Alexandria Engineering Journal (2017) xxx, xxxxxx

H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

www.elsevier.com/locate/aej
www.sciencedirect.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a

participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of
Eastern Wastani Saida
Sawsan Saridar Masri *

Al Qanaya, Hussam Hariri Street, Al-Bustan Building, Saida, Lebanon

Received 12 December 2016; revised 14 January 2017; accepted 16 January 2017

KEYWORDS Abstract UNICEF Child Friendly Cities initiative launched in 1996 states that the well-being of
Urban planning; children is the ultimate indicator of a healthy habitat. Therefore, public authorities have a respon-
Participatory planning; sibility to create an environment where children and young people can grow and reach their
Youth friendly cities; potential.
Childrens rights Saida has a leading experience in Lebanon in involving children and its young citizens in making
decisions about issues that affect their lives. At present, the pooling and subdivision project of East-
ern Wastani area may benefit from local and international experiences to develop a child friendly
planning strategy that can offer unique insights and creative solutions, and enrich decision-
making processes and outcomes.
This paper is written to provide a knowledge base for the development of a child and youth
friendly planning strategy for the city of Saida. Based on a review of available research and reports,
this document provides an overview of basic principles and approaches, and aims to develop a
youth participatory tool to engage the children of Saida in urban planning process and decision
making. A pilot workshop has been conducted in order to test the viability of suggested activities
with regard to children capacities and their awareness of public and social concerns.
2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction 11.5 km inland which gives the city the form of an elongated
strip of about 750 hectares, with a triangular slant in the
Saida is located approximately 45 km south of the capital city middle defining the western boundary of the historic core
of Beirut and it is considered the third most important city in spreading over an area of 20 hectares [1]. The city is bordered
Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli. Saida extends about 6 km by the Awali River from the north and the Sayniq River to the
along the Mediterranean Sea and reaches an average of south, and encircled by the villages of Bkosta and Bramiyeh to
the Northeast, Hlaliyeh, Haret Saida, Darb el Sim and Mieh w
* Fax: +961 7222750. Mieh to the East, and Maghdousheh and Ghazieh to the
E-mail address: s_saridar@hotmail.com. Southeast (Fig. 1) [2].
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria In the 1960s Saida had close to 470 ha of agriculture lands.
University. Today the remaining area of agricultural lands is only 233
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
1110-0168 2017 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
2 S. Saridar Masri
Historic Core
Eastern
Figure 1
hectares, which means that the city has lost 50% of agricul-
tural areas within the last 4 decades; the catalyst of this trans-
formation is the rapid urbanization after the land pooling of
the Western Wastani area in the 1980s [3].
Currently, the Municipality of Saida is involved in a signif-
icant urban intervention that intends to urbanize one of its
ultimate residual green areas, namely the Eastern Wastani.
The Eastern Wastani, highlighted in red in Fig. 2 is a 3 km
length green corridor extending parallel to the coast. Its area
is around 135 ha equivalent to 28% of Saida total surface area
[4]. Although this action responds to the increasing demand
for buildings, the municipality was determined to develop a
strategy that respects the citys history, and the ecological,
social and economical values. Accordingly, Saidas Urban Sus-
tainable Development Strategy (USUDS) strategy was devel-
oped by a team of experienced specialist, in consultation
with local stakeholders. The Municipalitys aspiration is cur-
rently to build on the USUDS, but a vision remains a thought
unless it is confirmed by actual integrated urban interventions.
Besides, the city of Saida is a growing urbanized commu-
nity with a population of 235,036 residents in 2014 (5.5% of
Lebanon total population); this number does not include
Palestinians living in refugee camps as well as Syrian refugees
[5]. The Statistical Bulletin 2014 published by the Ministry of
Health indicates that 44.2% of Saida residents are under the
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
Geographic boundaries of Saida [2].
age of 25 (Fig. 2). By approximate calculations, it has been
found that 8.5% of residents are in the early childhood (ages
05), 12.3% in the middle childhood (ages 612), 11.6% in
youth (ages 1318), and 11.8% in emerging adulthood; these
age groups are adopted from the City of Surrey Child Friendly
City Strategy [6] and Connecting Children, Youth + Families in
the City of North Vancouver [7], where key developmental
