activities and at the same time more and more informal settlements arose on top of the sand ridge because of the favorable geographical position. The new structural plan, plano Aguiar, was drafted to correspond to the increasing population density but actually it was a modernistic and quite unrealistic plan not at all in accordance with the urban dynamics at that time.

Plano Aguiar proposed a large formal expansion to the north both on top of the sand ridge and in the low-lying floodplain along the Indian Ocean. This new part of the city would be intersected by a park strip as an extension of the existing Ponta Vermelha green belt. To the west the existing city would expand by constructing a second ring road separating the indigenous settlements from the cimento by a linear sequence of the graveyard of Lhanguene, the railway, airport and industry that should have functioned as a buffer between the two. This expansion was quite unrealistic as a lot of people already inhabited the lower areas just outside the first ring road and it would be impossible to relocate them [Vanin, 2013]. Also, the expansion proposed a new hospital and residential areas located in the local topographical depression whereas the surrounding (slightly higher and thus more favorable) areas are drawn as vacant land.

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III A geographical history

Airport

Area for indigenous settlements Second ring road

Industry

Formal expansion separated by park strip

Vacant land

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Matola

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III A geographical history

Katembe

City center

Linear expansion along the slope Wetlands

1969 The surface area of the informal settlements kept expanding within the same trend as the decades before. The higher areas on the sand ridge became more popular but also the local depressions in the topography on top of this sand ridge attracted a lot of people because of agricultural opportunities. However after 1975, when the civil war broke out, a dramatic population growth overwhelmed the city and the sub-urban areas filled up quickly. The concentration of people in the cimento is clearly visible, forcing people to settle further north and in the direction of neighbouring city Matola. The structure of the Ponta Vermelha sand ridge can be distinguished on this map due to a linear sequence of settlements along the slope, marking the boundary of the wetlands along the Indian Ocean. Katembe across the bay stays relatively unpopulated.

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POST-COLONIAL ERA

Shortly after the proclamation of independence in 1975, a long and bloody civil war broke out in Mozambique with numerous confrontations between RENAMO, a rebel militia that got financial support from Zimbabwe and South Africa, and FRELIMO, the ruling party at the time, led by president Samora Machel. About one million people died during the war, and at its peak around 5 million people were on the run, a major part of which fled to the capital Maputo in the south where the atmosphere was less agitated.

Between 1975 and 1992 Maputo saw its population grow exponentially, with more and more people settling in the suburban areas of the city. The population grew to 755,000 by 1980, a 97% growth in about 10 years [Jenkins, 2000]. The new Marxist-leninist government was faced with the task to restructure the Mozambican territory and the big cities. From that time on the country could finally focus on its own needs instead of colonial interests, as was the case over the past few centuries [Vanin, 2013]. The persistent inward migration, lack of infrastructure and the low priority for investments in housing developments led to the spontaneous occupation of land in peri-urban areas [Jenkins, 2000].

This land occupation did not only occur as close as possible to the city but also in areas that are sensitive to

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erosion and floods, like slopes, river valleys and local intradune depressions. These settlements, together with the lack of decent infrastructure, are nowadays the main cause of many environmental problems like erosion, landslides and groundwater pollution.

Maputo stands for the difficult task to supply all of its inhabitants who are living in the sub- and peri-urban areas with infrastructure and basic facilities. These huge expansion areas can’t be ignored any longer, they have become a substantial part of the city. During the colonial rule a clear physical and racial separation could be noticed between the actual city centre with orthogonal street layout on one hand, home to the Portuguese population, and the suburban areas on the other hand, where the indigenous people lived in mostly thatched huts. The dichotomy arose between the cimento or cement city and the caniço or reed city. Nowadays, the separation between both has faded, and both terms are outdated and becoming more and more irrelevant. The city needs a new vision in order to expand and densify in a controlled way.

Taking landscape as an underlay to underpin new developments can be an valuable start in the long road towards a more structured and sustainable city.

People celebrating the independence of Mozambique, 1975.

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2014 Nowadays the sub- and peri-urban areas have filled up almost completely. The city keeps expanding to the north towards the town of Marracuene. Because of this urbanization pressure people also started settling in prone areas like flood plains, slopes and river valleys. New large infrastructural interventions are planned in an attempt to structure the ever expanding city and its surroundings, including a colonisation of underdeveloped areas across the bay.

These new developments impose a completely new logic based on accessibility and generic expansion of the city.

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MAPUTOPIA [?]

