Plan Plus 2004 Vol 1 No 2

Plan Plus
A Journal of Planning, Development, Urbanization & Environment
Volume 1 Number 2 September 2004
Editor
Akhter Husain Chaudhury
Urban and Rural Planning Discipline

Khulna University
Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
Plan Plus
A Journal of Planning, Development, Urbanization & Environment
Volume 1 Number 2 September, 2004
Editorial Board
Chief Editor Members
Akhter Husain Chaudhury Prof. Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim
Prof. Dr. Md. Ghulam Murtaza
Dr. Mahmudul Hasan
Dr. Shamim Mahabubul Haque
Plan Plus is a fully refereed journal published once a year. It is an internationally recognized research
publication for planning, development, urbanization & environment. Plan Plus provides a forum for research
and practice in different areas of contemporary knowledge and activities, primarily from the developing
world. The interested author should communicate about their manuscript with Urban and Rural Planning
Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh. Papers should make a theoretical, factual or technical
contribution of interdisciplinary national, regional or international interests. Critical analyses and scholarly
evaluation pf current issues are also encouraged. Original research papers, review articles and short
communications in the broad field of planning, development, urbanization and environment are invited. The
referees and editorial board will evaluate the submitted manuscript based on the quality of data and ideas. The
editorial board of Plan Plus will not responsible for nay factual mistakes, thoughts and ides reflected in the
published papers. Potential authors are requested to follow the “Guide to Contributors” available at the end of
this journal, while preparing their manuscript.
Editorial Correspondence
Head, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University
Khulna 9208, Bangladesh.
Email: info@kuurp.org
Cover & Design

Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan
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ISSN 1608-7844
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ii
REVIEWERS OF THIS ISSUE
Prof. Dr. Raquib Ahmed

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi
Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.
Dr. Shabbir Ahmed

Department of Architecture,
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam

Department of Geography and Environment, Jahangirnagar University
Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh.
Dr. Dilip Kumar Datta

Environmental Science Discipline, Khulna University
Prof. Dr. Maudud Elahi

Dr. Roxana Hafiz

Department of Urban and Regional Planning,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Prof. Md. Nurul Haque

Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University
Prof. Dr. Azizul Mowla

Department of Architecture,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. K. M. Muniruzzaman,
Department of Urban and Regional Planning,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Prof. Dara Shamsuddin

iii
ADVISORY BOARD of Plan Plus
Prof. Dr. S. Rafi Ahmed

Head, Department of Laser Spectroscopy
Royal Military College of Science, Swindon, UK.
Prof. Dr. A.T.M. Nurul Amin

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
Bangkok, Thailand.
Dr. Peter Anderson

Geography Department, University of Bergen
Norway.
Prof. M Abdul Quadir Bhuiyan

Vice Chancellor, Khulna University
Prof. Nabeel Hamdi

Director, CENDEP
Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Abul Kalam

Dr. Nurul Islam Nazem

Department of Geography and Environment
Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Prof. Dr. Golam Rahman

Vice Chancellor, United International University
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. Kam Tin Seong

Manager, Application & Education Services
ESRI South Asia Pte. Ltd.
Singapore.
iv
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
It has taken a pretty long time to bring the second issue to the light. Amid
intermingling constraints of time, resource and procurement of papers, and off
course getting them reviewed, have not been easy tasks involved with the
publication. Thanks to the Khulna University for extending its hand for sharing a
substantial part of the cost.
As usual, the current issue has been arranged with a series of multi-disciplinary
papers covering such areas as, remote sensing and GIS, architecture, geography,
environment, urban planning and legal issues. Each paper has been polished and
brushed, apart from thorough review by eminent scholars of local universities.
However, despite all the sincerity of the editor and his aids, it is not unlikely to trace
some lapses in editorial tasks. The editor, with humble submission, shoulders all the
responsibilities for those.
The editor expresses his deep gratitude to Mr. Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan,
a Lecturer of this Discipline, for his sincere and painstaking effort in composing the
entire document. Thanks are due to the learned reviewers, whose cooperation made
it possible to standardize and enrich the publication.

Chief Editor, Plan Plus
&
Associate Professor
Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University
v
Plan Plus
Volume 1 Number 2 September 2004 ISSN 1608 7844
Contents
NDVI Derived Sugarcane Area Identification and Crop Condition Assessment 1-12
Md. Rejaur Rahman, A.H.M. Hedayutul Islam and Md. Ataur Rahman
Knowledge Based Spatial Expert Support System in Identifying Suitable Sites for Urban 13-25
Development in Dehradun City, India
Md. Mujibor Rahman and Dr. A. P. Subudhi
A Study on the Successful Application of Geographical Information System in Urban Planning 26-36
in Developing Countries
Md. Ahsanul Kabir
Application of GIS in Planning Water Supply Network System of Gopalgonj Pourashava 37-51
Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim and Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan
Developing an Interactive Digital Guide Map of Dhaka City 52-59

Meher Nigar Neema, Farhana Ahmed, Farzana Akhter and K. M. Maniruzzaman
Evaluation of the Performance of Commonly Used Shading Device Applied Over Windows in 60-69
the Context of Dhaka City
Abul Mukim Mozammel Haque Mridha
Status of Housing Quality in Rajshahi City: A Geographical Study 70-78

Mallik Akram Hossain and Dr. Raquib Ahmed
Assessing the Urban Environmental Quality of Khulna City: A Multi-Level Quantitative 79-95
Approach
Kh. Md. Nahiduzzaman, M. Mustafa Saroar and Sohel Jahangir Ahmed
Planning Strategy in Hong Kong: Comparison with Singapore and Taiwan 96-110
S.M. Reazul Ahsan
The Concept, Delineation and Planning Implications of Urban Fringe 111-119

Spatial Distribution and Locational Implications for Industries of the Developing Countries: 120-132
The Lessons from South Asia
Dr. Mahmudul Hasan
Regulatory Arrangements and Their Problems in Beautification of Cities in Bangladesh with 133-148
Special Reference to Khulna City
Mohsin Uddin Ahmed
vi
ISSN 1608-7844
© Urban and Rural Planning Discipline
Khulna University
Plan Plus Volume 1 No 2 2004 (1-12)
NDVI DERIVED SUGARCANE AREA IDENTIFICATION AND

CROP CONDITION ASSESSMENT
Md. Rejaur Rahman1, A.H.M. Hedayutul Islam2 and Md. Ataur Rahman3
1
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi
2
Lecturer, Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi
3
Former PhD Student, Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi.
Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
Remote sensing offers an efficient and reliable means of collecting the information required, in
order to map crop type and acreage. Besides providing a synoptic view, remote sensing can provide
structured information about the health of the vegetation. The spectral reflectance of a field will
vary with respect to changes in the phenology (growth), stage type, and crop health, and thus can be
measured and monitored by multi-spectral sensors. In the present study IRS LISS II digital data and
NDVI (Normalized difference vegetation index) have been used to identify the sugarcane area and
its condition assessment. Ratio images are often useful for discriminating subtle differences in
spectral variation in a scene that is masked by brightness variations. For identifying the area and
condition of dense crop like sugarcane, NDVI image is often useful because of its canopy cover,
crop biomass and vigour. The accuracy achieved was 85.25% for NDVI image of IRS LISS II
digital data.
KEY WORDS: Remote sensing, Spectral vegetation indices, NDVI, band ratio, NIR and RED
band, chlorophyll, crop condition assessment.
INTRODUCTION
Remote sensing techniques can play quite an important role in land cover survey and as a source
of information relating to land resource condition. Besides, remote sensing techniques of the
satellite imageries are also useful whenever there are rapid changes of landscape due to
introduction of large scale development specially in the field of agriculture. Remote sensing data
are capable of capturing changes in plant phenology (growth) throughout the growing season,
whether relating to changes in chlorophyll content or structural changes. Satellite and airborne
images are used as mapping tools to classify crops, examine their health and viability, and
monitor farming practices. Identifying and mapping crop is important for a number of reasons.
The main objective is to prepare an inventory of what was grown in certain areas and when. Key
activities include identifying the crop types and delineating their extent (often measured in
acres). Traditional methods of obtaining this information are census and ground surveying. In
order to standardize measurements however, particularly for multinational agencies and
consortiums, remote sensing can provide common data collection and information extraction
1
NDVI Derived Sugarcane Area Identification and Crop Condition Assessment
strategies. From these points of view, present study has been selected for identification the area
of sugarcane and condition of crop in the floodplain area of Charghat thana by using IRS LISS II
digital data.
STUDY AREA - AN OVERVIEW

An area of agricultural potential varies in response to local and regional differences of its
constituents of physical setting (Hassan, 1991). Therefore, a proper consideration of physical
environment is essential for any assessment of agricultural research study and Charghat thana
has been selected as the area of study whose total area is about 15373 hectares. Geographically
Charghat thana is located between 24014/ and 24022/ north latitude and between 88040/ and
88052/ east longitudes (Fig-1). Physiographically the area lies in the floodplain of the Padma
river and is characterized by a flat low-lying terrain with no appreciable difference in relief.
There are some marshes in the study area and Gangetic flood plain is the only physiographic unit
in Charghat thana (SRDI, 1989). The soil of the thana belongs to the old alluvial groups.
However, on the basis of soil texture, four types of soil exist in the thana (Fig-2). Loamy soil
occupies the largest portion of the total land of Charghat thana and this type covers of 13079
hectares or 79.4 %. It may be mentioned that this type of soil is suitable especially for sugarcane
and rice cultivation.
SUGARCANE – PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECT

Sugarcane is one of the most important cash crops in Bangladesh. It is an annual crop with solid
jointed stems and its mode of photosynthesis is very efficient and growth is quick. Generally ,
sugarcane is planted in January-February and harvested in November-December. The cane plant
usually requires 10-12 months to reach maturity. In general, maximum leaf area index (LAI) is
achieved about six months from planting and then slowly declines, but this may be affected by
both variety of sugarcane and condition of growth. Most of the light (solar radiation) in a closed-
canopy is intercepted by the top six fully expanded leaves in the crop. The number of green
leaves on a stalk varies between 6 and 12, with fewer leaves being maintained during dry or cold
conditions. The top three fully opened leaves of nearly all cultivators tend to erect, but droop
more or less at the tips. The older leaves may be erect or droopy (planophile) depending on
variety and environmental conditions (Evans, 1975).
Sugarcane is one of the extreme types of crops and in that it has extraordinarily high rates of
photosynthesis. Leaves of matured plants give maximum rate of photosynthesis. The high crop
growth rates attributed to sugarcane are at least partially due to an extended growing season,
rather than to an inherently superior photosynthetic pathway. Hesketh and Moss (1963) shows
that photosynthesis by leaves of maize, sugarcane and related tropical grasses could reach much
higher rates, with less marked light saturation, than leaves of other plants. On the other hand,
leaf area index (LAI) provided a more meaningful way of analysing growth in crops and
stimulated renewed interest in crop physiology.
2
SPECTRAL REFLECTANCE, VEGETATION AND NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE

VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)
Spectral vegetation index measurement derived from remotely sensed observations shows great
promise as a means to improve knowledge of vegetation pattern. Different band ratios are
possible given the number of spectral bands of the satellite image. Various mathematical
combinations of satellite bands have been found to be sensitive indicators of the presence and
condition of green vegetation. These band combinations are thus referred to as vegetation
indices. The dominant method for vegetation area identification and change detection using
remotely sensed data is through vegetation indices (Deering & Hass, 1980). Vegetation indices
are algorithms aimed at simplifying data from multiple reflectance bands to a single value
correlating to physical vegetation parameters (such as biomass, productivity, leaf area index, or
percent vegetation ground cover) (Tucker, 1979). These vegetation indices are based on the
well-documented unique spectral characteristics of healthy green vegetation over the visible and
infrared wavelengths.
Figure 1: Location map of the study area
3
Figure 2: Soil types of Charghat Thana
A green healthy leaf has typical spectral features, which differ in function of the three main
optical spectral domains (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Typical spectral response characteristics of green vegetation (After Hoffer, 1978)
4
In the visible bands (400-700 nm), light absorption by pigments dominates the reflectance
spectrum of the leaf and leads to generally lower reflectances (15% maximum). There are two
main absorption bands, in blue (450nm) and in red (670nm), due to the absorption of the two
main leaf pigments: the chlorophyll a and b, which account for 65% of the total leaf pigments of
superior plants. These strong absorption bands induce a reflectance peck in the yellow-green
(550 nm) band. For this reason, chlorophyll is called the green pigment. Other leaf pigments also
have an important effect of the visible spectrum. For example, the yellow to orange-red pigment,
the carotene, has a strong absorption in the 350-500 nm range and is responsible for the color of
some flowers and fruits as well as of leaves without chlorophyll. The red and blue pigment, the
xanthophylls, has a strong absorption in the 350-500 nm range and is responsible for the leaf
color in fall. In the near infrared spectrum domain (700-1300 nm), leaf structure explains the
optical properties. Leaf pigment and cellulose are transparent to near-infrared wavelengths and
therefore leaf absorption is very small (10% maximum), but not the leaf reflectance and
transmittance, which can reach 50%. In this region, there is typically a reflectance plateau in the
leaf spectrum. The level of this plateau is dependent on the internal leaf structure as well as on
the space amount in the mesophyll that determines interfaces with different reflection indices
(air or water- cells). Leaf reflectance increases for more heterogeneous cell shapes and contents
as well as with increasing number of cell layers, number of inter cell spaces and cell size. This
reflectance is therefore depending on the relative thickness of the mesophyll. In order to
minimize the effect, on the canopy radiometric response of factors like optical properties of the
soil background, illumination and view geometric as well as meteorological factors (wind,
cloud), single band reflectances are combined into a vegetation index. An ideal vegetation index
must be sensitive to the plant canopy (the green part) and not to the soil. Most of the ratio-based
vegetation indices use, as spectral band, the red one, which is related to the chlorophyll light
absorption (Fig.-3) and the near infrared one, which is related to the green vegetation density,
because this band contain more than 90% of the information on a plant canopy. So,
Photosynthetically active plant components, primarily leaves, produce a stepped reflectance
pattern with low reflectance in the visible and high reflectance in the near infrared. This green
vegetation spectral reflectance pattern results from strong absorption of visible light by
chlorophylls and related pigments and scattering, because of leaf structural properties, but
minimal absorption of light in the near infrared. A number of spectral vegetation indices
premised on the contrasts in spectral reflectance between green vegetation and background
materials (Rouse et al. 1974; Kauth & Thomas, 1976; Richardson & Wiegand, 1977; Tucker,
1979; Jackson, 1983). The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is representative of
the various spectral vegetation indices (Rouse el al., 1974). NDVI is the traditional vegetation
index used by researchers for extracting vegetation abundance from remotely sensed data
(Tucker, 1979). It divides the difference between reflectance values in the visible red and near-
infrared wavelengths by the overall reflectance in those wavelengths to give an estimate of green
vegetation abundance (Tucker, 1979). In essence, the algorithm isolates the dramatic increase in
reflectance over the visible red to near infrared wavelengths, and normalizes it by dividing by
the overall brightness of each pixel in those wavelengths. 1t is computed;
NDVI = (NIR-VIS) / (NIR + VIS)