areas are identified respectively to each age group to support
communities in better meeting the needs and well-being of chil-
dren and youth.
Therefore, there are stimulating grounds to promote the
concept of a child and youth friendly city as means of support-
ing children rights protected in the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child signed by Lebanon in 1991. This paper
addresses the promotion of healthy development and engaged
community members of Saida through the voices of children,
youth and emerging adults who may provide decisive and sig-
nificant input for the development of the city strategy. It has to
be noted that Saida had previous initiatives of youth participa-
tory planning reviewed in Section 3.
2. Supporting child and youth development strategy
Enrique Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, stated that Chil-
dren are a kind of indicator species; If we can build a successful
Integrating youth in city planning
Figure 2 Saidas residents population distribution by age group (2014 excluding Palestinian and Syrian refugees adopted from
Statistical Bulletin 2014 published by the Ministry of Health) [5].
city for children, we will have a successful city for all people [7,
p.26]. However, there is no single model for a child and youth
friendly city. Similarly, UNICEF has defined a Child Friendly
City (CFC) as a local system of good governance committed
to fulfilling childrens rights, including their rights to [8]:
 Influence decisions about their city
 Express their opinion on the city they want
 Participate in family, community and social life
 Receive basic services such as health care and education
 Drink safe water and have access to proper sanitation
 Be protected from exploitation, violence and abuse
 Walk safely in the streets on their own
 Meet friends and play
 Have green spaces for plants and animals
 Live in an unpolluted environment
 Participate in cultural and social events
 Be an equal citizen of their city with access to every service,
regardless of ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or
disability.
While previously regarded as an avant-garde scheme, today
community participation in city planning is broadly acknowl-
edged, and support for the participation of children and youth
in CFC is greater than ever. Such participation has shifted
planning decision-making from stakeholders toward children
and youth at the local level who are predominantly influenced
by such decisions. It is based on the beliefs that (a) develop-
ment must, first and foremost, be in the interest of young res-
idents; (b) young people who live in the city have the most
intimate knowledge of the area being planned and related mat-
ters different from those of adult; and (c) young people who
will be most affected by decisions have most a stake and
therefore have the right to participate in making those
decisions [9,p.32].
Fig. 3 exemplifies a conceptual outline for thinking about
young peoples participation in community development
adopted from Roger Harts Ladder of children participation
and Daniel Lacofanos Strategy for interactive decision mak-
ing. This framework is based on two primary dimensions: first,
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
3
young peoples power to make decisions and affect change;
and second, young peoples interaction and collaboration with
other people in the community [9].
Fig. 3 shows that authentic participation can stay intangi-
ble. Very frequently, projects that declare to support young
peoples participation are on closer assessment, adult con-
trolled projects with modest or no real participation from
the young. Making young people participation real necessi-
tates support from decision-makers and stakeholders to imple-
ment suggested development and are truly devoted to engaging
young people in the process of change.
3. Previous initiatives of youth participation in Saida
Growing Up in Cities (GUIC) is an international attempt
firstly initiated in 1970 by UNESCO and coordinated by the
urban designer Kevin Lynch, and adopted by UNESCOs
MOST Program (Management of Social Transformations Pro-
gram) at Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996 [10].
GUIC project considered several cities in different countries
as case-studies among which the old city of Saida in Lebanon.
GUIC program aims to address matters affecting urban chil-
dren and youth. It provides models of interdisciplinary,
inter-sectoral collaboration that encompass the visions of
youth to develop further responsive urban policies and prac-
tices [10].
GUIC Lebanon made its first move in the old city of
Saida in 1999 as the first initiative of participatory assessment
with children and adolescents in Saida. The objectives of this
project were to [11]:
 Develop an incorporated plan of development, focusing on
the improvement of living conditions for children and youth
in the city of Saida.
 Enhance collaboration between the city council of Saida
and the organizations dealing with childrens and youth
issues.
 Assess the views of children and youth on their living
environment.
4 S. Saridar Masri

