Morphological study on polycentric urban cores of Dhaka for compact city development

Abstract

Dhakahas been going through rapid urbanization and population growth in recent decades which is creating high stress on limited resources. In this scenario, various urban planners and policymakers have considered the option of compact development.In Draft Dhaka Structure Plan (2016-2035), a guideline was proposed to develop Dhaka as a compact city by concentrating activities in urban centres. For a city like Dhaka, where urban activities are unevenly distributed, promoting polycentric developmentrepresents a viable compact city opportunity where land uses can be efficiently distributed around multiple urban centres without causing congestion and environmental degradation.Sustainable polycentric growth of cities can be achieved through compact centres which are dense, diverse and accessible. Also, compact city planning in developing countries requires appropriate land use planning in core areas to ensure accessibility, livability and quality of urban life through careful investigation of the urban fabric. In this regard,the morphological structure of citiescan reflect the physical, socio-economic and cultural dimensions of the existing urban fabric that can be understood in terms of street layout,buildings and land use pattern. Therefore, the morphological attributes of the urban cores of Dhaka Metropolitan Region (DMR)have been assessed in this study to evaluate their potential for compact city development. The study identified and analyzed the existing urban centres of Dhaka city, the core city of DMR,through land use analysis and theiraccessibility was measured using space syntax.Also, the relationship of their land use distribution with accessibility condition has also been observed. The GIS-based road network and land use data have been collected from secondary sources.

The study revealed that the existing urban fabric of Dhaka citystill doesn’t reflect compact citydevelopment potential, and the morphological attributes of the centresare unique in terms of accessibility and land use pattern. Few centres showed higher accessibility at local and city levels, however, most of themwere found to be locally less integrated.Besides, most of them exhibiteda relatively weak balance inresidential and non-residential useswheresomehad significantnon-residential activities distributed in inaccessible locations. Another observation is that the commercial land use distribution of Dhaka city is not typically concentrated in nodal areas and is linearly distributed along the major roads without penetrating deep into the adjacent urban blocks. The findings of this research suggest specific strategies are required for designing and planning the existing urban centres of Dhaka city to facilitate compact city development.