lack of clear legislative frameworks can act as one of the major impediments to effective design and implementation of these policies standing in the way of positive urbanization cities can adopt essential elements of laws that are grounded in sustainable processes and systems and move on to more elaborated arrangements and legal instruments as management and governance institutions mature they must be adapted to any countrys and city s specific needs resources and capacities and be enacted according to specific circumstances since the s extensive research in many countries on urban regulations such as building codes zoning environmental rules and others suggests that many urban regulations are out of date some reflected colonial heritage others were biased in favour of middle and upperincome groups while others still generated perverse economic incentives for private as opposed to public investment in housing and other services this goes to show that reform of urban regulations is an important lever for change