Name:		Hamad Al Gharibi (Head of Planning Department, PhD Candidate at TU Berlin, M.Arch, Master of Architecture)
Company: Address:		Head of Urban Planning Section. MoHousing, Buraimi P.O.Box 22 Postal Code 512 Buraimi, Muscat, Oman	Tel.: +968 256 55104 Mob.: +968 92558500 E-mail: zain2929@hotmail.com

Short Profile of the Person:
"Hamad Al Gharib has 14 years experience in urban planning and Architectural Design.  Currently, he is leading the Urban Planning Department at Directorate General of Housing in Buraimi Governorate in Oman. He is a PhD candidate at TU Berlin, holds a Master Degree in Architecture from Anhalt University of Applied Science in Germany.  Hamad is an effective member of committees responsible of preparing the structure and master plans both in urban and suburban areas, suggesting suitable planning policies and preparing researches and studies to improve the local urban planning."

Project Description:
Since the oil revolution, 40 years ago, Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman has been under of massive waves of rural migration due to the availability of the services. Urbanization in the whole country has reached 84 % in 2009 according to UN statistics. (United Nations Population Division 2001).However, Muscat holds more than one third of the total population of Oman.

The proposed research aims of addressing aggravating problems in the country that arise through urban growth and uncontrolled consumption of limited resources, in particular land.

The research project also aims at detecting driving forces of the ongoing urbanization trend and secondly at developing strategies and programs to control and guide the resulting urbanization patterns towards a resource saving, and socially and economically balanced utilization of limited resources. It is assumed hereby that the way how the limited resource land is managed plays a crucial role. Thus the research focuses on land use and land use change, land use planning / zoning, land registration systems, land ownership, allocation and purchase, land value and land markets.

The final output of the research will offer besides a set of recommendations for revised urban development and planning strategies, physical planning standards and building codes a comprehensive land management concept adapted to the Omani context that allows a forward-looking and responsible handling of valuable and scarce resources to foster a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable and harmonious development in the country.