IV

PRESENT DEVELOPMENTS After the exodus of the Portuguese colonizers Maputo entered a phase of dissension and started a search focussed on re-establishing a Mozambican identity.

The turbulent civil war period was, partly because of the difficult circumstances, accompanied by a growing indifference towards urbanism and spatial planning. The immense influx of refugees from the northern provinces induced a chaotic urban sprawl, and people settled in unfavorable areas without much coordination. After the war NGO’s were among the first organizations to return to the region in order to help repair social and infrastructural damage and assist people that were affected by the struggles. The situation slowly improved from then on, and nowadays the economy is booming and Mozambique’s GDP grows at one of the highest rates in the world [World Bank, 2013]. Foreign investors show an increasing interest again in the city and its limitless potentials.

Also tourists are starting to discover the beautiful Mozambican beaches and associated easygoing way of life as holiday resorts and hotels are popping up along the entire coastline. These dynamics imply that the physical environment, especially that of the capital Maputo, is a constant subject of change.

Currently the Estrada Nacional 1 (EN1) is the only main road crossing almost the entire country connecting Northern Mozambique with its southerly located capital. It starts close to Nampula but is in a relatively bad condition for the first thousand kilometres or so. As it approaches Maputo and the crossroads with the EN4 leading towards the South African border the number of tourists and coastal holiday resorts increase. At the same time the quality of the road goes up correspondingly due to South African investments and a clear concession of the EN4, which is an important economic corridor between the two countries. The EN1, on which a large percentage of the poor population depends for informal economic activities, leads through the congested and chaotic

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suburbs of Maputo, where no distinction between vehicular and pedestrian traffic exists. This means that going from Mozambique to South Africa implies passing through the capital and thus losing hours in traffic jams or driving at walking pace, while at the same time obstructing local traffic as well. An extension of the road infrastructure as well as an upgrade of the existing facilities is highly necessary in order to allow a decongestion of traffic on the roads of the capital while at the same time facilitating the access for Matola and Marracuene inhabitants through flexible links as an alternative for this EN 1. The railway that connects the cement city with South Africa and the northern areas could be another important alternative to decrease (car) traffic congestion given its capacity to transport big masses of people. Nowadays the train network is in decay and used by only a small number of people, merely merchants and laborers working in the cement city and living in the northern peri-urban areas where no chapa (public transport) routes are yet developed. The choice for car traffic over railway traffic is remarkable because a single train ride within the urban area costs only 5 Metical (10 eurocent).

However the reason for this infrequent use could be the fact that the train only runs a few times a day and time schedules are not adapted to the working hours of the laborers [Fieldwork UEM, 2006].

The area south of Maputo across the bay is quite uninhabited and unspoilt. It hosts the Katembe district, which is difficult to reach coming from the north as a small and overcrowded ferry boat is the only real transport connection. Even more south lies the Maputo Elephant Reserve, a protected natural habitat for different animal species including elephants, crocodiles and birds. It currently doesn’t live up to its touristic potential due to a lack of serious access roads.

Even from the south there’s only a dirt road leading up to Ponta do Ouro, a touristic destination between the reserve and the border with South Africa.

Right: Maputo Municipality and the connections to its neighbouring countries today. Next page: Impressions of the highways entering Maputo nowadays.

Johannesburg

Northern Mozambique

EN 1

EN 4

Boane

EN 2

Swaziland Bela Vista

Ponta de Ouro Durban Country border

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ROAD NETWORK EXPANSION At the moment a new highway is being constructed that will encircle the Maputo municipality while also connecting the capital with its sister municipality Matola in the west and the Marracuene district in the north. The project is supervised by the Chinese Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). The cost for the implementation of the ring road was estimated at 315 million dollars, of which the Chinese Exim Bank will provide 300 million dollars as a loan. The remaining will be financed by the Mozambican government [Macauhub, 2012]. In exchange the contract for the construction was thus granted to CRBC who also brought Chinese work forces to the Mozambican capital for the construction. The Maputo Ring Road project is divided into 6 sections (S): S1 is situated on the Avenida Marginal from the Radisson Hotel to the Costa do Sol restaurant. The length of this section is 6.3km. S2 is the extension of S1 and goes straight north for about 20km in the direction of Marracuene. S3 runs

for approximately 10km, connecting S2 with the EN1 at the level of Zimpeto Stadium. S4 is the rehabilitation of the current EN1 between Zimpeto stadium and the Marracuene district over a distance of 15,5km. S5 is the extension of S3 and provides a shortcut to avoid the traffic in Maputo as well as Matola and facilitates the connection with South Africa. The 6th and last section connects Matola with the harbour as a new road for easy transport of resources. Everyday 320 trucks drive between South Africa and Maputo to transport natural resources to the port. Besides its excellent geographical position, one of the main advantages of the port is that cargo can go back and forth between Maputo and Johannesburg in just one day [Hedley, 2012]. By providing a separate route for this type of transport the big trucks will be avoided on the other entryroads, relieving overall traffic between Matola and Maputo city.