Where NIR = reflectance in the near infrared band (Band4)
VIS = reflectance in the red (visible) band (Band3)
5
In theory NDVI measurements range between -1.0 and +1.0. However, in practice the
measurements generally range between -0.1 and +0.7. Clouds, water, snow and ice give negative
NDVI values. Bare soils and other background materials produce NDVI values between -0.1 and
+ 0.1. Larger NDVI values occur as the amount of green vegetation in the observed area
increases.
NDVI has been used extensively to measure vegetation cover characteristics, crop assessment
studies (Peterson et al., 1987; Asrar et al., 1984; Bausch, 1993; Benedetti & Rossini, 1993;
Hatfield et al., 1985; Wanjura & Hatfield, 1987), used to provide weekly vegetation maps,
monitor crops over large regions, monitor vegetation change in much of the tropics, and estimate
biomass. Specifically, for example, Shih (1994) used it to monitor agricultural areas in the
Everglades, Dejong (1994) used it in a model of soil erosion, Wood (1993) used NDVI to help
monitor water and energy fluxes for a climate model, and Dymond et al. (1992) used NDVI to
estimate rangeland degradation. As therefore, in this study NDVI image was generated and its
value has been used for crop feature recognition and condition assessment.
OBJECTIVES
(i) The main objective of the study is to identify the extent of sugarcane area and mapping
using remotely sensed data and NDVI algorithm; and
(ii) To assess the condition of crop health from NDVI value.
MATERIALS
Remote Sensing Data

Satellite digital data : IRS LISS II
Bands : 3, 4
Data acquisition : August 25, 1999
Spatial resolution : 36.25m
Ancillary Data
Survey of Bangladesh Topo-sheet, scale 1:50,000
Thana and Soil map of Charghat.
METHODOLOGY
In accordance with the objectives of the study satellite image of IRS LISS II (4 Bands) was
collected for August 25, 1999 and field observation was completed after two weeks of digital
data acquisition. It was mentioned earlier that for sugarcane, maximum leaf area index (LAI) is
achieved about six months from planting. On the other hand, for digital data processing, analysis
and integration of spatial and non-spatial data PC based raster GIS package ILWIS version 2.2
has been used in this study. Two bands (NIR and RED) of the IRS LISS II have been geo-
referenced using sufficient number of ground control points and pixel size defined as 36.25m.
Then, using NDVI algorithm NDVI image was generated and the study area extracted from the
6
NDVI image. For feature recognition especially for crop mapping, NDVI value of band 4
(infrared) and band 3 (red) of IRS LISS II digital data were used. For classifying the NDVI
image cluster and knowledge based classification methods were applied. According to the
signature, pattern and color of NDVI image and ground truth and observation, range of NDVI
values were selected for each of the classes (Figure 4). For ground truth/observation some
training sample/site was selected in the NDVI image and verified those sample site in the
respective ground or field.
Minor Crops Rice
Sandy Sugarcane
Water Others
(NDVI )
Figure 4: Image and Range of NDVI Value for each of the Classes
It may be mentioned here that after field observation, it was seen in the NDVI image the orchard
area and some sugarcane areas had same NDVI value. So, to separate out the orchard area from
the sugarcane area, orchard areas were identified from the toposheet map firstly and then traced
and scanned. The scanned orchard map was digitized, geo-referenced, resample and then
rendered it raster by polygonization and rasterization and replaced in the classified image/map.
From the classified image, sugarcane area was extracted and a map was generated for sugarcane
(Flow diagram-1). On the other hand, for assessing the sugarcane crop condition, sugarcane area
map was used as a ‘mask’ over the NDVI value map to generate respective NDVI mask for
sugarcane. NDVI value is very much sensitive to crop canopy, biomass and vigour i.e. health
condition of the crop. So, NDVI mask map was then classified and given the class names as
‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’ for sugarcane health condition according to verified
crop condition by field observation and farmers knowledge (Figure 5).
7
Moderate
Poor Good
Very Good
Results and Discussion:
(NDVI)
Figure 5: Histogram of NDVI Sugarcane image and Condition Range for each of the Classes
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It was mentioned earlier that NDVI image was created with the help of spectral vegetation index
(Figure 6). In the NDVI map, the bright areas are vegetated while the non-vegetated areas (river,
ponds, sandy area, building) are generally dark. Using NDVI value, image of the study area has
been classified for the identification of different crop areas (Figure 7). Table-1 shows the spatial
extent of different landuse/land cover in the study area. From this table it is clear that sugarcane
was the dominant crop in the study area occupying 33.97% of the total area. The area
distribution of sugarcane acreage is given in Fig.-8. On the other hand, to assess the condition of
crop health, NDVI value for sugarcane was analyzed. In referring healthy crops, reflectance in
the blue and red parts of the spectrum is low since chlorophyll absorbs this energy. In contrast,
reflectance in the green and near-infrared spectral regions is high. Stressed or damage crop
experience a decrease in chlorophyll conte tent and changes in the internal leaf structure. So
examining the ratio of reflected infrared to red wavelengths is an excellent measure of vegetation
health. Healthy plants have a high NDVI value because of their high reflectance of infrared light,
and relatively low reflectance of red light. Phenology and vigour are the main factors in affecting
NDVI. That’s why in the study area, for other crops (rice and minor crops) NDVI value is lower
than sugarcane. Not only that, in the sugarcane area NDVI value also differed (0.23 to 0.56).
Table 2 shows the conditions of sugarcane in the study area. From the table and Fig.-9 it may be
said that overall sugarcane condition was good in the area, because more than 57% of the total
sugarcane area was under ‘good’ and ‘very good’ conditions. Only 15% of the total sugarcane
8
area falls under ‘poor’ condition. In this area spectral reflectance was comparatively low and it is
mainly because of crop stress and damage. So, from the above result it may be concluded that in
the study area sugarcane productivity is in satisfactory level assessing the health of crop, as well
as early detection of crop infestations. This is critical in ensuring good agricultural productivity.
Table 1: Spatial extent of different land cover/use

Category No. of Pixels Area % of Total
Minor Crops 13060 1692.58 11.01
Others (Bare soil, Settlement etc.) 20149 2611.31 16.99
Roads 1092 141.52 0.92
Rice 27311 3539.51 23.02
Sugarcane 39919 5173.50 33.65
Orchard 528 68.43 0.45
Water Bodies 16556 2145.66 13.96
Total 118615 15372.51 100
Table 2: Crop Condition of Sugarcane in the Study Area

Conditions No. of Pixels Area % of Total
Poor 6019 779.74 15.07
Moderate 11008 1427.64 27.60
Good 19404 2515.62 48.63
Very Good 3488 450.5 8.71
Total 39919 5173.5 100.00
CONCLUSION
The result of the study leads to the following conclusions:
(i) It is easy to distinguish sugarcane areas from the other cropped area using NDVI image
referring sugarcane crop canopy, structure and LAI.
(ii) IRS LISS II digital data is suitable for large area crop mapping especially sugarcane and
identification of their extent.
(iii) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a most successful and commonly used
vegetation index and in this study, it was also successfully used for sugarcane condition
assessment and area identification.
In conclusion it may be said that there is a need for consistent, timely and reliable information
sources to facilitate analysis of crop vegetation pattern. Remotely sensed spectral measurements
of reflected solar radiation may contribute such an information source. Areas of consistently
healthy and vigorous crop would appear uniformly bright. Stressed vegetation would appear
dark amongst the brighter, healthier crop areas. If the data is geo referenced, with the help of
GPS (global positioning system) early detection of crop stress is possible by matching the
coordinates of the location to that on the image. Finally, it may be concluded that using this
9
approach and technique it is quite possible to improve productivity and reduces costs of farm
input and minimizes environmental impacts.
Figure 6: NDVI image (Derived from IRS LISS II, Band 4, 3)

Floodplain area of Charghat Thana
Padma River
Figure 7: Classified image (According to NDVI value of Band 4 and 3)

10
Figure 8: Sugarcane area distribution (extract from classified image)

Padma River
Figure 9: Crop condition-sugarcane (Classified from NDVI value of Band 4, 3)

11
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12
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
KNOWLEDGE BASED SPATIAL EXPERT SUPPORT SYSTEM IN

IDENTIFYING SUITABLE SITES FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN
DEHRADUN CITY, INDIA
Md. Mujibor Rahman1 and Dr. A. P. Subudhi2

1
Lecturer, Environmental Science Discipline, Khulna University
2
Scientist, Human Settlements Analysis Group, (NRSA), Department of Space, Government of India
Dehradun 248001, U. P. India.
ABSTRACT
Optimum utilization of land leads to the survival and progress of human beings followed by
sustainable development of their living space and surrounding region. Therefore, before taking any
decision to make use of the land it needs careful examination of the land in respect of its suitability
for the intended purpose. Knowledge-based site suitability analysis is a prerequisite domain of
inquiry that can facilitate the process of decision making as to the suitability of the land for its
optimum use. The present study is designed to carry out a knowledge-based expert support system
in identifying suitable sites for urban development in Dehradun City, India. The central assumption
is that a location’s natural environmental characteristics that can render the site inherently more
suitable for some land uses than for others. It is also assumed that it is possible to interpret
environmental data to determine such suitability based on specific environment and other
objectives, standards and designed principles. Remote Sensing (RS) data in conjunction with survey
of India Topographic Maps and ancillary data have been used for the analysis. Geographic
Information System (GIS) based integrated Spatial Expert Support System (SESS) techniques,
which are now a days increasingly being put into use for virtually all-environmental analysis, have
been employed at different stages of this study.
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, GIS, decision support system, expert support system and MCDM.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of suitability analysis is to delineate the relative suitability of each location in the
planning jurisdiction for various types of urban development and subsequent urban activities
based on the environmental implications of their occurrence in conjunction with the
environmental characteristics existing at the location. The central assumption is that a location’s
natural environmental characteristics render the site inherently more suitable for some land use
than for others. It is also assumed that it is possible to interpret environmental data to determine
such suitability based on specific environment and other objectives, standards and design
principles. The results of a suitability analysis are expressed in a set of maps showing the
13
Knowledge Based Spatial Expert Support System in identifying Suitable Sites For Urban Development In Dehradun City,
India
suitability of each location for one or more land uses and based on one or more environmental
considerations.
The present study is designed to carry out a site suitability analysis for urban development in
Dehradun city, India. It is well known that optimum utilization of land by human being leads to
his survival, progress and sustainable development of his region. Keeping in view all these facts,
it is contemplated to make use of remote sensing and a GIS technique, which is, now a day,
increasingly put into use for virtually all-environmental analysis. Suitability analysis is the
process of understanding existing site qualities and factors that will determine to locate
particular area (Robert, G.R. et.al. 1975). The purpose of selecting potential areas for urban
development depends upon the relationship of different factors like, location for available sites,
extent of the area and site associated factors, etc. The analysis is aimed to justify how these
factors will fit into the design process to evaluate site suitability. Spatial decision problems
pertaining to site suitability analysis for urban development also falls within the category of
semi-structured (Krishnamoorty, C. and Rajeev, S 1996). Multi criteria spatial decision support
system (MC-SDSS) and spatial expert support system (SESS) both have been utilized in the
decision making process. Though the fundamental goal of SDSS and SSES is basically the same,
their underlying philosophies and objectives are quite different. The key difference is that the
objective of SDSS is to support decision-making rather than to replace decision maker, while
SSES focuses on providing a recommendation to the user based on expert knowledge or in other
words replicate an expert or replace a decision maker.
STUDY AREA
Dehradun is the capital city of the hilly region of Uttranchal in India. It is well connected by
railway and road transport. Ambala - Mussoorie SH No.55 passes through the town. It is the
terminus of northern railway. The study area is a part of Doon valley. The area is bounded by
30° 15’ N to 30° 24’N Latitude and 77° 55’ E to 78° 10’ E Longitude. The river Song surrounds
the city on the east and sal forest in the south. Mussoorie, queen of hills, overlooks in the north.
The study area is included in survey of India toposheet no 53J3 and 53J15 [Figure 1 (A) & (B)].
Uttaranchal
Figure 1(A): Location map of the study area.
14
Dehradun City & Its Environment
Figure 1(A): Location map of the study area.
OBJECTIVE
The prime objective of the study is “Knowledge Based Spatial Expert Support System in
identifying Suitable Sites for Urban Development in Dehradun City”. The detailed objective is:
To develop and design knowledge based spatial decision model to identify suitable sites for urban
development in Dehradun City using Remote Sensing and GIS.
DATA USED
The following IRS 1D LISS-III and PAN data have been used for the preparation of thematic
maps related to site suitability analysis:
(i) IRS 1D LISS-III, 1:50,000 scale, March 15, 1999 and PAN data January 21, 2001;
(ii) Survey of India topographic maps on 1:50,000 scale, 1988 sheet 53J/3 & 53J/15; and
(iii) Guide map 1:50,000, 1990.
METHODOLOGY
The ultimate aim of Geographical Information System (GIS) is to support spatial decision-
making. Spatial decision-making process has been structured into three major phases:
Intelligence, design, and choice (Figure 2). Intelligence phase refers to the recognition of
decision problem. It is a gap between desired and existing states or an opportunity for change
(Leondes T.C. 2000). During this phase raw data are obtained and processed to convert the real
world decision situation into GIS database and consequently examined for clues that may
identify opportunities or problems. It is argued that adequate support for intelligence phase of
decision-making is provided by current GIS systems.
15
India
Is there a problem or an
Intelligence opportunity for change?
Design What are the alternatives?
Choice Which alternative is best?
Figure 2: Three phases of decision-making process.
The design phase involves inventing, developing and analyzing a set of possible solutions
(alternative courses of action) to identify in the intelligence phase. Typically, a formal model
representing the abstraction of reality is used to support a decision maker in determining the set
of alternatives (Saini, N.S 1987). The generation of alternative decisions is purely a part of the
design stage and the evaluation of alternatives is mainly the part of choice phase. The choice
phase is how many people are involved in making a decision. It involves selecting a particular
course of action (alternative) from those available. At this phase each alternative is evaluated
and analyzed in relation to others in terms of a specified decision rule. The overall methodology
flow chart is given below (Figure 3).
16
Remote Sensing data Collateral data
IRS LISS III +PAN

