Towards a Future Metropolitan Planning Framework for Sabha and its Surrounding Settlements in Southern Libya

Abstract

Rapid urbanization, fragmented spatial development, and mounting environmental pressures have created significant planning challenges for Sabha, the largest urban center in southern Libya. Despite its strategic geographical location as a gateway connecting Libya with the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa, Sabha continues to experience uncontrolled urban expansion, fragmented infrastructure development, institutional limitations, and the progressive loss of productive agricultural land. These challenges highlight the urgent need for a metropolitan planning approach capable of coordinating future urban growth beyond existing municipal boundaries.
      This study develops a Future Metropolitan Planning Framework for Sabha City and its surrounding settlements based on integrated spatial analysis and contemporary principles of sustainable metropolitan development. The research adopts an exploratory mixed-methods approach that combines a comprehensive review of planning literature, demographic analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based spatial assessment, field observations, and the evaluation of historical urban growth patterns. The metropolitan study area comprises Sabha together with the surrounding settlements of Samno, Ghadwa, Al-Zieghan, and Tamanhint, which collectively function as an emerging metropolitan system characterized by increasing socio-economic and spatial integration.
The spatial analysis demonstrates that the existing pattern of dispersed urban expansion has become economically inefficient, environmentally unsustainable, and increasingly difficult to manage within current institutional arrangements. The findings further reveal the emergence of a functional metropolitan structure requiring integrated governance, coordinated infrastructure investment, protection of agricultural land and groundwater resources, and a transition toward a compact polycentric urban development model.
      Based on these findings, the study proposes a strategic Future Metropolitan Planning Framework founded on six complementary planning pillars:
1.       Polycentric metropolitan spatial development.
2.       Metropolitan urban growth management.
3.       Integrated transportation and infrastructure systems.
4.       Sustainable environmental and natural resource management
5.       Economic diversification and regional competitiveness.
6.       Metropolitan governance supported by GIS-based decision-making.
The proposed framework provides a scientific and practical foundation for preparing a future Metropolitan Master Plan for Sabha while offering a transferable planning model applicable to rapidly growing cities in arid regions, particularly in southern Libya. The study contributes to advancing metropolitan planning practice by integrating spatial analysis, strategic urban planning, and sustainable regional development within a unified planning framework.