Chapter 1

Introduction to Urban Planning

History & background:

The very first urban planning conference was held in New York 1898 (Industrial revolution era).
During this conference a few very common questions were posed by a British architect.

Is planning about physical design? or

Making life easier for people who live in urban areas?

If we look around us we can see different types of people who are concerned/ associated with the
physical outlook and proper functioning of a city. These are architects, engineers, health officials
and social workers. Looking deeply these three pillars of our society, will later on in our
discussion, will lead towards laying down the foundation of sustainability in term of technical,
institutional, economy, social and environmental aspects. (Keeping in view its impact on
different projects in urban Peshawar).
Architect is basically concerned with the urban built environment, proper allocation of space and
implementation of ideas. Engineer change these ideas into reality in terms of strength,
workability and economy. Social sector are concerned with the views and impact from
stakeholders while environmentalist deals with the improvement and protection of natural
environment as a result of growing urban activities.
Urban planning (city planning in America) in its start, focused on the enforcement of zoning. To
many planners city planning was aimed at the segregation of rich, middle and poor class society
or more clear the separation of black population from that of white. An example the first city to
adopt racial zoning was Baltimore in 1910.
The question posed at the start of this discussion by the British architect was not properly
answered till the early 20th century.
How do we intervene?
With the pace of uncontrolled population growth, urbanization at an unprecedented rate, and
volatile climatic changes our urban centers are changing overnight.
The choice lies with the urban planners.
It is impossible to stop population growth or haphazard growth of urban centers. The wise
choice is to manage.
Urban planners are left with three choices to intervene.
1. Do we make wise choices to intervene?
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2. Move in the opposite direction and choose the unfortunate path?
3. Stay in the middle and wait?

Urban centers are changing continuously. Our wise decisions today will shape our future.
Defining Urban Planning:
Urban Planning simply defined as A process (Input) of guiding the use (architects) and
development of land (engineers) keeping in view the environmental aspects and social well being
(environmentalist & sociologist) with the aim to make a city a better place to live (Output).
Is it that simple? The simple answer is YESand NOat the same time depending on our will to
change and act.
An Urban center acts like a human body. It is not possible to stop growth rather we have to
properly manage the growth in such a way that every segment of urban centre that can be space,
building or infrastructure function in harmony with other. This is the most complicated and
difficult part to be achieved and that really is proper urban planning. So we lead towards HALL
(2002) definition, Planning is a general process, the making of an orderly sequence of actions
that will leads to the achievement of stated goal/ goals.
Urban:
An urban area is simple defined as an area that is characterized by higher population density
and vast human features in comparison to the areas surrounding it.
This definition is restricted to city, towns and conurbations.
In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in
rural areas (3.41 billion) and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This is the
first time that the majority of the world's population lives in a city (Wikipedia).
Planning:
Towns and cities are to some extent developed naturally but they are the result of centuries of
decision-making by individual owners and developers, and of government intervention. America
& Europe is an example
Of course topography and geography do play a part, but they do not absolutely determine
development. The nature of towns and cities, to a considerable extent, is dependent on who is
going to plan it and how its going to be planned.

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An Urban center acts like a human body. It is not possible to stop growth rather we have to
properly manage the growth in such a way that every segment of urban centre that can be space,
building or infrastructure functions in harmony with other. This is the most complicated and
difficult part to be achieved and that really is proper urban planning. So we lead towards HALL
(2002) definition, Planning is a general process, the making of an orderly sequence of actions
that will leads to the achievement of stated goal/ goals.
Planning is the process of thinking and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired
goal or goals.
Orderly sequence of actions:
1. Develop strategy
2. Define priority objectives
3. Identify and quantify inputs
4. Identify and quantify outputs
5. Project and then monitor outcome
6. Calculate and then monitor city wide impact and compare to objectives
Recall examples of Jamrud road and Hayatabad (Apply step 1 to 6).
1. Develop strategy
What to do?
How to do?
How to start?
What are the hurdles?
What are the available resources?
2: Define priority objectives:
The possible available options?
The best option / priority?

