Identification of Land Uses through the Application of Multiple Nuclei Model in Bahawalpur City, Pakistan: Planning Perspectives

Abstract

Land use models of urban structure have wide applications in urban planning and management as urban growth in cities accelerated. Amongst, the classical models of urban land use have wide utilization by geographers and urban planners. Therefore, in present research the Harris and Ullman’s multiple nuclei model were applied in the Bahawalpur city with the main objective to identify the possible land uses to facilitate the municipality for better planning in services provision. Results reveal notable similarities in the city’s land uses with varied developmental directions and differentiated land uses. The possible identified land uses were CBD (old city), High, medium and low class residential and slum areas, residential and industrial suburbs. The delivery and existence of basic municipal services and facilities were satisfactory in high and medium class residential areas, but inefficient in low class residential and slum areas and needs special attention of the municipality. The industrial areas were limited in the city, but a number of nuclei were being developed on the fringes of the city and modifying the city’s land use pattern dramatically. Therefore, the model is not fairly applicable on Bahawalpur as the land use classes and directions of city’s growth varied and requires specific changes.