Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 2005, volume 32, pages 127 ^ 140

DOI:10.1068/b3185

GIS for understanding physical and social change in urban

settings: a case from Amman, Jordan
Nabil Abu-Dayyeh

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Jordan,

Amman, Jordan; e-mail: abudayye@cyberia.jo

Firas Ziadat

Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Received 8 August 2003; in revised form 10 June 2004

Abstract. Data-poor environments, or where data are not routinely collected and/or poorly archived,
or where public records are not easily accessible understandably create a major obstacle to research
and the reaping of the benefits of research for urban policy and urban management. However, in such
rather unwelcoming research environments GIS seems to provide enhanced opportunities for maximizing the benefits of whatever data are available, as scarce as they may be. This research condition
may not be unique to the case study presented here but presumably may apply to most countries in
the developing world. The authors' use of GIS for the analysis of the case of an old neighborhood of
Amman outlines a procedure for zooming in on areas of construction activity and understanding the
relation between physical and social change, social change being here represented by change in
landownership.

1 Introduction
GIS is weaving relationships between fields and disciplines for the benefit of meeting a
number of objectives, as has been seen in the work of a number of researchers for the
purposes of understanding morphological change (Koster, 1996) and persistence and
change in urban morphology (Scheer and Ferdelman, 1997), promoting participatory
planning (Geertman, 2002) (Alshuwaikhat and Nkwenti, 2002), and modeling urban
residential dynamics (Benenson et al, 2002).
GIS is therefore opening avenues for research into urban change (Batty, 1996),
facilitating the study of the urban morphology of the built landscape in terms of
time, form, and scale (Moudon, 1994), and, one hopes, furthering our understanding
of cities as spatial events in terms of duration, intensity, volatility, and location (Batty,
2002), which, notwithstanding the fact that any system of representation is ``a spatialization of sorts which freezes the flow of experience and in so doing distorts what
it strives to represent'' (Harvey, 1990, page 206), bears the promise of abating the
shortcomings of more traditional methods of representation of space and time.
However, in some cases GIS has the potential of occasionally producing a data
overload (Scheer and Ferdelman, 1997), a condition that might be particularly acute in
what may be described as data-rich environments where data are more routinely
collected, where physical conditions are more consistently mapped or documented,
and where such data are more easily accessible. In contrast, where research has to
be conducted in what may be described as data-poor environments, GIS has the
potential of maximizing the value of whatever scarce data may be available. This
may sufficiently characterize the case presented here. In this paper we outline a
procedure for the maximization of research benefits by using data that are generally
more accessible, such as national census data, in combination with a smaller sample
of a rather more restricted-access type of data, concerning landownership registry. Our
aim is to understand physical change and its relation, if any, to change in property

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

ownership at the neighborhood level, for Jabal Lweibdeh, an older neighborhood of

