Department Head: Professor Dokma Abdelali
Email: abdellali.dokma@univ-msila.dz
Phone: 035133867
Department Head’s Message:
The aim of the specialization is to train students in the field of urban planning and introduce them to the challenges, actors, and working methods of the city. It enables students to understand the scope of this specialization, which covers all urban professions. Upon completion of the program, students will develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to intervene in the city at various levels, from the neighborhood to the city territory. Students will learn about different forms of intervention, such as urban project design, rehabilitation, structuring, beautification, and the improvement and preservation of the urban space.
Students must understand the hierarchy of scales and distinguish between urban design, which focuses on public space, and urban morphology and urban planning, which integrates other related fields (urban sociology, urban economics, geography, etc.). The historical aspect of urban culture must also be highlighted, explaining how cities have responded, in different eras, to the needs, constraints, and values of each era. The contemporary aspect presents the main urban policies in Algeria and the world.
Given the complexity of the city, students must realize that urban planning goes beyond the competencies of the urban planner-designer, whose role is limited to designing/modeling urban forms and public spaces. Therefore, they must draw on other actors in the field of urban planning, such as geographers, economists, sociologists, and specialists in land and urban planning law. In developing the urban framework, they must understand market mechanisms and unconventional social practices. They must start from the specific realities of a country (such as Algeria), where the informal sector, through illegal construction and slums, represents a significant part of the urban framework. We also address major transformations in the urban model, such as the call for digitization and sustainability, through new quantitative tools and methods.
The department has more than 240 students.
The Department of City and Urban Planning was established by Decision No. 584 dated May 25, 2022, amending and supplementing Decision No. 53 dated February 24, 2010, establishing the departments comprising the Institute of Urban Technology Management at the University of M’sila.
Training objectives and content:
Develop knowledge and skills in: planning, programming, and organizing procedures and programs in their various functional dimensions, such as housing, transportation, commercial activities, and entertainment…
Acquire skills in managing and monitoring urban projects;
Possess the necessary skills to pose problems and analyze and diagnose concrete urban sites and conditions.
Proficiency in the design of large-scale and important urban projects, as well as the formation and reconfiguration of public spaces. This can be achieved by developing skills in shaping and designing public spaces, urban form, and the city.
Subjects and courses taught at the undergraduate level