SOI maps
Contour
Hydro-morphological
Flood Hazard
Ground water
Land use
Road
Soil
Contour
potential
DEM
Road buffer
Slope
Slope Aspect
Generation of thematic map
Preparation of suitability unit map
Comprehensive assessment and expert evaluation of class for site suitability
Labeling the class Calculation of each class areas
Site suitability map with expert classes
Figure 3: Overall methodology of the study.
Expert classification shell has now been incorporated in the ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 and this
expert classifier has been used to the suitable sites for urban development in this study. The
framework for spatial multi criteria decision analysis has been treated as an expert classifier. The
framework for spatial multi-criteria decision analysis flow chart is given in Figure 4.
17
India
Problem Definition
Intelligence
Evaluation Criteria Constraints
Decision Matrix Alternatives
Decision maker’s preference

Decision rules Design Phase
(MCDM)
Sensitivity Analysis
Choice phase
Recommendation MCDM / GIS
Figure 4: The framework for spatial multi-criteria decision analysis.
Database Creation
One of the major capabilities of a GIS is that data can be analyzed separately and also different
types of data can be integrated. The spatial data refers to data obtained from Remote Sensing
data with land use, roads etc, and attribute data consist of numericals. GIS can carry multiple
data sets merging operation and evaluate relationship among chosen element of data in the
different layers of data sets under consideration.
Thematic maps such as land use, contour, soil, flood hazard and hydromorphological were
digitized, edited, polygonized, rasterized and brought to a common georeference system to suit
as an input variable for GIS analysis. The slope map has been derived from the Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) prepared by interpolation of contours and spot height map. Transportation
network has been taken from Survey of India (SOI) map and updated from the base map and
then the road buffers were generated by the distance calculation in GIS environment. This whole
process has given an output of digital database using ERDAS IMAGINE 8.4 GIS software used
for the study.
18
Data Analysis
The different land qualities considered for developing site suitability units in the study are land
use/land cover percent of slope and transport network. The thematic maps were prepared on
1:50,000 scale using IRS 1D LISS-III and PAN data in conjunction with collateral data and
limited field checks. The details of these observations are as follows:
Slope
It is very important for decision-making process in the distribution of land use categories to have
the vertical and near vertical bands, very steep, moderately and gently steep sloping land. The
angles of slope have direct implication for development. Description of slope analysis of the
study area would give guidance on the link between angle of slope and development potential.
The angles of slope are important in relation to a particular site planning for development
purposes. In the study area, slope is prominent due to its physiographic nature (Himalayan hill
range).
Soil
The study of soil is very important because it gives us a lot of relevant information. Soil is
relevant to many important activities, not only in the field of agriculture, forest and vegetation
but also in the field of urban planning. Everything created for human life is rooted in the soil. So,
urban development planners must be concerned about soil study, because everybody wants
availability and suitability of local materials for construction. For this purpose, interpretation of
soil units has been done to get information about Physiographic unit, soil depth, soil erosion and
soil texture. The soil depth, soil texture and soil erosion data have been shown in Table 1, 2 and
3.
Table 1: Soil Depth Category
Sl. No. Category Area (ha.) Area (%)
1 Very Deep ( > 150 cm) 35694.872 82.637
2 Deep (100 – 150 cm) 3627.805 8.398
3 Moderately Deep ( 50- 150 cm) 1108.340 2.565
4 River 2763.649 6.398
Table 2: Soil Texture Category
1 Loamy skeletal/Fine loamy (60% - 40%) 22483.798 52.050
2 Fine Loamy (100%) 4783.459 11.073
3 Fine Loamy / Coarse (60% - 40%) 13028.395 30.160
4 Coarse loamy / Loamy skeletal (60%-40) 121.402 0.281
5 River 2779.146 6.434
Table 3: Soil Erosion Category

1 Severe Erosion 5981.750 13.847
2 Severe to Moderate 13290.300 30.767
3 Slightly Eroded 2285.022 5.289
4 Unaffected 17402.081 40.286
5 River 2779.144 6.434
6 Unclassified 1457.900 3.375
19
India
Hydromorphogeology
Hydromorphogeologically, the structured/denudational hills of siwaliks and lower Himalayan
are forming rugged topography where the soil formation is poor to very poor. Rainfall goes off
as runoff. Temporary storage in the form of slope materials retention and in joints/fracture
appears as seasonal springs down slope. Older Doon Gravels comprise of big boulders of
quartzite, sandstone and gravels embedded in soil, silt and sand alternated by reddish clay,
forming isolated hillocks, supporting good forest growth and can hold some amount of
precipitation which comes out as seasonal springs. Run off occurs form such hillocks. However,
older Doon Gravels below valley are good acquirers. Younger Doon fan gravels constitute large
area in the doon valley. The sub recent terrace zone comprises of poorly stratified boulder,
pebble, silt and clay. Flood plain and channel bed of Asan and Song rivers have shallow water
level, insignificant draw down with good discharge. The hydromorphological characteristics are
shown in Table 4.
Table 4: Hydromorphogeolpogical category
1 Doon Fan Gravels 6599.524 15.291
2 Middle Doon Gravels 17188.438 39.826
3 Middle Shivaliks 1079.568 2.501
4 Older Doon Gravels 3075.190 7.125
5 Pre – tertiary Denudational Hills 7797.748 18.067
6 River 2884.245 6.682
7 Sub Recent Fab Terrace 3944.882 9.140
8 Upper Shivaliks 588.623 1.363
Ground water
Ground water is an important resource for urban existence and growth. In Dehradun city,
growing population and desires for improved quality of life are placing demands on water
resource. For understanding ground water aspects of the study area, the hydrological
characteristics are shown in Table 5.
Table 5: Ground water category

Sl. No. Category Area Area (%)
1 Very Good 3701.812 8.577
2 Very Good to Moderate 24031.032 55.681
3 Moderate 3075.190 7.125
4 Poor 9465.946 21.933
5 River 2884.245 6.684
Flood hazard
Planning for any kind of urban development purpose flood prone area to be identified and
excluded to get rid of damages to building and human lives. We are living in an age of growing
sensitivity to environmental hazards. Natural hazards still constitute the biggest threat to the
economy and life. As India had experienced Earth Quake even in 2000, it is impossible to avoid
risks of any hazard. Flood hazards are also hardly new to many countries in the world. In India,
as it rains too much in rainy season, large parts suffer from huge damages due to floods. Thus
20
urban planners should be concerned about flood hazard specially. The present study considered
only flood hazard among a lot of hazards for development planning of the study area. The flood
hazard aspects are shown in Table 6.
Table 6: Flood hazard Category

1 No Flood 288.255 5.687
2 Very Low Flood 1065.728 26.556
3 Low Flood 2405.408 59.939
4 High Flood 54.087 1.347
5 Channel Bar 1.403 0.035
6 River 258.192 6.434
Accessibility
Road network is one of the important parameters in the identification of areas for potential urban
development as it provides linkages between the existing settlements. The roads in the study area
have been classified into two types viz. major roads and minor roads. Major roads are Rajpur,
Saharanpur, Haridwar and Mussooire roads. Minor roads are also metalled and link villages with
major roads. Buffer zones of 200m, 500m, 1000m and 2000m on either side of these roads have
been generated. The area lying between 1000m distance on both sides of the road network is
ranked high value for development and consequently the area lying between 2000m and behind
2000m and above is ranked low value for development.
Land use/Land cover

Information on land use and land cover pattern, especially the extent and spatial distribution, is a
prerequisite for the site suitability for urban development. The land use/land cover information
helps in the formulation of policies and programs for urban development. Therefore, an attempt
has been made to adopt a suitable land use/land cover classification system for use with
available data. The land use map has been prepared by using the supervised classification
techniques preceded by Digital Image Processing techniques. The spectral signatures for
supervised classification have been considered based on ground truth information and from
expertise available. One signature file has been generated based on these spectral signatures.
Maximum likelihood parameters decision rule has been used to prepare the land use map. The
maximum likelihood decision rule is based on the probability that a pixel belong to a particular
class. The basic equation assumes that these probabilities are equal for all classes and that the
input bands have distributed normal. The land use/land cover showing the spatial distribution of
the different classes has been presented in table 7.
Table 7: Areas under Different Land use Classification

S.l No Land use category Area (ha.) Percentage
1 Planned Residential 2551.772 6.530
2 Unplanned Residential 2535.492 6.488
3 Slum 23.960 0.061
4 Village 1298.048 3.321
5 Institutional 828.596 2.120
6 Other Built up 356.492 0.912
21
India
S.l No Land use category Area (ha.) Percentage

7 Forest / Plantation 16294.010 41.699
8 Tea Garden 147.362 0.377
9 Vacant / Barren Land 2848.106 7.288
10 Recreation / Play Ground / Park 15.214 0.064
11 Water Body / River / Nala 1488.623 3.809
12 Agricultural Land 10227.167 26.173
13 Restricted 211.406 0.541
14 Others 238.311 0.609
ANALYSIS
To fulfill the objectives of the present study, a suitable methodology has been followed and a
data set has been created equally compatible to the methodology. It involves a sequence of
activities that starts with decision problem recognition and ends with recommendations. It is
argued that quality of decision-making depends on sequence in which the activities are
undertaken. Decision-making process is composed of three major phases:
a) Intelligence phase
b) Design phase
c) Choice phase
As such methodology of the present study of spatial decision-making process of suitable sites for
urban development is discussed according to the three-phase decision making process.
Intelligence Phase
Intelligence phase involves searching or scanning the decision environment for conditions
calling for decisions. The data acquisition, storage, retrieval and management functions convert
the real world situation into GIS database during this phase. This involves assumptions or views
of the world underlying a particular decision problem. The assumptions are concerned with the
following questions, which of the real world entities should be observed, selected, filtered,
classified and recorded as data items and which items are relevant to subsequent spatial decision
problem? Coordination must be given to the usefulness, accuracy, reliability and flexibility of
data. Once spatial decisions are identified, the data can be manipulated and analyzed to obtain
information about the decision problem in hand. With this view in mind, various thematic maps
have been prepared for their integration in Geographic Information System (GIS) database.
Design Phase
This phase involves inventing and analyzing a set of possible solutions to problem identified in
the intelligence phase. Here, in case of site suitability analysis for urban development. What are
the spatial decisions criteria or decision rules we have to consider in locating those suitable
sites? So design phase represents the decision situation by structuring and formalizing the
available data and information about the decision problem. Spatial decision alternatives are
derived by manipulation and analysis of the data and information stored in GIS. As the ultimate
22
23
Others (planned Built up Slums Agricultural Vacant / Barren Land Use
residential, (village,
institutional, forest unplanned
/ plantation, water residential
bodies, restricted)
Decision Phase
Others Less suitable Moderately Suitable Very Suitable Soil Rating
Suitable
Very shallow Shallow Moderate Deep Very deep Soil Depth

software used in this present study.
Outer CL / LS FL / CL (60%/40%) FL (100%) LK / FL Soil Texture

August 1996) Guidelines in Table 8.
(60%/40%) (60%/40%)
Outer Poor Moderate Very Good to Very Good Ground Water

Moderate
Outer High flood Low flood Very low flood No Flood Flood Hazard
Very steep Steep Moderate Gentle Very gentle Slope
Outer 2000 m buffer 1000 m buffer 500 m buffer 200 m buffer Road Buffer
Table: 8: Decision Rules for Site Suitability for Urban Development
Unclassified Slightly eroded Severe erosion Unaffected Severe to Soil Erosion