Amman, capital city of the Kingdom of Jordan.
Contrary to the typically perceived image of this neighborhood as a more historical
neighborhood (Jarrar, 2002) dating mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, the numbers
show that there was considerable building activity at the heart of the neighborhood
in the 1990s that nonetheless seems to have had little effect on the perceived image of
the neighborhood as a historical neighborhood with long-standing physical fabric and
a concomitant little-changing social fabric. Although the overall assessment of the
social fabric is beyond the scope of this study, one aspect or indicator of its persistence
or change is the persistence or change in landownership considering the fact that in
Jordan as a whole, as well as in Amman, more than half the dwellings are owneroccupied (DoS, 1997). Therefore, an analysis was made to investigate the resonance or
dissonance between building activity at the heart of the neighborhood in the 1990s and
patterns of landownership change throughout the period in question, 1946 ^ 2002,
being the whole period covered by land registry records, which date from the independence of the Kingdom in 1946 up to the time the data were collected by us in 2002.
Our analysis shows that, as a whole, the pattern of landownership change over the whole
period resonates well with the construction activity pattern, but it fails to resonate with
the sharp rise in construction activity in the 1990s in one of the main areas at the heart
of the neighborhood, an area that witnessed in the 1990s one of the highest rates of
construction activity within the whole neighborhood. This means that the recent surge
of construction activity in that central area has been quite divorced from any major
change in landownership. Recent urban development therefore seems to have been
undertaken by the same landowners, not new owners, thereby contributing to the
persistence of the image of a tight-knit little-changing social fabric.
2 The study area
Since independence in 1946 the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its capital Amman
have been sent into spirals of urban growth, with an increase in population as well
as considerable spatial, social, and economic transformations. In fifty years from
1952 to 2002 the population of Jordan increased from little over half a million inhabitants to over five million inhabitants (DoS, 2001). The capital city, Amman, witnessed
similar cataclysmic growth in population, from 110 000 inhabitants in 1952 within
an area of around 25 km2 , to over two million inhabitants today living in an area of
526 km2 (MGA, 1988).
The physical urban morphology of the city of Amman took form from a mixture of
elements, most importantly from its unique topography. The area lying within a 3 km
radius of the main commercial and historical center of the city has a very distinct
topographic formation creating clearly defined `morphological regions'. A series of
relatively high plateaus surround and define between them a main gorge where the
old rivulet, Seil Amman, used to run, now roofed over by a major traffic artery that
runs along the historic core of the city, and other minor gorges which today act as
main radial roads emanating from the city center. These plateaus (in Arabic, Jabals)
surrounding the city center are, in general, mature communities mixing an attractive
domestic architecture, planting, and a limited range of materials to create a balanced
setting for family life. Some of these Jabals have developed as low-rise, two-to-four
storey residential areas initially conceived and planned along the same lines as British
postwar neighborhood units (King, 1955; Hacker, 1960). Such is the case with our study
area, Jabal Lweibdeh, the unique topographic formation of which and the effort of the
planners to develop it as a low-rise residential neighborhood succeeded in making it a
pleasant setting for family life.

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Settlement on this Jabal dates from the early days of the Emirate of Transjordan
under the British Mandate in the 1920s. It had its peak of construction activity in the
1950s and, to a slightly lesser extent, in the 1960s. Today, it seems to have reached
maturity both socially and physically, thereby providing a reasonably long history of
urban habitation, a long range of building activity, and a reasonably long record
of landownership covering a period of over half a century, that is, since 1946. All these
factors make Jabal Lweibdeh a good place to start inquiring about modalities of
change in one of the older and better established neighborhoods within a fast-growing
metropolitan area.
According to current administrative boundaries adopted by the Municipality of
Greater Amman (MGA; figure 1), Jabal Lweibdeh covers an area of 221 ha of land
inhabited, according to data for 2000, by around 25 000 inhabitants, with around 83%
of all plots occupied by one or more buildings.(1) Data concerning construction activity
in the whole neighborhood are available from the General Census of Population and
Housing of Jordan, carried out in 1994 (DoS, 1997). Census data are normally collected
for each building within statistical blocks, in this case thirty-seven blocks covering

Municipal areas and subdivisions

0

4
km

Jabal Lweibdeh

Figure 1. Greater Amman boundaries and subdivisions, showing the study area, Jabal Lweibdeh.
(1) There is some variance between data provided by MGA, by the Department of Statistics (DoS),
and by the Department of Lands and Survey (DLS). The MGA lists the total number of plots in
Jabal Lweibdeh as 1750, whereas the DLS plot count performed by the researchers reached 2206.
Moreover, DoS census data lists 1571 buildings, whereas MGA data for 2000 list only 1447;
however, in this case the variance may be attributed to the fact that the MGA lists the number
of plots occupied by buildings and not individual buildings; understandably, one plot may have
more than one building on it.

