Wednesday, January 28, 2009

ASSIGNMENT: BASELINE STUDY OF UNION COUNCILS

AR- 309: Architecture & Town Planning (B)

BASELINE STUDY OF UNION COUNCILS

By

Ravindar Kumar
B. Arch, M. Urban Design
Assistant Professor, DAP-NED

1. Introduction:

It is a grave reality that Karachi is the largest mega city of Pakistan. The city of such magnitude requires immense efforts for its physical, social economic development. Similarly it is also quite difficult to manage such city with mega problems & issues. However if one like to work for the planning of Karachi it would be a huge task to plan for the city because it requires immense efforts of various disciplines & departments to plan for Karachi. However for the students of Town Planning it is quite possible to look at the city from micro scale and establish its realities & work for its physical, social & economic development.

Thus the method for understanding the city like Karachi needs to be looked at from the smallest unit of the city. In this regard it is evident that Karachi is divided in 18 towns an each town is further subdivided into union councils. Thus the smallest basic unit of city is the boundary of a union council which can be easily documented by a group of students to understand its dynamics, identify problems & issues in it and devise solutions.

2. Details of Union Council:

For understanding the basics of a union council following data is necessary to be complied through physical survey.

i) Karachi Map with boundaries of different towns & other Administrative units.
ii) Town Map identifying the boundaries of the union councils.
iii) Union Council map identified with streets & different neighborhoods in it.
iv) Factual data shown on maps as well as in a report form with visuals.
v) Total number of neighborhoods & settlements.
vi) Existing conditions of water & sewerage lines with their diameter & slopes.
vii) Existing system of solid waste management.
viii) Existing system of education, health & other community facilities.
ix) Total number of lanes & streets & problems in it.
x) Total number of housing units its types & details of problems in it.
xi) Total population & ethnic composition.
xii) Contribution of people / NGOs / CBOs in above mentioned developments.
xiii) Contribution of Government in above mentioned developments.

3. Conclusion:

Conclusively it must be clearly spelled out that aforementioned information of union council shall be quite useful & basic for the understanding of the dynamics of a union council. However; it is also a question of quite significance that why such exercise shall be carried out by students? Basically there are two major reasons for that matter.
The first reason is clearly evident that this exercise shall be beneficial for students in understanding the subject of town planning with actual hands on with practical situations. This will enable the students with this understanding that what they can do & can not do as a Professional Civil Engineer.

The second reason of this exercise is an assumption or hypothesis that, the current elected people in union councils are technically unequipped with the know-how about physical & socio-economic ground realities in their union councils. And as a Civil Engineer when one document and analyze the physical, social & economic conditions of union council & deliver the same information to decision makers it would be easier for them to understand the problems & issues from an engineer’s point of view and they will take right decisions for the physical development of their union councils and as a repercussion jobs shall be generated for Civil Engineers.

Thus students are advised to start this assignment as soon as possible because the groups are already made by them. The deadlines for the assignment are as follows:

Data Collection: 27th February 2010
Data Analysis: 20th March 2010
Maps Making and Report Writing: 24th April 2010
Submission: 1st May 2010

TRENDS IN URBAN GROWTH & OBJECTIVES OF SOUND PLANNING

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (A&TP-B)
By:
RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor, DAP-NED

LECTURE NO: 3 & 4
TOPIC: TRENDS IN URBAN GROWTH & OBJECTIVES OF SOUND PLANNING

1. Introduction:


The current discussion is based on the concept of urban growth trends and objectives behind sound planning. According to, “Harold MacLean Lewis”[1] the trends in urban growth can be visualized through population estimates. He classified the towns with relation to their population sizes. According to his classification the town population begins from 2500 to 5000 persons. He further classified town in nine categories.

i) 2500 to 5000 persons may be termed as Eopolis or Infantile Municipality Town
ii) 5000 to 10000 persons may be termed as Polis or Juvenile Town
iii) 10000 to 25000 persons may be termed as Mature Trade/Industrial Town
iv) 25000 to 50000 persons may be termed as Metropolis or Medium Size City
v) 50000 to 100000 persons may be termed as Megalopolis Intermediate City
vi) 100000 to 250000 persons may be termed as Trade/Industry/Service Sector City
vii) 250000 to 500000 persons may be termed as Primate City
viii) 500000 to 1000000 persons may be termed as Tyranopolis or a Metropolitan City
ix) 1000000 or more persons may be termed as Senile City or Mega City

The trends in urban growth can be seen from two major perspectives. One is the trends of emerging urban centers or cities over the period of time and other is the trends of urban growth within urban centers. Considering the first perspective in mind there are three different trends of urban growth evident in the world i.e. Development of Mega Cities, Development of Metropolitan Cities and Development of Small and Intermediate Cities or Secondary Cities.

i) Development of Metropolitan Cities:

These are cities with population between one million and above up to less than 10 millions. After the First World War up to Second World War the development trends was of metropolitan cities as a hub of economic activities and centers of administration and power.

This development trend continued up to Second World War. In this era small manufacturing towns also developed as industrial cities. After the devastating effects of 2nd world war the redevelopment of cites toll place & large cities emerged as primate cities with large economic base. Due to both push and pull factors the urban areas transformed their morphology to greater extent.

ii) Development of Mega Cities:

These are the cities with population of Ten million & above. There are total 25 mega cities in the world. The background of mega city development is that, “The population explosions and mass migration towards primate cities caused the phenomenal growth & development in metropolitan cities and they become the economic base for the countries at national level and played their respective role in the country’s economic development.

The change in these metropolitan cities not only remains at population level but in addition their physical nature and morphology has increase to greater extent. These are termed as mega cities.
Mega cities are those which have mega economics and mega problems and issues. Such as its administration setup and physical maintenance and management issues. The devastating effects of Second World War also give birth to importance of small, secondary and intermediate level cities whose economic base also effect and serve the neighboring rural areas.

iii) Development of Small and Intermediate Cities:

These are the cities with population range from 2500 to less than one million. The development trend of these cities occurred in two different times in the history. At first this trends of cities was evident immediately after Industrial Revolution up to 1st world war and then after Second World War up till now.

The current trend is development of small and intermediate cites which has to play an important role in national economics due to security reasons and maintenance and management. The basic reason behind development of such cities is to reduce the pressure of population from primate cities. Secondly such cities are having small size can be better managed and plays a pivotal role in national economics by supporting rural hinter land.

2. What is Urban Growth?

It is basically the growth and development of urban areas, over a period of time. It can also be understood by the term urban sprawl.

3. What is Urban Sprawl?

Urban sprawl is the term to describe development pattern in cities. Unfortunately it lacks a precise definition. However it can be understood through visualizing the on going process of growth in cities. The urban sprawl can refer to at least three different patterns.

i) Low density continuous development.
ii) Ribbon development.
iii) Leapfrog development


i) Low – Density Continuous Development Pattern:

This is the development pattern on housing and related land uses in all direction of city. It is also termed as the horizontal growth, which occupy large amount of land and expand the boundary of the city. This development pattern is manly measure for at least 50 years.
The affects of low density continuous development pattern are as follows:
Waste of land resources. It increase the cost of development i.e. utilities, transport. It increases the travel time and energy consumption.

ii) Leapfrog Development Pattern:

It is a process of skipping over of parcels of land. This pattern occurs due to various reasons such as property value increase, deteriorating law and order, opportunities of better life & upward mobility. The affects of leapfrog development are as follows:
It is unplanned growth that occurs spontaneously. It creates incompatible land uses.

iii) Ribbon Development Pattern:

It is the development that follows street, car lines roads. Subways, and commuter railroads, by leaving the interstices undeveloped. Mainly the highways promote ribbon development. Interstices mean space between things / objects. According to Encyclopedia of Urban Planning by Whittick Arnold, “It is an urban development along main roads leading to cites”. According to Mr. G.K. Hiraskar, in this growth pattern, the development takes place in the form of Ribbon or line. It is a single row of house, shops, market, commercial buildings along the bust routes railway lines, and highways. The ribbon development mostly occurs in newly developing towns where zoning rules and regulations have not been strictly enforced.
The affects of Ribbon growth are as follows:
It has only one advantage that resident have access to transport. Its disadvantages are traffic noise, danger for children, stretch of services, and aesthetically it looks bad that’s why the UK has Restriction of Ribbon Development Act 1935. Initially this kind of growth is very small scale along the road side afterwards it occupy whole area and roads become congested and problem of accidents increase. Same is the case of railway lines. This kind of growth cause congestion and over crowding of all types of buildings i.e. Residence, Schools, Factories, Were housing, Petrol Pumps, Shops, Clinics etc. Every body wants to get frontage advantage of main road and the internal land will be left undeveloped which cause wastage of valuable land. Over growing at the road and narrow starts will raise the accidents. All types of buildings will coexist at the road frontage with no regard to zoning regulations, which will affect the health conditions of resident. The town spread will be far and wise which is costly to maintain. The future improvement will become costly. Incompatible land uses will occurs. Ribbon developed is inverse of planned growth because it is an organic growth which is uncontrollable. Therefore it is necessary to check this kind of development before it become problem for the planners.

4. Cellular Growth:

As evident from the term itself the cellular growth is the growth and expansion of cells.

What is cell? Cell is basically a unit of planning. Just like different biological organisms grow and expand, or a cell reproduce itself. Like wise in planning when a planned settlement is developed in a city; the city expands with it. For example KDA announces housing schemes in Karachi. Each settlement which is developed in a scheme can be termed as cell. Therefore, in planning cellular growth means repetition of existing cells in city structure or it is a planned addition of new neighborhoods to existing towns. Cellular growth may also means little more than haphazard urban growth.

5. Linear City:

The linear city concept can also be termed as more refined version of ribbon development. The concept of linear city was developed by Mr. Don Arturo Soria Y. Mata in 1882, in Madrid. According to his concept, “A city should be designed on the principal that transport rout will be the main determinant to develop physical shape / form / morphology of the city.” In linear city the development is arranged in a long narrow belt along the both sides of road. There may be a series of linear towns along the route to link existing towns. In Pakistan one can find many examples of this nature such as along Indus Highway many towns and villages developed in this pattern.

6. Suburbs and Suburban Growth:

Suburbs are the compactly developed / developing areas in the surrounding of a city. There is no identifiable boundary between city and suburban. However they are distinguished by their homogenous socio-economic and physical characteristics. Cities merge gradually into the suburban areas without and break in the physical aspect.

6.1 Character of Suburbs:

Suburbs can be of different form and function depends on their age, location and circumstances and context within which they are developed. In case of America and Europe (West) they are of three kind’s i.e. old suburbs, new suburbs and former independent communities.

a) Old Suburbs:
These are developed before the wise use of automobile and prosperity. These suburbs were generally located adjacent to central city. Their residents were of varied income groups. The social classes in old suburbs have commercial area or local shopping and ethnic background. They have very little amount of vacant land. The example of old suburb is PECHS area in Karachi.

b) New Suburbs:
These were developed after Second World War. When automobile use increased & people become affluent. They have low density. They have high rate of automobile ownership, high income, abundance of land and enough parking and open space facilities. Gulshan-e-Maymar in Karachi is its example.

c) Former Independent Communities:
These suburban communities developed as independent towns due to industry. They have a mixture of commercial, industrial and residential activities. They have mix housing type and varied age income and social class. Steel town, in Karachi is its case example.

6.2 Why Suburban Growth Takes Place:

There are varieties of reasons for suburban growth such as: Rate of land is low, open space are in abundance, city’s congestion increase, fast transport routes developed, & access to automobiles increased.