Moderate
Others Sub recent fab Older doon gravels Doon fan gravels Middle doon Hydromorpho-
terrace gravels geology
Unsuitable Less Suitable Moderately Suitable Suitable Very Suitable Suitability Class
Decision rules for locating suitable sites for urban development has been prepared based on
aim is to use Spatial Expert Support System (SESS) for the purpose of decision making, it will
expert knowledge and Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI,
be better to look into available guidelines and expert opinion at this design phase which will help
us in creating rule – based decision trees or knowledge base in Expert Classifier shell of the
India
Building of knowledge base

In a spatial expert support system knowledge base is created by knowledge engineer who has the
ability to store expert knowledge in a form suitable for entry into the system. In this study,
knowledge has been created in a hierarchical form and decision trees are used for the purpose. A
decision tree is a hierarchical data structure consisting of nodes, which stores information or
knowledge and branches, which connect the nodes. In this study, decision trees consist of
hypothesis, rules and variables. A hypothesis typically consists of different rules and/or sub-
hypothesis whereas rules and sub hypothesis in turn is defined by variables in the decision trees
so that inference engine can draw conclusion(s) based on information or knowledge stores in the
system by this said manner.
Choice phase
In a decision process, at this phase, each alternative is evaluated and analyzed in relation to
others in terms of specific decision rule. The rule is used to rank the alternatives under
consideration. The ranking depends upon decision maker’s preference. In general, GIS does not
provide a mechanism for representing choice and priority in the context of evaluating conflicting
criteria and objectives. Under these circumstances, the ultimate success of GIS in decision
making depends on how well the system can succeed as a spatial decision support system or
spatial expert support system in the decision making process.
In this study, spatial expert support system is to support decision-making based on expert
knowledge stored in the system as a knowledge base to eliminate the tedious job of evaluating
different alternatives and ranking them according to the decision makers’ preference. In other
words the present study is aimed to replace a decision maker by replicating an expert in the
process of identifying suitable sites for urban development (Figure 5, see Appendix 1).
CONCLUSION
In fact, many other parameters are required for this study. But the most important parameters
have been taken into consideration. The study illustrates the importance of GIS technology in the
present days. GIS technology, as an information tool, has helped in the acquisition of recent land
use information studies aimed at solving environmental problems. Information on different
aspects for this study like land use, road, and slope, etc., has been derived using this technique.
Further integrating this data using GIS has helped in the analysis of the study, which would have
otherwise been difficult to do manually using the conventional method. The process is not only
faster but can be monitored effectively in any eventuality. To plan for the development of hilly
region is a difficult task, due to the physical conditions of the area, which put forward many
limitations. Maximum effort has to be made for proper planning in order to get maximum benefit
to reach the target. GIS tools can be used to find out the best solution to the environment and in
the management of the planning process.
24
REFERENCES
Burrough, P.A, 2001 Principles of Geographical Information System, Claressdon Press, Oxford.
Krishnamoorty, C.S. and Rajeev. S., 1996, Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems for Engineers, CRS
press, New York.
Leondes, T.C., 2000, Knowledge Based System; Techniques and Application, Academic press, New York.
Mishra, D. and Mohanty, P.R., 1995, Site Suitability Modeling using RS and GIS for Urban Expansion in
Bhubneshwar City, India., In:Proceeding of ISRS Symposium 1995, India.
Robert, G.R. et.at., 1975, Urban Environment’s Inventory of Analysis. Manual of Remote Sensing, Vol.1,
American Society of Photogrammetry.
Saini, N.S., 1987, Urban and Regional Planning Information System for India/ other ESCAP countries,
New Delhi, India.
Singh, B.M and Roy A K, 1989, Remote Sensing for Integrated Survey of Urban Environment, Journal of
Indian Society of Remote Sensing, India, Vol. 17 No.3, pp.109-114.
GoI, 1996, Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) Guidelines, August 1996,
Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, Govt. of India (GoI), New Delhi, India.
Appendix 1
Figure 5: Suitable sites for urban development in Dehradun City.
25
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
A STUDY ON THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL

INFORMATION SYSTEM IN URBAN PLANNING IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
Md. Ahsanul Kabir

Assistant Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University
ABSTRACT
In the face of the challenges of environmental degradation and information need urban planning can
only survive and make progresses with the support of powerful computer systems for handling
spatial data as well as human knowledge. Rapid Population growth against a weak economic
situation results in a deteriorating urban environment affecting the living conditions in the Third
World cities. This paper provides an overview of issues and considerations for implementing
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to support urban management and planning activities in
developing countries. In the course of discussion on the present status of GIS in planning this paper
also focuses on the strategies for its successful application.
INTRODUCTION
The development of computer and information technology, and its successful application in
every sector of society today, is well known and most is impressive (Holmberg, 1994 and
Kolsterman, 1994). Like all other professionals, physical planners also need to rely on
computerized systems to make their tasks efficient and more effective. As physical planning
deals with the spatial aspects of the earth's surface, it needs an information system (IS) capable
of dealing with spatial phenomena, The particular branch of information technology (IT) that
serves -the planning profession is called Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which can be
defined as a spatial information system enable to store, manipulate, analyze and display spatially
related information. In other words, GIS is a set of tools that allow computers to represent spatial
phenomena and analyze spatially related data (Dueker, 1987). The collection, organization,
analysis and dissemination of this information, also referred to as "Planning intelligence", is one
of the major and most time consuming stage of planning functions. GlSs are characterized by
their capacity to deal with huge amount of, both spatial and attribute data. Thus the planning
community has welcomed recent technological advances, in particular the increased availability
and development of GIS.
Development of GIS expedited in the early 1990s, when many innovations from computer-based
information technology, cartography, database management and many others entered into the
co-ordination phase with it. The strengths and weaknesses of many information technologies
26
were by then apparent, and researchers began to work together -to cultivate the most promising
applications on a large scale.
In the context of these innovations, geographic information systems have served an important
role as an integrating technology. Rather than being completely new, GIS has evolved by linking
a number of discrete technologies into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. GIS have
emerged as very powerful technologies because they allow planners to integrate their data and
methods in ways that support traditional forms of' geographical analysis, such as map overlay
analysis as well as new types of analysis and modeling that are beyond the capability of manual
methods. With GIS it is possible to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data all
held together within a single database.
Though GIS was first developed in the late 60's (Yeh, 1991), very few -organizations could
install them because of the expensive hardware and software requirements. With the competitive
decrease in hardware and software prices and particularly the development in the speed of
computers and advances in algorithms, they are now more affordable, efficient and effective,
especially for planning functions. In the early stages of inception and for a long period
afterwards GIS was not used for the actual planning decision-making, except some managerial
purposes. But they have been proven as a useful and efficient planning tool in the 90's. Recently,
there has been a marked increase in the installation of GIS in the different levels of urban and
regional planning operations, which justifies the popularity and development of this technology.
GIS technology is attracting a great deal of interest in both the industrialized and developing
worlds. Rapid development seems to provide a new and exciting technology that will quickly
remove many of the problems inherent in conventional methods of spatial analysis and decision
making. However, it must be remembered that new technologies always bring new problems and
rarely live up to expectations. It has been influentially argued that the increased reliance on
technology promotes instrumental reasoning (Sheppard, 1995). This raises the question about the
influence of GIS on ways of knowing and thinking about the world.
GIS IN URBAN PLANNING

Many of the planning activities are administrative or management-based, for example, recording,
processing, and acting on applications for planning permission (permit processing). In developed
countries most management-oriented information such as school enrolment, deaths, births and
marriage records, real estate transactions, license etc. are installed in the computer systems
(Harri I s, 1989). Through the utilization of GIS technology, it is increasingly possible to relate
these data with spatial information like land parcels. It can be located in space, on a map and
spatial analysis can be performed.
The full spectrum of a planner's activities includes negotiation, bargaining, giving explanations
of decisions and proposals about planning rules, recommending permission for development,
and above all planning the future to reduce problems (Harris, 1989). All these planning activities
need to deal with a large amount of data and their related maps, charts and reports. Until
relatively recently, however, most of these data (about the planning of related spatial
27
A Study on the Successful Application of Geographical Information System in Urban Planning in Developing Countries
distributions) were kept in the form of paper documents and maps from which they could be read
off easily. But only with difficulty could they be used to analyze the pattern of distribution of
attributes over the earth's surface and the processes that had given rise to them. The
developments both in computer technology and mathematical tools for spatial analysis have
made many things possible, among them the ability to store, retrieve at will, (either singly or in
combination), and display data about all aspects of the earth's surface are most important for GIS
development (Huxhold and Levinsohn, 1995). Each of these represents important advances in
GIS technology.
Physical planning is much concerned with the spatial structure and organization of a
geographical region. Plans are produced in order to resolve existing spatial problems and to
establish a development direction for the future. The purpose of these plans is to restructure the
spatial allocation of factors, like housing, employment, community services (e.g. hospitals and
schools), tourist services, shopping centers, and public transport that determine the prosperity
and well-being of a locality. Most of these factors are inter-related and locational change in one
affects the others (Schuur and Erkel, 1991). For example, location of residential facilities will be
influenced by nodes of employment. Thus spatial distributions of different factors have to be
compatible. More complexity is introduced when the spatial arrangement of demand and supply
changes over time, due to social and economic dynamics. One un-predicted change in location
can affect the other locations. Consequently, the whole plan may need to be updated. For
example, if a location for a residential area development is shifted to a different area, the planned
location for schools, community facilities etc. will need to move accordingly. This would affect
the whole development pattern towards a different direction. This is a very common scenario in
spatial planning decisions. Thus, planning organizations responsible for urban phenomena
require an information system, which is able to provide different 'what-if scenarios in responses
to different situations. GIS have the capability to support urban planning related functions
extensively. A careful selection of GIS with appropriate data-sets can lead to a sound plan.
PRESENT USE OF GIS IN URBAN PLANNING

Information, particularly spatially-related information and the tools for information management
and analysis, has been recognized as an integral part of policy-making -and decision-making
both in the government and the private sectors (Worrall, 1991). A good many GIS researchers
and academics have argued that at present GIS have not been utilized in urban and regional
planning to their full potential. Only a part of their capacity has been realized. In general, they
are applied to reduce costs, improve quality, speed up work, increase computational efficiency
and to get better output quality. The present use of GIS in planning and management is limited
only to functions such as suitable site selection, urban infrastructure and tax management etc.
But still GIS has many more functions to offer to urban planning applications.
Uses of GIS for urban areas will vary between (and even within) countries because of legal,
fiscal and administrative differences. It is argued by Worrall (1991) that more than 80% of the
information used for policy making at local government level in UK is spatially referenced, but
a. survey (Hirst, 1997) on the local government planning authorities reveals that 67.4% of local
government in Great Britain have bought GIS software and a further 14.2% will do soon.
28
However, in terms of functionality the vast majority of local authorities (more than 90%) is
using GIS for the simple tasks of map management and map production. Analysis, the major
function of GIS, is not being performed to any significant degree.
There is a general increase in the number of papers on different planning issues presented in GIS
conferences, and journals (Yeh, 1994). There is also a marked increase in the development of
new software, DSS (Decision Support Systems) and expert systems for urban planning and
management. These developments imply that urban planning and related fields are becoming a
major field of interest for the contemporary GlS researchers.
WHAT CAN GIS OFFER TO URBAN PLANNING?

The introduction of GIS and related technology to the planning sphere can provide a broader
empirical function and greater design flexibility. Proper use of automation tools like GIS might
improve plan quality considerably (Schuur and Erkel, 1991 and Janssens, 1991). A true GIS will
connect the map representation of a city or other jurisdiction with a database consisting of the
individual or aggregated observations about the land or the human activities on it. More
advanced techniques and large data input have added to the analytical power through the use of
GIS and complex models within ft.
A GIS is not essential for a good plan (Klosterman, 1994) but it provides the planner with the
capacity to map (or at least to locate) land - parcels and to follow events in the development
process efficiently. GIS themselves do not only provide facilities to pursue the process quickly,
efficiently and accurately but also that information can be organized and displayed
geographically, using charts and maps, The same data can be presented in a different way in GIS
(chloropleth, dot maps). Furthermore, a GIS also allows planners to derive new information by
integrating spatial and non-spatial information. With a GIS, planners can also question the urban
database using criteria and display the results on a map, and then study the spatial distribution of
the selected data records and attributes.
Traditionally, information for urban planning and management is collected by field survey and
stored on hand-written documents, making subsequent retrieval very difficult. Any informational
inquiry may take weeks, months or even years rather than minutes or hours, making the day to
day planning activities of planners difficult. This problem can readily be overcome by the
integration of geographic databases with the organizing capabilities of GIS. The major
advantage of GIS when compared with traditional and non-computerized database management
procedures is the remarkable speed with which GIS are able to search through large volumes of
data and generate output that matches user-defined criteria (Seong, 1994).
The great appeal of GIS stems from their ability to integrate a large quantity of information
about an urban area and to provide a powerful repertoire of analytical tools to explore problems.
Hundreds of map layers having different urban information on transportation network, land-use,
population characteristics, hydrographic, economical activities, political jurisdictions and many
others from natural and social environments can be brought together (Figure 1). The ability to
29
separate information in layers, and then combine it with other layers of information is the reason
why GIS hold such great potential as research and decision-making tools.
Figure 1: A general concept to store different map layers in a GIS