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

the whole neighborhood. Disclosure of the exact spatial location of each individual
building within the statistical block is prohibited by the 1950 Law of Statistics Number 24, and, at the same time, statistical blocks are so varied in size that data had to be
used in an amalgamated fashion, both in order to minimize the differences that exist
between statistical blocks in terms of areas and number of buildings contained within
them and in order to form discrete and more meaningful morphological areas. Thus,
five block groups (BGs) were formed around main foci of open space or landmarks:
the Hawooz Circle (BG1), Terra Sancta College (BG2), Al-Muntazah public gardens
(BG3), Al-Abdali Camp and Army Headquarters (BG6), and Jordan Hospital (BG5);
another block group was formed around the area known as West Lweibdeh, circumscribed by three main traffic arteries (BG4), thereby making a total of six block groups
(figure 2). However, the number of buildings contained within each block group varies,
but such variations are inevitable if we want to safeguard the integrity of well-defined
and meaningful morphological areas.
Initial investigations revealed that:
1. A relatively high percentage of all buildings constructed in the study area are within
a morphological area comprising thirteen statistical blocks, hereby named BG1, which
accounted for 37% of all buildings constructed in the whole neighborhood (figure 3).
This area constitutes the older part of the neighborhood, although older buildings have
been found in small pockets; within BG4, for example.
2. The peak of construction activity in BG1 occurred in the same period as the peak of
construction activity for the majority of block groups, that is, the 1950s and 1960s, and
the building activity chart for BG1 reflects the general pattern of building activity in all
block groups (figure 4).
3. However, there was a surge in building activity in BG1 in the 1990s clearly distinguishable
in the particular area of block 91028 (figure 5, over).
Block group 1
Block group 2
Block group 3
Block group 4
Block group 5
Block group 6
6

5
4

3
2
1

250

500
m

1000

Figure 2. Map of Jabal Lweibdeh, showing all 37 Department of Statistics blocks, and block
groups 1 ^ 6.

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In general, there was a rise in construction activity in Jordan and in Amman as a

whole in the 1990s, particularly relative to the sluggish 1980s (figure 6, over). However,
in the case of Jabal Lweibdeh the rise was particularly acute, especially in BG1,
thereby warranting closer examination, as has been undertaken. It was hoped that a
closer and more detailed study of this particular area of the city might provide some
clues about the nature of this construction activity at the core of one of Amman's
historic neighborhoods. In the research presented here, however, a single factor was
considered, patterns of landownership change within this study area and its resonance
both spatially and temporally, if any, with the acute rise in building activity in this area.

BG1
9%

BG5
6%

BG1
37%

BG4
16%

BG3
14%

BG2
18%

Figure 3. Percentages of constructed buildings in each block group (BG) relative to the total
number of buildings in all block groups. Note: for the location of the block groups, see figure 2.
13.7

14
12

Percentage

10
8
6.4

6
3.8

3.0

2
0

5.5

0.0

0.1

1900s

1910s
BG1

1.5

1.5

1920s

1930s

BG2

3.1

1940s
1950s
Decade
BG3

BG4

1960s

1970s
BG5

1980s

1990s

BG6

Figure 4. Number of constructed buildings in each block group (BG) as a percentage of the total
in all block groups. Note for the location of the block groups, see figure 2.

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

80
70

Percentage

60
50
43

40
30
29

19

20
10
0

0
1900s

1910s

2
1920s

1930s

SBs 91022, 91024, and

91025
SBs 91030, 91031, and
91032

1940s
1950s
Decade

1960s

1970s

SBs 91026, 91027, and

91029

0
1980s

1990s

SB 91028

SBs 91033, 91034, and 91037

Figure 5. Percentage construction activity in statistical blocks (SBs) in block group 1 (BG1).
Note: for the location of the block groups, see figure 2.