Marracuene

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EN 4

Matola Maputo EN 2

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S4

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If we take a closer look at the implementation of the new ring road it seems to be superimposed on the city without considering local landscape and topographical alterations. The following sections show the different implementations based on the landscape conditions. Section S3 connects the Zimpeto stadium with the floodplain. It is designed as a four-lane highway as an alternative for the existing EN1. Section S2 cuts straight through the low-lying floodplain along the Indian Ocean and will therefore be constructed as a small dike to prevent the road from flooding. This embankment will separate fragile interdependant ecosystems and disturb the agri- and horticultural activities that depend on the water from the inlets along the coast. Fishermen living in Bairro dos Pescadores where the ring road will be implemented will lose their place along the ocean and will have to relocate further inland. Section S1 is the rehabilitation of the Avenida Marginal which is nowadays strongly affected by coastal erosion.

The new avenue will be a combination of a four-lane road with a walking promenade dedicated to leisure and tourism. However, the question is how long this small strip of coast will be able to withstand future coastal erosion due to the rising sea level and other climatic variables, and how realistic the seaside boulevard will turn out to be considering the fact that the shoreline is completely separated from the city by a 32m wide highway.

Section S3

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Right: Maputo main roads, including the new Ring Road. Next page: Ring Road under construction at the level of section S3, 2013.

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KATEMBE MASTERPLAN The connection between Maputo City and Katembe is a second project that will soon be launched. According to the Mozambican government this relatively untouched area is apparently the perfect place for a generic urban expansion where foreign investors can built a new city from scratch. The Mozambican population is expected to double in the next three decades with a non-stop flow of people to the capital. The country’s recent discovery of huge natural gas resources could stimulate the economy and create more jobs for these people, and building a new town across the bay could be a (temporary) answer to the influx if managed well, however attention should be paid to the scenario in which foreign investors and multinationals use their investments in the new city district as leverage for the negotiation of a lucrative deal concerning the export of gas. The northern periurban areas have more growth potential anyway, if the government would invest more in public services, legalization of land-own rights and family planning [Center for Democracy and Civil Society, 2012].

In a first phase of the project an enormous bridge will be constructed, linking the new Maputo ring road to the Katembe mainland. Until now the only direct connection was a small ferry going back and forth regularly between the two. The dependency on good weather conditions and unpredictable time schedule protected Katembe from urbanization (only 20.000 inhabitants). The bridge however will drastically improve accessibility and will be the starting point for future infrastructural developments across the bay. The total cost is estimated at 565 million dollars, provided as a loan by the Chinese Exim Bank (again). Four toll gates will be installed to help pay off the loan [AidData, 2011].

Furthermore three new road sections are projected.

40km between Katembe and the settlement of Bela Vista, 63km between Boane and Bela Vista and 75km between Bela Vista and Ponta do Ouro, a very touristic beach destination in the utmost south of Mozambique.

This scubadiving paradise is almost exclusively visited

by South Africans who cross the border for an oceanside holiday. Currently the place is only accessible by 4x4 for anyone coming from the north. Since Mozambique is trying to expand its touristic sector the rehabilitation of the existing dirt road is consequently very important.

Once completed the new road will simultaneously link Katembe (and because of the bridge by extension Maputo) with the highway towards Durban.

A second phase is the preparation of Katembe for hosting ‘Maputo South’, a new part of the city projected to host 400.000 inhabitants by 2040. The masterplan for this new development has already been approved and incorporates housing, commerce, industry, services, tourism and leisure. Especially the tourism activities will be exploited since this sector has a large growth potential and more and more tourists are finding their way to the country, contributing to the Mozambique economy. The diagram below shows the different facilities with their occupancy rate in the Katembe masterplan.

