The Interpretation of Land Use Change Based on the Interplay of Place-Specific Complexity in Amman Downtown

The spread of urbanization in the developing countries including Jordan has visible impacts on the urban sprawl and land use pattern change in the cities form. Amman, the capital of Jordan, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Middle East. The drastic urbanization of Amman has resulted from the regional upheaval conflicts and waves of emigrants. It created unregulated urban sprawl and land use change in the city throughout its modern history. The land use change priorities in Amman downtown caused residents displacement and neglects their needs prioritizing the commercial revenues as the downtown holds high cultural values. The impacts of this shift has generated economic activities followed by increasing the commercial area and shrinking the residential. This research uses several data collection methods as the collectable data is either rare or unanalyzed. The processing results comes in form of tables and maps supported by descriptive analytical tools. The examined area in this chapter covers three major nodes in Amman downtown: Al Husseini Mosque Plaza, Al Saha AL Hashimiyyah (the Hashemite Plaza) and Basman Street intersection. Firstly, the research highlights the drivers behind the market shift and then analyzed the impacts on land use change from an urban point of view. A comparative framework proposed in this study illustrated the urban context based on in-depth analysis of demographic, land-use and socioeconomic indicators derived from official maps, statistics and the interpretation of the societal change in light of the semiology framework approach. The results revealed that the implemented development programs lack an effective spatial planning framework. The research provides an interpretation of land use change based on the interplay of place-specific complexity and the socioeconomic practices that shape cities’ downtown and by extension society.