(Source: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/notes/intro/intro.html#Many)
Each of these separate thematic maps is referred to as a layers, coverage, or level (depending on
the software). All these map layers can be connected with different database and can be
combined with any combination with other maps of the same area (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Concept of Layers in GIS database for Figure 3: Concept of ‘Map Algebra’ for different
the same area. map layers.
(Source:http:\\www.utexas.edu/depts\grg\gcraft\notes\int (Source:http:\\www.utexas.edu/depts\grg\gcraft\notes\in
ro.html#Many) tro.html#Many)
GIS offers a means, of searching for spatial patterns and processes. All the analyses do not need
all the layers simultaneously. In some cases, a planner might need to use the selective
information to consider relationship between specific layers. Furthermore, information from two
or more layers can be combined and then transformed into a new layer for use in subsequent
analysis. This process of combining and transforming information from different layers is called
30
"map algebra" (Figure 3) (Foote and Lynch, 1996). It involves operations for adding, subtracting
and manipulating information.
GIS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Though GIS have been widely used by planners and decision-makers in developed countries,
their use is limited and still at an early stage of development. The major constraint in the use of
GIS in the third world is not so much the technology itself as to questions of data availability,
leadership, organizational structure and planning practice (Yeh, 1991).
There is a question about how well planners and urban managers in poor countries can use GIS
to solve urban planning problems. It has been urged that the quality of urban planning in the
Third World has not kept pace with the development of GIS (Yeh, 1991Y. Planners' skills and
planning systems may not be ready to use GIS information or to integrate GIS based spatial
analysis techniques with other planning techniques. Much effort has been spent on data
collection and database development (UNCRD, 1992 in Seong, 1994). However, very little
effort has been directed towards transforming data into information for use in planning decisions
and the full benefit and potential of GIS is not quite appreciated (Worrall, 1990). Thus it is
important to extend the existing GIS functions into current planning models for integrated day to
day planning.
It is sometimes held that introduction of computers will mechanize many clerical jobs and create
unemployment among trained people. The point has enough strength with respect to developing
nations, but it is important to realize that computer based information systems will be an aid to
training and education in the short run, while in the long run it will raise the technical level of
economy and create a demand for more skilled people.
Lack of suitable GIS and associated models caused the limited use of urban application in the
developing countries. This problem concerns the reason that most of the GIS and its models for
planning applications are developed with commercial objectives of having good benefits. So,
they prefer developed world for that. Thus, there is very little research on the development of
GIS and models for the Third World as they are not good markets for the model builder. The
planner and the researcher from the Third World have to come up with their own problem
solving modeling techniques, which can be compatible with the present GIS.
The future of GIS in developing nations is paradoxical. The technology clearly exists for
increasing the ability of planning agencies to store, analyze and disseminate information on land
resource in an efficient and timely manner. But the implementation of this technology is not
constrained by technical problems but by social, economical, and political factors (Fox, 1991).
CONSTRAINTS IN PRESENT GIS

GIS has proved to be a major boon in urban and regional planning (Parrott and Stutz, 1991),
however, it is necessary to consider their limitations. Only a few GIS have the capacity to deploy
the models and explore some of the deeper implications and in most cases only a part of their
31
abilities are excessively narrow and fail to utilize the potential of the technology fully. This is
because of a shortage of good and generally accepted concepts and definitions and a lack of
awareness of the technical systems. Another shortcoming is that planners and decision-makers
generally operate at a certain distance from the development of the software and system they
utilize. In general, they are in the position of "passive technology consumers" with no effective
influence on the technical development process (Holmberg, 1994). This results in a distance
between the software or systems developed and the end user planners.
Lack of data is a major hindrance to the use of GIS in developing countries. In general, planners
collect inadequate amounts of socio-economic data at a local or urban level. They depend on the
census, which is not capable of providing recent information. Moreover, accuracy of census is
under a big question mark in some circumstances. Very often the data they collect is inconsistent
and unsystematic with respect to the time frame, geographic coverage and definition (Seong,
1994). The present developments in the remote sensing field could minimize the lack of
topographic information but insufficient quality and quantity of -socio-economic information is
still a major limitation. In developing countries, the difficulty in collecting accurate and current
socio-economic information is compounded by the existence of a large "informal sector". They
resist the collection of more reliable information in the fear that it will be used against them
(Klosterman, 1995). It can also be extremely difficult to access official data. These obstacles are
particularly severe in the developing countries, where it is sometimes impossible to acquire the
vast quantities of digital information that are readily available in the developed world
(Klosterman, 1994). Some countries restrict access to information related to land-use, land
prices, land ownership, financial, commercial, and trade topics.
The quality of available data is another essential issue of GIS. A GIS can generate accurate
information only if its database is built on accurate data to begin with. If supplied with
incomplete or inaccurate data even sophisticated GIS techniques will only yield a high-tech and
expensive spatial version of “garbage in, garbage out" (Klosterman, 1994 and Seong, 1994).
Budget constraint and bureaucratic red tape often make it difficult for government to provide
attractive opportunities for working with the latest hardware and software.
At the local level, knowledge about GIS implementation and its impact on planning activities is
limited (Budic, 1994). This problem is acute in developing countries, where typically the number
of experts available is both limited and often concentrated in the large cities only. Moreover,
rigidities in the promotion systems, low salary level also make them frustrated. In most cases
developing nations hire foreign experts in GIS from the developed world to perform the main
operations. In general, there are no options for staff training. Together these are the main
obstacles to the transfer of technology from 'north to south'.
Many difficult technical problems arise in designing a GIS, particularly in relating different
databases (Harris 1989). The problems might come from the operating system itself, for example
UNIX and DOS based databases are not always compatible to each other. Similarly, different
departments might have their own data sets in different formats. Many of these are incompatible
(Logan and Bryant, 1987). For example, census data and cadastral data use different identifier
numbers as their building blocks.
32
Many of these are limitations of the application criteria. The GIS itself has very little to do with
it. The major criticisms of GIS very often relate to its limited analysis capabilities. For example,
current GIS do not support the kinds of models necessary to make reasonable judgment about
demographic and economic trends, to project land-use patterns or transportation system
demands, or to assess the impacts of future infrastructure decisions. Planners' failure to use
computers for core planning functions results in part from the lack of computer software
designed for planning analysis, plan preparation, and evaluation (Klosterman, 1994). The
available standard analytical functionality is insufficient for planning applications that deal with
-the inter-relationships and interactions between people and their environments (Bruijn, Amer.
and Dougall, 1996)
Even though GIS software and hardware may be inexpensive, GIS implementation is usually
very costly. Activities such as system design, staffing, database development and maintenance
can consume over 80 percent of the total cost (Guptil, 1989). Database development consumes a
major portion of the budget. But if we compare the output quality against the expenses incurred
then it could be revealed as being cost effective. Moreover, most of this cost involvement is only
for the first time; - after that the same data set can be used in the different applications in several
years without the expense of data preparation, other than the need to update the database to
reflect changes in reality.
GIS has been recognized as a useful tool for urban planning, but at the same time there are
several obstacles that have prevented them from gaining wide-scale acceptance within the
planning profession to-date. Many of these obstacles are related to the current limitations of GIS
to fulfill its potential as a spatial decision support system and to become an integrated part of the
management and data processing systems within government, but the solution may partly be
outside GIS, and political motivation is essential.
OUTLINE OF A SUCCESSFUL GIS FOR URBAN PLANNING

Successful implementation of GIS will depend much on the clear understanding of the functions
and needs of planning that are translated into system applications. The effective introduction of
GIS in planning greatly depends on organizational and institutional arrangements, political and
top management support and commitment, and the necessary technical and managerial skills and
resources. There is a need to organize GIS to meet the needs of urban and regional planning.
A planner has to have an effective computer based planning system, which will provide scope
and support for the exploration of diverse and imaginative approaches (Hahs, 1989). A properly
designed GIS with mapping and display capabilities must be at the heart of the system. In this
respect selection of software is an important issue. The planner must need to carefully balance
resources against expected use. If the planner only wants to do thematic mapping then discrete
system like for example, CAD is appropriate. Expensive GIS with topological intelligence can
be avoided.
GIS must have the capability to rearrange data in systematic ways so as to project the nature of
plans, and must be able to- make -use of the data in a related administrative system 'without
33
compromising its integrity. The planning system must also be fully integrated and user friendly,
but with many options to check the accuracy, consistency and completeness of the process.
How good a GIS is depends upon the how well it serves its purpose. Its design should be based,
on a clear understanding about the user of the systems. Information needs to be structured in a
simple way so that planners can use it to make decisions (Yeh, 1991). It requires the integration
of data from various departments as well as clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. A top-
down, centralised, non-participatory approach to the introduction of computer technology should
be avoided (Masser and Campbell 1991). "There is a need for a clearly defined. Information
management strategy, personal commitment of individuals at all levels in the organization and
organizational and environmental stability" (Masser and Campbell, 1991).
The use of different models in planning decisions is rapidly increasing. Models to forecast and
predict future demand are becoming especially popular. Essential planning models should be
integrated into the process to aid the planner. Systems should also be able to change and expand
over time (Masser, 1989, in Tarkstra, 1991).
Harris (1990) argues that there are three possible courses of action that GIS needs to have more
success in planning: first enhancing the functionality of G1S to include many missing analytical
and design functions, second, to use existing GIS in the best possible way; and third, and most
ambitious, to create a PSS - a computer environment in which GIS and other new forms of
software can be integrated to their best effect.
The hallmark of a true GIS is its geographic intelligence, or topology. Topology is a description
(or list) of the specific relationships used to represent the connectivity, contiguity, or proximity
of the features included in a map. By sorting information about the location of a feature relative
to other features, topology provides the basis for many kinds of geographic analyses.
There are seven factors illustrated by Budic (1994) that may affect the success of GIS
implementation:
(i) Political support for the incorporation of GIS technology

(ii) Staff support for implementation of GIS technology
(iii) Length of time that G1S technology has been utilized, reflecting experience with the
technology,
(iv) System sharing (mufti-departmental versus single-departmental GIS set-up)
(v) Comprehensiveness of the GIS database, i.e., the number of maps (data layers) it contains;
(vi) Number of applications for which GIS technology is used, and
(vii) Type of tasks performed with GIS technology (routine operations versus data analysis
and/or synthesis).
The situation is different in developing countries. It requires some additional precaution and
preparation for success in a GIS related project. Klosterman (1995) mentioned that the success
of a GIS in developing countries can be challenged by the non-availability of four main issues:
a) Suitable Equipment. The tools, instruments, machine used to perform a particular set of tasks.
34
b) Technique: the specialized skills, procedures, methods, and policies employed in -using a
particular piece of equipment; c) Organization: the formal and informal relationships between
the individuals and groups that utilize a particular piece of equipment and related techniques;
and d) Knowledge- the supplementary information about the physical and social world required
to employ particular equipment, techniques, and organization effectively. A few ideas for
identifying and overcoming these constraints are:
- Valuing spatial information as an important resource

- Reforming organizational structures
- Developing implementation tools
- Fitting the technology to the organization
- Encouraging incremental and user-driven development
- Supporting new research and training program,
Finally, to the extent that spatial information systems appear to exacerbate political and social
inequalities, efforts need to be made to identify how this technology can be implemented so as to
avoid these pitfalls and to increase public participation in decisions that affect human welfare
and resource management.
REFERENCES
Bruli'n, C., Amer, S., and Dougall,D., 1996, GIS and Geo-integration, ITC Journal, 1996-1,
pp.71-76.
Br-uijn, CA, 1990, New systems, Other Methods: The Introduction of LIS and GIS in Urban
Planning, Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.95-116, LTNCRD,
Nagoya, Japan.
Guptil, S.C., ~ 1989, Evaluating Geographic Information Systems Technology,

Photogrammetric Engineering and Remotq Sensing, Vol.55, No l.11, pp.150-1587.
Harris, B., 1990, Urban and Regional Planning in the Third World with Geographic Information
System Support, Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 11, No.3, pp. 17-57,UNCRD,
Nagoya, Japan.
Harris, T.M., and Elmes G. A, 1993, The Application of GIS in Urban and Regional Planning: a
Review of the North American Experience, Applied Geography, Vol. 13, No. 1.
Harris, B., 1989, Beyond Geographical Information Systems - Computers and the Planning
Professional, Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol.55, No.1, pp.85-92.
35
HuAold, S.C. and Levinsohn, 1995, Managing Geographic Information System Projects, Oxford
University Press.
Huxhold, W.E., 1991, An Introduction to Urban Geographic Information Systems, Oxford

University Press.
Janssens, P., 1991, Land Related Information Systems for Research and Plarinmig, In:
Proceedings of Second European Conference on Geographical Information Systems,
Brussels, Belgium, Apr. 2-5, 1991.
Klosterman, R.E. (ed.), 1994, Editorial, Special Issue on "International Support for computers in
Planning, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Des~gn, Vol.21, pp.378-391.
Klosterman, R.E., 19§5, The Appropriateness of Geographic Information Systems for Regional
Planning in the Developing World, Computers Environment and Urban Systems,
Vol.19, No. 1, pp l-13.
Masser, I. and Cambell, H., 1991, Conditions for effective utilisation of computers in Urban
Planning in Developing Countries, Computer Environment and Urban Systems, Vol. I
5, pp. 55-67.
Schuur, J. and. Erkel, F., 1991, Planning, In: Proceedings of Second European Conference on
Geographical Information systems, Brussels, Belgium, Apr. 2-5, 1991
Seong, K.T., 1994, Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS for Urban Planning in Developing
Countries.
Sheppard, E., 1995, GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda, Cartography and
Geographic Information Systems, Vol.22, No.1, pp. 5-16.
Yeh, A.G., 1991, The Development and Applications of Geographical Information Systems for
Urban and Regional Planning in the Developing Countries, International Journal of
Geographical Information Systems, Vol.5. No.1, p. 5-27
36
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
APPLICATION OF GIS IN PLANNING WATER SUPPLY NETWORK

SYSTEM OF GOPALGONJ POURASHAVA
Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim1 and Mohammad Shahidul Hasan Swapan2