The masterplan for a new Katembe seems to be the next financial hub for the Frelimo ruling government with China as an ally in the construction of this megalomaniac urban development project. According to Alberto Nhone, local head of the regional urbanization department in Katembe, the Mozambican government is already talking about moving the national parliament and other official institutions across the bay, building a ‘Chinatown’ financed by not only the Chinese government but also smaller private companies. The implementation of the masterplan will eventually imply the relocation of 245 families currently living in the projected construction site. However, not everyone is upset with the imminent expropriation as this could offer the possibility of obtaining formal land rights by moving to areas that are planned conform the urban plans approved by the state [Nielsen, 2013].

6,1% 11,7% 3,1% 58,9%

20,3%

Housing Collective facilities Industry and logistics Tourism Commerce and services

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Right: Map of the Greater Maputo Area with projection of the new masterplan for Katembe and the new roads. Next page: impressions of Katembe nowadays.

Johannesburg

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Marraquene

Katembe Boane

Swaziland Bela Vista

Ponta de Ouro Durban Country border

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Impressions of the Katembe project presenting the city as an international touristic destination with leisure, hotel and residential facilities for the wealthy tourist. Images by Betar, 2012.

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MAPUTO WATERFRONT

The Maputo Waterfront development is a 272.000m2 real estate project in downtown Maputo, along the bay. A competition was launched to design this huge piece of vacant land with a high density mixture of hotels, offices, housing, several commercial facilities including a 50.000m2 shopping center and a parking lot, all surrounded by a green urban landscape. Several international architecture practices submitted design proposals, including the Lisbon-based firms PROAP, Promontorio and Risco, and South African Mesch Architects. According to PROAP architects the intervention aims to create a coherent exterior public space which suits the various functions associated with the existing architecture. Areas range in diversity from a business district to a market square, from an urban park (Parque do Estuário do Espírito Santo) to a multifunctional urban square (Praça da Marina).

This new public space aims to take full advantage of the potential of urban life regenerated by this operation [PROAP, 2011]. The following pages gives an impression of the different competition entries for the Maputo Waterfront project.

It is remarkable that the Maputo municipality keeps on investing in concentrated megalomanic urban developments like this while the money could be better spent elsewhere. Instead of continuing to centralize economic, commercial and leisure activity in prestigious international development projects in the former cimento area these resources could be used to guide the gradual upgrading and densification

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of the currently almost neglected peri-urban areas.

There is a strong need for organized medium to large scale activities around the edges of the informal tissues in order to provide these remote areas with more amenities and restructure the surrounding urbanization in a framework of decentralized but interconnected ‘hubs’, that are to a great extent selfsufficient and sustainable without being completely independent from downtown Maputo. It has long been established that these areas already have the necessary workforce potential. The dichotomy caniço/cimento no longer applies and poor, rich, illiterate and educated live side by side in many places, implying that a large part of the local population could be put to work close to their homes, avoiding the increasing traffic congestion towards the city center and combining valuable input from the informal sector with the wellestablished economic and commercial strategies to develop a hybrid, community-based economy with a direct influence on the urban living conditions.

The rehabilitation of the road network and implementation of the new ring road could play a vital role in the creation of these new centralities IF the government would acknowledge the opportunities for urban development that they entail. Addressing several issues in an integrated solution would be both more efficient and more cost-effective in the long term, rather than just trying to solve the city’s accessibility problem separately from economical, aesthetical or expansion strategies.

Right: Situation of Maputo Waterfront project.

Next page: impressions of the competition submissions for the Maputo Waterfront project

by PROAP, Risco, Promontorio and Mesch Architects.

Maputo Waterfront

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TISSUE IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

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SAMPLES This last chapter will zoom in on 6 areas in the municipality of Maputo. These areas are chosen based on their geographical position; 2 in high urban tissue (Laulane and Polana Cimento B), 2 in low (Mafalala and Magoanine) and 2 on the transition between high and low (Inhagoia B and Ferroviario). Landscape, urban tissue and their often problematic relation will be the leitmotifs for the discussion of these samples.

High urban tissue

Magoanine

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Ferroviario Inhagoia B

On the slope

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Polana Cimento B

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POLANA CIMENTO B [1] The cement city is characterized by large orthogonal streets and avenidas aligned with Acacia and Jacaranda trees introduced by the Portuguese. The characteristic red flowers of the Red Acacia (Delonix Regia) are the reason Maputo is often referred to as ‘the city of Acacias’ or ‘city of fire trees’. Even though Maputo is a very green city, a lot of trees are old, badly maintained and are starting to fall down. An action plan for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the vegetation along the avenidas as well as the several parks must be undertaken, if not the city will gradually lose all of its trees and therewith a part of its identity. The higher part of the cimento is disconnected from the lower part (Baixa) through an escarpment that is densely vegetated, mainly with high grasses, bushes and an occasional tree. The slope starts in the Baixa where Maputo’s botanical garden or ‘Jardim Tunduru’ is situated and flows over in the eastern hillside further north.