Shared Decision
S
Making

Increasing power to make decisions and affect change

Children in
Charge

Consultation

PARTICIPATION

Social
Tokenism
Mobilization
Decoration
Manipulation &
Deception NON-PARTICIPATION

Increasing interaction and collaboration with the community

Figure 3 Dimensions and forms of young people participation [9,p.40].

The participatory research with the children of the old city In conclusion, the outcomes of the activity were considered
identified the following issues: by the USUDS project experts who gave great priorities to
most pictured places and ideas in the action plan phase.
 The lack of green and playing areas as a key issue since Alternatively, Saida municipality is working on the
almost every one of the childrens drawings portrayed flow- addressed concerns and advocating the highlighted sites, in
ers, trees and green spaces notably as desirable elements in addition to implementing some of the raised ideas and recom-
their environment, and that existing playgrounds a dramat- mendations by the school children as an improvement of the
ically damaged. sense of social livability and belonging in the city.
 The lack of calm spaces to study is due to overcrowded liv- The youth of Saida are also involved in several types of
ing quarters. committees established by political parties as follows: 18 neigh-
 The mess of streets with garbage which made children borhood committees of Future Movement party and Hariri
always speak of the places where they live as the street with Foundation that conduct social works and help out people
all the rubbish. in raising their claims to the municipality; the Popular commit-
 High incidence of child labor in the old city, especially boys, tees of the Popular Nasserist Organization organize workshops
identified by the limited participation of boys in the prelim- to bring up citizens awareness on topics such as environment
inary assessment activities of the project. and essential rights, besides arranging sports and scout activi-
ties; and more that 13 youth and sports clubs that organize all
The Urban Sustainable Development Strategy project kinds of activities.
(USUDS) is another initiative by MedCities, a network of To conclude, the several forms of youth participation in the
Mediterranean cities created in 1991, which promoted exten- initiatives described above were limited to manipulation and
sive process of community participation approach in develop- deception, tokenism, and decoration, and to some extent con-
ing new urban development strategies in the City of Saida, as sultation where youth were asked about their opinions in sev-
well as in the cities of Sousse (Tunisia) and Larnaka (Cyprus). eral issues to be considered in developing Saida Vision and
This project engaged local stakeholders on different levels in development strategy. Consequently, the youth of Saida are
order to identify the vision and mission of Saida. active but are not directly engaged in all activities performed
Lets Imagine Saida is an activity of USUDS project by the municipality. Youth should be more frequently involved
implemented in Grades 8 of the schools in Saida and its Neigh- to raise their social accountability toward their city, help them
borhood. The aim was to establish a dialogue with school chil- take more responsibility, and allow them to actively contribute
dren about the city of Saida through visual media. That their time, ideas and perspectives to develop civic and planning
discussion with was centered on childrens current perception the city they want, by providing them with the skills and
and expected ambitions a prop the city in which they live. resources.
The visual method uses photography as its key mean in addi-
tion to collage with found imagery for the final product 4. Research methodology
(Fig. 4). Students were asked to take pictures of the two loca-
tions representing their favorite and least favorite places in 4.1. Participatory research with children
Saida. A total of 18 workshops were conducted with around
400 grade 8 students in 24 schools, during November and If children are given the opportunity to design, plan and per-
December 2013. Students discussed with the trainers about form study with adults, then adults must admit children as
the 345 pictures that were collected as good locations involved and capable delegates and be eager to entitle the child
from Saida, and the 324 that showed places and things school as the expert. Such experience would be very influential for a
children dont like about Saida [12]. child who may not have ever been in similar situation. There-

Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
Integrating youth in city planning
Figure 4 A group of students participating in Lets Imagine Saida workshop with photographs of places in Saida edited by collage [12].
fore, the form and level of participation should be essentially
diverse enough to get the most of childrens capabilities and
competences. A multi-method approach, including various
schemes and tools and different mediums of expression, is rec-
ommended in children and youth participatory research. Hav-
ing different forms and levels of participation also upholds
children and youth to feel capable to participate in different
ways. Developing skills and competencies by scaffolding par-
ticipation is also essential with children who may have never
been given the opportunity to make decisions or even be asked
about their opinions. The responsibility of the adult researcher
is to provide the environment that encourages and motivates
the child to participate with limited support and guidance from
adult, with precaution not to patronize childs capacity.
Accordingly, this study aims to create a model of participa-
tion that will uphold children to be vibrant and influential cit-
izens who have the right, prospect, preference and ability to
take decisions that will have an effect on their well-beings
now and in the future. The suggested model of youth partici-
pation in city planning consists of a one-day pilot workshop
that includes several activities adopted from previous studies
[1316], and which could be afterward in prospective
researches developed and associated with other types of youth
involvement within the planning process. The pilot workshop
is conducted with a sample of Saidas children in their middle
childhood, i.e. children aging between 6 and 12 years. This
selection is due to the fact that children during the middle
childhood spend longer time with friends in other environ-
ments away from home and school settings. During this devel-
opmental period, children are determining their talents and are
strengthening friendships and relationships with adults [7].
Therefore, it is a significant age for adults to assist generating
these environments where children will have opportunities to
discover their assets and passions and encourage their social
relations with others.
The pilot workshop included the number of activities that
are described in the following section. The structure of the
activities included in the workshop was based on a concrete lit-
erature review of methods adopted in international children
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
5
and youth engagement workshops implemented within the
planning process of several cities designed for youth and chil-
dren like Surrey, Bendigo, Portsmouth, and North Vancouver
[7,1317]. The aim was to engage the majority of participating
children in a number of activities where they were supported
by adult helpers who provided the necessary scaffolding. Most
of children participated in all key activities of the pilot work-
shop. Through the workshop, children had the opportunity
to discuss with others how they use social spaces and their
ideas and visions for Saida through completing a verbal sur-
vey; group discussion, drawing or modeling a vision for a
child-friendly place.
4.2. Childrens research workshop design
Have your Say for Saida is a pilot-study research workshop
conducted on 12 August 2016 by the researcher in collabora-
tion with Rock and Roll, a childrens activity center located
in Saida which organizes yearly a summer camp for children
aging from four till nine years. The workshop was led by the
researcher with the assistance of three newly graduated archi-
tects that helped the children in performing the planned activ-
ities. The main goal of the workshop was to assess the
applicability of adopted activities structure in the case of
Saida, more than combining the results from the different
activities together to support evidence-based decisions.
Accordingly, the objectives of these activities were to do the
following:
 Involve the children of Saida in expressing their opinions
and vision about their city.
 Build the skills of children to be able to voice their needs
and aspirations.
 Engage young children in line with city growth in an
attempt to nurture citizenship from an early age.
 Accede to city leaders and local stakeholders to design and
plan the city with insertion of child-friendly/centric compo-
nents reflecting childrens needs and perspectives in the
urban renewal policies and programs.
6 S. Saridar Masri
During the one-day workshop, 25 children in the middle
childhood (69 years old) participated in several activities,
and they were divided into 3 groups each assisted by an adult
helper. The first activity was City Bingo adopted from
UNCHR [14,p.56] and the City of Surrey Youth Planner
Toolkit [15,p.18]. This activity consisted of a poster including
twenty-four pictures of most prominent places and landmarks
in the city of Saida, and these locations have been mostly pho-
tographed by children who participated Lets imagine Saida
initiative previously described in Section 3. This activity is a
facilitated tool to promote discussion about their experiences
of living and visiting the city and get feedback about places
they like or dislike in Saida. First, the researcher made sure
everyone understands what the pictures represent by letting
them looking at the pictures on the board to guess where they
are, and then a brief was given for each picture identifying
where/what/that is Fig. 5.
Afterward children were given sticky happy and sad faces
to use them in order to answer the following questions (Fig. 6):
1. What are the pictured places that you like?
2. What are the pictured places that you dont like?
3. What are the places that you dont know and never visited
it before?
4. What are the places to you wish to be close to your home?
5. What are the places to you wish to be in Saida?
The Second activity was Land Uses Word Search game.
Such activity is suggested in the Kids Guide to Building Great
Communities: A Manual for Planners and Educators published
by the Canadian Institute of Planners [16,p.58]. The aim of this
activity was to introduce the five land use categories as a sys-
tem for sorting all the things a community needs; these five cat-
egories are namely residential (places where people live),
commercial (places where people buy things), industrial (places
where people work), community staff (places where commu-
nity activities take place) and vacant and green spaces. After
introducing land uses, children were asked to find the words
of places representing each category (Fig. 7).
The following activity is adapted from UNCHR [14,p.58].
As illustrated in Fig. 8, three cards were placed on the ground
along a line. At one end of the line is the Agree card (a tick
Figure 5 City Bingo activity where children were guessing and get introduced to the illustrated picture.
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
symbol) and at the other end is the Disagree card (a cross
symbol) and in the middle is the Dont Know card (a dash
symbol). The Facilitator read out different statements chil-
dren/ had to go and stand at the card which matches their
response to the statement. The Facilitator then asked children
in each group to give feedback why they are standing where
they are, i.e. why do they agree, disagree or are unsure about
the statement. This activity achieves quick answers on several
questions and gives an opportunity for children to share their
opinions and views in relation to different issues. The state-
ments tested in this activity are as follows:
1. I love Saida.
2. When I grow up I will remain living in Saida.
3. I Love my home and the neighborhood where I live.
4. There is a garden or playground near my home.
5. My parents let me play nearby the street with my friends
and neighbors.
6. I go to the grocery shop on my own.
7. I can walk in the street alone and cross the road.
8. I like to have a garden to raise pets (cat dog).
9. I like to have a garden to grow flowers, fruits and
vegetables.
10. I like my school to be near my home and to be able to go
there on foot.
The last two activities Graffiti Mural and Blocks and
Blocks went in parallel (Fig. 9). According to the City of Surrey
Youth Planner Toolkit [15,p.6], a graffiti wall is a space where
ideas can be captured quickly and graphically. It enables chil-
dren to get up, walk around and talk to others while focusing
on a task. The task that was asked to the participants was to
draw their dream neighborhood.
As for the Blocks and Blocks activity, the children were
asked to model their dream neighborhood and to specify the
location of their home in this neighborhood. Each child was
given an A4-size foam board with four intersecting roads
dividing the board into nine blocks. They were also provided
with forty-one cubes of 2 cm  2cm  2cm dimensions; 25 yel-
low cubes representing residential use, 4 red cubes representing
commercial use, 3 purple cubes representing industrial use, 8
blue cubes representing community use namely educational,
and 1 green cube representing religious use, in addition to
Integrating youth in city planning 7