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3: Identify and quantify inputs:
The available resources.
Time to complete the project.
Capacity needed for the project in term
of planners, technicians, labors etc.
Step 5: The Outcomes
The changes and benefits brought as a
result of the project?
What are the changes and benefits from
complete development of HAYATABAD?
What can be the changes and benefits from an
effective/ efficient water supply scheme?
Step 6: Overall impact

Indicates

signs

of

achieving

the

changes we were expecting from our

project.
After successful completion of Hayatabad
project, what is the overall impact on housing
shortage or rents in urban Peshawar?
The importance of the above mentioned steps of a planning process and maintaining the order or
sequence of these steps is clearly understood whenever we came across a project that appears to
be wastage of time or money. Any step missing in a project will ultimately leads toward the
failure of the project in the long run. To be more honest our local administration are seldom
aware of the importance of step1 (objective), step 5 (outcome) and step 6 (impact and
comparison with step 1) in any mega project. After inauguration of a flyover or a bridge or road
project will reveal the success or failure of a project. Malik Saad Shaheed and Arbab Sikandar
flyover are the examples. During peak hours we can see congestion of roads with almost no
traffic on Malik Saad Shaheed flyover while the opposite is the scenario in the later case. I

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personally observed a congestion of traffic on and under Arbab Sikandar flyover. It is evident
that the objective/s of the projects is not achieved (because they were never considered).

Fig: Traffic congestion at Suray Pull intersection (Malik Saad flyover with no traffic at all)

Defining some basic terminologies:

SUBURB: A separate residential community within commuting distance of a city. An
outlying district of a city.
EXURBS: The ring of prosperous communities beyond the suburbs that are commuter
towns for an urban area
A COMMUTER TOWN is an urban community that is primarily residential, from
which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Nowshera or Pabbi
are the examples for Peshawar city.
The term METROPOLITAN AREA refers to a region consisting of a densely populated
urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure
and housing.
An URBAN AREA is characterized by higher population density and vast human
features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or
conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages
and hamlets.

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A CONURBATION is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns and other

urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form
one continuous urban and industrially developed area.
A HAMLET is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village
though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community.
Urban center:

Urban Center is a large and densely populated urban area; may include several

independent -administrative districts.

Characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to the
areas surrounding it.

Fig: Scattered Urban Centre (Peshawar urban an example)

Why do we need urban planning? Lets discuss
1. To guide the process of land use.
2. To safeguard the quality of life in cities.
3. To resolve conflicts between activities and uses.
4. To ensure the proper functioning of the city.
5. To anticipate solutions for direct and indirect impacts from urbanization.

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6. To safeguard the community/collective interests.

1- Urban planner is responsible for effective planning in a manner to ensure the proper use
of land use. Any non-conforming use of land will lead to problems and conflict in proper
functioning of urban center. Land reserve for green space in future shall not be subjected
to commercial use (as is the case in urban Peshawar). Strict regulation and enforcement
methodologies shall exist for the elimination of all manufacturing units in residential
zone. (Case: carpet industries in residential zones, inner Peshawar city).
2- Same standards of living in reference to any ideal situation in urban boundary are basic
right of all citizens. Provision of utilities, infrastructure facilities on one hand is important
but proper maintenance and management of functions for all sectors is the sole priority of
a successful urban planner.
3- All sectors of urban planning (for instance transport, communication, water supply) shall
function without conflict with one another. Town acts as a living organism and all sectors
of town are interrelated. Read: (Sector and cross-sectoral approach please).
4- Communities are constantly changing through development and population growth.
Rather than reacting to these changes, most communities choose to control their own fate
through planning. It is impossible to control population growth and urbanization but an
urban planner shall concentrate on the management of urban growth. Instead of urban
sprawl, an urban planner shall actively engage himself/ herself in managing the growth of
town. Tokyo with 32.8 million population but properly managed is an example of proper
management and effective urban planning.
5- Uncontrolled urbanization leads towards direct and indirect effects on urban environment.
Some of the direct implication can be seen on the environment, agriculture, infrastructure
etc. while the indirect implication can appear in the form of health, stress, noise, high
rents, congestion etc. Urban planning aims at finding the optimal solution and balance
between population growth and infrastructure facilities thus ensuring a smooth
functioning of different sectors with urban boundary.
6- Urban planning aims at improving/ enriching people lives through provision of an
equitable, healthy and more convenient urban environment. It helps communities to live a
better present and envision their future. For instance, most of the public transport in urban
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Pakistan is controlled by private sector. To safeguard community collective interests an

urban planner must aim at the provision of an efficient, economical and safe public
transport subsidized and controlled by the government.
Without Urban Planning:
Residential

Sewerage

Transport

Land use conflict

"What exactly is urban planning?"

Simply it is the art of turning space into place.