7. Models & Theories of Urban Growth & City’s Life Cycle:

It is a grave reality that city is a growing entity. Over a period of time city grows and develops. As city grows the habitation starts to takes place in fringe areas. As a repercussion changes and transformations occurs both in city center and suburbs. Considering the growth patterns in different cities all over the world the theories and planners tried to analyze them and established their theories & models for urban growth. Some of these theories & models are as under.

According to Lewis Mumford, the urban growth or town growth takes place in six stages with respect to their social order. Each town may pass through these six stages, i.e. Eopolis, Polis, Metropolis, Megalopolis, Tyranopolis and Necropolis.

Eopolis:
The Eopolis indicates the first stage of town as a village community whose economic base is agriculture.

Polis:
The Polis indicates and association of population with some mechanization and specialization.

Metropolis: The metropolis is a city or town which serves as a capital of a state or region.

Megalopolis: The megalopolis indicates the first stage of decline in town or city due to mega problems & issues, or the reign of town or city shows the signs of decline and deterioration.

Tyranopolis: the Tyranopolis is the town or city which shows drastic deteriorating situation for example the trade depression or military powers may occur with different war lords.

Necropolis: the necropolis is the worst stage of town or city. For example the citizens are shifting to rural areas or hinter land or village due to war, disease or economic break down. In that case the town may recover from it after a large internal of time.

According to Mr. Griffith Taylor a town or city passes through four stages, i.e. Infantile, Juvenile, Mature and senile.

Infantile: this is the first stage of town in which a city is not yet divided in separate zones. Or the city in which zoning regulations is not being prepared yet.

Juvenile: the juvenile stage of town or city indicates that, shops are being separated from the houses or residential area and there are some factories or an industry has been established at a minimal level.

Mature: the mature stage of town shows the divisions of residential zone, commercial zone and industrial zone in the city. Or the landuse and zoning regulations in town shows the stage of mature city / town.

Senile: Finally the senile stage of town indicates the physical decay in most of the portions of the city. Or the physical, social & economic degradation is evident in the built environment of town or city.

Apart from these theories of urban growth and process of decay there are some models of urban growth & its pattern of landuse in the form of different theories. These include concentric zone theory or concentric ring theory, Axial Development theory, Sector theory and multiple nuclei theory. These theories of urban development patterns are quite important in landuse planning. Because in landuse planning process the main focus is on conversion of individual parcels of land from rural to urban uses and the role of public and private sector in that conversion.

These theories are an attempt to understand and explain that how an urban area grows and what landuse changes occurs in it. it describes the basic urban structure of a city & dynamics of urban growth in town or city.

Concentric Zone / Ring Theory:

The concentric zone theory is based on the pioneering work of Ernest. W. Burgess who have carried out the empirical studies of Chicago and developed the concentric Rings theory. He identified five zones of landuse in the city. The figure developed by him shows the typical process of urban growth by five numbers of concentric circles which emerged & expands form CBD. The fist concentric circle of central business District (CBD) represents the center of activity generally close to the site of original settlement. The concentric circle means that some thing which converges to a focal factor. For example if we think of a smaller commun9ty the house of a land lord will be the focal point or in ancient or medieval time the palace of king & temple was a focal point in city. Like wise in this theory CBD is that focal point of an urban area. It also represents the old town areas or origin of city which has a central position in expansion. The second concentric circle represents the transition zone which consists of mix commercial and industrial land uses. It means the areas around CBD are subject to changes and transformations in which the old residences transform into business and industrial landuse. Such as wholesaling and warehousing activities. The third zone represents the landuse of low income housing in metropolitan area which contains old housing units or housing of workers of CBD. It is developed due to easy access to job or working area proximity to place of living. The fourth zone represents a middle income housing zone that includes some of the old suburbs. In this zone good residential facilities are evident for high income group where as this zone also comprise exclusive districts for high income people. The fifth and final zone is of newer suburban developments or commuters who use the fastest transport routes. This zone consists of high class residences and the outer limit of this zone has one hour journey to CBD. If one analyze this model of given pattern and growth situation it will be evident that, each zone held to invade the outer adjacent zone with a rippling effect. With decline enlarges intro central zone. The basic concept of this theory is that similar activities will locate at the same distance from the center of an urban area. The landuse in each zone depends upon its ability to pay the price for proximity to city center or CBD. In this growth model each zone would have a homogeneous landuse as the physical growth proceed outward from the center and the area occupied would have similar characteristics. From economic point of view the concentric zone is only possible when the site of growth will be located equidistant from center irrespective of direction. According to this theory the process of urban growth is of radial expansion from city center. Although this model is very simple but it has a certain description value.

Axial Development Theory:

The axial development theory is a continuation of concentric zone theory because its basic premise is same i.e. accessibility to a single focal point. However in this theory the accessibility is measured in terms of time and physical distance and focus is given to transport facilities in an urban area. This theory explains that as the movement will be concentrated along a particular route therefore development also takes place on this route. Thus urban expansion can be controlled by available transport facilities. It is an extension of each landuse type will develop along major transport route and as a repercussion star shape pattern of landuse will occur in urban built up area. Where as the number of arms of star depends upon the major transport routes in a city.

The limit to this development along main transport routes is set through the area development closer to center with less distance to center. Therefore basically this theory explains about the shape of urban built up areas by introducing some transport routes in addition to peripheral expansion by transport radials. And in this kind of development the pattern of internal landuse will be of irregularly shaped zones.

Sector Theory:

The sector theory is the refinement of both axial development theory and concentric zone theory. The sector theory was first proposed by Homer Hoyt in 1939. In this theory the focus of attention is a particular landuse growth & development. It suggests the cities grow not in strict concentric zones but rather in sectors similar type of development. This theory explains that the growth takes place along a particular axis of transport route with mainly similar type of landuse. Each sector consist a homogeneous landuse which expands outward in a particular direction away from the CBD. The residential areas might expand along with existing transportation links, topographical features or natural amenities such as Chicago’s gold cost and north suburbs clearly show this pattern. Thus the major attempt of sector theory is to explain the pattern of urban growth from the view point of residential landuse changes. According to sector theory the growth of n urban area is related with extension of residential districts or more appropriately said the movement of high income residential areas enclosed on each side by middle income group, develops at the edge of existing settlements. The growth for high income housing develops along fastest transport routes up to and edge of an urban area. Beyond which there may be pleasant open country. Some times the direction of this growth may be established by real estate developers. It is quite common practiced that people try to live near the similar social and income class which results in separation in the residential landuse. And as the higher income people can afford better housing & access to amenable environment therefore they can live away from their work place. Whereas; the low income people line on those locations which are low cost & affordable to them near their workplace. The limitation & in adequacy of sector theory is that it can not define rate of growth in different parts of the city or the causes of urban growth and those factors that affects the location of employment opportunities. Especially in case of low in come housing development around the new employment opportunities in suburban or fringe area as evident in our local context the sector theory is silent.

Multiple Nuclei Theory:

The Multiple nuclei theory was developed in 1945 by the Chauncey Harris & Edward Ullman after its initial exploration by Mr. R.D. McKenzie. This theory is quite varied from previous theories & models which explained that down town area or CBD is the only focal pint or nuclei of the city. This theory advocates that down town area or CBD can not be considered as an only nuclei or focal point for growth. This theory explains that in urban area there may be more than one focal point or multiple nuclei that can affect the location of certain land uses with increased intensity. In this theory the landuse patterns are visualized as series of nuclei develops in a city in which each nucleus can have different function. Each center develops as nuclei from the spatial interdependence of certain functions. For example manufacturing and transport uses may for on nuclei’s. Like wide hotel, offices and transshipment facilities may develop aro8unjd and air port or sea port areas as evident in Chicago’s’ O’Hare field or KPT area in Karachi. Basically this theory suggests four manor principles of separate nuclei and different districts in it.
Principle No 1: Certain activities requires and especial condition of access. For example retailing activity and accessibility had main coordination.

Principle No 2: Certain activities get benefited from grouping. For example a particular, single kind of market exists together.

Principle No 3: Certain activities are detrimental to each other location. For example some activities require supports services.

Principle No 4: Certain activities are unable to afford the market price of most desirable sites.

With the expansion of an urban area more specialized nuclei can emerge. In all major urban areas & cities the CBD is located near the inter city transport. The CBD may not be in the center of city but can be developed at an edge of city or built up areas. It depends on the asymmetrical growth of city or urban area. In an urban area Industry, whole sailing & ware housing develops near inter city transport areas. Where as the heavy industry is located away from the main part of the city or urban areas. As the city size increases the residential districts will show an increasing differentiation. In this way the cultural center and entertainment centers or suburban business districts will take a form of other nuclei in the city. Beyond the built up area, settlements which develops as a repercussion of rail services for commuters and private car use. This theory also explains about the irregular pattern of urban landuse because development occurs from different centers, which means the particular pattern of landuse emerge at each different urban area with no common basic pattern of development.

Conclusively; all the theories explained above adds to our knowledge of the cities. Because when the sectors developed in cities and the transit & highways elongated the landuse patterns; eventually a nuclei develop or more appropriately said that transportation and economic development added new dimensions to the landuse of the city. Therefore whenever the landuse patterns of a large old city is evaluated; that has gone through such changes; it may be possible to find all these landuse patterns. It is very rare that contemporary cities show entirely one theory of the landuse change. Finally it is also evident from these theories or models of urban Growth that it only focused on the affects of growth on urban development pattern. Whereas the causes of urban growth is not addressed in these theories; because all theories have an assumption that an urban area will grow in size or physical morphology will change & the growth of city is taken for granted.

7. Objectives of Sound Planning:

According to Harold MacLean Lewis;

Whatever the plan may be, but it should have reasonable foresight to be adapted to new conditions with little disturbance and destruction in making improvements. The work of planning should be assigned to people who have a vision, technical training and experience. A reasonable plan once decide, should be implemented with its essential features without any demand and opposition and that is sound planning. However the objectives of sound planning are to have flexibility in plans to adopt change. Foe instance if informal development is more than formal development, then it should be regulated. The efforts & investments of people shall not be destroyed so as resources shall not go waste & that is the objective of sound planning. The logic behind regulation of informal sector is the failure of formal sector in provision of services and infrastructure for example, will it be possible for a poor person to have concrete house? Or can they get the services of an engineer or hire an architect who can provide low cost solutions? The answer is definitely no. So if a poor person made his house without standards he must be regulated not bulldozed. Another thing that must be kept in mind that, who made the great cities? Princes; Kings; some Powerful People or an Institution of Government. So what is their objective to make a new city? Mainly their objective is to develop capital cities as a place of their importance at national and international level to get praise for them from generations to come. Now what a great city Islamabad is? The planners of Islamabad wanted to have a capital in cool climate because people work efficiently in cool climate. Now due to decision maker’s choice of cool climate billion of rupees of a poor country were spent on it. So can we justify such an objective for sound planning?

8. Conclusions:

Thus conclusively the current discussion leads us to following realities.

i) Urban growth can be spontaneous on its own or planned growth as directed by the authorities.
ii) The concept of planning is to provide a vision for future well before the people actually settle in the settlements and planning may also be appropriate enough to facilitate the process of housing the poor in the city.
iii) The basic planning component is that incompatible land uses should not be allowed or located together.
iv) Circulation, transport, infrastructure and land use management are the basic tools of planning to guide the urban growth and transformation in the city.
v) Suburban growth shall be seen as the series of phases through which a particular location passes or it is the development which proceed from an open land to mature urban development.
vi) The objectives of sound planning should be to develop a set of simple guidelines, or principles which should be comprehensive and adaptable to changing conditions of the future.
[1] Harold MacLean Lewis is the author of book “Planning the Modern City”, 1978, New York, USA.