Figure 6 Answering the City Bingo questions by sticking sad or happy faces on illustrated pictures.

Figure 7 Children playing Land Use World Search game.

Figure 8 The third activity in the workshop where children have to agree or disagree on several statements and discuss their opinions.

green spaces and trees and pedestrian paths. The percentage of Educators [16,p.8], being considered as a good mix for a small
land use distribution was adopted from the Kids Guide community. Facilitators were assisting the children to express
to Building Great Communities: A Manual for Planners and their ideas through appropriate modeling.

Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
8 S. Saridar Masri

Figure 9 The last two activities that went in parallel: Graffiti Mural and Blocks and Blocks.

The following sections discuss the results of the previously learnt at school that old people of Saida were fishermen and
described activities, performed in the one-day Have your Say gardeners. Other participants were also singing enthusiastically
for Saida workshop. with Magdalena; this shows how these children have a strong
belonging to their City Saida since early childhood.
5. Results and discussion Participants were asked about the role of Saida Municipal-
ity when identifying the photograph of its building. Children
5.1. Activity 1: City Bingo were able to recognize some of the Municipality responsibili-
ties and what it provides for the city in terms of services and
organization of events. Omar, an 8 year old boy, added that
To understand how children feel about the City of Saida and
the Municipality provides us security and try to improve the
the places important to them within it, in the City Bingo activ-
city. This indicates how children have adequate civic educa-
ity children were firstly asked to identify the name and location
tion relatively to their age and are up to community
of every picture of the 24 illustrated in the displayed poster. It
engagement.
was noticed that participants were able to identify easily all the
When children were asked to identify what are the places
illustrated locations except two locations only: 1- Al-Ziri island
that they like, it was found that the sites that are mostly pre-
which is considered part of the natural heritage; and 2- Moha-
ferred are shopping malls, cinemas, indoor activity and sport
mad Saoudi Public Park as it is newly executed on the site of
centers, as well as the football stadium, the seafront prome-
the garbage mountain and which was firstly opened in April
nade, and Audi Soap Museum (Fig. 10). Children also
2016. Some children clarified that they have never had the
expressed their likeness to Mohamad Saoudi Public Park when
chance to visit these both sites. A for the locations that were
they have been informed by one of the participant, namely
firstly identified by all participants were Saida Marine Castle
Ahmad a 7 year old boy, that this park took the place of the
and Hariri Mosque. Aya, a 9 year old girl, said that these
Garbage Mountain which is disliked by most of the
two sites are the landmarks of Saida, whenever we see them
participants.
we know that we are in Saida.
Fig. 10 shows that Al-Awali River Park, the historical sites
When identifying the picture of the fishermens port, Mag-
(Old Historical Core streets and public squares as well as
dalena, a 6 year old girl, started to repeat the lyrics of an Ara-
buildings like Khan El-Franj), and the archeological Sites
bic song about Saida that says: Your name O Saida from the
(Land Castle and Marine Castle), were not commonly liked
name of fishermen, your perfume O Saida from the orchards
or disliked by the children. Almost less than half the children
blossom, your door is open for loved ones, Arabian is your heart
considered these sites in the selection of their favorite or least
and soul, say Saida what you are, you are the fishermen and the
favorite places. Kayan, an 8 year girl mentioned that the Old
orchards blossom. . . Magdalena continued saying that she

Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
Integrating youth in city planning 9

Mohamad Saoudi Public Park

Garbage Mountain
Rafic Hariri High School
Saida Municipality
Bahr El-Eid
Hariri Mosque
Star Square
Seafront Promenade
Al-Ziri Island
Al-Awali River Park
Saida Orchards
Fishermen's Port
Audi Soap Museum I Dislike
Al-Saray Square I Like
Saida Marine Castle
Saida Land Castle
Khan ElFranj
The Old Saida
Saida Municipal Stadium
4B Sports Center
Children Activity Centers
The Grand Cinema
Le Mall
The Spot Mall
0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 10 Sites in Saida that children like or dislike.