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What are the most common specialization/ areas of interest in planning profession?
Urban planning is a multidisciplinary profession and planners at a time are mostly involved in
working across sectors. As discussed earlier, a city in its functioning can be compared to a living
body in which one sector acts in coordination with the other. Thus planner is mostly concerned
with the smooth functioning of one urban sector with the other without conflicts. The most
common areas of interest in a planning profession are listed below,
1. Urban and regional planning
2. Transport planning
3. Environment/ Natural resource planning
4. Planning management/ Finance
5. Land use planning and code reinforcement
6. Water supply, sanitation and solid waste management
7. Energy efficiency and renewable energy
8. Urban design and housing
Skills/ properties of an urban planner
Good planning requires special skills and perspectives for example
Most people prefer to ignore problems until they become unavoidable. Planners are
professional worriers who seek out potential problems so they can be mitigated
Most people look at a problem from a single perspective. Planners are responsible for
considering multiple perspectives
Most people prefer simple problems and solutions. Planners learn to appreciate
complexity and search for deeper meanings and underlying causes. Planners learn to
work with uncertainty and ambiguity.
Most people consider compromise a sign of weakness and failure. Planners are
passionate about compromise because it resolves conflicts and often leads to better
solutions
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Most people prefer to consider one issue at a time. Planners apply integrated analysis, so
individual, short-term decisions are consistent with multiple, long-term goals.
Role of an urban planner:
A good urban planner shall be able to
1. Consider: the fact that urban centers due to constant human activities are subjected to a
process of change.
2. Recognize: the complex fabric of urban communities.
3. Concern: working in the present he/she shall be concern about the future needs and
requirements in urban environment
Aims/ Objectives of Urban Planning:
The aims and objective of an effective urban planning includes
1. Health: An urban planning aim is to create healthy conditions and environment equally
for all urban community. The right use of land and zoning in the form of residential,
commercial, institutional and industrial by avoiding conflict across each zone will leads
towards a healthy environment. This will, on the other hand, help in facilitating future
planning and growth of urban center.
2. Convenience: Public utility service
What is the concern of planning or what a community wants to achieve through planning?
This concern means
A sensible Land use pattern through careful planning and zoning that ensures a ready
access to recreational, cultural, institutional and commercial facilities. It also ensure the
even distribution of these facilities without concentration at a particular location in urban.
(The concentration of all these activities on both sides of Jamrud road gives rise to traffic
congestion and stress on infrastructure facilities).
A Street pattern convenient and safe, design in a pattern, that ensures the flow of traffic
without congestion.
A housing pattern with all basic utilities of living at an affordable price equally available
to both rich and poor. The Scandinavian (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) urban
authorities have made it possible that all citizens indiscriminate of their income level
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wants their communities, neighborhoods, villages, cities and towns to be more liveable.
Liveable communities provide residents with opportunities to enjoy a high quality of life
by preserving or improving the quality of their environment, enabling them to live in a
variety of housing options, and by making it possible for them to walk, bike or take
public transportation to go to the places they most frequently need to go every day, such
as work, schools, grocery stores, shopping malls, parks, recreational areas and health
facilities.
A public transport with integrated networks of public transit by road, rail and water;
dedicated pedestrian lanes, dedicated bicycle lanes, all of which makes it possible for
residents to go to the places they need or want to go, quickly, conveniently, safely,
comfortably and economically, and without having to drive their private cars at all times.
Unfortunately in our urban road network planning in Pakistan there is no room left for
pedestrian or bicycles.
Principles of Urban Planning:
The foundation of urban planning is laid on certain defined principles. Some of which are

Comprehensive all significant options are considered before the start of a project and
possible outcomes and impacts are also taken into considerations. The project shall be
technically sound, economically feasible, socially acceptable, institutionally capable and
environmentally safe from design to execution.

Efficient the process should not waste time or money. Any project not in alignment
with its stated objectives and not fulfilling the possible outcome is a complete wastage of
time and money. Think about urban Peshawar projects -a flyover- a road or a tube well.
You will probably name some projects that are complete wastage of time and money.

Inclusive Involve people who are directly or indirectly a part of the project or affected
by the project. If not included they will become a barrier in the successful execution of
the project. Waste buster project in urban Peshawar for changing organic waste to
compost is an example.

Informative All stakeholders (people affected by a decision) must be well informed

about the process and possible outcome of the project. Chowk Yadgar project of a green
garden design by Nayyar Ali dada because local shopkeepers at the time of execution of
the project were concerned about their local customers to be travelling underground.
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Integrated An urban planner short-term decision should support strategic, long-term

goals. A new housing scheme being initiated today shall have a positive impact on
housing shortage and high rents in the long term.

