Karachi has typical characteristics of a city in the developing world with very complex land-use and cannot be classified as per the internationally existing classical models.
The land-use is fragmented and the gradient index is so low that the spatial phenomenon and land-use characteristics of any specific type cannot be demarcated easily. This is mainly because the city developed in several phases.
Its functional effectiveness is diversified because of the influx of different cultures due to immigrants and changes in the political administrations, but has never reduced throughout its rich history.
The only other cities that can be compared to Karachi in this respect are Phnom Penh (in Cambodia), Hanoi and Da Nang (in Vietnam). A classical western central business district never existed as a city developed without plans could not bear one because of varying multifunctional land-uses. Low-income settlements together with unplanned residential areas make 16.91 percent of the total land-use.
These are areas mostly occupied by the squatter settlements, challenging the environment and authorities. Furthermore, the recreation area, which is 1.55 percent of urban land, is too less than the requirement of this gigantic city.
Only 18.12 percent of the planned areas reveal that the city does not bear a classical mode of development.
Rapid urbanisation has asserted enormous stress on the city’s ability to provide sufficient urban services for the dwellers. To meet the challenges of this fast growing city, five master plans were formulated since 1923. None of them was backed with legal cover, resulting in urban sprawl, widespread slums and gross deficiencies of the required infrastructure/utilities, constraining the city’s potential and opportunities. The last master plan was called the “Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP) 2020”. The KSDP 2020 has a legal status under Section 40 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001, for guiding the city’s growth in a planned and coordinated manner.
Urban development in Karachi has remained fragmented and coordination among various agencies – responsible for plan formulation and implementing plans, schemes and projects – has been lacking.
For Karachi’s planning, the Karachi Development Authority has developed 58 analysis zones in the city that were used in several environmental and planning studies. More than 25 urban planning agencies are providing services to citizens, but they lack coordination. Coordinated efforts may be improved if their databases are of a higher quality and designed with data-sharing in mind.
Extract from Salman Qureshi’s research paper, “The fast growing megacity Karachi as a frontier of environmental challenges: Urbanisation and contemporary urbanism issues”, published in the Journal of Geography and Regional Planning Volume 3(11).