Monday, January 19, 2009

OBJECTIVES OF SOUND PLANNING

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (B)
By:
RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Karachi


LECTURE NO. 04
TOPIC: OBJECTIVES OF SOUND PLANNING


Introduction:

In order to understand the, “Objectives of Sound Planning” at first it is imperative to comprehend a little bit history of urban planning and the planning attempts made by the initiators of planning in the urban contexts. Then one may also ask the questions like; what kind of objectives they had in mind while developing their cities? Whether they have achieved those objectives or not? Do their defined objectives may be referred as objectives of sound planning or not? What is meant by Sound Planning? And how the Objectives for Sound Planning are formulated? In addition it is also important to identify the urban context for which the planning is to be done so as one may clearly spell out the objectives of sound planning. Thus in this way one may understand the topic objectives of sound planning. In the following all these questions are addressed in some detail.

Urban Planning History:[1]

Urban, city, and town planning is the integration of the disciplines of land use planning and transport planning, to explore a very wide range of aspects of the built and social environments of urbanized municipalities and communities. Urban planning as an organized profession has existed for less than a century. However, most settlements and cities reflect various degrees of forethought and conscious design in their layout and functioning.

The development of technology, particularly the discovery of agriculture, facilitated larger populations than the very small communities, and may have compelled the development of stronger, more coercive governments at the same time. The pre-Classical and Classical ages saw a number of cities laid out according to fixed plans, though many tended to develop organically. Designed cities were characteristic of the totalitarian government. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization (in modern-day Pakistan and northwest India) are perhaps the earliest examples of deliberately planned and managed cities. These ancient cities were unique in that they often had drainage systems, seemingly tied to a well-developed ideal of urban sanitation. The Greek Hippodamus (c. 407 BC) is widely considered the father of city planning in the West, for his design of Miletus; Alexander commissioned him to lay out his new city of Alexandria, the grandest example of idealized urban planning of the Mediterranean world, where regularity was aided in large part by its level site near a mouth of the Nile. The ancient Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil convenience. Many European towns still preserve the essence of these schemes. The collapse of Roman civilization saw the end of their urban planning, among many other arts.

Urban development in the Middle Ages, characteristically focused on a fortress, a fortified abbey, or a (sometimes abandoned) Roman nucleus, occurred "like the annular rings of a tree" whether in an extended village or the center of a larger city. Since the new center was often on high, defensible ground, the city plan took on an organic character, following the irregularities of elevation contours like the shapes that result from agricultural terracing.

A few medieval cities were admired for their wide thoroughfares and other orderly arrangements, but the juridical chaos of medieval cities (where the administration of streets was sometimes hereditary with various noble families), and the characteristic tenacity of medieval Europeans in legal matters, prevented frequent or large-scale urban planning until the Renaissance and the enormous strengthening of all central governments, from city-states to the kings of France, characteristic of that epoch. Florence was an early model of the new urban planning, which rearranged itself into a star-shaped layout adapted from the new star fort, designed to resist cannon fire. This model was widely imitated, reflecting the enormous cultural power of Florence in this age; the Renaissance was hypnotized by one city type which for a century and a half was impressed upon utopian schemes: this is the star-shaped city Radial streets extend outward from a defined center of military, communal or spiritual power. And, all this occurred in the cities, but ordinarily not in the industrial suburbs characteristic of this era which remained disorderly and characterized by crowded conditions and organic growth.

In developed countries (Western Europe, North America, Japan and Australasia), planning and architecture can be said to have gone through various stages of general consensus in the last 200 years. Firstly, there was the industrialised city of the 19th century, where control of building was largely held by businesses and the wealthy elite. Around 1900, there began to be a movement for providing citizens, especially factory workers, with healthier environments. The concept of garden cities arose and several model towns were built, such as Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City in UK. However, these were principally small scale in size, typically dealing with only a few thousand residents. It wasn't until the 1920s that modernism began to surface. Based on the ideas of Le Corbusier and utilising new skyscraper building techniques, the modernist city stood for the elimination of disorder, congestion and the small scale, replacing them instead with preplanned and widely spaced freeways and tower blocks set within gardens. There were plans for large scale rebuilding of cities, such as the Plan Voisin (based on Le Corbusier's Ville Contemporaine), which proposed clearing and rebuilding most of central Paris. No large-scale plans were implemented until after World War II however. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, housing shortages caused by war destruction led many cities around the world to build substantial amounts of government-subsidized housing blocks. Planners at the time used the opportunity to implement the modernist ideal of towers surrounded by gardens. The most prominent example of an entire modernist city is Brasilia, constructed between 1956 and 1960 in Brazil. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, many planners were coming to realize that the imposition of modernist clean lines and a lack of human scale also tended to sap vitality from the community. This was expressed in high crime and social problems within many of these planned neighbourhoods. Modernism can be said to have ended in the 1970s when the construction of the cheap, uniform tower blocks ended in many countries, such as Britain and France. Since then many have been demolished and in their way more conventional housing has been built. Rather than attempting to eliminate all disorder, planning now concentrates on individualism and diversity in society and the economy. This is the post-modernist era. Minimally-planned cities still exist.

Houston is an example of a large city (with a metropolitan population of 5.5 million) in a developed country, without a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Houston does, however, have many of the land use restrictions covered by traditional zoning regulations, such as restrictions on development density and parking requirements, even though specific land uses are not regulated. Moreover, private-sector developers in Houston have used subdivision covenants and deed restrictions effectively to create the same kinds of land use restrictions found in most municipal zoning laws. Houston voters have rejected proposals for a comprehensive zoning ordinance three times since 1948. Even without zoning in its traditional sense, metropolitan Houston displays similar land use patterns at the macro scale to regions comparable in age and population that do have zoning, such as Dallas. This suggests that factors outside the regulatory environment, such as the provision of urban infrastructure and methods of financing development, may play as big of a role in urban development as municipal zoning.

Sustainable development and sustainability have become important concepts in today's urban planning field, with the recognition that current consumption and living habits may be leading to problems such as the overuse of natural resources, ecosystem destruction, urban heat islands, pollution, growing social inequality and large-scale climate change. Many urban planners have, as a result, begun to advocate for the development of sustainable cities. However, the notion of sustainable development is a fairly recent concept and somewhat controversial. Wheeler, in his 1998 article, suggests a definition for sustainable urban development to be as "development that improves the long-term social and ecological health of cities and towns." He goes on to suggest a framework that might help all to better understand what a 'sustainable' city might look like. These include compact, efficient land use; less automobile use yet with better access; efficient resource use, less pollution and waste; the restoration of natural systems; good housing and living environments; a healthy social ecology; sustainable economics; community participation and involvement; and preservation of local culture and wisdom. The challenge facing today's urban planners lies in the implementation of targeted policies and programs, and the need to modify existing urban and regional institutions to achieve the goals of sustainability.

Aspects of planning:

Aesthetics:

In developed countries, there has been a backlash against excessive man-made clutter in the visual environment, such as signposts, signs, and hoardings. Other issues that generate strong debate amongst urban designers are tensions between peripheral growths, increased housing density and planned new settlements. There are also unending debates about the benefits of mixing tenures and land uses, versus the benefits of distinguishing geographic zones where different uses predominate. Regardless, all successful urban planning considers urban character, local identity, and respect for heritage, pedestrians, traffic, utilities and natural hazards. Planners are important in managing the growth of cities, applying tools like zoning to manage the uses of land, and growth management to manage the pace of development. When examined historically, many of the cities now thought to be most beautiful are the result of dense, long lasting systems of prohibitions and guidance about building sizes, uses and features. These allowed substantial freedoms, yet enforce styles, safety, and often materials in practical ways. Many conventional planning techniques are being repackaged using the contemporary term smart growth. There are some cities that have been planned from conception, and while the results often don't turn out quite as planned, evidence of the initial plan often remains.

Safety:

Historically within the Middle East, Europe and the rest of the Old World, settlements were located on higher ground (for defense) and close to fresh water sources. Cities have often grown onto, coastal and flood plains at risk of floods and storm surges. Urban planners must consider these threats. If the dangers can be localised then the affected regions can be made into parkland or Greenbelt, often with the added benefit of open space provision. Extreme weather, flood, or other emergencies can often be greatly mitigated with secure emergency evacuation routes and emergency operations centers. These are relatively inexpensive and un-intrusive, and many consider them a reasonable precaution for any urban space. Many cities will also have planned, built safety features, such as levees, retaining walls, and shelters. In recent years, practitioners have also been expected to maximize the accessibility of an area to people with different abilities, practicing the notion of "inclusive design," to anticipate criminal behaviour and consequently to "design-out crime" and to consider "traffic calming" or "pedestrianisation" as ways of making urban life more pleasant. City planning tries to control criminality with structures designed from theories such as socio-architecture or environmental determinism. These theories say that an urban environment can influence individuals' obedience to social rules. The theories often say that psychological pressure develops in more densely developed, unadorned areas. This stress causes some crimes and some use of illegal drugs. The antidote is usually more individual space and better, more beautiful design in place of functionalism.

Oscar Newman’s defensible space theory cites the modernist housing projects of the 1960s as an example of environmental determinism, where large blocks of flats are surrounded by shared and disassociated public areas, which are hard for residents to identify with. As those on lower incomes cannot hire others to maintain public space such as security guards or grounds keepers, and because no individual feels personally responsible, there was a general deterioration of public space leading to a sense of alienation and social disorder. Jane Jacobs is another notable environmental determinist and is associated with the "eyes on the street" concept. By improving ‘natural surveillance’ of shared land and facilities of nearby residents by literally increasing the number of people who can see it, and increasing the familiarity of residents, as a collective, residents can more easily detect undesirable or criminal behaviour. The "broken-windows" theory argues that small indicators of neglect, such as broken windows and unkempt lawns, promote a feeling that an area is in a state of decay. Anticipating decay, people likewise fail to maintain their own properties. The theory suggests that abandonment causes crime, rather than crime causing abandonment.

Some planning methods might help an elite group to control ordinary citizens. Haussmann's renovation of Paris created a system of wide boulevards which prevented the construction of barricades in the streets and eased the movement of military troops. In Rome, the Fascists in the 1930s created ex novo many new suburbs in order to concentrate criminals and poorer classes away from the elegant town. Other social theories point out that in Britain and most countries since the 18th century, the transformation of societies from rural agriculture to industry caused a difficult adaptation to urban living. These theories emphasize that many planning policies ignore personal tensions, forcing individuals to live in a condition of perpetual extraneity to their cities. Many people therefore lack the comfort of feeling "at home" when at home. Often these theorists seek a reconsideration of commonly used "standards" that rationalize the outcomes of a free (relatively unregulated) market.