1
Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline. Khulna University
2
Lecturer, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline. Khulna University
ABSTRACT
Though application of up-to-date technology like GIS based infrastructural management is frequent
in developed countries, but developing countries like Bangladesh have just put their steps in this
field. This study is a very preliminary endeavor in automated planning initiatives of this country.
The aim of the study is to show the capabilities and potentiality of Geographic Information System
(GIS) to automate and analyze the water supply system in a district headquarter, which needs
information based planning for future expansion services. The study is also widened to the
delineation of suitable sites for setting up new overhead tanks considering the existing water supply
coverage, different landuse water demands and their relative weighted valuation. The study will
assist to adopt the appropriate policy measures in order to safeguard the interest of people for
drinking water supply, which eventually improves their living and socio-economic conditions.
KEY WORDS: Geographic Information System, network-allocation, served & deprived zone,
suitable sites for over-head tanks, water supply and weighted overlay.
INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world facing massive urban
problems. Here all the urban centers are not well served by planned community facilities like
water supply, sanitation, electricity, education etc. The paradox of community water supply in
developing countries is that everyone should have, as the rules say, access to water supply, but in
fact, many people are far away from its service. They may have access to water but only at a
long walking distance or in too little volume or of poor quality. Over 62% of people in
developing countries or about 1100 million are deprived of adequate water supply (Cairncross,
1983).The World Health Organization’s figures for 1980 show that among the urban population
of developing countries, only about 55% had house connections and an additional 20% had
access to public taps; about half of these supplies are intermittent (Ahmed and Rahman, 2000).
In our country, this coverage hardly exceeds 5% in Pourashavasi and Upazilasii (Fifth Five Year
i
An elected body of the Local Government under a district.
ii
Second tier of local administrative unit under a district.
37
Application of GIS in Planning Water Supply Network System of Gopalgonj Pourashava
Plan, Bangladesh). In practice, the situation is even more critical because the water supply
systems included in the coverage figures do not necessarily provide good services in terms of
quality, quantity and availability of water.
Gopalgonj Districtiii Headquarters (Pourashava) is an area facing typical urban problems

particularly the crisis of water. Approximately only 30 percent of the population in this area is
covered under piped water supply system (DPHE, 1999) while in major cities it ranges from
50% to 65% (Fifth Five Year Plan, Bangladesh). According to the Population Census of 1991,
the population density has increased to 2900 persons per sq. km. with an average growth rate of
3.5 percent (BBS, 1991). But its basic urban facility like piped water supply system could not
keep pace with the growth of population. The present water demand is 7800 cum/day for the
population of 40,000. However, the supply to the citizens takes place only once in a day through
the fully loaded overhead tank contributing a little more than 675 cum per day (DPHE, 1999).
Besides, lack of proper technology, planning and maintenance, the distribution network is
getting damaged within a very short period of time. Inappropriate demand estimation, manual
data recording or storing systems and myopic planning stand as constraints against the future
expansion of the existing system, which results in wastage of resource and money.
To ensure a sound water supply network system, an automated management facility i.e. GIS
based planning is capable of providing better result. GIS technology is especially very important
for emergency route planning, like water supply, electricity, transport etc. (Kabir, 1997). In our
country, traditional mapping system is used to record the information on service networks.
Generally, it takes long time to identify any problem in the distribution system as well as to
accomplish any repairing process. On the other hand, manual extension work cannot be done so
precisely. GIS has made it possible to link geographical record associated with the water
sources, distribution network, pump and overhead tank’s location, which is capable enough to
integrate and analyze their whole operations more efficiently. In this research, efforts have been
taken to facilitate GIS as a tool for decision-making on water supply network system through
automation of the whole system, analyze the existing coverage, delineation of suitable locations
for new over-head tanks (OT) with dynamic digital mapping and interactive models.
The objective of the study is to show the capabilities and potentiality of GIS to automate and
analyze the existing water supply systems (identifying served and deprived zones) in a
Pourashava area, which needs information based planning for future expansion. The service area
of the existing over-head tank has been delineated using GIS (Network-Allocation) technology,
which shows optimal and alternative paths for the movement of resources through a network.
This method has been widely and successfully used in other countries for emergency resource
planning. The potential location for setting up new over-head tanks were delineated using
Weighted Overlay application (MODEL BUILDER) of GIS based on a number of location
influencing factors and landuse based water demand. It was used because of its excellent
capabilities to analyze results with respect to various influencing factors and rank the output for
optimum decision making and that is must in urban planning.
iii
Administrative unit of the Government under the charge of a Deputy Commissioner comprising a number of upazilas.
38
WHY GIS IS NEEDED FOR WATER SUPPLY PLANNING IN BANGLADESH

Now safe drinking water is a provocative question in the developing countries. Though up-to-
date technology and GIS based infrastructural management is frequent in developed countries,
but it is new to the developing world. This study is a very preliminary endeavor done to add a
force in the planning field. It implies a substantial scope for changing the traditional water
supply management system in the country. Following are the advantages of the new system:
(a) The traditional system is to keep record of the infrastructure facilities on paper files. It takes
more space and can be destroyed at any time. GIS based integrated and automated database
would be a great resource for different institutions and developers to implement
development activities. In addition it helps to locate the problem segment very quickly,
which is really a time consuming process in the traditional system.
(d) In Bangladesh, network line design is done manually, which is always susceptible to error.
On the other hand, roads are used to cut frequently because of poor of coordination among
the public departments for installing different network lines. Automation of pipe network
creates an organized database for quality supervision.
(b) Development of database of pipe network system as well as connected service holders,
which would help to run the system efficiently through minimizing the system loss and
update facilities to the service holders when required.
(c) Delineation of existing water supply coverage will help the related authority to demarcate
the future expansion zone.
(e) Suitable location for the construction of new reservoirs will help planning the potential
distribution zone and technical decision making for water sources.
(f) Not only the water supply planning, this methods can be used for any emergency route
planning e.g. road network for fire fighting vehicles to move quickly to the target area,
school bus route networking, extraction and distribution of oil/gas through pipe networking
from the mine, planning of electric and telephone line etc.
STUDY AREA
Gopalgonj Pourashava (Upazila & district headquarters) is situated about four miles east of the
Modhumati River (active), in the district of Gopalgonj that lies in the southern west part of
Bangladesh (Figure 1), covering about 14.40 sq. km. It is a district town under Dhaka division
and is well connected by the national highway to the capital city Dhaka and the nearby Khulna
Port City. Statistical data reveals that the adjusted population of Gopalgonj Pourashava was
recorded 18,118 in 1981 with a growth rate of 3.90% per annum. According to the Population
Census 1991, the total population of Gopalgonj Pourashava was 25007 (after the inclusion of 3.1
sq. km. of new area).
39
The land surface of the study area is very flat and can be divided into two broad categories,
namely high/raised land and very low-lying and beel areas lying between 0.2 m and 2.00 m
above MSL (mean sea level). Major areas are subjected to flooding during high floods. The
topography of the Pourashava is almost flat with fertile alluvial soil. Over the years, the area of
the Pourashava has been developed through earth filling of cultivable lands, which were mostly
low-lying plain soil. Despite earth filling for raising the foundation of homesteads, filling also
occurred due to repeated inundation during the monsoon. Due to the abandonment of old courses
by the Modhumati River some depressions and stagnant pools of water have been crated in the
western part of the Pourashava.
METHODOLOGY
Delineation of Served and Deprived Zones of Piped Water Supply System Using GIS
Network Analysis
To identify the served and unserved zones for water supply the ALLOCATE function of PC
NETWORK (PC ARC/INFO 3.5.1) has been used. The allocation procedure is used to assign
each link in a network proximal center, thereby defining service areas. Allocate illustrates the
model of how resources are distributed between centers (reservoirs, pumps etc) and their
surrounding arcs (road network). Each center has a resource capacity (total volume of water).
Resource along with the linear features of the network is assigned to a center based on its
40
capacity and variety of additional criteria such as the distance or time from a center and its total
capacity is used to delineate served and deprived zones.
In this analysis location (represented by node) of over-head tank is considered as resources

center and the roads (represented by arcs) to the consumers are used as distribution network. The
tank’s water capacity, maximum service area, arc-wise demands are also considered.
Delineation of Suitable Sites for New Over-Head Tanks Using Weighted Overlay Methods
Analysis has been made to delineate suitable areas for construction of new over-head tanks to
meet optimum water demand. This analysis has been done on the basis of some influencing
factors and results of the previous analysis. In this respect, a new technology has been used
called Model Builder (Spatial Analyst 2.0). It helps to create and manage spatial models that are
automated and self-documenting.
Data Analysis and Presentation Tool

PC ARC/INFO, ARC View, Spatial Analyst (Model Builder) were used for GIS analysis.
Microsoft Office 2002 was used for documentation and database maintenance.
ANALYSIS AND STUDY FINDINGS
Existing Water Supply System
a) Water sources
It was found that only 40% of domestic and non-domestic holdings have access to Pourashava
water supply system and a large majority of about 60% has no access to that facility. About 680
m3 of water is supplied per day to about 13,385 consumers through 1043 house connections and
the water demand of approximately 20,175 citizens are met through 630 shallow hand tube
wells. Another 2597 get their supply through 10 street hydrants and some 24 ponds, rivers and
canals are used by the rest of the population (DPHE, 2001). The only over-head tank was
constructed in 1973. The height of the tank is about 25.2 m from the ground level. It has a
capacity of 680 m3. Among 15 production wells, 70020 are abandoned and 3 tube wells are
operating partially. Only five wells are now running properly and normally operate for 12-14
hours daily (DPHE, 2001). The wells pump to the distribution network through the Iron
Removal Plant and over-head tank. The Iron Removal Plant (IRP) was constructed in 1991
under, “Dutch aided DPHE 12-District Towns Water Supply Project” having a design capacity
of 140 m3/hr. Although removal efficiency is still satisfactory, the treatment capacity and
filtration have been reduced significantly due to frequent clogging of the filter bed.
b) Distribution network
The distribution pipe with 100 mm diameter constitutes the longest length (16.83 km.) and 300
mm pipe constituted the shortest length (0.03 km.). Most of the pipes are made of PVC
(Polyvinyl Chloride). According to Gopalgonj Pourashava records (2000), there are about 1043
water supply service connections which range from a diameter of 13 mm (1/2”) to 25mm (1”).
The number of 19 mm pipe service connections is slightly higher than that of 13 mm pipe
41
connections in domestic water use. In commercial use, water service is provided only by 25 mm
pipes.
c) Water consumption pattern

The consumption pattern of domestic household shows that about 43.57% of the total volume is
consumed for bathing and 28% for washing. Others uses include cooking (10.12%) and drinking
(5.76%) (DPHE, 2000). Water supplied by distribution pipes and DPHE deep tube wells are
manly used for bathing purpose (50.46% and 68.13% respectively). Drinking water is collected
from piped water supply, deep tube wells and shallow tube wells. The water of street hydrants
and river or pond water is used for washing purpose (76.17% and 30.48% respectively).
d) Waterborne diseases
A household survey conducted by DPHE in 2000 (in Gopalgonj Pourashava and adjacent areas)
revealed that about 40.29% of the total population suffered from waterborne diseases. A major
portion of the people suffered from Cholera and Dysentery (35% and 37% respectively).
Hepatitis and skin diseases also cause suffering to the people in this area.
e) Water demand assessment

A tentative water demand was estimated by the DPHE, Gopalgonj for the year 1999 based on the
population of 1998, which was 39,950 m3/day. The total demand was estimated as 3487 m3/day
for the study area (used for GIS analysis in this study). The total water demand is 3487 m3/day in
Gopalgonj Pourashava. A large portion of population (14,000) is served by common yard
connection and only 8000 people get the opportunity of house connection.
Delineation of Served and Deprived Zone of Piped Water Supply System

To identify the area served by the existing over-head tank, tank location (center) map, road map
(arcs) and settlement map (demand calculation) have been used. Two different demands have
been calculated for Network analysis. The formula and unit used for demand, capacity and
impedance are given in the Table 1.
Table 1: List of Formula and Units used in the analysis

Item /attributes Demand Capacity Impedance
1. Equal demand for all road length Reservoir water Length of
Formula used
2. Actual demand of each road capacity the road
Unit m3 m3 Meter
a) Attributes used in network-allocation analysis

(i) Over-head tank capacity (Center capacity) = 680 m3 (DPHE, Gopalgonj)
(ii) Arc-wise water demand (described later) = water demand of each road segment as it flows
along road
(iii) Impedance (one way) = Road length (from tank to consumer only as reverse flow does not
happen)
(iv) Impedance limit = 3000 m (the tank is able to supply water to the consumer up to 3000 m
with the gravity flow)
42
When arcs (road) are allocated to each center (over-head tank), the demand (water-demand) of
each allocated arc is accumulated until the center’s capacity is reached. If the demand of an arc
cause the capacity to exceed, that arc is not allocated to the center. The allocation continues until
the maximum impedance limit is reached along all the paths allocated to the center, or until the
center’s capacity is met by the cumulative demand from all links allocated to the center which
occurs first.
b) Water demand calculation for network analysis

Two types of water demand (along road) were applied as demand attribute in the network
analysis, which are as follows:
a) Assume equal water demand for each arc/road length

b) Actual demand for each arc/road length based on different water demand for various landuse
Assume equal water demand for each arc/road length

In this concept following equation was used -
D = S x L……… (1)
Where,
D = demand for a road segment (arc)
S = demand density for each unit of road length
L = length of the road (arc)
In this relation, S = (Total water demand in the study area) / (Total road length)
• Total water demand in the study area is about 3487 m3
• Total road length = 55986 m (calculated from road coverage)
Therefore, S = (3487/ 55986) m3 = 0.062 m3