Construction activity (%)

25
20

20

18

11

10
5

16

15

15

14
9

10
8

9
6

12
7

16
12

18
17
16

14

11
7
4

2
3
3
2
0
Before 1950 1950 54 1955 59 1960 64 1965 69 1970 74 1975 79 1980 84 1985 89 1990 94
Period
Jordan
Amman
Lweibdeh

Figure 6. Construction activity in Jabal Lweibdeh (JL), in Amman, and in Jordan: construction
activity as a percentage of the total number of buildings.

3 The basic datasets

Collected data comprised map data and attribute data from a variety of sources
available locally.
3.1 Map data

3.1.1 Cadastral maps

Cadastral maps provide the most basic set of spatial data. In Jordan, these are
provided by the Department of Lands and Survey (DLS), and are available for all of
Amman and most of the urban areas in Jordan. These maps are organized by sheet
number according to the available hard-copy drawing sheets that form the backbone of
the DLS's cadastral survey; the digital version of these sheets is organized in the same

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133

manner according to sheet number. These spatial subdivisions do not reflect any clear
sense of `natural areas'. For Jabal Lweibdeh, for example, one sheet contains data
about part of Jabal Lweibdeh and parts of two neighboring Jabals. Therefore, several
sheets had to be edited and joined to create a single map for the whole study area.
These digital data are normally georeferenced by the DLS using the Cassini
coordinate system (Palestine Grid). For the purposes of this study, in order to undertake spatial analysis, these maps need to be registered to the same projection system as
the orthophotos and the land-use maps, as will be explained in more detail below.
However, the exact parameters of this system that would enable transformation to
other coordinate systems is considered `classified' information. Therefore, in view of
the absence of knowledge of these parameters they were registered to the same
projection as the orthophoto by an approximate method whereby several outstanding
points were matched on both maps until the resultant adjustment seemed satisfactorily accurate, using ERDAS software (Leica Geosystems). Thenceforth, the digital
cadastral maps could be used as base maps for the purposes of further analysis.
3.1.2 Aerial photographs
The Royal Jordanian Geographic Center (RJGC) is the official government organization that normally undertakes the provision of aerial photographs, satellite images,
topographic maps, and other spatial data, particularly georeferenced data maps, for
local governmental, academic, and research purposes. These are produced or collected
and processed by the RJGC itself, then distributed or sold to other government
organizations or departments, or to research institutions, or to individuals associated
or affiliated with such institutions. Aerial photographs and maps are usually provided
in hard-copy format for a range of years spanning the period 1918 ^ 2000. These are
normally useful for tracing the physical urban growth of the study area as successive
layers are overlapped. However, this approach was not followed here in view of its
time-consuming and labor-intensive character and the lack of consistency in the scale
and periodicity of the photography itself. Instead, tabulated data about construction
dates of all buildings in the study area were taken from the National Census statistics
and used in our GIS analysis.
Digital orthophoto versions of these aerial photographs are also available from
RJGC. The most recent orthophoto was used as a base map to compile other data
and to trace the physical formation of the building fabric within the study area. RJGC
usually provides these orthophotos in any projection system; however, the registration
(georeferencing) in the Cassini coordinate system is not totally accurate unless some
fieldwork is undertaken to fix a number of control points, which is not always affordable within smaller project budgets. Therefore, in search for higher accuracy, a Jordan
Transverse Mercator (JTM) projection was chosen to georeference the required orthophoto for the study area. One of the advantages of using JTM georeferencing is that all
its parameters are known accurately, a matter that facilitates its registration into any
other projection system, and vice versa. This is a necessary criterion for the selection of
the projection system of a base map.
Subsequently, a new layer was extracted through on-screen digitizing of the outline
of the existing buildings for the whole of the study area, using the base orthophoto in
JTM projection as background. The resultant layer was overlaid with the transformed
digital cadastral maps (in JTM projection) and the resultant match between the outline
of buildings and the parcel boundaries seemed reasonably accurate.
3.1.3 Land-use maps
Updated land-use maps are normally available from the MGA which has an ongoing
project to digitize all available planning-related maps such as land-use maps and to

