Towards a sustainable urban expansion: a case study of cities in Bangladesh
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Pankaj R. Bajracharya (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Selima Sultana
Abstract: The economic growth of Bangladesh over the last several decades has subsequently been followed by the rapid expansion of urban areas. Unfortunately, this expansion of the urban footprint has mostly occurred in an unplanned and chaotic manner through the conversion of natural areas to urban landscape due to the lack of regulation and policies guiding the country’s urban planning. This has raised concerns about the sustainability and livability of these cities and urged the need for a robust planning framework targeted at promoting sustainable urban expansion. A well-x and enhancing the quality of life for everyone while minimizing environmental degradation and other potential adverse impacts of a growing number of city dwellers. This dissertation examines the extent of unevenness in urban growth patterns in Bangladesh and explores the application of Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) as a mechanism to control and direct the growth of built-up urban areas to promote sustainable urban expansion of these cities. The first part of the dissertation examines the unevenness in the urban expansion in Bangladesh by comparing the urban footprint of the cities and municipalities in Bangladesh extracted using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and census population data for these areas. While a greater proportion of the population has been increasingly concentrated in the smaller and mid-sized cities over the last three decades, built-up urban areas, on the other hand, have been mostly clustered in the two largest cities— Dhaka and Chattogram—accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total built-up urban areas. These results shed light on the magnitude of continued spatial inequalities in urban development amongst cities and municipalities in Bangladesh despite there being an overall increase of evenness in the distribution of population over time. The second part of the dissertation explores the application of UGB delineation using Support Vector Machine (SVM) supervised machine learning algorithm as an urban growth restriction mechanism for the city of Chattogram, one of the world's largest port cities and the second-largest metropolitan areas in Bangladesh, as a case study. The application of the Support Vector Machine (SVM) supervised machine learning algorithm is a novel approach to the delineation of UGB and this model was used to simulate future built-up urban areas up to 2040 for Chattogram and to determine the UGB for the city. Although the delineation of the UGB is a crucial step for the adoption and implementation process of UGB for Chattogram, the overall success of the UGB policy is dependent on external factors that directly or indirectly impact the policy. The third part of the dissertation, thus, investigates the key considerations essential for the successful adoption and implementation of UGB for Chattogram. Through a systematic review of literature on UGB and planning policies on Chattogram, along with a web-based survey and unstructured interview with city officials, it examines the stakeholders’ perceptions on current growth patterns, the potential application of UGB as an urban growth containment strategy, and concerns and support regarding the application of UGB. While there has been an overall positive response regarding a potential adoption of UGB for Chattogram, this paper identifies five key concerns that would need to be addressed for the successful adoption and implementation of UGB for the city of Chattogram. These key challenges are namely: policy and regulatory consideration, civic engagement and stakeholder input, bureaucratic consensus and coordination, institutional capacity, and external influences. While distinct, these concerns are highly interrelated and can be expected to have a substantial influence on one another and need to be addressed for the successful adoption of UGB. These key challenges including policy and regulatory consideration, civic engagement and stakeholder input, bureaucratic consensus and coordination, institutional capacity, and external influences. While parts III and IV of this dissertation specifically focuses on the city of Chattogram as a testbed for the application of UGB, a similar methodological approach could potentially be implemented for other cities in Bangladesh with the goal to promote sustainable urban expansion.
Towards a sustainable urban expansion: a case study of cities in Bangladesh
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Created on 5/1/2021
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2021
- Keywords
- Chattogram, Chittagong, Bangladesh, Sustainable urban expansion, Sustainability, Urban Growth Boundary, Support Vector Machine, GIS, Urban Policy, Developing Countries, Urban Growth, Google Earth Engine
- Subjects
- Sustainable urban development $z Bangladesh
- City planning $z Bangladesh
- Cities and towns $z Bangladesh $x Growth
- Geographic information systems