Slums

The rapid urbanization of the last century has resulted in a significant amount of slum habitation in the major cities of the world, particularly in developing countries. There is significant demand for planning resources and strategies to address the issues that arise from slum development. Many planning theorists and practitioners are calling for increased attention and resources in this area, particularly the Commonwealth Association of Planners. When urban planners give their attention to slums, one also has to pay attention to the racial make-up of that area to ensure that racial steering does not occur. The issue of slum habitation has often been resolved via a simple policy of clearance. However, more creative solutions are beginning to emerge such as Nairobi's "Camp of Fire" program, where established slum-dwellers have promised to build proper houses, schools, and community centers without any government money, in return for land they have been illegally squatting on for 30 years. The "Camp of Fire" program is one of many similar projects initiated by Slum Dwellers International, which has programs in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Urban decay

Urban decay is a process by which a city, or a part of a city, falls into a state of disrepair and neglect. It is characterized by depopulation, economic restructuring, property abandonment, high unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and desolate urban landscapes. During the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay was often associated with central areas of cities in North America and parts of Europe. During this time period, major changes in global economies, demographics, transportation, and government policies created conditions that fostered urban decay. Many planners spoke of "white flight" during this time. This pattern was different than the pattern of "outlying slums" and "suburban ghettos" found in many cities outside of North America and Western Europe, where central urban areas actually had higher real estate vales. Starting in the 1990s, many of the central urban areas in North America have been experiencing a reversal of the urban decay of previous decades, with rising real estate values, smarter development, demolition of obsolete social housing areas and a wider variety of housing choices.

Reconstruction & Renewal:

Areas devastated by war or invasion represent a unique challenge to urban planners. Buildings, roads, services and basic infrastructure like power, water and sewerage are often severely compromised and need to be evaluated to determine what can be salvaged for re-incorporation. There is also the problem of the existing population, and what needs they may have. Historic, religious or social centers also need to be preserved and re-integrated into the new city plan. A prime example of this is the capital city of Kabul, Afghanistan, which, after decades of civil war and occupation, has regions that have literally been reduced to rubble and desolation. Despite this, the indigenous population continues to live in the area, constructing makeshift homes and shops out of whatever can be salvaged. Any reconstruction plan proposed needs to be sensitive to the needs of the community and its existing culture, businesses and needs. Urban Reconstruction Development plans must also work with government agencies as well as private interests to develop workable designs.

Transport:

Transport within urbanized areas presents unique problems. The density of an urban environment can create significant levels of road traffic, which can impact businesses and increase pollution.

Parking space is another concern, requiring the construction of large parking garages in high density areas which could be better used for other development. Good planning uses transit oriented development, which attempts to place higher densities of jobs or residents near high-volume transportation. For example, some cities permit commerce and multi-story apartment buildings only within one block of train stations and multilane boulevards, and accept single-family dwellings and parks farther away. Floor area ratio is often used to measure density. This is the floor area of buildings divided by the land area. Ratios below 1.5 could be considered low density, and plot ratios above five very high density. Most exurbs are below two, while most city centers are well above five. Walk-up apartments with basement garages can easily achieve a density of three. Skyscrapers easily achieve densities of thirty or more.

City authorities may try to encourage lower densities to reduce infrastructure costs, though some observers note that low densities may not accommodate enough population to provide adequate demand or funding for that infrastructure. In the UK, recent years have seen a concerted effort to increase the density of residential development in order to better achieve sustainable development. Increasing development density has the advantage of making mass transport systems, district heating and other community facilities (schools, health centers, etc) more viable. However; critics of this approach dub the densification of development as 'town cramming' and claim that it lowers quality of life and restricts market-led choice.

Problems can often occur at residential densities between about two and five. These densities can cause traffic jams for automobiles, yet are too low to be commercially served by trains or light rail systems. The conventional solution is to use buses, but these and light rail systems may fail where automobiles and excess road network capacity are both available, achieving less than 1% ridership. The Lewis-Mogridge Position claims that increasing road space is not an effective way of relieving traffic jams as latent or induced demand invariably emerges to restore a socially-tolerable level of congestion.

Suburbanization:

In some countries, declining satisfaction with the urban environment is held to blame for continuing migration to smaller towns and rural areas (so-called urban exodus). Successful urban planning supported Regional planning can bring benefits to a much larger hinterland or city region and help to reduce both congestion along transport routes and the wastage of energy implied by excessive commuting.

Environmental factors:

Environmental protection and conservation are of utmost importance to many planning systems across the world. Not only are the specific effects of development to be mitigated, but attempts are made to minimize the overall effect of development on the local and global environment. This is commonly done through the assessment of Sustainable urban infrastructure. In Europe this process is known as Sustainability Appraisal. In most advanced urban or village planning models, local context is critical. In many, gardening and other outdoor activities assumes a central role in the daily life of citizens. Environmental planners are focusing on smaller systems of resource extraction, energy production and waste disposal. There is even a practice known as Arcology, which seeks to unify the fields of ecology and architecture, using principles of landscape architecture to achieve a harmonious environment for all living things.

On a small scale, the eco-village theory has become popular, as it emphasizes a traditional 100-140 person scale for communities. An urban planner is likely to use a number of quantitative tools to forecast impacts of development on the environmental, including roadway air dispersion models to predict air quality impacts of urban highways and roadway noise models to predict noise pollution effects of urban highways. As early as the 1960s, noise pollution was addressed in the design of urban highways as well as noise barriers. The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment can be an important tool to the urban planner by identifying early in the planning process any geographic areas or parcels which have toxic constraints.

Light and Sound

The urban canyon effect is a colloquial, non-scientific term referring to street space bordered by very high buildings. This type of environment may shade the sidewalk level from direct sunlight during most daylight hours. While an oft-decried phenomenon, it is rare except in very dense, hyper-tall urban environments, such as those found in Lower and Midtown Manhattan, Chicago's Loop and Kowloon in Hong Kong. In urban planning, sound is usually measured as a source of pollution. Another perspective on urban sounds is developed in Soundscape studies emphasizing that sound aesthetics involves more than noise abatement and decibel measurements. Hedfors coined 'Sonotope' as a useful concept in urban planning to relate typical sounds to a specific place. Due to urban planning, there has been an increase in light and sound pollution that destroys the environment.

Urban Planning Process:

The traditional planning process focused on top-down processes where the urban planner created the plans. The planner is usually skilled in either surveying/engineering or architecture, bringing to the town planning process ideals based around these disciplines. They typically worked for national or local governments. Changes to the planning process over past decades have witnessed the metamorphosis of the role of the urban planner in the planning process. More citizens calling for democratic planning & development processes have played a huge role in allowing the public to make important decisions as part of the planning process. Community organizers and social workers are now very involved in planning from the grassroots level. Developers too have played huge roles in influencing the way development occurs, particularly through project-based planning. Many recent developments were results of large and small-scale developers who purchased land, designed the district and constructed the development from scratch. The Melbourne Docklands, for example, was largely an initiative pushed by private developers who sought to redevelop the waterfront into a high-end residential and commercial district. Recent theories of urban planning, espoused, for example by Salingaros see the city as a adaptive system that grows according to process similar to those of plants. They say that urban planning should thus take its cues from such natural processes.

Conclusion:

Conclusively it is now quite clear that, “it is the process of urban planning that a society adopts leads towards determination about objectives of sound planning.” The objectives of sound planning in current time and space especially in our local context of Karachi shall be based upon the understanding level of our decision makers at federal, provincial and local level regarding significance of urban planning and welfare of citizens at large. Thus the objective of sound planning is quite clear i.e. to provide the city of Karachi a healthy and socially safe livable environment.

[1] For details please log on to the website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning

TRENDS IN URBAN GROWTH

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (B)
By:
RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Karachi

LECTURE NO. 03
TOPIC: TRENDS IN URBAN GROWTH


Introduction:

In order to understand the topic, “trends in urban growth” at first it is imperative to ask; what is meant by urban growth? “Urban growth is the rate of growth of an urban population.”[1] The phrase urban growth also described with its synonym ‘urban sprawl’ which means; “The unplanned, uncontrolled spreading of urban development into areas adjoining the edge of a city.”[2] Similarly another concept is of ‘urbanization’ that needs to be understood while understanding trends in urban growth. “Urbanization (also spelled urbanisation) is the physical growth of rural or natural land into urban areas as a result of population in-migration to an existing urban area. While the exact definition and population size of urbanized areas varies among different countries, urbanization is attributed to growth of cities. Urbanization is also defined by the United Nations as movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration. The UN projects half the world population will live in urban areas at the end of 2008.”[3] In the following the trends in urban growth shall be discussed in details.

Global Urban Population in Developed and Developing Countries:[4]
The human population has lived a rural lifestyle through most of history. The world’s population, however, is quickly becoming urbanized as people migrate to the cities. In 1950, less than 30% of the world’s population lived in cities. This number grew to 47% in the year 2000 (2.8 billion people), and it is expected to grow to 60% by the year 2025. Developed nations have a higher percentage of urban residents than less developed countries. However, urbanization is occurring rapidly in many less developed countries, and it is expected that most urban growth will occur in less developed countries during the next decades.

The definition of an urban area changes from country to country. In general, there are no standards, and each country develops its own set of criteria for distinguishing cities or urban areas. A city is generally defined as a political unit, i.e., a place organized and governed by an administrative body. A way of defining a city or an urban area is by the number of residents. The United Nations defines settlements of over 20,000 as urban, and those with more than 100,000 as cities. The United States defines an urbanized area as a city and surrounding area, with a minimum population of 50,000. A metropolitan area includes both urban areas and rural areas that are socially and economically integrated with a particular city.
Cities with over 5 million inhabitants are known as megacities. There were 41 in the year 2000. This number is expected to grow as the population increases in the next few decades. It is predicted that by the year 2015, 50 megacities will exist, and 23 of these are expected to have over 10 million people. Table below is a list of the world’s 25 largest cities in 1995.

The World's 25 Largest Cities, 1995
Population (Millions)
Tokyo, Japan 26.8
Sao Paulo, Brazil 16.4
New York, USA 16.3
Mexico City, Mexico 15.6
Bombay, India 15.1
Shanghai, China 15.1
Los Angeles, USA 12.4
Beijing, China 12.4
Calcutta, India 11.7
Seoul, South Korea 11.6
Jakarta, Indonesia 11.5
Buenos Aires, Argentina 11.0
Tianjin, China 10.7
Osaka, Japan 10.6
Lagos, Nigeria 10.3
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 9.9
Delhi, India 9.9
Karachi, Pakistan 9.9
Cairo, Egypt 9.7
Paris, France 9.5
Metropolitan Manila, Philippines 9.3
Moscow, Russia 9.2
Dhaka, Bangladesh 7.8
Istanbul, Turkey 7.8
Lima, Peru 7.2
Source: United Nations, Population Division. World Urbanization Prospects. 1994
Why is the urban population increasing so fast?
The rapid growth of urban areas is the result of two factors: natural increase in population (excess of births over deaths), and migration to urban areas. The natural population growth rate has always been less than the population growth rate due to migration therefore we must concentrate understanding the phenomenon of migration in detail.
Migration is defined as the long-term relocation of an individual, household or group to a new location outside the community of origin. Today the movement of people from rural to urban areas (internal migration) is most significant. Although smaller than the movement of people within borders, international migration is also increasing. Both internal and international migration contributes to urbanization. Migration is often explained in terms of either “push factors” – conditions in the place of origin which are perceived by migrants as detrimental to their well-being or economic security, and “pull factors” – the circumstances in new places that attract individuals to move there. Examples of push factors include high unemployment and political persecution; examples of pull factors include job opportunities or moving to a better climate.

Typically, a pull factor initiates migration that can be sustained by push and other factors that facilitate or make possible the change. For example, a farmer in rural Sindh whose land has become unproductive because of drought (push factor) may decide to move to Karachi City where he perceives more job opportunities and possibilities for a better lifestyle (pull factor). In general, cities are perceived as places where one could have a better life, because of better opportunities, higher salaries, better services, and better lifestyles. The perceived better conditions attract poor people from rural areas.