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

overlay these maps with the constructed buildings and with all relevant data, including
owners, building license numbers, land-use zoning area codes, number of floors, and
so on. However, so far, only a few limited areas of the city of Amman have been so
digitized, and it will take many more years to finish the work for the whole of the city
of Amman, including our study area.
However, hard copies of land-use maps are available and such a map was obtained
for the study area. This map was useful for updating the cadastral maps, which
normally do not reflect the exact current boundaries of land parcels because of the
lag in the updating of the most recent boundaries of land parcels according to the most
recent planning acts, which may have affected their shape and area. The current
practice of the DLS department is to update those parcels on a gradual basis and
only whenever there are any changes in the ownership of the property, placing the
burden of updating the data on the individual owner.
Therefore, the hard-copy land-use map was scanned and the image was georeferenced using an image-to-image correction method using the orthophoto as base to
obtain coordinates in the JTM projection system. Subsequently, the land-use image
was overlaid by the cadastral map and this map was adjusted according to the most
recent parcel boundaries indicated in the land-use image.
3.2 Attribute data

3.2.1 Department of Statistics data on the construction of buildings

Jordan's Department of Statistics (DoS) conducts national surveys and national censuses: so far, four such censuses have been carried out, in 1952, 1961, 1979, and 1994.
The census count is done by a particular method used by the DoS whereby each
governorate (muhafatha) is divided into a number of administrative subdivisions,
Liwa ', Qada ', Nahiya, Tajammu ', and finally into statistical blocks whereby each block
contains a number of buildings that can be very varied: in the case of the blocks used
in our study, the numbers varied from a minimum of eleven to a maximum of seventy
four. The spatial boundaries for all divisions and subdivisions are clearly defined but
the location of individual buildings within each block is, as mentioned earlier, prohibited by law, which is a major drawback for the purposes of our research. Therefore,
statistical blocks were merged to form discrete and more meaningful and comparable
morphological areas, in this case into six block groups (see section 2). This allowed for
an overall reading of the urban physical growth within the study area and the
immediate context, but without any close detailed inspection or analysis at the level
of individual plots. In the end, the overall patterns derived from these data were
cross-checked by comparison with whatever aerial photos were available from RJGC.
Nevertheless, the level of accuracy of this kind of data may not always be extremely
reliable, on at least three counts. First, there is a good percentage of buildings for
which the construction date is listed as `unknown'; in the case of our research, the
proportion of buildings for which the construction date was listed in the census data as
`unknown' was approximately 15% for the whole neighborhood. These are buildings
for which the field counters were unable to judge or ascertain the actual date of construction. Second, data on dates of construction are normally based on oral statements
given to field counters by interviewees, who may not always be too knowledgeable
about the correct dates. Third, there is the element of human error in the collection and
processing of data, which, as always, is an integral part of any data collection. Thus,
the data permit only general conclusions to be drawn.
3.2.2 Department of Land and Survey landownership registry
Raw data about landownership was obtainable, with special permission, from the
DLS. The registries are classified according to drawing sheet number, this number