Redundant waste water in the higher parts of the cement city flows naturally to the Baixa via the sewerage system and from there it is either pumped uphill again to the large drainage canals along Avenida Joaquim Chissano and eventually collected in a waste water treatment plant along Rio Infulene, or it directly discharges into the Maputo bay, depending on the degree of mixture between greywater and stormwater drainage systems.

5.100 inh/km2 High 80x95m - 180x180m 35-20m Red Acacia, Jacaranda, coconut

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Next page: impressions of the streets aligned with Red Acacia and view from the escarpment towards the bay.

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MAFALALA [2] Mafalala is one of the oldest bairros in the city and consists of very dense informal urban tissue. The bairro is situated close to the cement city in a local topographical depression and is often subjected to flood events during the wet season. Therefore a concrete drainage system is implemented to canalise redundant stormwater out of the bairro through a hierarchical system of canals. The water is directed to the waste water treatment plant along Rio Infulene, the only one in the entire country, with a capacity that is far from sufficient. The outline of the depression is remarkably visible in regard to the vegetation cover: where regular flooding occurs no trees are present within the urban tissue. During the colonial reign Eucalyptus trees were planted throughout the entire depression to absorb as much water as possible in order to drain the area, but most of these trees disappeared over the last decennia due to the increasing urbanization pressure. A reintroduction of this Eucalyptus tree specie could enhance the quality of the environment in terms of biodiversity, a reduction of the air pollution and as an extra source of shade and fuel wood while at the same time absorbing redundant water during the wet season. However useful Eucalyptus trees could be to relieve the water table somewhat during the wet season, their implementation could also imply the risk of extracting all the available groundwater during the dry season, thus desiccating the soil, leaving not enough water for other species to survive.

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21.000 inh/km2 low / 0,5 - 15m Avocado, banana, coconut, papaya

Next page: impressions of the drainage canal hierarchy in Mafalala and evolution of the bairro.

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Depression outline

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Original situation

Eucalyptus introduced by the Portuguese

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INHAGOIA B [3] Bairro Inhagoia is situated on the intersection of two important access roads to the city. The EN1, coming from the north, crosses the Via Rapida here alongside the old Portuguese zoo [Wambecq, 2009]. The slopes all along this important avenue are the result of the construction of access ramps from the EN1 road to the Via Rapida and vice versa. During the initial construction in the 1980s a large open drainage system was incorporated to dispose of redundant stormwater from the low-lying bairros Mafalala and Urbanização to the wastewater treatment plant in the valley of Rio Infulene. This artificial canal along the Via Rapida cuts radically through the landscape and its construction required the excavation of a considerable strip of land to be able to drain the depression solely by gravity. By cutting through the topography the gradual transition between high and low is distorted abruptly. The canal acts as a giant rupture and completely changes the logic of the landscape.

People who were previously living on a very gradual slope now suddenly faced an abyss next to their front door, outlining the edge of the inclination towards the canal. These edges are far too steep for urban tissue to develop and are therefore unbuilt. The lack of vegetation makes them vulnerable to erosion and small scale landslides caused by water runoff from the surrounding higher areas, which consist of a patchwork of formal, informal and industrial tissue.

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13200 inh/km2 Low - lower midddle / - 75-190m 1 - 17m Mango, papaya, coconut, banana

Zoo

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Via Rapida

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Industrial urban tissue

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Original situation

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Drainage canal implemented by the Portuguese

Right: Impression of the drainage canal along Avenida Joaquim Chissano

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FERROVIARIO [4] Bairro Ferroviario is a densely populated area in the proximity of a regional chapa station, a vibrant market and the railway that connects southern Mozambique with the northern provinces. The area has a specific topography as it mediates between the highest point of the sand ridge and the low-lying floodplain, occupied by Maputo’s golf course in this case. Two types of urban tissue can be distinguished, a more formal tissue with street widths of approximately 17m situated on the sand ridge, and a more informal tissue situated on the slope between the sand ridge and the ocean. The floodplain itself comprises both crop fields and informal settlements occupying the lowest areas, fully aware of the severe flood risk. During the floods of february 2000 this area suffered under a lot of precipitation and runoff water from higher areas, resulting in severe problems of landslides and gully erosion. The main cause of these specific problems is the land use pressure and increasing urbanization by people who don’t have access to safer land. The gullies are at some points almost 15m deep and cut through this dense informal tissue from west to east. A lot of houses, mainly informal settlements, collapsed during these floods and keep collapsing until today because of further erosion. The gullies should be stabilized in order to prevent further disruption of the side walls, causing even more damage to the surrounding tissue.

