Bassam Abu-Awad

The center of Amman (Downtown) is one of the most marvelous sites in Jordan as it represents a wide range of heritage through time and space. However, the Downtown suffers from severe disorders in terms of negative urban development due to the cross cutting cultures between the past and present. Despite of its historical and cultural richness, several factors affected the architectural uniformity of the area. The successive cultural effect is clearly marked in the downtown of Amman. Political factors, such as the arrival of the Iraqi and Syrian refugees, significantly controlled the urban planning development in a heterogeneous way created poor and overcrowded areas of immigrants due to many residential abusive areas. Moreover, the lack of innovation and maintenance of the entire downtown area with no changes through time in addition to the lack of awareness made the downtown unable to response to various emergencies. Natural hazards threats for examples earthquakes and floods are considered as a big challenge influencing the urban, economic and cultural development process, particularly due its location in a valley surrounded by seven hills. The current study focuses on finding solutions to overcome the mufti-folds of risk surrounding the area. Recommendations are put forwards for decision makers to maintain the Amman Downtown form further degradation.