In order to better illustrate the causes of rural migration, we will consider policies that have led to migration in many developing countries. In order to pay foreign debt and to be more competitive in international markets, national governments have encouraged the export of national resources and agricultural products. Agricultural products (sugar, flowers, coffee, etc.), and primary-sector goods (timber, fish, minerals, etc) become natural resource capital that can be traded to bolster the national economy. In order to produce agricultural products quickly, efficiently, and for a decent price, national governments often look to decrease the number of small producers, and turn agricultural production and resource extraction over to larger enterprises, with larger production facilities, and a lower per-unit cost of production. This trend turns land into a commodity, that can be bought and sold, and it is viewed only in terms of its productive capabilities. Free market economics pursues economic efficiency to deliver goods at the lowest possible price, and its advocates maintain that any government intervention diminishes this efficiency. Consequently, they seek to eliminate farm programs such as farm subsidies, cheap credit policies, etc. intended to help the farmer, and to maintain stable prices. This scenario leaves farmers to shoulder the burden of farming, sometimes with no alternative but to sell their land to a foreign investor or a domestic-owned enterprise, and move to the cities, where the farmer hopes to have a better life.

Other policies reinforce the above scenario. In this case, in order to boost the production of cheaper goods, governments have maintained artificially low food prices in urban areas. The strategy here is to maintain urban food prices below market levels to reduce the cost of urban labor and urban life. This policy has resulted in inadequate compensation of rural producers for the costs they incur to produce food products and thus have aggravated rural poverty. On the other hand, these policies have also made city life more attractive and pulled them from rural areas. As a result of these policies, an average of 270,000 rural migrants have been arriving in Mexico City annually over the last ten years, transforming it into one of the largest cities in the world.

International migration includes labor migration, refugees and undocumented migrants. Similar to rural-to-urban migration, individuals move in search of jobs and a better life. Income disparities among regions, and job opportunities, are key motivating factors. The migration policies of sending and receiving countries also play a key role. The best current estimate from the United Nations Population Fund indicates that more than 100 million people were living outside their countries of birth or citizenship in 1998. There are a number of reasons why this figure is rising, but an important one is that the native labor pool in the industrialized countries is shrinking, while the developing world’s workforce is rapidly increasing. Today, international migration is at an all-time high. About 2% of the Earth’s population has moved away from the country of origin.

International refugees contribute to the urban migrant population. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that most of the 22 million people who came under its wing in 1997 were fleeing from domestic or international conflict. The Geneva Convention (1951) on Refugees defines refugees as those individuals who migrate because of: “….well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group, or political opinion……”

Nations honoring the Geneva Convention have an obligation to determine whether, in fact, individuals will truly face persecution at home. Excluded are those who fear famine or are pushed out by natural disasters. The overwhelming majority of refugees come from developing nations, and most of them flee to poor countries.

What are the Problems Associated with Rapid Urban Growth?

The urbanization process refers to much more than simple population growth; it involves changes in the economic, social and political structures of a region. Rapid urban growth is responsible for many environmental and social changes in the urban environment and its effects are strongly related to global change issues. The rapid growth of cities strains their capacity to provide services such as energy, education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation and physical security. Because governments have less revenue to spend on the basic upkeep of cities and the provision of services, cities have become areas of massive sprawl, serious environmental problems, and widespread poverty.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, urbanization resulted from and contributed to industrialization. New job opportunities in the cities motivated the mass movement of surplus population away from the countryside. At the same time, migrants provided cheap, plentiful labor for the emerging factories. Today, due to movements such as globalization, the circumstances are similar in developing countries. Here the concentration of investments in cities attracts large numbers of migrants looking for employment, thereby creating a large surplus labor force, which keeps wages low. This situation is attractive to foreign investment companies from developed countries that can produce goods for far less than if the goods were produced where wages are higher. Thus, one might wonder if urban poverty serves a distinct function for the benefit of global capital.

One of the major effects of rapid urban growth is “urban sprawl"- scattered development that increases traffic, saps local resources and destroys open space. Urban sprawl is responsible for changes in the physical environment, and in the form and spatial organization of cities. Developed and less developed countries of the world differ not only in the percent living in cities, but also in the way in which urbanization is occurring.

In Mexico City (950 square miles), as in many other megacities in the developing world, urban sprawl exists as nearly 40% of city dwellers live in the urban periphery in poverty and environmental degradation. These high density settlements are often highly polluted owing to the lack of urban services, including running water, trash pickup, electricity or paved roads. Nevertheless, cities provide poor people with more opportunities and greater access to resources to transform their situation than rural areas. In the United States, and Pakistan poorly planned urban development is threatening environment, health, and people’s quality of life.
Consequences of Urban Growth:
Increases traffic and Squatter Settlements
Pollutes air, water and other threats to natural environment
Worsens the existing degraded built environment
Destroys agricultural land, parks, and open spaces
Costs cities and counties millions of dollars for new housing, water and sewer lines, new schools, and increased police and fire protection
Creates crowded schools in the suburbs and empty, crumbling schools in center of cities
Solutions to decrease Urban Growth:
Enacting growth boundaries, parks and open space protection
Planning and promoting public participation in housing and transportation.
Reversing government programs and tax policies that help create sprawl.
Revitalizing already developed areas through measures such as attracting new businesses, reducing crime and improving schools;
Preventing new development in floodplains, coastal areas and other disaster- prone areas.

Readings and References:

TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY USED IN TOWN PLANNING

AR-309: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING (A&TP-B)
By:
RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor, DAP-NED

LECTURE NO: 1
TOPIC: TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY USED IN TOWN PLANNING

TOWN, CITY & URBAN


Town:
The ‘town’ name applied generally to small municipalities, larger than the village and smaller than the city or county. The town is usually operated under its own powers of local government granted by the government.

Municipality:
According to Anglo-Saxon law, public corporation created by a state and under its legislative control, typically a town, village, or other regional administrative unit. Until recently a special charter designating specific powers formed municipal corporations. Now, however, they may be formed under general statutes. Among the more important provisions in a charter and the general laws of a municipality are those that give a municipality the power to tax and the power to pass ordinances effective as law for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare. The rate of taxation that a municipality may levy is limited in many states by the municipal charter. Among other rights that may be granted under a charter are the powers to sell bonds or notes, to award franchises, to acquire property, to construct public improvements, and to operate public utilities. Municipalities are essential units of local government.

City:
The city is defined as a large centre of population organized as a community. The word city is derived from the Latin word civitas, which denotes a community that administers its own affairs. In ancient Greece such an independent community was called a city-state; it consisted of a chief town and its immediate neighbourhood. The City is also described as a place where people live with collective sense of purpose/perception. Where internal and external processes shape environment. The city can also be defined according to scale of the settlement and types of services available in it. Some times it is directly connected to the production of the area. The city is also defined with the system of movement and relationships with the region. It has distinctive physical, social & economic characteristics, which differentiate it from the village. There was a big debate in 18th century that, what is the sense of city? And it was established that, city means, that kind of settlement which is developed as a result of industrial revolution in which the production is related to people. Before industrial revolution there were guild towns. However after industrial revolution it was termed as industrial towns/cities. Thus towns & cities can be described with respect to pre industrial & postindustrial scenario.

Local Government, the government of smaller units within nations or state, mostly at the level of the county, town, or district. Local government bodies and structures are normally creations of the central government, which delegates authority to them. The personnel of local government are customarily directly elected, because of the immediate relevance of their decisions to local life, and their powers differ from country to country. Local government usually provides administrative, fiscal, and other public services and amenities to local residents. In highly unitary centralized states, such as France or Great Britain, local government enjoys only limited powers, and in some areas these have been subject to erosion by central authority. Though some have regarded it as a basic underpinning for national democracy, local government is ill fitted to resist any encroachment on its powers by the central government.

Megalopolis (Greek megas, “great”; polis, “city”), the term was first used in the early 1960s to describe the conurbation of the north-eastern United States extending from Boston in Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. and including the major cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The term “megalopolis” was initially applied to those urban agglomerations, or super-conurbations, that developed when separate towns and cities grew together. Such megalopolitan areas are found in many highly urbanized countries and include the area between London and Manchester in the United Kingdom, the Pacific coastal district of Honshu, Japan, and the Randstad region of the Netherlands. Their growth has depended largely on the economic prosperity of the immediate surrounding region. Since the 1970s, however, the most rapid large-scale growth of cities has occurred in newly industrializing nations. Megalopolitan areas are now a major feature of the countries of Asia and Central and South America. Examples, with their projected populations for the year 2000 include Mexico City (25.6 million), São Paulo, Brazil (22.1 million), Shanghai, China (17.0 million), Jakarta, Indonesia (13.7 million), and Calcutta, India (15.7 million). It is estimated that by the year 2000, 8 of the world’s 15 largest cities will be in Asia.

Mega-cities:
The Modern mega-cities owe their origins to the globalization of international trade and their ability to attract multinational companies from anywhere in the world. Foreign investors prefer to locate in a single city where services and economic opportunities can be concentrated and encourage further growth. The emphasis on export-oriented industry means that the development of internal markets is generally weak with few opportunities for other towns to develop as industrial centers. These processes result in a snowballing of investment in the largest cities. For example, Shanghai, with about 1.5 per cent of China’s population, accounts for about 12 per cent of the nation’s industrial output.

A characteristic of modern mega-cities is that they dominate the urban settlement structure with a disproportionate number of people living in them compared to other towns. Their rapid growth has tended to outstrip local resources, creating environmental and social problems. The supply of housing, water, sanitation, power, and transport services is often seriously inadequate. Despite appearances, the supply of jobs does not always keep pace with the arrival of rural migrants from other parts of the country, leading to further problems of social segregation and economic inequality. Rapid migration (frequently coupled with a high birth rate) has lead to the development of inner-city slums or ghettos, or more often the creation of extensive, makeshift, and unofficial shanty settlements on the outskirts of the mega-cities. Although the growth of these cities looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, their vulnerability to changes in world markets is now being recognized, and controls on their growth and economic structure are starting to be considered.

New Towns planned urban settlements built either to ease the pressure on existing urban areas or to regenerate a region’s economic prosperity. New towns are largely associated with urban planning in the United Kingdom, although similar developments are to be found in other countries, for example, around Paris, France. During the Communist era, the Soviet Union built new towns in remote areas for specific economic projects, and in some countries new capital cities have been built as symbols of development, such as Brasília in Brazil and Islamabad in Pakistan.

In the United Kingdom, new towns were initially conceived in the 19th century to improve living conditions in industrial areas. A few enlightened employers provided model towns for their workers, for example, Port Sunlight near Liverpool; Bourneville, built by the Cadbury family in the Midlands; and New Lanark in Scotland.

The development of larger new towns did not begin until well into the 20th century. Two garden cities—Letch worth and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire—were early examples but the major expansion of new towns in the United Kingdom occurred after the New Towns Act of 1946. Eight towns were built on the edge of London’s green belt, including Stevenage, Crawley, and Harlow, to take overspill population from the capital. Washington and Peter lee in the north-east of England, Cambrian in South Wales, and East Kilbride in Scotland were built to revive their region’s depressed economies. All these towns were designed to create a pleasant residential environment with low housing density. Homes, shops, and other facilities were clustered to create a sense of community, and to reduce the need for transport. By 1973, 28 new or expanded towns housed 1.7 million people and provided 200,000 new homes. The best known of the later new towns is the city of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire which occupies an area of 309 sq km (119 sq mi) and has a population of 165,000 (1997).