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11800 inh/km2 Low - middle 50x190m 1 - 17m Mango, papaya, lemon, orange, mafura

Next page: Impressions of the gully erosion problems

Formal urban tissue with large plots and streets

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Soil deposits from the gully

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LAULANE [5] Bairro Laulane is situated on top of the sand ridge in the periurban areas. The sample shows the confrontation between formal and informal urban tissue and how they interconnect.

The formal tissue was implemented by the government for the average middle class and consists of square building blocks of 56x56m organized in an orthogonal grid pattern. These building blocks group a number of large plots of approximately 28x16m that are often subdivided by the owner into smaller plots and sold to other families for extra income. The streets in this tissue show a clear hierarchy, a main street with a width of 15m on which smaller streets with a width of 7m branch off and give access to the building blocks. This recently introduced urban tissue has a dual water provision system. Until 2007 private entrepreneurs set up small businesses to provide the inhabitants of these peri-urban areas with water by pumping up groundwater because the municipal system was underdeveloped and did not reach these areas at the time. In 2007 a new distribution center in Laulane was commissioned along with an expansion of the public water provision system and nowadays both the private entrepreneurs and the formal system exist side by side, sharing the water market. The vegetation density in this area is quite low due to the larger dimensions of the streets and plots. Common species for food and shade are mango, papaya, banana, coconut, orange, lime and ‘mafura’, a local indigenous tree that can grow up to 20m tall.

6500 inh/km2 Middle 56x56m - 56x180m 7 - 15m Mango, coconut, papaya, banana, orange, lime, mafura

FIPAG

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Next page: Laulane distribution center and zoom of the different water distribution systems.

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Public water supply

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MAGOANINE [6] Magoanine is one of the newest city bairros, located the furthest away from the cement city. This peri-urban area only started to develop when victims of the floods of 2000 had to be relocated to safer land during the reconstruction. Most of the bairro consists of formally planned tissue with large plots of 15x30m. The areas that were avoided at the time because of their location in an elongated depression in the landscape slowly became occupied in the following decade. This ever increasing trend of densification and spontaneous land occupation led to an informal and organic tissue, contrasting with the formal orthogonal matrix it blends into. Now only a few sparse areas are still unoccupied because of their permanent marshy characteristics. During the wet season runoff water from the adjacent hillslopes fills the depression like a water basin, causing flood problems that return on a yearly basis due to the impossibility for the water to escape from the depression. It takes weeks, months or in extreme cases even more than a year for the water to seep into the ground, thus complicating the lives of its inhabitants who do not have the means to acquire adequate land elsewhere.

8900 inh/km2 low - middle 60x60m - 60x120m 0,5 - 10m Mango, orange, lemon, coconut, mafura, avocado, mandarin

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Next page: Impressions bairro Magoanine.

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Epilogue

Epilogue From what is shown in the previous chapters it is clear that the accentuation of the landscape can lead to a sustainable reconsideration of the city, that over the last decades always followed the logic of the landscape. This landscape is based on the interplay between geography, hydrography, topography and vegetation and thus gives rise to two different explorations regarding water and forest systems in the expanding city. Both investigations are briefly introduced on the following page.

