ANALYSIS OF EVOLUTION OF URBAN FORMS IN THE CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILLIANCE IN ANTHROPOCENE

Abstract

Classical walled cities were built for security and grandeur; modern with orthogonal urban form, emphasizing transportation corridors, height zoning; and innovative urban planning, strategic spatial planning without predetermined urban form, compact city approach and eco-city approach are premeditated. This study identifies indicators of sustainability and resilience in evolution of urban forms from ancient to modern times and proposes a functional model for urban form in technology-driven Anthropocene. Urban forms of six cities of Pakistan developed in different times in the history were analyzed against three urban design parameters; namely substantiation of location, space allocation and land-use planning standards. Six cities included ancient city of Multan, medieval city of Lahore, Gujranwala developed during 17^th to 18^th century, Faisalabad (Lyallpur) and Sargodha developed by British colonial empire in 18^th and 19^th century respectively and the modern city of Islamabad developed in 1960s. Qualitative data collected and analyzed using multi criteria analysis technique. Faisalabad was found the most planned city with highest score of 2141, which substantiates that well-planned cities have better capacity to deal with environmental and urban issues. Based on analysis, a novel “composite city planning approach” is proposed, which may provide an ultimate answer to human quest for a functional, convenient, technologically assimilated and sustainable urban form. It would have quad-tier transportation infrastructure i.e., low flying zones, spiral public avenues, link roads, pedestrian streets; intermittent zoning, amenity area and facility center having multi-use high-rise buildings with parking plaza for adopting approaches essential to attain goal of sustainable development and social cohesion of metropolitans.