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135

being the number of the actual hard-copy drawing sheet that contains the cadastral
map of a certain defined area as it exists in the DLS archives. Each register entry
normally contains the name of the owner or owners related to the plot number, the
old plot number, and the type and date of any ownership transaction in nine main
categories: initial registry (Taswiyeh), inheritance (Intiqal ), exchange (Tabadul ), gift
(Heba), sale (Bai'), settlement between partners (Takharoj ), subdivision (Ifraz), delegation (Tafweed '), or correction (tas'hee'h). Combinations of these categories also exist.
In total, this gave us 666 register entries covering an area of around 43.3 ha reasonably
closely matching the area covered by BG1. There were, however, some missing records
from the Land Registry Archive files, but they were very few in number and did not
influence our research.
The raw data from the registry were reorganized in a different format in order to
facilitate the extraction of more meaningful sets of information. The data were reorganized in a horizontal fashion, showing the sequence of ownership changes for each
land parcel, and, for each change, the type of ownership change was noted in addition
to the consequent number of owners and the date when the change took place. The
type of change was divided into twelve categories encompassing the range of changes
to landownership: (1) change within the same family, (2) change to a different family,
(3) a new partner moving in, (4) a partner moving out, (5) a partner moving out and a new
partner moving in, (6) change to a nongovernmental organization (NGO), (7) change to
the MGA, (8) change of or to a company, (9) change to a religious Waqf, (10) change
to a bank, (11) change to delegated ownership, and (12) change to an embassy. Eventually, the most significant for our analysis were the first two categories, which describe
the change of property either within or outside the same family.
In addition, for the first and last records in the sequence of ownership change of
each land parcel, the identity of the property owner was noted, whether an individual
or group of individuals, an institution, a governmental organization, or an NGO. Also,
for individual owners, their religious identity was noted. Furthermore, a code number
was given to identify the type of change that described the overall landownership
change between the very first and very last owner or owners, significant mainly for
describing changes of land property (1) within the same family, (2) outside, to another
family, (3) to an NGO, (4) to the MGA, (5) to a company, (6) to a Waqf, (7) to a bank,
or (8) to a governmental organization.
The level of detail of these data was not always crucial to the final analysis but it
was presumed that the compiled database could in the future form the basis for further
research in this area.
4 Queries and results
4.1 Spatial development of the neighborhood

The more usual method of tracing the spatial growth of any urban area is done by
overlaying aerial photographs taken at regular intervals, or whatever available aerial
photography exists, in order to deduce the pattern of physical growth. Compared with
the use of a GIS it has several drawbacks:
(a) in some cases, as in the case of Amman, aerial photography may not be available at
regular time intervals or at a consistent scale;
(b) it is usually a time-consuming and labor-intensive operation; and
(c) it does not easily allow the mapping of specific spatial distributions in terms of
percentages or specific time intervals.
In contrast, GIS can provide not only a less time-consuming and less laborintensive method of representing physical growth but also, and more importantly,
a much more specific representation of data in terms of space and time. This can be

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

New construction (%)

0^7
8 ^ 13
14 ^ 20
21 ^ 31
32 ^ 54

250

500
m

1000

Figure 7. Spatial distribution of construction activity in the 1990s for all Department of Statistics
(DoS) blocks in Jabal Lweibdeh.

done by linking the tabulated data regarding the date of construction of buildings
collected by the DoS as part of its periodic national census counts (approximately
every ten years) to a spatial layer containing polygons representing all buildings as
mapped out (traced) from the most recent aerial photograph. However, because of
the inability to identify every single building individually, these data were linked on the
basis of whole statistical blocks that were in turn merged together to form discrete
morphological units or areas (figure 7). This became particularly useful when comparing
change in ownership patterns across the study period with the pattern of construction
activity in the smaller study area for which landownership data were collected.
4.2 Patterns of landownership change

Tabulated data summarized from official land registry archives gave the initial direction
for further inquiries. Initial statistical analysis showed that, although some plots did not
undergo any ownership change over the whole study period, other plots changed hands
up to a maximum of thirteen times. Moreover, the pattern of change exhibited twin
peaks, in the 1950s and in the 1990s, which in general resonates with the peaks of
construction activity for the whole period. A very high percentage of change occurred
in the 1990s, which is reflected in the rise in construction activity in all Jabal Lweibdeh
and in BG1 but not in the core area of block 91028, where landownership witnessed a
steady percentage change from the 1980s into the 1990s, at a rate of 12.9% (figure 8).
Mapping the spatial distribution of this pattern we find that there is considerable
change in landownership of all plots in the study area, contrary to the situation in the
core of the neighborhood, formed in significant part by block 91028, where only very
few plots have undergone change in ownership since 1970 (figure 9).