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[1] DEALING WITH UNRESOLVED WATER CYCLES Nicolaas Van Orshoven Throughout history Maputo has coherently matriculated itself in a highly undulating relief. A northsouth oriented central sand ridge with an asymmetric slope represents the topographical center of the city. From east to west the landscape rises and falls from the mangrove forests of the Incomati estuary, over the erosive steep eastern flank of the ridge and the gentle western flank with local wet depressions, to the Infulene valley. This wavy landscape in combination with the rapid urban expansion of the city gives rise to a very context-specific water situation. The safe high places of the city quickly lead to formal consolidation with a corresponding organized water network, while still growing informal tissue fixed itself in the remaining erosive slopes and floodable lower regions, where the contrary is true. These low-lying areas often have to deal with difficult-to-manage seasonal flooding issues, pollution and water shortages that negatively affect the living conditions. On the other hand, these are the places where community identity still exists and where urban agriculture plays a prominent role in the city’s food production. A local depression in the weak western slope of the ridge forms the focus area of a draft proposal that aims to rethink the relationship between water cycle, urban agriculture, tenant and community. Instead of solely following the engineering logic that has proved its advantages and downsides in organizing the water network in other parts of the city, this thesis aims to implement intermediary organizational structures that have the potential to give the depression’s contested space a new future in which symbiotic life with the water becomes natural and productive instead of problematic and obstructive.

[2] ON AFFORESTATION AND SLOPES Laura Ysenbaardt Throughout the previous chapters it seems that the environmental problems Maputo nowadays has to deal with often are a combination of topography, specific soil conditions, a lack of vegetation and uncontrolled urbanization. In the 3rd book on afforestation and slopes, these landscape conditions are the most important factors in the way to understanding the urban tissue and its anomalies. The site where the design intervention is situated has to deal with severe erosion problems, as already briefly stated in the previous chapter. Due to lack of appropriate water drainage and vegetation in combination with a large amount of rainfall on a short period of time gully erosion occurred on the eastern hillside.

These gullies are at some points almost 15m deep and cut straight to the urban (informal) tissue. High and low are literally connected throughout these gaps. The higher city loses soil, while the lower city gains this same soil. How will the erosion define the relation between high and low? Also, how can we deal with this specific problem that includes the relation between urbanization and nature? Can we re-integrate the sand ridge as a system in which the gullies define new public spaces that overcome the disturbed relation between higher and lower city?

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Cartographic Material AGUIAR J., Plano Gereal de Urbanização de Lourenço Marques, Maputo, 1952 ARAUJO A.J., Projecto de Ampliação da Cidade, Maputo, 1887 AZEVEDO M., PDULM - Plano Director de Urbanização de LM, Maputo, 1969 FORJAZ J. et al., PEUMM - Plano de Estrutura Urbano do Municipio de Maputo, Maputo, 2008 MOMADE F.J., FERRARA M., DE OLIVEIRA J.T., Notícia explicativa da carta geológica, 2532 D3 Maputo, Maputo, 1996

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Other p 85 : Maputopia, Passade Presento Futuro, Exhibition,2012, MSA Students, Delft

Photo Credits Niet alle rechthebbenden van de gebruikte illustraties konden worden achterhaald. Belanghebbenden wordt verzocht contact op te nemen met dept. ASRO, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1/2431, B-3001 Heverlee, +32-16-321361 of via e-mail naar secretariaat@asro.kuleuven.be.

0. PREFACE p 11 : Image by authors p 12 : Wharf, Lourenço Marques, (http://www.cumberlandscarrow.co.uk/destlz.htm?http%3A//www.cumberlandscarrow.co.uk/lourencomarques.htm) [Last visited 25-04-2014] I. SITUATING p 21 : Satellite image, retrieved 09-04-2014 (http://maps.yahoo.com) (fair use) p 23 : STAMPSELECTOR, (http://stampselector.blogspot.be/2011/02/stamp-investment-tip-mozambique-1939. html) [Last visited 09-05-2014] p 24-25 : Image by authors p 26 : STODDART T., People wading through the floods, 2000 (http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0409/stoddart16. html). p 27 : Map drawn by authors based on height data derived from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM), 90 Meter horizontal resolution, (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/) p 28-29 : TSGT HUMPHRIES C., Limpopo river during floods of 2000, (http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#guid=57abfca09c89ce71f3cd72029ccddfe744e75723) p 30 : Map drawn by authors based on GIS information obtained from Verde Azul Consult p 33 : Map drawn by authors based on information obtained from DNTF, 2007 Studio Maputo

