Post-COVID Metropolitan Planning and Governance Trajectories in Greater Paris and Casablanca

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic generated changes in metropolitan planning practices and governance trajectories in Greater Paris and Casablanca. Framed within debates on urban resilience, governance adaptation, and post-pandemic planning, the research investigates how metropolitan systems responded to the multidimensional impacts of the health crisis. The study combines a review of scientific literature, a systematic analysis of planning documents and media sources, and semi-structured interviews with planners, institutional actors, elected officials, governance stakeholders, and civil society representatives. The analysis focuses on three dimensions: the evolution of regulatory planning instruments, institutional reconfigurations of metropolitan governance, and the emergence of innovative practices such as temporary interventions and participatory initiatives. Findings indicate that in Casablanca the pandemic stimulated revisions to development plans, environmental regulations, and planning coordination mechanisms, while in Greater Paris health and resilience concerns were incorporated into major planning instruments and temporary cycling infrastructure was institutionalised through long-term mobility strategies. However, the study concludes that COVID-19 functioned more as a catalyst reinforcing existing planning orientations than as a transformative rupture. Despite increased attention to public health, resilience, and sustainability, institutional structures and dominant planning approaches remained largely unchanged in both metropolitan regions.