The general principle behind new towns is that they should be socially balanced and as independent as possible from existing urban areas. However, with the passing of time, these towns have mainly attracted younger skilled people. Opportunities for work have not kept pace with housing and commuting to and from the new towns are now at a high level. The planned residential mixing of different socio-economic groups has also faced problems. In the future, new towns are likely to be built in countries where economic growth and urbanization are occurring rapidly. Elsewhere, the preferred approach is now the careful redevelopment of existing centers or, like Pound bury in Dorset, England, the building of small new settlements modelled on the lines of traditional villages.

County:
The County is a unit of local government in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and other nations influenced by the Anglo-Saxon tradition of government. In England a county was originally a tribal settlement, or even a whole kingdom, known to the Saxons as a shire—a term still preserved, as in the county of Hampshire. With the formation of the United Kingdom, the English county form was adopted in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Today counties remain Great Britain's chief governmental division for administrative and related purposes; though in some fields their competence has been reduced as a result of governmental centralizing policies during the 1980s. In the United States they are the largest organized unit in almost all states. In Canada counties are generally less widespread and important than in England. In Australia counties are generally referred to as shires.

Guild Towns:
Guilds are the communities living together for the practice of their mode of productions and professions. For example in medieval times there were production units at the ground floor and residential units were at upper floors where the communities lived and worked at the same place.

Satellite Town:
A town conceived as an extension of existing city, Mega city or metropolis which provides the employment and residential needs of people and served locally can be termed as satellite town. In addition it does not provide any commuting facility to the parent city such as Landhi Korangi and Steel Town and Gulshan-e-Maymar are the few examples of satellite town.

Garden City:
It is a conceptual outcome of the environmental conditions of city. In which there should be residential areas, which are linked to the city but located away from the city. For example in London there are suburbs, which are, located around one hour drive away from the city of London. In Karachi Maymar Complex was designed on such concept.

CITY/URBAN ELEMENTS

City Centre:
The city centre can be defined as a place where all the major commercial, administrative and cultural activities of city take place. Where all the major commercial and public buildings exist or which should be the hub of all these activities and spaces where popular interaction between people is evident can be termed as city centre. Mostly the city centers were the places where major cultural activity occurs or where the origin of city is located from where the city started. For example: Kharadar Methadar, Old Town area or currently Empress Market or Time Square in New York or Eiffel Tower at Paris etc.

CBD:
CBD stands for Central Business District. CBD is a place where all kinds of shadow transactions take place. In case of Karachi I.I.Chundrigar Road can be termed as CBD because of stock exchange and offices of money market or foresee or brokerage forms, etc.

OBD:
OBD stands for Outer Business District. When the functioning of cities decentralized and CBD’s activities fails to fulfill the needs of city’s shadow transactions and city centre. For example in London city of west minister is a CBD which could not fulfilled the needs of city so OBDs developed in other parts of London. Simultaneously in Manhattan where, Wall Street exists in known as CBD but because it is located in an island and there were also other islands in the surroundings so they developed their own OBD. Well take the case of Karachi. I.I.Chundrigar Road is known as CBD but now there is different brokerage houses developed in Clifton where the forex business is going on. If this trend continued the Clifton might develop as OBD.

Sub Centre:
When the city centre cannot grow further and constrained to a particular limit sub-centers develops in other parts of the city. When the physical accessibility to city centre become difficult and city centre becomes saturated the sub-centre emerges as a repercussion. For example Saddar Empress Market area can be termed as city centre, which reached to its zenith/peak. As a result Tariq Road emerged, as a sub centre, Liaquatabad market, Hydery market, Babar Market at Landhi Korangi are all examples of sub-centers.
Neighbourhood:
The neighbourhood is a residential unit, which possesses all the characteristics of livelihood that is dependent on an economic centre.

Neighbourhood Centre:
It is a commercial centre or market place for the settlement or a neighbourhood. For example one can observe in their neighbourhood that row of shops develops as the settlement or neighbourhood grows.

Fringe:
It is the outer boundary of the city where the activities of city diminished. In Karachi its example is Hawks bay, Pipri, Korangi extension. The city fringes of existing cities, mega cities, and metropolis are changing continuously. There are also administrative limits of city. Such as Greater Karachi Metropolitan region, Karachi Divisions, Karachi Metropolitan/Urbanized area (16000 hectors).

URBAN SOCIOLOGY

Family:
Unit of society with particular context, surviving on each other. Unit of people living in the one devilling unit (devilling unit is a house where a single family lives. Nuclear family, joint family).

Migration:
It reflects movement of people from one place to another for any reason (income, economic, security, natural calamities, etc.).

Public Utilities, business operations that provide essential services to the public—for example, electricity, gas, water supply, sewage disposal, and telecommunications. Utilities are an essential part of the infrastructure of modern developed countries, which require highly integrated networks of distribution or coordination for many essential services, such as the national grid for electricity suppliers. Many operate under favorable cost regimes whereby the unit cost of service to a customer falls as the network grows. However, the existence of these networks often gives public utilities a natural monopoly of provision of service within their area.

URBAN TRANSPORTATION

Street: It is a path where the pedestrian and vehicular traffic flows.

Road, public way, usually maintained by governmental authority, for the passage of vehicles, people, or animals. Roads in cities or towns are also called streets, lanes, avenues, or boulevards. Roads that connect populated areas to one another are often called motorways or highways.
Highway:
Highway is a major road where pedestrian movement is discovered and vehicular traffic is allowed. These are connecting different cities or industries.

Motorway:
Motorway is same as highway where notarized vehicles are allowed to flow with a certain speed limit.

Transport, conveyance of people or property from one place to another. Modern commercial transport includes all the means and facilities used in the movement of people or property, and all services involved in the receipt, delivery, and handling of such property. The commercial transport of people is classified as passenger service and that of property as freight service. Transport is one of the largest industries in the world.

Public Transport, conveyance of large numbers of passengers, whether in the town or country, by vehicle, usually in return for payment of a fixed fare.

Mass Transit: It is an urban transportation mode which addresses the needs of major urban transit/movement of people especially the movement of people from suburbs to city centre and vice versa. Example: Karachi Mass Transit/Circular Railway or Urban Railway System of Bombay.

URBAN LANDSCAPE

Park: It is an open space with natural and man-made landscape.
Street Park:
Basically the street parks are developed from the classical planning of Greeks and Romans. The street park can be termed as open spaces located at the corners of an intersection or at the end of street.

Locality Park:
It is designed and developed at the level of a neighbourhood. For example Aziz Bhatti Park in Gulshan or Jahangir Park in Saddar.

Urban Park:
The Park developed at the city level both by scale and nature, having majority of as Urban Park i.e. Hyde Park and Kingston Park in London. In New York there is central park which combines the Manhattan with other spaces. The Urban Park provides a relief a breathing space for the people living in the city.

National Parks:
It is common term used in geography. It is a park provided at the regional level. It is a large landscape unit at a regional scale with a focus on conservation of the national landscape, floors, and fauna natural and wild life. For example, Kheerthar National Park in Sindh which is more than 23000 hectors of land.

National Parks and Nature Reserves, areas selected by governments or private organizations for special protection against damage or degradation. They are chosen for their outstanding natural beauty, as areas of scientific interest, or as forming part of a country's cultural heritage, and often also to provide facilities for public recreation.

Hard Landscape: The artificial/manmade landscape can be termed as hard landscape.

Soft Landscape: The natural landscape can be termed as soft landscape.

Townscape:
It is a system of appropriate livable settlements. There are both residential and working spaces existing in each city with exclusive right of use. Simultaneously there are some open spaces of common use which are collectively used and managed with no exclusive right of space use. The system of management, maintenance and utilization of all these spaces in an appropriate way can be termed as townscape. A townscape always faces the pressure of population increase and utilization of its spaces.

URBAN CONSERVATION

Urban Conservation:
It means protection of built environment. The term conservation cannot be understood in isolation until and unless one must define a parameter for it. For example, an architectural conservation, area conservations or urban conservation.

Conservation, means sustainable use of natural resources, such as soils, water, plants, animals, and minerals. In economic terms, the natural resources of any area constitute its basic capital, and wasteful use of those resources constitutes an economic loss. From the aesthetic and moral viewpoint, conservation also includes the maintenance of national parks, wilderness areas, historic sites, and wildlife. In certain cases, conservation may imply the protection of a natural environment from any human economic activity.

Preservation:
It means provision of safe guard from any kind of harm. The term preservation gives a definite meaning of a process.

Restoration:
It means rebuilding towards originality. There is again controversy in this term. It is also associated to entire field of studies. For example what kind of restoration is required? There are some 1st grade monuments where one cannot change any thing to modify it. Where as in 2nd Grade monuments/buildings one can do some modifications.

Redevelopment:
It means re-bring to its visible state. It is again another controversial term. In redevelopment one has to recapture the sprit of space, in addition maintain the morphology of the area and its physical density.

Rehabilitation:
It means reestablish to former state. In rehabilitation an object/space should be established in such a way that it gets a formal status. Therefore at first it needs restoration through which the object will get its former sate. This can also be termed as empirical stage of an object.

Renovation:
It means renew or to make it as if new. In the context of conservation the term renovation leads us towards renewing the function and no change in spatial quality is allowed. This term directly related to buildings. Where as in urban context the term urban renewal will be used.

Rejuvenation:
It means to make young with respect to specific period. In rejuvenation we revive the object to same layout and function as it was at the time of its youth.

Revitalization:
It means modification. It is very specific term which reflects the changes in the object with respect to some specific needs of that object. The revitalization also takes place to reuse that object in current context to suit the existing conditions, needs and demands.

Restitution:
Basically the restitution means to restore. The term restitution is mainly related to the development of different options for revival in present time conditions. In original terms it is an option development exercise.

Animation:
It means enliven or make it alive. This term leads us to a situation in which at first it is assumed that an object or place has lost its functions, characteristics and spirit. So a new function and sprit is introduced in it/or in computer graphics terms make it a live scene.

Adaptive Reuse:
It means make the object suitable for reuse. This term is mainly applicable to redundant things or objects which are in dilapidated condition or became obsolete and they needs to be sued again for some historical or emotional reasons. Where no drastic changes are required because it would be very vital when used the objects practically.

Urban Renewal, the rehabilitation of decaying urban areas, usually funded by government finance and directed according to town planning policies. Urban renewal has been criticized because of the often-accompanying process of gentrification, whereby the stock of affordable housing is considerably shrunk, and essential facilities such as inexpensive food shops may disappear. Urban renewal may, therefore, result in a displacement of the urban poor.

URBAN ECONOMICS

Urban Economics: There are two types of economics Capitalist Economy and Socialist Economy.

Socialist Economy: In socialist economy state works for people and people work for state.

Capitalist Economy:
In capitalist economy private entrepreneurs works for people to mobilize the whole economy i.e. chemical, textile industry etc. In urban economics three things are important i.e. capital, goods and labour. The free movement of these three elements denotes free market economy.

Employment: Effort to earn livelihood.

Production, in economics, manufacture and processing of goods or merchandise, including their design, treatment at various stages, and finance contributed by banks. As the means by which wealth is created by human labour, it is regarded by some as the fundamental economic process. Various economic laws, price data, and available resources are among the aspects of production that must be considered by both private and governmental producers. The inputs or resources used in production are known as the factors of production.

Factors of Production, inputs used in the production process. These are conventionally defined as land, labour, and capital (investment in machinery, for example), but enterprise or entrepreneurship is often listed as a fourth factor of production. The relative availability of the various factors of production in a country (its “factor endowment”) is an important influence on investment and international trade. In order to be successful, a business needs to achieve as good a mix as possible of the factors of production. The desirable mix will change from time to time and will depend on such things as the need to expand, the availability of skilled labour or experienced and enterprising managers, and new technology, as well as, of course, the market price for the different factors of production.