Then, from the equation (1), we can get –
D = 0.062 x length of that road segment (arc) = 0.062 x L
Actual demand for each arc/road length based on different water demand for various landuse
To carry out this task, first NEAR command has been used in ARC EDIT module to transfer the
settlements to their nearest arc. NEAR computes the distance from each point in a coverage to
the nearest arc, point, or node in another coverage. The distance and the internal number of the
closest feature are saved as new items in the input point coverage's feature attribute table. It was
used to identify the demand of different settlement types (residential, commercial, office,
education, health etc.) on the nearest road segment. It ensures the execution of the analysis
considering actual demand through the network. After executing NEAR command, internal ids
of arcs (roads) and distance between arc and point are added automatically as new items against
their allocated settlement. Then total number of settlements with ids (allocated to a particular
road segment) has been identified to calculate total demand of that arc. To calculate the water
demand for a particular use “Bangladesh Water Consumption Standards” has been followed
(Table 2).
43
Table 2: Settlement type and average water consumption per day

Average water consumption (demand) per unit use (in
Settlement type
m3 per day)
Household
0.15 X 8 = 1.2
(Ave. household size = 8)
Commercial 0.04
Office buildings 0.06
Education institution 0.09
Hospital 0.590 per bed
Mosque 0.065
Source: Aziz, M. A. (1975).
Therefore, total water demands of an arc segment = (number of settlements allocated to the arc x
water demand (m3) of settlements based on their use) + (number of settlements allocated to the
arc x water demand (m3) of settlements based on their use) + - - - - -- - - -
c) Network-Allocation analysis
The Network analysis has given the following results for existing over-head tank using above
criteria and different concept of water demand (Table 3):
Table 3: Result of Network-Allocation analysis using different water demand

Demand category Served arc (%) Un-served arc (%)
Equal demand 21 79
Actual demand 61 39
When equal demand is considered, it gives a restricted service area (21% of total water
distribution path) against present pipeline coverage. On the other hand, the analysis by taking
actual demand has given comparatively true result (61% of total water distribution path) related
to the present situation. For this reason the service area of the over-head tank derived from actual
demand based on use variation of settlements has been accepted and the other is rejected. To get
spatial zone, existing service area of the over-head tank has been delineated by joining the end
node of the allocated arc manually. It has been used as an important factor for the next suitable
location analysis. Therefore, existing coverage of the over-head tank (OT) is 3821408 m2 (27%
of the Pourashava area) and total unserved area = 10178592 m2 (73% of the Pourashava area).
The service area of the existing over-head tank delineated by network analysis is shown in the
Figure 2.
44
Figure 2: Delineation of served and deprived zone by Network-Allocation analysis
Delineation of Potential Areas to Setup New Over-Head Tank

This analysis has been conducted based on some influencing factors related to location decisions
and results of the previous analysis (Network Allocation). In this respect, a technology has been
used called Model Builder, which is a tool in the ARC VIEW Spatial Analyst 2.0 extension. It
helps to create spatial models of geographic areas. A model is a set of spatial process such as
buffers or overlays, which converts input data into an output map. To delineate suitable land,
analysis has been done using the above coverage considering influencing criteria (Model
Builder) and minimum area required to construct tank and pump house. Final output has been
derived from vector data in ARC VIEW GIS.
a) Location suitability modeling for new over-head tank

In the weighted overlay analyses the following geographical features and facilities have been
considered: accessibility/road, electricity line, location of structures with different use, land
elevation, population density, service area of existing over-head tank, active production well and
distance from proposed water treatment plant, which has been decided to construct by DPHE. To
incorporate the above criteria, the following vector coverages of the study area have been
brought to the analysis (Table 4).
45
Table 4: Details of coverage used in suitability analysis

Sl No. Map Contents Type of coverage
1 Pourashava boundary Polygon
2 Road network Line
3 Location of structures/settlements Point
4 Land elevation map Polygon
5 Population density map (zones) Polygon
6 Electric power line Line
7 Location of production well Point
8 Existing coverage of the over-head tank Polygon
9 Location of active production wells ARC VIEW Shape File (point)
10 Location of proposed water treatment plant ARC VIEW Shape File (point)
Model Builder can analyze only grid data. Therefore, at first all the themes were converted into
grid in the model builder. Then different buffers have been added to the themes as required on
specified logic, which influences location decisions. It is assumed that the potential sites will be
outside the coverage of the existing over-head tank, outside the homestead and far enough from
settlements, far from the river bank and road but not in an inaccessible area. Electricity facility
must be at hand and the land must be stable. A site having moderate population density area and
potential expansion zone are considered as well. These criteria have been fulfilled using different
buffers or multi-buffers of coverage (Table 5, 6 and 7) or directly applying them to the overlay
analysis.
Table 5: Detail of Buffers created for structures/settlements

Number of Buffer
Purpose
buffer/s distance (m)
0-15 Homestead area and restricted for construction of tank
Get superior flow of water from tank located in this area from
15-300
the settlement
5
300-800 Get less flow than the above
Suitable locations for over-head tank are expected at the 3000m distance from the settlements
because the tank can serve the consumer up to this distance by gravity flow of water (DPHE,
Gopalgonj). The description of road buffer is shown in the Table 6.
Table 6: Details of buffers created for Road Network
Number of
Buffer distance (m) Purpose
buffer/s
Restricted for construction of tank because it is too close
0-15
to road
Very much suitable area because easy accessible but not
15-300
too close to road
4
300-1000 Less accessible than the above
Less accessible than the above. Area outside 1500m
1000-1500 from any road is considered not accessible for the supply
of construction materials of the tank
46
The description of buffer for river, electric line, production wells and newly installed treatment
plant are given in the Table 7.
Table 7: Detail of Buffers created for river, electric power line, active production wells and
treatment plant
Number of Buffer distance
Themes Purpose
buffer/s (m)
Area within 15m distance is not
suitable for heavy construction
River 1 0-15 (PWD, Gopalgonj). So, it is
restricted zone. Outside of this
distance construction can be done
0-500 Area within 500 m of existing
electric line, electricity can be
Electric line 1
available for the pumping works of
the tank (PDB, Gopalgonj)
Pumps of the production well are
Production
1 0-1500 able to supply water within this
wells
distance (DPHE, Gopalgonj )
Pumps at the proposed treatment
Treatment plant will be able to supply water
1 0-400
plant within this distance (DPHE,
Gopalgonj )
The description of grid themes applied directly in overlay (non-buffer) operation is listed in the
Table 8.
Table 8: Details of Grid Themes Applied Directly in Overlay (non-buffered)

Themes Purpose
Existing coverage of The suitable area must be out side the existing coverage of the tank,
the over-head tank which has got by connecting the endpoint of the served arc (delineated
in the previous analysis). Therefore, served polygon shows the restricted
zone.
Population density High-density areas are almost served by the existing tank. So,
map (zones) moderately dense area and future expansion zone has been emphasized
Land elevation map Heavy construction like over-head tank requires high and stable soils.
b) Weighted overlay analysis

This analysis is based on the relative weightage (percentile importance value) of themes in
location-decisions, distribution of buffers (accessible & restricted zone), function of non-
buffering themes and evaluation scale value to rank the suitable sites.
The list of all percentile importance values assigned to each theme and evaluation scale values
are preserved in the weighted overlay table panel of MODEL BUILDER. It is shown in the
Table 9. The Model used for location suitability analysis is also given in the Figure 3. The model
47
includes the flowchart of data conversion process, respective buffering process, weighted
overlay process and final output in a sequential order.
Table 9: Weighted Overlay Table Panel (Model Builder-Spatial Analyst 2.0)

% of
Input theme Theme type Buffer (m)/them values Scale value
influence
Land elevation map Non-buffered 25 very high land 3
moderately high 2
high 1
low 1
Agri-land Restricted
No data Restricted
Electric power line Buffered 1 0-500 3
No data Restricted
Population density Non-buffered 8 0.001 persons/ha 2
map (zones) 0.002 persons/ha 3
0.003 persons/ha Restricted
0.004 persons/ha Restricted
No data Restricted
Road Network Buffered 15 0-15 Restricted
15-300 3
300-1000 2
1000-1500 1
No data Restricted
River Buffered 1 0-15 Restricted
No data 3
Location of Buffered 35 0-15 Restricted
structures/settlements 15-300 3
300-800 2
800-1500 1
1500-3000 1
No data Restricted
Existing coverage of Non-buffered 1 Served area Restricted
the over-head tank Unserved area 3
No data Restricted
Location of proposed Buffered 1 0-4000 3
water treatment plant No data Restricted
Location of active Buffered 13 0-1500 3
production wells No data 1
Sum of influence 100
Table 9 shows that location of structures/settlement poses the most important role because
consumers must be located within the distance where water reaches through gravity flow.
Therefore it has been given 35% importance. On the other hand, a tank should not be located in a
personal courtyard and that is why 15 m buffer around settlements was marked as restricted
during the analysis. This same restriction has also been considered for river and road networks.
The next important factor is land type (25%), which is essential for sound construction. Then
48
road-network is an important factor (15%) for accessibility to carry the construction materials.
Population density (8%) has moderate influence to locate the tank near the future expansion zone
but excluding the place, which is presently served by the tank. Existing service area of the tank
has been marked as restricted. Supply of water to the over-head tanks is another important issue.
The proposed treatment plant will be able to supply water up to 4 km distance area. It covers
almost all the area of the Pourashava. Therefore, suitable sites have been located according to
the plant location as well. The quality grade of the sites was also determined through the location
of the active production well (13%). Sites near the production well (1500m) have been
considered as highly suitable.
Though served area of the existing tank, water body locations factors are important as well and
their buffers have been used to eliminate non-suitable areas directly or to include suitable areas
for consideration. So, they are given less weights. Ultimately, location has been determined
outside of the existing served area, inside the zone with electricity supply and outside of water
bodies. The whole process of analysis is shown in Figure 3.
Input themes
Grid themes
Buffered
Suitable
location
themes
Vector Buffer Weighted
conversion overlay
Figure 3: Simplified Model Used for this Analysis
Using the above model (Figure 3), influencing factors and restricted values, Model Builder has
given the preliminary suitable sites and ranked them on the basis of the evaluation scale
described in Table 9. These primary suitable sites (Figure 4) include areas where there is more
than enough space for over-head tank construction and also too small space to do so. To
delineate minimum desired area for tank construction and pump house, the smaller space units
are needed to be excluded. It has been successfully done by using ARC View sub-menu to get
final output.
c) Suitable sites with minimum desired area

According to DPHE, 1600 sq. m (40x40) m2 area is required for an over-head tank, its service
room and pump house. To identify polygons with areas greater and equal to 1600 m2, request
was made to the Query Builder sub menu of ARC View, which has provided the following
calculation result:
(i) Total area of potential sites is 1028132. 549 m2 (13% of the Pourashava area) in all scale
value.
(ii) Total area of suitable sites are 162081.4137 m2 (6.58% of all delineated areas) in scale
value 2
(iii) Total area of highly suitable sites is 369234.32 m2 (93.42% of all delineated areas) in scale
value 3
(iv) There is no area in less suitable category in scale value 1
49
The locations of suitable sites with desired minimum area (actually suitable for overall
construction) are shown in the Figure 4. From the final output sites it can be seen that most of
the areas are located along the belt of future expansion zone of the Pourashava. Some suitable
areas are located in the south portion of the study area, which has a great potentiality to be
expanded for the proximity to Gopalgonj University (under construction). Delineation of
existing water supply coverage will also help the related authority to delineate the future
expansion zone and provide future urban facilities.
Figure 4: Delineated Areas for New Over-Head Tank
CONCLUSION
GIS is a popular technology, which can be efficiently applied to water supply system in order to
automate the whole system, analyze the existing coverage and to delineate suitable sites for
over-head tanks. This could make a great change in the development horizon of Bangladesh.
Here, network allocation method of GIS has been applied with two water demand categories.
Equal water demand for the whole study area shows that only a little area is served by the
existing over-head tank (21% of total water distribution path). The real picture of piped water
supply coverage is much different. So actual demand estimated from Bangladesh Water
Consumption Standards is applied through near method of ARC/INFO. It provides an acceptable
result (61% distribution path) close to the existing coverage through water pipe line. ARC View
Model Builder has been used to delineate the potential sites for constructing new over-head
50
tanks. The model is executed in search of three categories of suitable sites. It has been identified
that 1028132 m2 (13% of the Pourashava area) in different locations, it is suitable for
constructing new tanks. Among potential locations, about 93% area is identified as highly
suitable and near 7% as suitable sites.
Suitable location for the construction of new reservoirs will help planning the potential
distribution zone and technical decision making for water sources. By the integration of
geographic and attribute data GIS can evaluate any service network very efficiently. It can be
applied in analyzing of community facilities like, community centers, sport centers, shopping
and many others (Hossain, 1998). It can also be used in emergency route planning like, bus
network, fire- fighting route planning etc. These automated methods should be applied in all
service giving departments of Bangladesh for providing best service to the consumers. Address-
matching technique of GIS can build an efficient tax collection system in the local government
office. GIS based land information system and metering system of network facilities will surely
minimizes the loss in resources of developing countries.
REFERENCES
Ahmed, M. F., and Rahman, M. M., 2000, Water Supply and Sanitation- Rural and Low Income Urban
Communities, ITN-Bangladesh, BUET, Dhaka.
Aronoff, S., 1993, Geographic Information System: A Management Perspective. Ottawa, Canada, WDL
Publications.
AWARA, 1996, Predicting Areas of Future Public Water Supply Problems -- Floridian Aquifer,
Advancing Water Resources Research and Management (AWARA), Northeast Florida. Ft.
Lauderdale, FL, USA.
Aziz, M. A., 1975, Water Supply Engineering. Hafiz Book Center, Dhaka.
Bhattaacharay, S. K., 1998, Urban Domestic Water Supply in Developing Countries.: CBS Publishers &
Distributors, Delhi, India.
GoB, 1999. Pourashava and Thana Water Supply and Sanitation Project-Gopalgonj Districts, Department
of Public Health Engineering, Gopalgonj, Gopalgonj, Bangladesh.
ESRI, 1992, PC Network Installation Guide Version 3.4D Plus, Redlands, Environmental System Research
Institute. ESRI, USA.
UN-ESCAP (1979). Guidelines for Rural Center Planning, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (ESCAP) United Nations.
Hossain, S. M., 1998, A GIS Application on Public Water Supply System (A Case Study on Nirala
Residential Area, Khulna.), Unpublished BURP thesis, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline,
Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.
WSSLIC, 2000, Indonesia Water Supply and Sanitation for Low-Income Communities Indonesia, Water
Supply and Sanitation for Low-Income Communities (WSSLIC) Project 1993-2000, Indonesia.
URL http://www.ardinc.com .
Karim, M. R., 1998, Geographic Information System (in Bangla), Najnin Prakashoni, Dhaka.
DWP, 2000, Mapping Public Water Supply Areas. Maine Drinking Water Program (DWP), USA. URL
http://www.state.me.us .
51
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
DEVELOPING AN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL GUIDE

