Assessing the Urban Growth and Morphological Patterns of Gojra City, Pakistan

Abstract

The rapid urban growth of cities being witnessed all over the world is most striking in the developing countries like Pakistan where a number of urban centers have sprung up over the last few decades. This tremendous increase in population and urban development accompanied by various contributing factors viz. employment opportunities, educational and health facilities has brought massive changes in urban pattern and morphology of even the small cities like Gojra which is currently expanding beyond its administrative boundaries with a notable influx of surrounding countryside people. Geographic techniques have been utilized and demographic data have been evaluated is with the purpose of identifying the urban growth patterns and morphology the city of Gojra. The findings suggest that increase in areal extent in different directions and unprecedented urban growth created several issues of land use to the dwellers as well as managing authorities. Amongst, the issues of agricultural land loss, irregular settlements with sprawl, rising land values etc. were significant. The study concluded that in order to comprehend the Spatio-temporal dynamics of rapid urban expansion and morphology patterns of Gojra City, the usage of geographic techniques has helped a lot to manage and channelize the growth directions and land use management by formulating comprehensive land use management plan.