Logical An urban planning process shall be logical and follow the steps described
earlier. For instance, it shall start from the identification of objectives and possible
outcomes of the project at the final step shall again be compared with the objectives. If it
fulfills the objectives we shall move towards execution of the project, otherwise we have
to modify/ alter the objectives.
Moreover, we shall not move haphazardly in a planning process. One step leads towards
the next. In my view, for example, the successful implementation of a mass transit project
the first step will be the improvement of public transport (shifting from private to public)
followed by an effective BRT (Bus Rapid Transport). The success of first two steps will
lead towards the success of mass transit in urban.

Transparent The process of planning shall be transparent and everybody involved or

affected by the project understands how the process operates. The transparent planning
and execution of a project is a key to success. In all public projects an urban planner in
coordination with the execution agencies must ensure that transparency, integrity and
accountability are given due consideration and implemented in the project.

Sector approach:
As we described earlier, a city or town functions in the form of a living organism. The smooth
and coordinated function on one sector in relation to the other is indispensable. For instance, a
city government usually includes sector authorities (P.D.A, Municipality etc) that manage
individual sectors such as,

Transport

Water supply, sanitation and solid waste

Land use and regulation

Housing

Good sector management is indispensable but not enough. Do you think why?
The reason is each activity or sector is directly or indirectly influencing each other.

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The current scenario in urban Peshawar is alarming. Presently there are seven (7) local
authorities in urban Peshawar which are responsible for each sector including P.D.A, Local
government, Town 3, Town 1, Municipal Corporation, Cantonment board and Town 2.
Each sector/ local authority is responsible for each sector, but most of them can hardly manage
the coordination between functionality, authority and resources. There exists a constant conflict
which results in decisions leading towards short term solution having long term negative
consequences in most cases. In Urban Punjab one sector/ authority is responsible for managing
each sector. A short and simple example is a comparative study of the number of tube wells and
operating staff in urban Peshawar and Punjab.
In broader sense, an urban planners concentrating just on the planning of land use in isolation
from the other sectors, and do not involved in infrastructure planning, will somewhere leads
towards a conflict issue between land use planning and infrastructure utilities planning. During
our day to day life in Pakistan we came across sector conflicts never realized or addressed in
seriously. Sewer maintenance in conflict with road service life, Traffic congestion due to illegal
taxis, parking or commercial centers are some of the examples of cross sector conflicts never
realized. Sometime I ask a very simple question during my lecture What is or should have been
the most cost effective and optimal solution for addressing the problem of traffic congestion at
Suray pull? Is it a sector or cross sector conflict problem.
The simple answer that I get most of the time is Widen the road and construct new fly-over.
This is an engineering solution or sector approach to the problem. The widening of road without
traffic management of road and construction of flyover without considering the output and long
term impact will sometime lead towards a long term problem.
A number of housing societies in the public and private sectors in urban Peshawar and suburbs
have been approved or fully developed. Hardly 10% of developed plots have residential,
commercial or recreational construction while remaining portion is vacant. Why? The absence of
a long term planning without considering the output and long term impact will sometime leads
towards a long term problem.
The major consequences in the long term will include scarcity of land, loss of useful agricultural
land, loss of resources and time leading towards an unsustainable solution. For example, many

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urban planners concentrate just on the planning of land use in isolation from the other sectors,
and they do not get much involved in infrastructure planning.

Cross sector approach:

It is important for a professional to manage his individual sector but in cross sector approach of
urban planning, it is important for a professional (in each sector) to have a deeper understanding
of how his sector of interest interact with other sectors or vice versa.
To make it simple lets take the above mentioned problem of traffic congestion at Suray pull
intersection near provincial assembly. Traffic congestion or in my opinion traffic conflict at the
point between traffic from and towards high court to Bacha khan Chowk is in conflict with
traffic to and from Khyber road (provincial assembly side). The sector approach (engineering
approach) to address the problem is simple. Widen the road or construct a fly over- from our past
experience has (in most cases) made the solution to the problem more complicated/ complex.
Malik Saad Shaheed flyover as diverted towards LRH hospital is in no way addressing the traffic
conflict point under Suray pull.
How an urban planner will address the problem. His/ her basic approach will be the institutional,
technical, social, economical and environmental success of the project. In this case again, the
cross-sector approach will be more efficient in the long run. An urban planner will look at the
traffic congestion from multiple perspectives and

in addition to identify the indirect impacts of

unplanned residential, commercial and institutional sprawl. For example some of the