Money, any medium of exchange that is widely accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts. Money also serves as a standard of value for measuring the relative economic worth of different goods and services. The number of units of money required to buy a commodity is the price of the commodity. The monetary unit chosen as a measure of value need not, however, be used widely, or even at all, as a medium of exchange. During the colonial period in North America, for example, Spanish currency was an important medium of exchange, while the British pound sterling served as the standard of value.

Prices, in economics are the value of things measured in terms of what the buyers in a market will give in exchange for them.

Prices are usually measured in money—indeed, money's effectiveness as a medium for expressing prices is the main reason for its existence—but in barter systems prices could be expressed in other commodities with their own value, so that prices of all commodities were mutually determining without the intervening medium of money. Prices are the fundamental mechanism of adjustment of supply and demand, for any commodity in a free market economy should eventually find the level at which production and consumption are balanced: this equilibrium price will be the compromise reached between what the producers can afford to charge and what the consumers are prepared to pay. Prices will therefore decide what and how much is produced, how it is produced, and who can buy it. Questions of price are therefore crucial to economics, particularly microeconomics, and the subject of intensive study.

Market:
Theoretically the market can be defined as a place where transactions take place. These transactions can be both physical and shadow. However, practically the market is generally known as a place where sell, purchase and storage take place.

Market Forces, underlying influences on the operation of the economy. They boil down to supply and demand, which determine price and the allocation of resources. In a pure free market economy, market forces are unrestrained. However, in all countries, governments to a greater or lesser degree restrict the operation of the free market and therefore distort (even negate) the effect of market forces through economic policy. In the former communist countries the system of central planning left no room for market forces to operate. In other parts of the world governments have often, for different reasons, sought to override market forces through such actions as the granting of subsidies to firms or services that (it is judged) could not survive in a free market, or the imposition of tariffs or quotas on imports. Increasingly, however, countries are moving towards a position where market forces are allowed to operate more and more freely. A market revolution is taking place in the former communist nations, but changes have also taken place all over the world—from South America to Southern Africa.

An open market in which market forces are allowed to operate freely is at the heart of the single market programme of the European Union. However, the principle has never been applied to farming in the EU, which is governed by the Common Agricultural Policy under which prices for agricultural produce are guaranteed, thus encouraging overproduction. Market forces vary from market to market and derive their power from the individuals who make up a market and on whose lives they have enormous influence. They are determined by such factors as wealth, consumer taste, regulation, and taxation. Stringent safety requirements may push up the cost (and therefore the price) of a potentially desirable product beyond that which a sufficient number of consumers can afford (or are willing) to pay. Tax differentials on alcoholic drinks have encouraged thousands of Britons to make day trips to France in order to stock up with beer and wine.

Supply and Demand, in economics, basic factors determining prices. According to the theory, or law, of supply and demand, the market prices of commodities and services are determined by the relationship of supply to demand. Theoretically, when supply exceeds demand, sellers must lower prices to stimulate sales; conversely, when demand exceeds supply, buyers bid prices up as they compete to buy goods. The terms supply and demand do not mean the amount of goods and services actually sold and bought; in any sale the amount sold is equal to the amount bought, and such supply and demand, therefore, always equalizes. In economic theory, supply is the amount available for sale or the amount that sellers are willing to sell at a specified price, and demand, sometimes called effective demand, is the amount purchasers are willing to buy at a specified price.

The theory of supply and demand takes into consideration the influence on prices of such factors as an increase or decrease in the cost of production, but regards that influence as an indirect one, because it affects prices only by causing a change in supply, demand, or both. Other factors indirectly affecting prices include changes in consumption habits (for example, a shift from natural silk to artificial silk fabrics) and the restrictive practices of monopolies, trusts, and cartels. In the view of many economists, the multiplicity of such indirect factors is so great that the terms supply and demand are inclusive categories of economic forces affecting prices, rather than precise, primary causal factors.

The price-determining mechanism of supply and demand is operative only in economic systems in which competition is largely unfettered. Recourse, in recent times, to governmental regulation of the economy has tended to restrict the scope of the operation of the supply-and-demand mechanism. It was greatly restricted in many countries by the temporary governmental price regulations and rationing during World War II. Under Communist systems the planned economy is controlled by the state, the supply-and-demand mechanism being overridden. However, in recent years there has been a remarkable trend towards the reintroduction of market forces in many former planned economies.

Commodity, the economic term with two meanings: in economic theory it is a tangible good or service that is the result of a production process; in general terms it is a primary product (or raw material) that is grown, such as coffee, tea, rubber, or cotton, or an extracted mineral resource, such as gold, copper, or tin; it may also be something that is (in effect) reared, such as wool. Here we concern ourselves only with the second meaning.

Countries that are rich in commodities or natural resources have the advantage over others that are not so well endowed in that their economies are (up to a point) less dependent on the ingenuity and effort of their inhabitants. They are, however, dependent on the market for commodities, which determines price. Experience has shown that commodity prices are more vulnerable to dramatic price shifts than are manufactured goods. In the past two decades many commodities, including oil, tin, copper, and coffee, have been subject to huge price fluctuations that were often not foreseen or prepared for by both producers and consumers. Some of these price increases were to a large extent the result of natural conditions that have resulted in crop failures or crop surpluses. Other price shifts have resulted from one or other of a combination of politics and changing markets.

Because, on balance, consumers and producers have tended to be in favour of more stable commodity prices, attempts have been made to achieve commodity price stability through agreements that have involved export and/or production quotas; intervention in the market by buying a commodity when the price is falling (which helps slow or reverse the fall) and storing it until the price has recovered; and long-term contracts between suppliers and purchasers. None of these have worked consistently well, and there have been some serious failures, notably the dramatic collapse of the tin agreement in the mid-1980s. Increasingly, international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been using other ways to help those developing countries whose commodity exports are crucial sources of foreign exchange earnings.

There are a number of commodity markets in the world, most of which concern themselves primarily with rights of ownership rather than physical possession. A “spot” price for a commodity is the current price. A “future” price is one agreed for transfer of ownership of a specified quantity of the commodity on a specific date in the future (perhaps a month, perhaps a year). The futures market allows buyers to know in advance what they are going to have to pay for a commodity and protects them from unforeseen fluctations in the spot price. It also offers speculators opportunities to profit from price fluctuations they have foreseen (or have been prepared to gamble on) but which the market has not. Suppose you judge that the spot price will be 5 per cent higher in 30 days' time than the current (30-day) future price for a commodity, you will (if your judgment is correct) make a 5 per cent profit (less commission costs) by buying at the future price and selling the commodity on the spot market in 30 days' time. However, if the spot price has fallen below the future price you paid, you will have incurred a loss.

Goods:
Goods are the commodities, which are produced through a process. These are products which has some determined value. Goods are all tangible tings which human being requires/desires.

Services:
Services are the counter part of goods. All the work done for others known as services. The services cannot be quantified in a materialistic way.

Resources:
Resources are the input required to deliver goods and services. The resources can be tangible and intangible such as Natural resources, Capital Resources, and Technological Resources.

Poverty, is the economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain certain minimal levels of health services, food, housing, clothing, and education generally recognized as necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living. What is considered adequate, however, depends on the average standard of living in a particular society.

Relative poverty is that experienced by those whose income falls considerably below the average for their particular society. Absolute poverty is that experienced by those who do not have enough food to remain healthy. However, estimating poverty on an income basis may not measure essential elements that also contribute to a healthy life. People without access to education or health services should be considered poor even if they have adequate food.

Scarcity:
It means fewer resources. It is the limitations of the amount of resources available to individuals and societies to produce goods and services.

Free Good:
Goods which are available in such abundance that they are able to full fill any quantum of choice i.e. air, sun light, wind, snow. Land cannot be a free good.

Economic Goods:
Opposite to free goods. Economic goods are those which generate revenue. The economic goods emerge from scarcity. They are produced to fulfill certain proportion of scarcity i.e. 15 million households in Pakistan and each requires T.V., clothes.

Difference b/w free goods & economic goods:
We always have access to free goods through natural behaviour without any hindrance where as in economic goods we have one practical hindrance i.e. we pay the price. So it leads to cost.

Cost:
Cost is the value of opportunity in making choices. What is value of opportunity? It is the capacity to fulfill choices and cost is the function of it i.e. you can make highways or you can make missiles. Therefore cost again depends on the availability of resources.

Absolute Cost:
It is the input required for production such as, capital, human resource, and technology. In theory it works. But in practice it would not. Because one cannot measure the human factor and its cost. Therefore non-human mechanism of production is the absolute cost.

Opportunity Cost:
It is related to both individuals and societies. It is the value placed on opportunities and choosing to scarce goods i.e. time has certain value it is a scarce good utilize your fee hours and get benefit. If you would not get benefit means you loose and pay the opportunity cost. It’s the choice available to you. For example national parks most people use it most not, they pay the price for non-utilization.

Accounting Cost:
It is a calculated cost. It is the direct definite cost reflected in monitory terms. All costs are convertible to accounting cost. It can be applied on both tangible and non-tangible costs.

Margin:
Margin can be understood as a profit line. It is the difference b/w cost and benefit in any given situation. In terms of net benefit it is profit.

Marginal Analysis:
In any mechanism of production how the margining is carried out. In Marginal Analysis it is calculated that, how much maximization and minimizing of cost and benefit is possible. Marginal Analysis suggested that, how the optimum benefits can be obtained while doing an activity.

Prices:
These are opportunity cost/market value of a product. It does not give certain value but give idea how to maximize opportunity.

Market: It is the Hypothetical arrangement b/w buyer and seller. How market operates? It operates through barter (exchange of goods or commodities).

Money: It is generally accepted medium of exchange or transaction.

Currency: Currency is the representation of money.

Inflation:
It is the sustained degradation of money against the increase of prices and reduction in purchasing power of money i.e. in Pakistan inflation rate increased up to 26 percent from last 12 percent due to devaluation of money in Pakistan.

Microeconomics:
Individual/Personal/Small enterprises. Behaviour of individual units regarding goods production i.e. Panwala, Dal chawal wala.

Macroeconomics:
It is the study of economy as a whole scale is flexible policy making of govt. or international agencies affect the whole region.
Economic Growth:
Higher production of a society or sustained increase in productive capacity means economic growth i.e. more goods, more services and human resources.

Economic System:
The economic system means to determine what, how and for whom the goods and services to be produced. There are three major economic systems i.e. (i) Traditional economic system (ii) Command society economic system; and (iii) Market economic system.

Traditional Economic System:
It is a tribal/jarga, system where the customs, habits and rituals are the determinant forces of the economic system. This system is unaccountable.

Command Society Economic System:
In command society a central authority decides about the production of goods and services. The example of command society is Monarchy, Dictatorship and Communists where a party leads and makes decisions about every thing.

Market Society:
People on their own interest decide about the economy system. In this system a balance and accountability is evident for consumers and producers.

