Spatial analysis of informal area: A case study of Shkoder city, Albania

• Author: Ervis Krymbi - Eriklida Shpori
• Position: Lecturer, University of Shkoder 'Luigj Gurakuqi', Faculty of Social Science - Administrator, University of Shkoder 'Luigj Gurakuqi'
• Pages: 21-33

21

Vol. 4 No.2

September 2018

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

Spatial analysis of informal area: A case study of Shkoder city, Albania

PhD Ervis Krymbi

Lecturer, University of Shkoder “Luigj Gurakuqi”, Faculty of Social Science

MSc Eriklida Shpori

Administrator, University of Shkoder “Luigj Gurakuqi”

Abstract

The problem of informal area is well established in many urban areas of Albania. This article

was carried with the objectives to determine the causes of failure of conventional land use

planning in upgrading informal se lements and the resulting spatial implications. Urban

planning in the post-socialism period is presented in this paper through the case study of

Shkoder city which has changed radically. Most of the new constructions built a er the

1990s in Shkoder were informal and consisted in individual houses built by new migrants

from rural areas. Vacant urban land at the edge of Shkoder was either o cially belonging

to the government, or was frozen until claims made by families who had been dispossessed

by the former regime. Shkoder and its suburb is one of the cities which are su ering from

informal buildings. Almost every year, during the winter season the suburb of the city gets

water fl ooded. This is a tool that makes the linkage between the spatial planning and fl ooding

issues by encouraging specifi c actions. The challenge of spatial planning at this situation is

to integrate the informal area of Shkoder by providing them infrastructure, and to take in

consideration the land valuation and making them part of the market.

Keywords: Informal area, spatial analysis, land-use policy, peripheral urbanization, Shkoder

city.

Introduction

Illegal housing development in almost all larger Albanian cities, by its genesis,

heterogeneity, scale, form and e ects, within Balkan and Europe represents regional

urban phenomenon. It is, at fi rst, consequence of socialist’s economic, housing and

planning system crises, but as much more a consequence of the turbulent transition

trends of 90’s in Albania. Informal growth and housing in Shkoder city is specifi c

and di erent from other cities of developing world, since Albania is a post-socialist

country and has experienced recent migration from other parts of the region. The

economic and planning conditions, together with the rise of migration from other

parts of north area to Shkoder city, induced very high growth of informal housing

areas in the surrounding of Shkoder. Today informal se lements in Shkoder city

make 40% of total housing area. They occupy large previously periphery areas of the

city. Scale and character of informal growth put Shkoder periphery somewhere in

between the third-world sprawl and post-socialist housing transformation process.

In areas that have been built illegally, we fi nd a mix of good-quality buildings and

substandard products (three-or four-story buildings with large fl oor space far above

average and li le, modest buildings, buildings with several bathrooms and buildings

with outdoor toilets). The diversity of actual forms of illegal construction and illegal