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137

50
45.0

45
40.8

40

39.5

38.7

Change (%)

35
30.0
25.1

30
25
20

20.0

11.2

11.1

10

19.4

19.1

16.1

15

25.1

22.4

14.4

9.9
8.9

6.0
2.6
0.0
1940s

1.7
1950s

1960s

Decade

3.3
1970s

17.2
16.2
12.9

14.5
12.9
6.4
1.0
0.0
1980s

1990s

Landownership change in block 91028

All landownership change

Construction activity in block group 1

Construction in all block groups

Construction in block 91028

Figure 8. Comparison of land-ownership change in Jabal Lweibdah, 1940s ^ 1990s.

Block 91028
Period
1946 ^ 59
1960 ^ 69
1970 ^ 89
1990 ^ 2002

50

100
m

200

Figure 9. Spatial distribution of plot-ownership change in the study area and in block 91028, for
selected periods.

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N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

It was therefore concluded that the surge in construction in the 1990s in this block
occurred almost totally without landownership change. In other words, the land was
developed by its owners. Apparently, no gentrification mechanisms were at work here,
unlike the case in Jabal Amman, a similar old neighborhood in the city where
gentrification has for some time had a direct and highly visible impact on the neighborhood. This perhaps accounts for the variance between the perceived image of block
91028 as a main part of a historical neighborhood with a deep-rooted social fabric
despite the recent considerable change to its physical fabric. It seems that people
become much more cognizant of physical change when it is coupled to landownership
change.
On the basis of the available data, and without extensive fieldwork, it is not
possible to ascertain with absolute certainty the exact causes for the rise in building
activity, but it is well known that the Gulf War of 1991 resulted in what has been
termed the `Third Wave of Immigration' to Jordan (Abu-Ghazalah, 1996), resulting
in the return of an estimated 300 000 expatriates to Jordan, of whom only 28.4% owned
their own residence and only 22.6% owned their own land (DoS, 1993). Furthermore,
official sources have estimated the increase in housing demand due to the third wave of
immigration at around 30 000 housing units (MoP, 1993), a large percentage of which,
judging by previous trends, would be needed in residential zones C and D (MGA,
1988), such as in the zoning seen in Jabal Lweibdeh.
Furthermore, by studying landownership records, it has been found that 34% of
current ownership of land in the study area dates from the 1990s. Therefore, it is
evident that, although landownership in block 91028 did not significantly change hands
in the 1990s, this is clearly not the case for the rest of the study area, which witnessed a
significant percentage of landownership change.
The resistance of the core area to gentrification or ownership change suggests a
pattern of physical regeneration and/or development in the older and once more
affluent neighborhoods whereby the core area is influenced by the general rise in
housing demand in the neighborhood and the city at large but remains tightly held
by the original owners. The same does not apply, however, even within the immediate
surroundings, where the demand for development, among other factors, seems to
have resulted in physical development significantly related to landownership change.
It seems that in the more historical and once affluent neighborhoods the center or
core area displays a high margin of resistance to ownership change even in periods
characterized by higher demand for development.
5 Concluding remarks
Recently, there have been several projects utilizing GIS for a variety of uses in the
fields of physical planning and management in Jordan and in neighboring countries.
The development has been fragmented and uneven. For example, a recent review
of the developing world showed that Qatar has been at the forefront of geographic
information technology in the developing world, with GIS initiatives beginning in 1988.
In contrast, development of GIS in India has not been proportionate to the more
favorable circumstances in this country, including the Great Survey of India, which dates
to the 18th century and which covered the entire country with rigorous cartographic
surveys, and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS), which provides high-resolution remote
sensing data to global markets through a series of satellites (Montgomery et al, 2002).
In Egypt, GIS has been used by the Supreme Council of Antiquities for the
creation of the Egyptian Antiquities Information System. A pilot study of that project
concerned Ottoman Alexandria. Meanwhile, the National Center for the Documentation of Egyptian Cultural and Natural Heritage has created its own GIS project for the