URBAN HOUSING

Shelter:
It is one of the three basic necessities for human survival with minimum requirement (what each human need? i.e. food, clothes and shelter)

Housing, is a permanent shelter for human habitation. Because shelter is necessary to everyone, the problem of providing adequate housing has long been a concern, not only of individuals but of governments as well. Thus, the history of housing is inseparable from the social, economic, and political development of humankind.
History of Housing:
From the beginning of civilization, attention has been paid to the form, placement, and provision of human habitation. The earliest building codes, specifying structural integrity in housing construction, are found in the Code of the 18th-century BC Babylonian King Hammurabi. Town planning activities during the Greek and Roman empires centered almost exclusively on the appropriate placement of urban housing from the perspectives of defense and water supply. These same concerns continued throughout the middle Ages. In 13th-century Europe, the city became a centre of trade, and its walls provided a safe haven from nomadic warriors and looters. People could find shelter for themselves and their flocks, herds, and harvests while the open country was being overrun by enemies of superior force. Demand for urban housing increased. For centuries this demand was filled by unplanned additions to, and subdivisions of, existing structures. Where climate permitted, squatting (occupying without title or payment of rent) became commonplace, but provided only temporary shelter.

By the 19th century, with the Industrial Revolution, people were moving to cities in unprecedented numbers. Workers lived in sheds, railway yards, and factory cellars, typically without sanitation facilities or water supply.

In the post-industrial society of the 20th century, housing in developing nations and poor parts of developed countries continues to be of insufficient quality and does not meet the demand of some parts of the population. Vacant, abandoned inner-city housing exists alongside structures that are usable but overcrowded and buildings that are structurally reclaimable but are functionally obsolete.

At present, there is both a demand for housing and a supply of reusable structures that are going unclaimed. This situation is a good example of the complex role housing plays in society. Its primary function was to serve the need for shelter, security, and privacy, but housing must now offer other advantages:
(1) location, including proximity to the workplace, shopping, businesses, schools, and other homes;
(2) environment, for example, the quality of the neighbourhood, including public safety and aesthetics; and
(3) investment potential, or the degree to which home ownership may affect capital accumulation.

Housing Policy:
Housing programmes in the United States and in Western European nations share many similarities. All these countries have initiated public housing, urban renewal, and new-town programmes. However, public intervention in Europe began sooner and has been more extensive than in the United States. Great Britain, for example, embarked on public-housing development in the late 19th century. Labourers' dwelling acts, authorizing local governments to construct public housing, were enacted as early as the mid-19th century, more than 75 years before comparable US housing legislation was passed. Urban-renewal demolition activities were empowered during the same period, almost a century before equivalent American activity. Massive public-housing programmes were started after each of the world wars. By the 1970s, approximately one-third of Britain's housing was publicly subsidized, compared with only 1 to 2 per cent in the United States. Great Britain has also constructed several new community developments that are in contrast to the fledgling and largely unsuccessful new-town ventures in the United States.

Housing policies in other Western European nations are similar to those in Britain. For instance, extensive provision and regulation of housing exists, taking the form of subsidies for slum demolition and rental housing assistance. Germany, France, the Netherlands, and other nations provide low- or no-interest housing loans. The development of new-towns is also encouraged or subsidized; indeed, more than ten have been built on the outskirts of Paris.

The problems of housing in Canada, both public and private, have been treated with considerable imagination and effectiveness. Federal funds for housing have been directed almost entirely at people with lower incomes. The government provides assistance to the provinces and municipalities and to individuals, to be used for neighbourhood improvement, the purchase of homes, the rehabilitation of residential housing, and the development of new communities. At the same time, the private sector has channelled a high volume of financial support into the mortgage market.

Housing in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and in Eastern European nations was almost exclusively characterized by government regulations and provisions. These countries pioneered the production and installation of massive prefabricated housing units in urban areas. Housing units, usually of pre-cast concrete, were manufactured in factories and then transported to the housing site, where they were assembled into large, multifamily complexes. The former USSR was also a pioneer in developing new towns, which were frequently located around massive industrial or power-generating facilities. One example was the town of Bratsk, near the Bratsk hydroelectric plant in Siberia.

Housing in economically developing countries is typically inferior in quality and space to that found in economically developed nations. Government efforts to upgrade housing conditions are evolving slowly, however. In the 1950s, slum demolition was effected on a large scale in many cities, such as Manila in the Philippines and Baghdad in Iraq. In the 1960s, new-town development, such as Brasília in Brazil, became commonplace. These strategies often proved ineffective; demolition was not usually accompanied by replacement housing, and the new towns sometimes proved to be islands in a sea of slums. In the 1970s, some developing nations turned to self-help housing. Families were given plots of land and building materials to construct or improve their own shelter. This housing approach is commonly referred to as a “sites-and-services” programme; so far it has been implemented on a large scale in India and many South American countries. Numerous organizations assist housing development and the upgrading of housing standards. These include the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements, and the US Agency for International Development.

Future Trends Housing is a critical component in the social and economic fabric of all nations. No country is yet satisfied that adequate housing has been delivered to the various economic groups that make up its populace. Thus, most nations, in one form or another, continue to claim a housing problem.

As the 1990s began, the West generally was facing a critical shortage of affordable housing for low- and middle-income wage earners, as well as for the poor, and the numbers of homeless people were rising, especially in the cities. Higher home prices plus a reduction in low-income housing led to greater demand for rented accommodation, which resulted in higher rents and fewer available rental units. In addition, different types of housing are required to meet the needs of people with disabilities, as well as of the elderly and of people living alone. A variety of solutions have been suggested, including rehabilitating public housing, organizing public-private partnerships, issuing housing vouchers, granting public funds to non-profit-making developers, amending zoning restrictions, promoting tenant management of public housing, improving mortgage-guarantee programmes, and encouraging companies to provide housing assistance programmes for their employees.

Each country also faces its own specific problems. Great Britain and much of Western Europe must grapple with suburbanization and the decentralization of cities, while in the former USSR and in Eastern Europe, demand for more private dwelling space has increased. In developing nations, raw housing demand is still largely unmet, with the result that many of the population find themselves forced to live in shanty towns, settlements in which the houses are very poorly equipped to deal with basic human needs. Shanty towns have very little in the way of infrastructure; they are usually without water, sanitation, electricity, or roads. The houses are usually built by the residents themselves, made from whatever materials have come to hand, and constructed often on land where no building rights exist, or on land illegally squatted.

Household: Nos. of kitchen is the determinant of household in Pakistan.

Public Sector:
The activities and initiatives of state decide on account of people. State is ‘Mumliquat-e-Khudadad’.

Private Sector:
Individual or group of individuals working within the framework of state for free enterprise or for earning surplus.

Private Sector, part of the economy that is not owned or controlled by the state. It includes personal and corporate private enterprise, including what are known as public companies (those in which there is a market for members of the public to buy shares). After World War II, in many countries governments organized a shift from the private sector to the public sector. The countries that fell under the influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics adopted centrally planned economies with maximum state control. In the United Kingdom, the Labour government elected in 1945 firmly believed in the principle of common ownership, and that it was better for the public sector to run certain “essential” industries and services. Its extensive programme of nationalization included taking control of the Bank of England, the coal industry, most hospitals, transport, and the gas, electricity, and iron and steel industries. Since the 1980s, as a result of the policy of privatization championed by Margaret Thatcher, there has been a big shift in economic activity away from the public sector in the United Kingdom as many large state-owned companies have been sold to the private sector. Many other countries have also been following the trend by reducing the public sector in favour of the private sector, including, most notably, the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe and what was the Soviet Union, where there always was a small private sector even if it was not officially acknowledged. Even in current Communist states such as China and Vietnam, there has been a remarkable shift in emphasis towards private enterprise. Many African countries, which followed socialist economic principles, are now too encouraging growth of a private sector.

Cooperative Sector:
One basic difference between private and cooperative sector is, ‘to get the basic need of people or some specific group identify need and gather around it.

Informal Sector:
Develops around basic needs within the framework of Government rules and regulations. Where government fails to provide goods and services the informal sector operates parallel, i.e. water supply, tanker mafia, housing (squatter) lands grabber etc.

Labor Housing/Colonies:
It reflects in the historic development of Industrialization in 1880s. When mass influx of people come in the city with no facility available to them. So they occupied the available plots and no place left for housing expansion. At that time revolution took place by labour and they had 3 demands. Food, clothes and shelter. So; on that basis the industrialists accepted their demands and provided them labour colonies.

Social Housing:
This concept developed in the west and their main application is also seen in the west. In social housing, the houses are provided by government to destitute, disables worriers, widows and old people they may be groups or individuals who can not survived on their own, (then the concept of welfare state emerged, in UK and France in 1880s) and state become responsible for their housing needs. If we look into the housing policy document of Pakistan and other developing countries this concept is very much alive but not actually.

Rental Housing:
This concept mainly developed in France where state established the housing stock so that earning could be done and shelter should be provided to shelter less. It is commonly used term refers to provision of housing to people with a contract between owner and tenant. It is different from normal kind of housing. In developing countries only few countries has this facility but in developed western countries this concept is very popular.

Housing Finance:
What do we mean by finance? It is the system through which the housing process is monetarily supported. Housing is the process with number of steps. The financial aspect of housing is a first step. The laid is the first commodity. So, the land and finance is the both equitable entities. In Sindh we find that state cannot participate in housing finance because state owns a large amount of land and it got the value and it has certain kind of financial aspect added to it i.e. KDA started a housing project the first thing is set of terms and conditions with respect to financial aspect that how much money will be rotated/revolved. There are three stages of housing finance:
(i) Acquisition of land,
(ii) House building (it takes time because financial institutions given the loans i.e. HBFC) and
(iii) Infrastructure, it is distributed in components with different institutions that provide these facilities i.e. water, gas, electricity, telephone, etc. This is the very set system of housing finance. There are also alternatives for housing finance i.e. from open market lands, materials, credit.

Housing Construction:
It is the over all process through which the settlement develops and sustains. The actors involved in it are land grabbers, developers, interest groups and state.

Subdivision:
It has various meanings but division of land is appropriate for housing and landuse. These are the dimensions assigned by developers for land use pattern of the settlements.

Lease:
It is the contractual mode of ownership tied up with time frame i.e. in Karachi it is 99 years. In Punjab it is one year ‘Yaksala Pata’.

Freehold Land:
It is the most common pattern of land ownership. It is the land owned by one person and then inherited.

Trusts hold Land:
It is the ownership acquired by the Government of Pakistan. After independence government established an Evacuee (eviction) property trust. They make charter that who ever left the land in India can make claims and get the trust property here in Pakistan.

Demarcation:
It has two angles (point of views) Settlement itself and at city level process of demarcation. At the plot or unit of house, marked on site according to the reference taken on site. It is the process of verifying housing unit boundaries. All the right of ownership develops on the basis of demarcation.

Land Acquisition:
Land is the basic commodity in the process of development of any settlement. Now, the government can acquire the land, private owners acquire the land, informal owners acquire the land. A public sector example in this regard is acquisition of Landhi Korangi Area, which was a rural land. During 1958 Greater Karachi resettlement plan govt. gave notice to the owners to come and sell their land.

Land Appropriation:
The available land is the first appropriation mechanism used by illegal subdivides.

Eviction:
It is the process through which illegal or undesired settlements are bulldozed or removed from the (scene) area.

Type of Houses (property unit): In housing census we measure the housing in these three categories, katcha, semi pucca and pucca.
(i) Katcha house can be considered with no roof, no foundation walls and no permanent structure.
(ii) Semi pucca house can be considered with no permanent foundation where as walls and roof structures are permanent.
(iii) Pucca house can be considered with permanent foundation, walls and roof.

Housing Policy:
It is a Federal Document made by EUAD i.e. Environment and Urban Affairs Division according to National Housing Policy. It describes the housing stock, demand and supply level at national scale.

Land Grabbing: It is the illegal occupation of land under the umbrella of various institutions.