Introducing the Maputo Province. A Tentative Assemblage of Planning Tools and Visions

The city of Maputo and its de facto metropolitan area could be defined as an “unknown Metropolis”, fragmented in terms of administrative boundaries and governance and shaped by a complex tangle of unmapped non-formal urbanization patterns, rural-to-urban migrations, as well as national and transnational flows, and local and global interests. Moreover, climate change is strongly affecting the area; threatening agricultural activities; and making water, food, and energy (WEF) security issues to be urgently considered. What is the most appropriate scale to address this complexity? To what extent the current and past planning and governance tools have been effective and adequate to address emerging socio-spatial trends and guide future territorial development? How to reframe these tools into larger territorial visions and a long-durée perspective? Starting from such premises and drawing on the results of “Boa_Ma_Nhã, Maputo!” research, this chapter aims first at introducing the main cultural and methodological framework of the project, and then at addressing the complex—and yet incomplete mosaic—of the available planning documents and tools in force in the Maputo Province. The purpose is to understand their potential and unexplored synergies and surface the existing inconsistencies and gaps in between them to provide an operative background for further design-oriented explorations.