Will the introduction of a Safety and Security Planning Manual in Abu Dhabi result in a safer and more secure city? Stuart Williams asks. The Safety and Security Team at the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council believes so. He suggests this manual will make a tangible difference to planners, designers and security professionals. Pictured is the Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
You can read the 279-page manual in English at the UPC website – http://www.upc.gov.ae/sspm/
The industry
Anyone involved in trying to embed security into the built environment will understand the challenges that we face. Security consultants are invariably brought in late in the design, with reduced fees or perhaps as a small part of a larger engineering design package. Many developers, architects and planners do not understand the need for security and it is usually the first discipline to fall prey to the axe of value engineering. Unlike other related disciplines such as life safety, it does not have the necessary legislation or regulation to ensure measures are incorporated. In short, security is a difficult sell and is a real test of consultancy skills to be ‘heard’ as a planning and design discipline. These challenges were articulated by Lianne Hartley (2008), in her article ‘State of Cohesion’, in which she considered the use of existing legislation (section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998) in the UK to embed crime prevention and counter terrorism measures into the built environment.
Research by McGreavy (2008) and Williams (2010) highlighted the difficulty in embedding security into the UK built environment. Williams stated that while security was included as a design discipline, it “is not seen as a key design driver” and “is invariably involved too late in the design programme”, missing the opportunities to maximise the degree of embedded security while minimising the impact on function, architectural aesthetics and cost. Clearly this does not apply to all projects; there are examples of developments where security has been successfully embedded. We can also call on a range of reference material, such as the FEMA range in the US and the Crowded Places manuals in the UK, which show how this can be done. But in practice, commercial consultants and government advisers alike, remark on the difficulty of ensuring that security has an equal voice among other planning and design disciplines.
New era
In Abu Dhabi, things are about to change, and for the better. For the last two years, a Safety and Security Team has sat at the heart of the development community and its regulatory body, the Urban Planning Council (UPC), raising awareness of security as a planning and design discipline. More specifically, for the last year, that team has focused on the development of a new Safety and Security Planning Manual (SSPM), which aims to address the shortfalls experienced in other countries. The primary purpose of the SSPM is to ensure that community safety and protective security measures are seamlessly embedded into the urban fabric of the Emirate.
Some of you may ponder is it necessary, isn’t Abu Dhabi a safe country free of high crime and terrorism? Is security not provided by Abu Dhabi Police and State Security? And as expressed in many western countries, surely we do not want a ‘fortress mentality’, with overt security measures that destroy the exciting and innovative architecture rising across the city at a great pace. These are all valid points and were considered throughout the development of the SSPM.
Part of the process included full consultation with the law enforcement and security agencies, as well as the development community, to ensure that a single vision for a safe and secure city was created. The SSPM process also included an international benchmarking study, which identified that while crime is very low compared to other cities around the world, the crime rate is rising greater than population growth, and is higher in urban areas. The study also highlighted that while Abu Dhabi has been free of terrorist incidents, terrorism is a real, complex and evolving threat that is pertinent to Abu Dhabi. Therefore it is incumbent on planners and designers to consider the threat from crime and terrorism, and if appropriate, ensure mitigation measures are factored in at the earliest stages of development.
The benchmarking also revealed that while there is a wealth of reference material from the UK, US, Australia and other countries, none were specific to the region and none looked at planning and design for crime and terrorism holistically. This provided the justification and foundation for the manual.
The manual
The Safety and Security Planning Manual was approved by the General Secretariat Executive Council in April 2013 and publicly launched in November 2013. The first thing you will notice is it is very different to any other document available, something that the UPC and Abu Dhabi can be rightly proud. It is different in the way it looks, what it says and how it says it. This is a manual written by planners and designers for planners and designers. It focuses on the issues that matter to them – plots, site selection, scale, spatial layout and GFA; it uses their language to discuss security needs. This manual will not only enable the development community to better understand safety and security, but also for safety and security professionals to better understand the built environment. It will be a useful guide to security professionals to help understand what clients, developers, project managers and regulators are looking for from us as a planning and design discipline.
At the highest level the SSPM includes policy statements, to ensure that safety and security is a core planning consideration in all new developments. It also requires protective security arrangements (for new or existing buildings) to be fit for purpose, appropriate, proportionate to risk and balanced with other planning and design objectives. From this falls a set of eight planning principles that will apply to all developments irrespective of size, land use and risk. As expressed by Hartley (2008), “everyone deserves good security”, and “implementation should not be restricted to only the large and prestigious developments”. The SSPM is not however a prescriptive manual, it does not mandate a set of minimum standards. This should not be viewed as a weakness but a strength, as prescriptive measures can unnecessarily constrain planning and design. But it does mandate a process, which directs the early involvement of security in planning and design. Furthermore, it does state what is to be achieved from security, while offering freedom and flexibility to developers as to how they achieve the principles in a way that best serves their project.
The look
Most security professionals would agree that security manuals do not generally make good bedside reading, but the SSPM has been designed to be accessible and user-friendly. Key messages are discussed using bright, colourful graphics, supported by minimal text. It includes ‘planning and design toolkits’, to provide project teams with specific tools during each stage of development. Images of Abu Dhabi are used throughout to show safety & security in the local context.
The manual also asks big questions of developers – have you chosen the right site, is the land use appropriate for the plot size, and is the building the right shape and orientation? Has the road layout been amended to minimise risks? Has sufficient stand-off distance been achieved? Can the security requirement be achieved in this location? Security professionals are rarely asked these questions, or at least not at the relevant point in the project life-cycle, as security professionals are not commonly involved at such an early stage. But with this opportunity comes a responsibility, and as security professionals, we must be prepared to offer sound advice to the project teams on a new range of planning considerations.