City is important but I dont go there because it is too crowded
and dirty.
As for the most disliked locations, they are the Garbage
Mountain, the Fishermens port and Star Square respectively.
When asked about the reasons, Children said that they do not
like the disgusting smell of the first two sites, and considered
the Star Square as a very noisy place with a very high traffic.
Fig. 11 (Left) shows that Star Square is the site that is least
visited by participating children and that more that 75% of
participants visited almost all the other sites. The sites that
are visited by almost all participants are Saida Marine Castle,
Saida Land Castle and Hariri Mosque, in addition to Rafic
Hariri School where they go to watch theater plays.
Fig. 11 (Right) shows that more than 75% of participating
children prefer to be residents near Hariri Mosque. This indi-
cates the importance of the religious values that children of
Saida have. They also prefer to have a mall, an activity center
and cinemas close to their home, or even their residence to be

Mohamad Saoudi Public Park Mohamad Saoudi Public Park

Garbage Mountain Garbage Mountain
Rafic Hariri High School Rafic Hariri High School
Saida Municipality Saida Municipality
Bahr El-Eid Bahr El-Eid
Hariri Mosque Hariri Mosque
Star Square Star Square
Seafront Promenade Seafront Promenade
Al-Ziri Island Al-Ziri Island
Al-Awali River Park Al-Awali River Park
Saida Orchards Saida Orchards
Fishermen's Port Fishermen's Port
Audi Soap Museum Audi Soap Museum
Al-Saray Square Al-Saray Square
Saida Marine Castle Saida Marine Castle
Saida Land Castle Saida Land Castle
Khan ElFranj Khan ElFranj
The Old Saida The Old Saida
Saida Municipal Stadium Saida Municipal Stadium
4B Sports Center 4B Sports Center
Children Activity Centers Children Activity Centers
The Grand Cinema The Grand Cinema
Le Mall Le Mall
The Spot Mall The Spot Mall

0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 11 (Left) Sites in Saida children never visited before; (Right) Sites that children wish to be close to their home.

Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
10
17%
Mix of uses
less mixed
61% Not sure
30%
Figure 12 Children preference of neighborhood with mix of land
uses or less mixed
within walking distance to the sea (identified by the selection of
Seafront Promenade and Fishermen Port), in the same way as
adult participation in USUDS project valued visual connec-
tion with the sea. What is remarked from children response
is that almost none of them prefer to live near the school.
When asked about the reason, none of them gave a clear
answer.
In the last part of City Bingo activity, Children were asked
to identify the places they wish to have in Saida. The obtained
proposals were as follows: Horse riding club, KidzMondo
(edutainment oriented indoor theme park located in Beirut),
parks, additional shopping malls, pools, cycling areas, and a
museum.
5.2. Activity 2: Land use word search game
This activity has been described previously in Section 4.2.
Three groups of 1012 children competed to find the words
related to land use in three separate word search matrix. The
derived objectives from this game was to introduce children
to several types of land use found in city, to refresh the chil-
dren and change the atmosphere of the workshop after the
long discussions that occurred in the first activity, and to pre-
pare participants for the following activities. After introducing
land uses and solving the word search games, children have
I like that my school to be near my home to be able to go walking
I Like to have a garden to grow flowers, fruits and vegetables
I Like to have a garden to raise animals (cat dog)
I can walk in the street alone and cross the road
I go to the grocery shop on my own
My parents let me play near in the street with my friends and
neighbors
There is an garden or playground near my home
I Love my home and the neighborhood where I live
When I grow up I will remain living in Saida
I Love Saida
0 2
Figure 13 Children responses to the 10 statements tested throughout Agree/Disagree activity.
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
S. Saridar Masri
been informed that a community mix could be compared with
making cookies; excess of any ingredient makes cookies taste
terrible. Accordingly, brainstorming about land use for opti-
mum community mix was done through discussing the follow-
ing questions: Is it better to have many land uses in an area, or
just one? What type of neighborhood would you most like to
live in one with a mix of uses, or one thats less mixed?
Fig. 12 indicates that more than 60% of children responded
that they prefer to have many land uses in the area where they
live which facilitate accessibility and mobility.
5.3. Activity 3: agree/disagree
Fig. 13 illustrates the opinion of children in relation to differ-
ent statements. All children have agreed on I Love Saida
statement, and when they have been asked about the reasons,
their answers varied between: it is an old city; it is the place
where my family lives, it has large orchards; it includes every-
thing. However, only 50% of participating children agreed on
the following statement When I grow up I will remain living in
Saida. Other children prefer to move to Beirut as it is a bigger
city than Saida, or to experience life in a different city. 90% of
children like their home and the neighborhood where they live
but they were not able to identify the reasons. Positive
responses to There is a garden or playground near my home
and My parents let me play near in the street with my friends
and neighbors statements were due to the fact that these chil-
dren have private gardens where they are allowed to play in,
but the others were banned to play outside as there are no pub-
lic gardens and the street is an unsafe area for playing because
of cars and traffic.
The following statement was I go to the grocery shop on my
own, on which less than 50% agreed on it identifying that the
grocery shop is very near and they dont need to cross the
road. More than 60% are not allowed walking alone in the
street or evening to cross the road because they live on high
traffic and fast lane. But the majority of children would like
to have a garden where they can grow plants and raise animals.
Finally, only 60% of children prefer to have their school
within a walking distance from their home. The others clarified
that they enjoy the bus ride to the school every morning.
Disagree
Don't Know
Agree
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Integrating youth in city planning
5.4. Activity 4: Graffiti Mural
The number of children who participated in the Graffiti Mural
Activity was limited to only 4 boys who have tried to draw
their dream neighborhood. This limited number of partici-
pants did not allow a broad discussion between children to
get them thinking on this right track. In addition, children
found difficulties in expressing their ideas and needed assis-
tance form adult helpers. However, what is remarkable in their
drawing is that they all included a mosque and water features
in their suggested neighborhood (Fig. 14). This reinforces the
importance of religious values, and the need for water sports
activities raised previously in City Bingo activity. Housing
was presented in form of middle rise buildings and skyscrapers.
When asked why skyscrapers, children replied that they will
reflect the modernity of the city.
Figure 14 Graphite Mural outcome executed by 4 children.
5.5. Activity 5: Blocks and Blocks
This was the last activity that went in parallel with Graffiti
Mural and which has been described in Section 4.2. What it
has been remarked during this activity is that children who
Figure 15 Some of the children who participated in Blocks and Blocks activity and were able to present and discuss their ideas clearly.
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
11
managed to execute models of their dream neighborhood are
aged between 8 and 9. These children were also able to discuss
their ideas clearly and justify the setting of buildings of differ-
ent uses and public spaces within the given layout (Fig. 15).
Younger children found difficulties in setting the blocks with
respect to land plots and street layout.
As evident in Fig. 16, it could be noted that in most of the
proposals, the location of the green public spaces was central,
and green spaces constituted 1/3 of the total neighborhood
area. There was a mix of land uses, where commercial blocks,
educational blocks and industrial blocks were distributed
between housing blocks, except in the 3 first models on the left
where land use mixing was less. It is noteworthy to add that
only one participant, Elena a 7 year old girl, has suggested
to have green roofs on top of buildings (Fig. 16 Upper left).
It is also important to note that some of children did not
continue to model the visionary neighborhood as the time
spent in the workshop was considerably long (more than 4 h)
and children were already tired or bored.
6. Conclusions
The aim of this paper was to develop participatory tools to
engage the children of Saida in urban planning process and
decision making. Accordingly, a pilot workshop was con-
ducted aspiring to improve the capacity of children to learn
and become skilled in matters related to planning and urban
design. The workshop process was, for all involved, a demand-
ing yet exciting experience. Involved adults were surprised, and
even amazed at what children were capable of saying and
doing. The work phases have revealed that children provided
valuable observations and insights about their city, and the
outcomes oppose adult conceptions that children of Saida
are unknowledgeable and immature to engage effectively in
planning and urban design decision making.
On the long term, the participatory research workshop
would be replicated in a variety of settings and with diverse
children abilities and needs throughout the city in order to
allow children and youth at different childhood stages partic-
ipate in setting developmental strategies for their future city.
Such research is an attempt to join a very broad and yet
expanding discourse on many aspects:
12 S. Saridar Masri

Figure 16 Samples of Blocks and Blocks models executed by participating children.

 The interactive planning process.
 The degree of responsiveness to human needs.
 The need to inform and guide the decision making process.
 The participation of different sectors of society, especially
those who had a little say in this domain.
 The inclusion of disadvantaged groups.
The work presented suggests that such participatory tools
could be incorporated at different stages of urban planning
process and fulfill a multi-faceted role:
1. Supporting and guiding the initial planning decision and
policy-making.
2. Testing the outcome of conventional planning process.
3. Post implementation appraisal, evaluation and provision of
feedback.
This remains a dynamic field. New theories keep on emerg-
ing and empirical studies continue to add further parameters
and issues. These are to be taken into consideration and the
ever changing circumstances and conditions the local society
is faced with. The approach has to remain flexible, responsive
and adaptable to more variables at the local level. This would
ensure an ultimately resilient, collective, and engaging process
of city planning.

Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
Integrating youth in city planning
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Rock & Roll Activity Center
for hosting the pilot workshop. Special thanks go to the archi-
tects Nazek Hariri, Nadine Shehab and Mohamad Azzam, for
their contribution and assistance in conducting the workshop.
References
[1] J.V. Roche Hydrosult. Cultural Heritage and Urban
Development Project (CHUD). Retrieved November 25, 2016,
from Council for Development and Reconstruction, 2009.
<http://www.cdr.gov.lb/chud/Jan%2015%202012/Appendix%
20L-%20Exec%20Summ_EMP%20wkshp_230410.pdf>, p. 26.
[2] M. Daher, The Municipality of Sidon: Establishment,
Administrative Development and Its Development Role,
Modern Printing Press, Sidon, 2001, p. 35.
[3] J. Makhzoumi, S. Sabbagh, Saida Urban Development Strategy:
Green/Open Space Network. Retrieved November 25, 2016,
from MedCities; 2013. <http://www.medcities.org/documents/
22116/135803/2.+Saida_Diagnosis_Green-Open.pdf/4bbf1534-
8be5-46b1-b2ea-1b30f477d27d>, p. 17.
[4] Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development. An
Exercise in Visioning and Planning Al Wastani and the Future
Urbanisation of Saida. Beirut: Hariri Foundation for
Sustainable Human Development, 2014. p. 16.
[5] World Health Organization, & UNHCR, Statistical Bulletin
2014. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from Republic of Lebanon
- Ministry of Public Health, 2014. <http://www.moph.gov.lb/
en/DynamicPages/page_download_file/1611>, p. 9.
[6] City of Surreys Planning and Development, Child and Youth
Friendly City Strategy. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from City
of Surrey, 2010. <https://www.surrey.ca/files/Child_and_
Youth_Friendly_City_Strategy_City_of_Surrey.pdf>.
[7] CNV4ME Connecting Children, Youth + Families in the City
of North Vancouver. (2014). Retrieved November 25, 2016, from
Please cite this article in press as: S. Saridar Masri, Integrating youth in city planning: Developing a participatory tool toward a child-friendly vision of Eastern Was-
tani Saida, Alexandria Eng. J. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2017.01.023
13
City of North Vancouver: <www.cnv.org/-/media/city-of-north-
vancouver/Ellipsis/youthEllipsis/cnv4me-report.ashx?la=en>.
[8] UNICEF, Child Friendly Cities Factsheet, 2009. Retrieved
November 25, 2016, from Child Friendly Cities: <http://
childfriendlycities.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/pdf/CFCI-
fact-sheet-14-sept-final.pdf>.
[9] D. Driskell, Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth,
Unesco Publishing - Earthscan Publications, London, 2002.
[10] L. Chawla, Cities for Human Development. In L. Chawla,
Growing Up in an Urbanising World (pp. 1534). London:
Unesco Publishing - Earthscan Publications, 2002, p. 1634.
[11] UNESCO,. Growing up in Cities: Sidon, Lebanon, 1999.
Retrieved August 29, 2016, from UNESCO OZffice Beirut:
<http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php>.
[12] Schools Network in Saida and its Neighborhood. Lets Imagine
Saida Activity Report. Saida: Schools Network in Saida and
its Neighborhood, 2013.
[13] A. Fletcher, The Freechild Project: Youth Engagement
Workshop Guide, 2010. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from
Adam Fletcher: <https://adamfletcher.net/wp-content/uploads/
2013/04/TFPYAG.pdf>.
[14] UNHCR, Listen and Learn: Participatory Assessment with
Children and Adolescents, UNHCR, Geneva, 2012.
[15] City of Surreys Planning and Development, Youth Planner
Toolkit, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from City of
Surrey: <https://www.surrey.ca/files/Youth_Planner_Toolkit.
pdf>.
[16] Canadian Institute of Planners. (Unknown). A Kids Guid to
Building Great Communities: A Manual for Planners and
Educators. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from anadian
Institute of Planners: <https://www.cip-icu.ca/Files/
Resources/kidsguide.aspx>.
[17] K. Malone, Building a Child Friedly Community: Childrens
Research Workshops Pilot Study Report. Tasmanian Early
Years Foundation, 2006. <http://www.earlyyears.org.au/
__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/49715bendigoCFCpilot07.pdf>
(accessed November 25, 2016).