GIS for physical and social change

139

documentation and protection of architectural heritage in the center of the city of

Cairo. Furthermore, in 1997 the General Organization for Physical Planning solicited
the URBAMA laboratory at the University Francois-Rabelais in Tours, France, for
help in defining a strategy for the protection of urban heritage in Greater Cairo, an
initial study project has been launched for the study, with detailed documentation of
architectural heritage in Heliopolis, a town situated 10 km from Cairo, founded in 1906
ex nihilo by Belgian and French capital. The study is concerned with a 280 ha area
containing some 2000 buildings, which constitute the historical heart of the old town
(Volait and Piaton, 2003).
In Syria GIS has been extensively used for the conservation and management of
the city of Aleppo and the conservation of the old city of Damascus (the walled city);
in Lebanon it has been used by research centers such as the Observatoire de Recherche
sur Beyrouth et la Reconstruction and by a German research group affiliated with the
German Institute for Oriental Studies for the study of Zuqaq al-Blat, an old neighborhood of Beirut. In Jordan, the Water Authority has employed GIS technology to
restructure the water supply network in Amman, and another standalone system was
developed by the Department of Antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
in collaboration with the American Center for Oriental Research for documenting
and safeguarding Jordan's antiquities, namely, the Jordan Antiquities Database and
Information System. Added to that is the ongoing project by the Municipality of
Greater Amman for the mapping of all data related to urban management and
planning. There is also the Jerusalem Database Project of the Royal Jordanian Scientific Society and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, aimed at documenting the
urban history of the old city mainly through Ottoman court records, and the Jordan
Arid Zone Productivity Project, aimed at land-use planning of arid and semi-arid areas
in Jordan.
In all these projects, GIS has proven a valuable tool for archiving, documenting,
and managing cultural and other resources, but its potential for understanding relationships between physical and social change has yet to be fully exploited. The research
presented here utilizes available data that are relatively easily accessible; however, in the
future, to make the best use of the available data and to utilize the full potential of GIS,
such data should be linked to individual buildings or plots and not simply to statistical
block areas. This would allow the addition of more specific data to be collected from
the field about particular owners, building typologies, and so on, in order to obtain a
better understanding of processes of urban change. This should become possible in
a few years, that is, once the MGA and the DoS finish their ongoing projects for
digitizing and computerizing spatial and temporal data on land and buildings and on
their most relevant attributesfor Amman in the case of the MGA, and for the whole
of Jordan in the case of the DoS. However, it is likely that the linking of data to
individual plots would still be restricted; therefore, the method proposed here may still
be of benefit for the undertaking of further, more detailed, research.
The particular value of this method is the relative ease with which it can be
applied to other areas of the city, which would then begin to give us a better
view and understanding of the physical transformations in different parts of the
city and subsequently allow us to define varying sets of issues that would in turn
invite further investigation, which could eventually give us a better overall understanding of the spatial and temporal dimensions of change at the more general level
of the city.

140

N Abu-Dayyeh, F Ziadat

Acknowledgements. We would like to acknowledge the financial support received from the University
of Jordan's Deanship of Scientific Research. Eric Verdeil, Director of the Observatoire de Recherche
sur Beyrouth et la Reconstruction, for encouragement and general discussions on various aspects
of physical urban development; Aziz Hallaj, for information about the use of GIS in the conservation and urban management of Aleppo; the Royal Jordanian Scientific Society, for information about the Jerusalem Project; the German Institute for Oriental Studies and the Municipality
of Tripoli, for providing a forum for discussing issues related to GIS and its applications to
the documentation and preservation of architecture during the workshop ``Re-evaluating Urban
Heritage'', held at Tripoli, Lebanon, 11 ^ 14 December 2002; and the anonymous reviewers of this
paper.
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