Effects of Urban Growth on Street Networks and Land Use in Mosul, Iraq: A Case Study

Haneen Ali Abd,Wahda Shuker Al-Hinkawi,Sarah Salh Youssef

doi:10.13189/cea.2021.090601

Abstract

Urban centers grow and expand gradually, and this growth is accompanied by renewal processes for many parts of these centers over time. Traditionally, conditions and needs developed slowly and cities often only changed greatly due to natural disasters or wars. However, with the acceleration of the Industrial Revolution and subsequent important technical transformations in transportation modes, a large, accelerating, and indisputable impact affected historical urban centers, which suffered many morphological changes represented by the intrusive opening of streets to the passage of vehicles with varying degrees of sympathy toward the characteristics of these centers. This research starts from the general hypothesis that street networks affected the changes in old urban centers represented by growth and urbanization and the accompanying change in how parts of this traditional fabric were used. Therefore, we need to have a clear and accurate perception of the change in the characteristics of the spatial organization of the urban and historical centers that resulted from these formal changes. This requires defining and describing the characteristics of this spatial organization before and after these changes occurred. The present research adopts the space syntax method to measure morphological changes and the historic center of Mosul in Iraq is chosen for the practical study due to the city's need for a development strategy that controls expansion and growth when rebuilding the city after the destruction that resulted from the military operations in the war with ISIS.

Highlights

Cities, the best examples of complex systems created by humans, comprise many interactive subsystems and are affected by various factors, including governmental land use policies, population growth, and transportation infrastructure
To test the hypothesis that the street network impacts changes in urban areas represented by urban growth and expansion and the accompanying change in land use patterns, we build a model of road networks – as an essential component of the urban growth model – by integrating the available knowledge about the proposed area using space syntax theory with methods in the depth map program
We investigate every culture that affected the fabric of the city as well as its style and primary traits influencing land use and the distribution of growth

Summary

Introduction

The best examples of complex systems created by humans, comprise many interactive subsystems and are affected by various factors, including governmental land use policies, population growth, and transportation infrastructure. Owing to the need to address those gaps, urban growth models must consider land use simulations, road network expansion, and their interactions because they define the urban structure, with the growth in transportation networks significantly affecting urban dynamics. Urban increase models help explain the mechanisms of urban development, examine modern-day city theories (precisely the dynamic relationships among land use and the street network), and offer planning support for managing the urban growth scenarios [8]. To test the hypothesis that the street network impacts changes in urban areas represented by urban growth and expansion and the accompanying change in land use patterns, we build a model of road networks – as an essential component of the urban growth model – by integrating the available knowledge about the proposed area using space syntax theory with methods in the depth map program.

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Conclusion