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p 36-43 : Images by authors II. GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT p 48 : AZEVEDO M., PDULM - Plano Director de Urbanização de LM, Maputo, 1969 p 52 : 3D image, retrieved 04-05-2014 from Google Earth (fair use) p 54 : Top and middle picture by author, filmstill Inundações no Magoanine A, http://videos.sapo.mz/LmFUetSlw0p1JKGt8ZKQ p 55 : Top picture by Ase Johannessen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/aseroon/5225997091/in/photostream/) , middle and bottom picture by authors p 56-57 : MOMADE F.J., FERRARA M., DE OLIVEIRA J.T., Notícia explicativa da carta geológica, 2532 D3 Maputo, Maputo, 1996 p 58 : pictures by MOMADE F.J., FERRARA M., DE OLIVEIRA J.T., Notícia explicativa da carta geológica, 2532 D3 Maputo, Maputo, 1996 p 59 : Top picture by authors, bottom picture by MOMADE F.J., FERRARA M., DE OLIVEIRA J.T., Notícia explicativa da carta geológica, 2532 D3 Maputo, Maputo, 1996 III. A GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY p 62 : LOBATO A., Lourenço Marques, Biografia da Cidade, Agência Geral do Ultramar, p. 240, Lisboa, 1970 p 63 : Source unknown p 66 : Left picture by LOBATO A., Lourenço Marques, Biografia da Cidade, Agência Geral do Ultramar, p. 239, Lisboa, 1970.

Right picture source unknown p 67 : Top picture by AGUIAR J., Plano Geral de Urbanização de Lourenço Marques, Maputo, 1952.

Emblem of Mozambique, 2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Emblem_of_Mozambique.svg).

BOLEO O., Moçambique, Pequena Monografia, Agência Geral do Ultramar,p. 144, Lisboa, 1961 Frelimo PAIGC MPLA Zapu ANC: Breaking the Chains, 1972, (http://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/201054213) p 68-69 : AmigoDia, Maputo seen from Southeast, 2006 p 71 : JENKINS, P., Xilunguine, Lourenço Marques, Maputo – structure and agency in urban form: past, present and future, University of Pretoria/Thswane, 2009 p 72-73 : ARAUJO A.J., Projecto de Ampliação da Cidade, Maputo, 1887 p 74-75 : Cadastro Geometrico de Lourenço Marques, source unknown, 1912 p 76-77 : AGUIAR J., Plano Gereal de Urbanização de Lourenço Marques, Maputo, 1952 p 78-79 : AZEVEDO M., PDULM - Plano Director de Urbanização de LM, Maputo, 1969 146

p 81 : Fronte di Liberazione del Mozambico - Frelimo, (http://www.sancara.org/2012/10/fronte-di-liberazione-del-mozambico.html) p 83 : Satellite image, retrieved 27-03-2014 (http://maps.yahoo.com) (fair use) p 88 : Top and bottom pictures by authors, middle picture by Igmar Grewar, (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31490734) p 89 : Right lower corner picture by Zug55 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/zug55/7989831052/in/set72157631056802806), other pictures by authors p 92 : Sections based on Maputo Ring Road by CRBC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MidlsBXo3KE) p 94-95 : Image by Authors p 97 : Chart based on BETAR et al., A Nove Katembe, Uma cidade para o futuro p 98 : Upper right corner picture by Zug55 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/zug55/8248961761/in/set72157631056802806), others pictures by authors p 99 : Middle picture by Zug55 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/zug55/7798858490/in/set-72157631056802806), other pictures by authors p 100-101 : Charts based on information BETA, Plano Geral de Urbanização do Distrito Municipal da Katembe, Relatório do Estudo de Impacto Ambiental, Vol. I, Sumário Executivo, September 2012 p 102 -103 : Pictures by BETAR, A Nove Katembe, Uma cidade para o futuro, 2012 p 106 : Upper left picture by PROAP, upper right by RISCO, lower left by Promontorio and lower right by Mesch Architects p 107 : Lower right corner picture by Promontorio, other pictures by PROAP IV. TISSUE IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE p 110 : Satellite images, retrieved 09-04-2014 (http://maps.yahoo.com) (fair use) p 114 : Images by authors p 115 : StormShadow, Skyscraper city, 2006, (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=388281) p 117, 119, 123 : Images by authors p126 : JOHANNESSEN A., 2009, (https://www.flickr.com/photos/aseroon/5225997091/in/photostream/) p 127 : EROSHIN A., Damages in Maputo, 2013, (http://api.ning.com/files/UZ57-5HN3sbvA-rAb0rdwpGa97LwA-1RNfSL9-DGJSoWpjGxEG0PPAxO8nitX7t8VDqV-ODKWAniDGfM*dByVKgRiOCYIzfK/3.jpeg) p 130, 134, 135 : Image by authors p 139 : Satellite image, retrieved 09-04-2014 (http://maps.yahoo.com) (fair use) Studio Maputo

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