Assessing sustainable urban forms in Erbil city of Iraq

Abstract

Scholars have frequently considered the analysis of sustainable design and performance of the built fabric over the past two decades with regard to diversity, density and accessibility. They fall short of developing a holistic, systematic and objective assessment system for the analysis of the sustainable urban form. Subsequently, there is still a noticeable gap regarding the relationship between these dimensions and the patterns and the layout of built environments in the Middle East in general and in Iraq in particular. Intense and rapid economic development and urbanisation in Northern Iraq has resulted in expansive urban of built environments to accommodate the ever increasing urban population and level of activity in the city of Erbil. Architectural, planning and urban design trends at the intra-urban and neighbourhood levels indicate a state of disharmony and random physical forms that lack frameworks for understanding sustainable urban form in relation to urban patterns and layout. In this context, Accessibility, Connectivity, Compatibility, Diversity, Nodality, Density, Urban Identity, and Adaptability have been considered as analysis criteria to evaluate the sustainability of spatial patterns of urban form. The thesis aims to explore and examine the relationship between urban patterns and sustainable urban form in Erbil city in the context of sustainability through developing a customised but context-based framework for sustainable urban fabric indicators. To accomplish this, five case studies of residential projects with variable states of occupancy, completion, and social profiling have been chosen to investigate the practice of the sustainable urban form indicators. The research adopted a mixed-methodological approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative surveys of users, planners, and decision makers to enhance an understanding of the local perception of urban sustainability. A random sampling process is applied for the quantitative survey when distributing the questionnaires. The successful sample size, which was analysed, was 252 respondents. Using comparative analysis of sustainable urban form indicators in the recent local residential projects, quantitative findings have noticeably indicated significant variation in the effectiveness of indicators‘ performance, and consequently support the research assumption with statistical evidence that urban patterns have a significant impact on achieving sustainable urban forms in developing countries. The study concludes that the urban pattern indicator framework offers an efficient and rigorous approach that enables a credible assessment of the design strategies and planning decision-making in residential developments to achieve sustainable urban forms. These findings have evident implications for urban planners and policy makers during the design stage. The study has proposed practical planning and design guidelines which aim to enhance the local built environment.