Educational institutions on Warsak road

Private medical facilities at Dabgari center

Agglomeration of commercial and institutional activities on Khyber road

The illegal taxis

The unplanned private public transport

Location of four major hospitals on Khyber road and Hayatabad

and much more to identify as the hidden and underlying causes of congestion

Al attempts to address the traffic congestion problem at Suray pull without identifying the above
mentioned problems will in itself leads to the creation of another problem.
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Let us assume another example in urban Peshawar. Now a days we come across a shortage of
housing, and therefore there is an overcrowding of some urban parts (inner city for example),
and this overcrowding in turn creates traffic congestion. This traffic congestion can be addressed
in two ways.
The sector approach would be to widen the streets. The cross-sector approach would be to
identify the real problem for traffic congestion, which is in fact due to an overcrowding of some
urban parts, and therefore the solution to a traffic problem might be to build more housing
instead of widening roads or constructing new flyovers. This is only an example, not all traffic
problems are due to overcrowding.
Let us imagine a city located along a river. The local authority managing the roads plan to avoid
building bridges because bridges are very expensive, and for the same money they can build
many more roads. Looking from sector point of view, this is correct.
However, from the urban planning point of view, the land which is located across the river has a
potentially high value, but this value is close to zero if there are no bridges to get across the river.
As a cross-sector approach an urban planner will try to identify the value of the land across the
river and find a way to finance the bridges because the cost of the bridges will be very small
compared to the value of the land.
Developing the suburban areas and providing better and efficient infrastructure facilities to
address the problem of high rent and high rent in urban center will be another good example of a
cross sector approach.

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CASE STUDIES: Think from an urban planner perspective:

Scenario 1: Mufti Mehmood fly-over close to provincial assembly is designed to address the
traffic congestion/ conflict at Suray pull.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner

The completion of this project will leads towards a permanent solution for traffic
congestion/ conflict at this particular point. Do you agree?

The cost and time required for this project justifies. If your answer is no give reasons?

There should have been a more economical and effective solution. Do you agree?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenario 2: Solid waste management has never been given due attention despite the
presence of seven authorities in urban Peshawar.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner

We need to treat waste as a resource and not as an evil that need to be eliminated. Do you
agree?

The current solid waste management system is not sustainable. Do you agree?

There is a need for a single independent authority to design and implement an effective
solid waste management system in urban Peshawar. Do you agree?

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Scenario 3: The ground water table in urban Peshawar is dropping at an alarming rate.

Are we maintaining a balance between the current recharge and discharge?

Do we need to introduce water meter in urban Peshawar?

Service stations in urban Peshawar shall be enforced to use recycled water. Do you
agree?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenario 4: Current traffic congestion in urban Peshawar is a result of underlying causes

that have never been considered.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner

Widening of roads and construction of fly-over is not a permanent solution. We need to

manage our roads and traffic. Do you agree?

Black taxis, permit system for public transport and private public transport are some of the
causes of traffic congestion. Do you agree?

Scenario 5: Urban assets need to be properly maintained, rehabilitated and replaced as per
requirements.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner

Do we need to develop an effective urban assets management system in urban Peshawar?

Pipe network system, drainage system, power transmission system, bridges and roads
need to be categorized on the basis of their condition and performance

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenario 6: Uncontrolled urbanization leads towards stress on existing infrastructure

facilities in urban jursidiction.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner

Is it time to develop new planned cities outside the urban boundary of urban Peshawar?

The already urban decayed centers in urban Peshawar need urban renewal but how?

For urban Peshawar do you suggest a satellite town or a garden city keeping in view the
local conditions?

What the main principles for designing a new city outside the urban boundary of urban
Peshawar?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenario 7: Sustainability has never been addressed properly during design, execution and
management of Civil engineering projects.
According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner,

What is the concept of sustainability for an engineer?

What are the long term benefits of sustainability?

In which way the five pillars of sustainability (Institution, technical, social, economical
and environment) effect the success or failure of a civil engineering project?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scenario 8: Renewable energy is an essential part of urban planning.

According to your observation as a civil engineer and an urban planner,

What exactly is meant by renewable energy?

What is the scope of renewable energy in effective urban planning?

What has been done so far to address the problem?

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