Analyzing the Spatial Trend of Urban Sprawl in the Secondary Cities of Pakistan: A Case Study of Hyderabad

Abstract

As land and soils are limited resources, they can only be destroyed so many times in human lifetimes. At the beginning of 21th century since 2008, half of the global population dwells in the cities. However, urban sprawl mainly promotes social, economic, and environmental issues internationally and also obstacles in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research aimed to study the spatial trend of urban sprawl and its mitigation in secondary cities of Pakistan. Hyderabad city was taken as study area. Geographical Information System (GIS) concerning Spatial Predictive Model (SPM) was employed to project Hyderabad’s urban sprawl spatially. All three patterns’ trends of urban sprawl including past, present and future were determined by applying Linear Regression based on SPM. To do so, yearly code and the rate of urban expansion variables were put in Spatial Predictive Model and calculated the trend of urban sprawl during 2007-2017, also projected up to 2030. Additionally, policy guidelines are suggested to curb the urban sprawl particularly in the secondary cities of Pakistan.