Sustainable Neighbourhood Development Principles: A Comparison Between Sudanese Planning and Building Regulations with LEED-ND

Abstract

Neighborhoods have great potential in terms of their contribution towards sustainable development. Planning and building regulations, as compulsory legal and administrative framework, are one of the most influential aspects in achieving neighbourhood sustainability. Challenges of attaining sustainable neighbourhood in Khartoum raised the question of this research “Can the current planning and building regulations achieve sustainable neighbourhood development? To address this question, the research objective was to identify the potential of local planning and building regulations to achieve international sustainable neighbourhood principles. The adopted method was critical literature review to identify key sustainable neighbourhood design principles that might be included in planning and building regulations, also promote sustainability. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighbourhood Development (LEED-ND), was chosen as a benchmark. It is a pioneering institution in sustainable neighbourhood design and is applied worldwide. The content of current Sudanese planning and building regulations were examined against LEED-ND criteria. The results indicate that local planning and building regulations did not integrate all LEED-ND prerequisites; however they did meet many credit requirements. So, the paper recommended re-writing of planning and building regulations in Khartoum to promote and introduce sustainability principles in them. In addition, it is important to note that, local planning and building regulations should continue to evolve and improve over time regardless of the expected difficulties via inter-stakeholder collaboration and ongoing modifications.