UPC announces implementing SSPM across 137 projects

Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council announced the implementation of Abu Dhabi Safety and Security Planning Manual (SSPM) across 137 developments in the emirate.

Introduced in 2013, the SSPM (in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Police) provides planning guidelines for mater plans and developments. It uses a range of practical plans and design methods to influence the environment. It uses the manual’s planning and design toolkits along with security technology and operations to deliver a holistic security strategy.

The developments are classified under low priority and high priority, depending on the type of project and space. Out of 137 projects, 30 projects have been required to meet additional security requirements of the Crowded Places Protection Programme, because of its nature of being publicly accessible and densely populated.

The SSPM aims not to be a standard but a process to be followed to achieve a level of performance. The model deliberately allows planning and design freedom to enable projects to create their own solutions that are most appropriate to their project context.

Abdulla Al Sahi, executive director of planning and infrastructure sector at UPC said: “However, Abu Dhabi’s Leadership identified that a proactive approach to safety and security is essential to enhancing resilience. Two years on, the UPC now has a growing number of best practice case studies that show how individual project teams have innovatively embedded security into their project designs. Security is discreet, effective and does not detract from the architecture or functioning of the sites.”