Urbanization and Urban Sprawl Issues in City Structure: A Case of the Sulaymaniah Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Sivan Jarah,Bo Zhou,Wenting Yu,Rebaz Abdullah,Yawen Lu

doi:10.3390/su11020485

Abstract

This novel study explores the driving forces and dynamics of rapid urbanization, highlighting the main causes and effects of urban explosion, environmental disruption, and city pattern transformation. This study was carried out that how urbanization and urban sprawl have influenced the structure of the city of Sulaymaniah in Kurdistan region of Iraq. This is because over the years many urban areas have experienced dramatic growth and population explosion that has resulted in the exhaustion of social amenities in the concerned communities. For this purpose, a qualitative method is used based on in-depth face-to-face interviews with local authority, including planners, architects, and experts of master planning, as well as professors in the academic institutions. This study also utilizes extensive document analysis to present the evolution of urban growth. The findings reveal that the autonomy, political conflict, non-implementation of master plans, and economic prosperity are the driving forces which are accelerating this urbanization process. It is proposed that the practical policies and strategic urban development plans are urgent requirement to control the unplanned urban growth and stimulate the desired sustainable future urban development.

Highlights

Urban sprawl is one of the distinctive phenomena in cities undergoing rapid urbanization processes [1,2,3]
The war in the south and central Iraq led to substantial migration from those regions to Kurdistan region and this resulted to a huge increase in land value of Sulaymaniah city, its environment, and a boom in real-estate business
This section contains a series of different themes intended to give the reader insight into the experience of academic professors and senior municipal council officials who were interviewed regarding to the driving forces, causes, effects, and the influence of economic and political structure on urban sprawl

Summary

Introduction

Urban sprawl is one of the distinctive phenomena in cities undergoing rapid urbanization processes [1,2,3]. In response to the population explosion and economic growth, the cities in the developing countries across the world have grown very rapidly [2,4,5]. Land use and land cover is changing rapidly due to several driving forces [10]. Driving forces of urban land sprawl have been classified into direct and potential factors: the direct factors referred to settlement expansion, industry development, and infrastructure construction, whereas the potential factors involved the natural factors, policies, population, economy, and technology [2]. The rapid changes of land cover are often characterized by urban sprawl, farmland displacement, and deforestation, leading to the loss of arable land, habitat destruction, and the decline of natural greenery areas. In the opinion of [12], the rapid urbanization happens when economic growth and urban job creation are absent in the rural area. Uncontrolled and inefficient urban dispersion occur in the rural or semi-rural areas that mainly found in peripheral areas

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