Innovation
The manual is also innovative in its approach. Benchmarking revealed a wealth of reference material for both crime prevention and counter terrorism; however it also showed that in some circumstances this advice can be contradictory. What is appropriate for crime prevention may not necessarily be the most effective for counter terrorism (and vice versa). The SSPM tackles these issues together; highlighting that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. It covers the debate, prompts the questions to be asked and offers some solutions. It reinforces the fact that ultimately, it is up to the project team to find the appropriate balance for their development, taking into consideration risk assessment findings.
The manual is also the first in the region to place safety and security into a local context. As a result of the benchmarking, four local factors were identified that will affect the way safety and security are embedded into the urban fabric – culture and religion, climate, pace of development and built form. For example, CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design calls for high levels of natural surveillance however Emirati residential buildings tend to favour privacy, with tight and narrow access routes. At a design level, the requirement for natural and technical surveillance can be hampered by the climatic requirement to provide high levels of shading to pedestrian routes and the public realm. These do not change the principles, just how they are applied in the local context. And in many ways, the local factors provide greater opportunities to the safety and security professional. New projects often have much larger plots and fewer constraints when compared to western cities; minimum stand-off distances of 25-30m can be greatly increased if deemed necessary and considered early in planning.
The main message behind the manual is to aim high and look for the innovative solutions. With larger sites, we can do things better and less obtrusively. As an example, if your project suffers from a vehicle-borne threat, aim for vehicle exclusion. Some may argue that this is not possible, but vehicle exclusion has been achieved in Abu Dhabi. At Masdar City, vehicles are excluded for sustainability reasons. At Al Forsan International Sports Resort, some vehicles are excluded for reasons of ‘exclusivity’. These new projects prove that vehicle exclusion can be achieved if considered early enough in the project life-cycle. Other major innovative solutions have included amending the road layouts and changing the path of a canal to afford better protection to iconic new museum buildings. This is about shaping master plans and subtle changes to plot layouts to create an inherently safer and more secure environment.
Not just about technology
Another key message is to be less dependent on technology and operations for safety and security. As security professionals we know that a strategy should incorporate an appropriate balance of physical, technological and operational measures, but many would argue that in this region, there is a heavy, perhaps over-reliance on technology and operations. CCTV is often seen as the panacea to our security problems. The manual calls for safety and security risks to be resolved in planning and early design, minimising the need for technology and operations. The primary aim should be to provide a canvas that facilitates or optimises these later elements. Technology and operations should be viewed as important support tools rather than the primary means of protection. The manual stipulates that if you do decide they are necessary, ensure that the systems are fit for purpose and based on a sound set of documented operational requirements.
Teeth
Perhaps most importantly, the new manual comes with ‘teeth’. The manual sets out a mandated process for all developments to adhere to. A team of government appointed safety and security advisors now work with developers to ensure proposals are appropriate and proportionate to the risks, and are compatible with the vision and Plan 2030. As part of the development review process, developments must show that the policies and principles have been satisfied. For most projects, this will involve little or no change to the existing development review process. For those assessed to be more complex or at higher risk, a parallel review process will ensure that safety & security has been appropriately considered and that the security objectives have been achieved. At last, safety and security has a voice.
What does it mean?
As an industry, we should look forward to the introduction of the SSPM. It should solve many of the challenges that we have known and suffered in recent years. It calls for us to be involved early in the planning and design process and for us to be fully engaged with planners, architects and designers. We will need to inform developers and clients of the changing requirements and to carefully consider our level of involvement in the wider scope, with associated increases in fees. And with this new role comes a responsibility – to meet new expectations and deliver a new set of deliverables. As for implementation, we need to think differently, think innovatively – our principles have not changed but we should start our planning and design from a clean sheet of paper, free of constraints (or at least some of them). We need to develop a better understanding of, and to integrate with, other planning and design disciplines. Rather than looking for standard security solutions, we should seek to influence their project plans and designs to achieve our security needs. It also means that our work will be scrutinised and subject to review by a regulatory body; we should not be afraid of this but should welcome the higher level of involvement, interaction and our ‘rightful place at the table’ of planning and design disciplines. This manual is what we have been waiting for, and if implemented successfully, will enable safety and security to be embedded within the built environment in Abu Dhabi better than anywhere else.
References:
Hartley, L. (2008) State of Cohesion, Security Management Today, August 2008.
McGreavy, P. (2009) The Effectiveness Of Situational Crime Prevention Measures To Mitigate The Vehicle- Borne Terrorist Threat To Retail Complexes, UK: University of Leicester.
Williams, S. (2010) “Is the process of embedding security into the building design process to create safe and secure environments successful?”, UK: Loughborough University.
About the author
Stuart Williams is a Safety and Security Planning Adviser at the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. Stuart completed a career as a commissioned officer in the Intelligence Corps in the British Army, retiring as a major in 2004. He has worked in the commercial sector for ten years, working for Control Risks Group, Buro Happold, Good Harbor and currently for the Abu Dhabi Government. His specialism is security in the urban environment, and his work has included being the security project manager and lead security strategist for the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum. Stuart was also the strategic security adviser for the Tourist Development and Investment Company, working across their development portfolio, including reviewing the security designs for the Zayed National Museum , and Louvre and Guggenheim museums on Saadiyat Island. In his recent role Stuart worked on the development of the new Safety and Security Planning Manual and also the Crowded Places protection programme; a programme which he now leads.
Stuart is a Chartered Security Professional, a Fellow of The Security Institute and holds a MSc in Security Management from Loughborough University in the UK. He wrote about gaining the CSyP qualification, the ‘path to professionalism’, in the May 2013 issue of Professional Security.
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