MAP OF DHAKA CITY
Meher Nigar Neema1, Farhana Ahmed2, Farzana Akhter2 and

K. M. Maniruzzaman3
1
Lecturer, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET
2
Masters Student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET
3
Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET
Dhaka, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
This paper is about development of a GIS-based interactive mapping. The paper describes the
method of evolving a GIS-based Interactive Map of Dhaka City incorporated with new functions to
search specific features with automated map extent updates in order to maximize the display of
targeted features and to activate hot links to graphics and text descriptions of features presented. A
digital map has been integrated with a graphical user-friendly interface consisting of different
buttons, tools and documents for use in the developed functions. PC ARC/INFO and ArcView were
used as the basic GIS softwares because of their wide availability and use. The interactive map
promises a wide range of use in diverse applications and provides numerous options to produce
productive results.
KEY WORDS: Geographic Information System (GIS), interactive digital guide map, avenue
INTRODUCTION
A map is a graphic representation of all or part of the earth surface on which cultural and natural
features are depicted by symbols, drawn on a two-dimensional plane. Maps are an effective way
of presenting a great deal of information about objects and the spatial relationship of objects
(Star and Estes, 1990). Map is used for a wide variety of applications. Sometimes it acts as a
decision making tool, sometimes a communication tool, sometimes an analytical tool and so on.
By thinking and working geographically, professionals in every field have discovered the
advantage of using maps for decision support. They have always sought tools to enhance their
analytical, problem solving and decision making capability. One of the most common and basic
items in the spatial workers’ toolbox has been maps. Many professionals including geographers,
architects and planners, have been using maps for many purposes. Whether siting a business,
finding a location for a community service or figuring out the best route through traffic, maps
are pioneers in applying techniques to cultural resource management. Maps are also used by
non-professionals in everyday life. Traditionally, maps have been drawn on paper or similar
media. In paper maps, the data storage and data display functions are combined. Paper maps
store and display information in the same map sheet. Paper maps, however, have certain
52
limitations that do not apply to digital maps, the use of which is flourishing due to the
proliferation of computers. For example:
(i) A paper map does not have the provision for immediate modification in accordance with
the changing patterns;
(ii) Analysis of features of a paper map involving overlay process is very complicated; and
(iii) Too many themes on a single map may become cumbersome and cluttered.
(iv) On the other hand separate maps for separate themes may deprive the user the opportunity
to view together the themes of his choice.
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology has given us the capability to use digital maps
in a variety of ways. We can get more than just maps – all kinds of information about the local
area, from points of interest to the availability of goods and services can be parts of the mapped
information. In a sense, a map can be a live extension into the immediate environment, feeding
us information that is organized spatially and searchable whatever we want to know (Pfister et
al., 2001). Digital maps, created by GIS software can now be served through websites, giving
users complex and interactive maps. This mapping technology even allows one to click on
selected points and retrieve additional information. Users can zoom in and out at will, can pan in
any direction, and can select which map layers they wish to view. GIS-based map empowers
individuals and organizations to integrate information, visualize scenarios, present powerful
ideas, and develop effective solutions.
The current project is a preliminary instance of such work in the field of GIS. In this study, an
IMDC (Interactive Map of Dhaka City) was prepared showing a variety of features. The map
was developed for the users who usually work with a paper map. The interactive map can
overcome all the difficulties of a paper map. With the interactive map, the user can specify the
kind of display of the map he prefers or the kind of analysis or query he would like to perform
with the stored data through the use of a Graphic User Interface (GUI). The display of the map
would change and the results of analysis would be shown on the fly. The exercise provided
insights and skills that would be required if the study is carried out further to include more
powerful planning routines.
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the study were to extend the capabilities of ArcView GIS software using
Avenue scripts and to integrate the customized GIS with an interactive digital map. With the
customized interface, in spite of using ArcView’s own capabilities, one can easily locate a
feature simply by giving a choice in a list box containing all the feature names and can display
its associated image and information. It is hoped that this study will provide a base for more
detailed and comprehensive research in future and will act as a useful guide to create other such
applications.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology followed for the study is shown in Figure 1.
53
Developing an Interactive Digital Guide Map of Dhaka City
STEP 1 Preparation of digital map
STEP 2 Customization of ArcView interface
STEP 3 Development of new functions using

Avenue scripts
Application of new functions on

STEP 4
interactive map
Figure 1: Methodology of the study
A copy of the Dhaka Guide Map was collected from the Survey of Bangladesh. The scale of the
map is 1/20,000 or 5 cm to a kilometer. The following features from the map were digitized:
Table 1: List of Different Features of Dhaka City Digitized as Separate Themes

Themes with Point Features Themes with Line Features Themes with Polygon Features
1. Bank Road inside city area: 1. Educational area
2. Bus Terminal 1. 1st important road 2. Airport
3. Cemetery 2. 2nd important road 3. Low Land
4. Cinema Hall 3. 3rd important road 4. Underdevelopment area
5. Church 4. 4th important 5. Industrial area
6. Community Center 5. Private Lane 6. Market
7. Consular Office Roads superior surfaced: 7. Parks and Playground
8. Embassy 1. Interdistrict 8. Lake
9. Hotel 2. InterThana 9. River
10. Eidgah Railway:
11. Mot Meter gauge (single and double)
12. Mosque Service:
13. Petrol Pump Power line
14. Pagoda Hydrography:
15. Primary School 1. Canal perennial
16. Railway Station 2. Canal non perennial
17. Restaurant Embankment
18. Shopping Center
19. Temple
54
For digitization on-screen digitization process was carried out using scanned images of the paper
base map. Different features were digitized as separate themes as shown in Figure 2. After the
digitization process, topology was created, errors were identified and corrected, and attribute
data were added to each coverage. A number of Simple Macro Language routines were used to
simplify the repetitive tasks.
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LEGEND
Point Features Line Features Polygon Features
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& Hotel ³
# Shop 4th Important Road Park
5th Important Road River
Inter District Road Low Land
Inter Thana Road Under Developed Area
55
IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERACTIVE FUNCTIONS

Two new functions were developed for interactive use - one to search a specific named feature
with automated map extent updates to maximize the display of the target features and the other
to activate hot links to graphics and text descriptions of features. These new functions were
implemented in Avenue scripts. Avenue, ArcView's object-oriented programming language,
provides powerful functions to facilitate the customization of graphical user interface (GUI).
New controls were added to the interface - a Search button and a Display tool. The scripts for
searching a feature and displaying graphics and text descriptions of features were assigned to the
button’s 'Click' property and the tool’s 'Apply' property respectively. These two scripts were
named View.Highlight and View.Display respectively. These controls were rendered user-
friendly by providing indicative graphical icons and help messages. The 'S' icon for search
function and the 'Frame Picture Icon' for display function were selected. The customized
ArcView interface is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Customization of Arc View Interface
The search button gives a list of themes in an alphabetical order. When a particular theme is
selected, it makes the theme active and brings another list box of all the feature names in the
active theme. When a particular feature name is chosen, it displays the feature in the center of
the view. For example, to find ‘Mirpur Road’ in Dhaka City the user has to click on the Search
button and to select ‘1st Important Road’ from the theme list (Figure 4). After OK is clicked the
list box of 1st Important Roads will be shown (Figure 5). From this list the user has to select
‘Mirpur Road’. This selection will highlight and display the road in the center of the view
(Figure 6).
56
Figure 4: Message Box Containing List of Themes
Figure 5: Message Box Containing List of Features in the Selected Theme
57
Figure 6: The Associated Feature is Highlighted and Displayed in the View
To show the action of the Display tool, first of all the Search button has to be clicked to select a
feature. Then the Display tool has to be applied on the selected feature. Such action will display
the related information and images. For example, the Display tool can be used to see an image of
the ‘National Museum’ as well as to learn its history from the list of ‘Museums and Historical
Places’ as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Hotlink action displays the beautiful image and information of ‘National
58
CONCLUSION
The paper describes the preparation of a GIS-based interactive map of Dhaka City integrated
with few extended capabilities which can be used as a guide map. ArcInfo and ArcView GIS
software were used to prepare the interactive map in ArcView, which includes preparation of
digital map and customization of user interface. The system, including its graphical user
interface, was implemented with ArcView's Avenue Programming Language. The outcome
demonstrates the potential of interactive digital maps for not only professional and technical
applications, but also for day-to-day usage by ordinary users with no special skills in GIS. This
provides the impetus to develop stand-alone or web-based applications on less expensive
platforms.
In this study, an attempt has been to prepare an interactive map of Dhaka City showing a variety
of features. But due to constraints, only some rudimentary interactive features were included.
However, the exercise provides insights and skills that would be required if the study is carried
out further to include more powerful planning routines. Also, this study has tremendous scope in
differe4nt activities of planning and other field and can serve as a basis for future relevant
research and studies.
REFERENCES
Anonymous, no date. IFLA Section of Geography and Map Libraries, URL http://magic.lib.
uconn.edu/ifla/.
ESRI, 1996. Avenue: Customization and Application Development for ArcView, Redlands, CA., ESRI,
USA.
Pfister, B., Burgess, K. and Berry J., 2001. What’s a Map? - Media Mapping Technology is Redefining the
Term, Geoworld, Vol 14 No. 5.
Pictographics, no date, Pictographics' GIS and Internet Mapping Solutions, URL http://www.
pictographics.com/gis.lasso.
Star, J. and Estes, J., 1990. Geographic Information System – An Introduction, University of California,
Santa Barbara, Prentice Hall, Inc.
59
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF COMMONLY USED SHADING

DEVICE APPLIED OVER WINDOWS IN THE CONTEXT OF DHAKA CITY
Abul Mukim Mozammel Haque Mridha
Assistant Professor, Architecture Discipline, Khulna University
ABSTRACT
In the last few years a new way to design buildings, known as energy conscious design emerged
where buildings are so designed that their shape, orientation and above all their envelope allow
assessing comfort conditions with a minimum use of building services. Installation of solar control
instead of large cooling plants in buildings like offices, schools hospitals may reduce electricity
consumption, reduce the use of freons and enhance comfort. It is a sound design principle that heat
load should be primarily reduced through appropriate design of the building, i.e. through proper
consideration of window orientation and window sizes and specially the use of sun shading and
control strategies for sunshades. This paper presents a simulation study of evaluating performance
of shading device on a wall facing south in the context of Dhaka (Latitude 23.5oN). The
performance evaluation was based on energy saving potential of shading device having various
depth by computer simulation where a typical sequence of the analysis was created in the model
using the interactive program ICON then quantitative values for the energy received on the
windowpane was tabulated with the program SHADEN. Calculation for evaluation was done for six
months starting from April to September, as they are considered as hot-dry and hot-wet seasons.
Simulation results showed that horizontal shading devices were very effective during the months of
June and July.
KEY WORDS: Windowpane, shading device, solar radiation, simulation
INTRODUCTION
One of the characteristics of modern architecture is the wide spread use of glazing in the
building facades. This, and the increasing use of lightweight structures, has caused considerable
changes in the relationship between interior and ambient climates and the problem of
overheating has become a major concern even in temperate and cold countries.
The thermal effect of a glazed wall section is depended on the shading provided and the spectral
properties of glass. Shading the glass affects the quality of incident radiation and hence modifies
both the heat flow to the interior and the indoor temperature. The quantitative modification
depends on the location of the shading device with respect to glass, whether internal or external.
When shading device intercepts radiation outside the glass, part is reflected outwards, part
reflected inwards and the remainder is absorbed, elevating the temperature of the shade. Heat
60
flows, therefore, convection and radiation from the shade; heat removed by convection with the
wind barely affects the glass, and the transparent materials are opaque of the long wave range of
radiation. Thus only a small fraction of the incident radiation penetrates externally shaded glazed
area.
Shading device may perform a variety of functions: controlling heat gains either constantly or
selectively (eliminating the sun in over heated periods, admitting it in under heated periods).
They may affect daylight, glare, view and ventilation. The relative importance of these factors
varies under different climatic conditions and in various situations. Thus in houses, direct
penetration of sunshine may be welcomed in winter and undesirable in summer while in
classrooms it may be disturbing regardless of the climatic conditions. Sometimes requirements
may be contradictory e.g. good lighting for seeing and prevention of overheating, but in many
cases solutions can be found which fulfill seemingly contradictory requirements.
Fixed shading devices are generally provided in the building envelope to exclude solar radiation
in the summer and admit it during the winter. However, they also obstruct a significant amount
of diffuse daylight. Conversely shading devices if they are operable can be adjusted to changing
outdoor conditions. These devices can be either manually operated or motorized, operated by the
building automation system (Athienitis and Tzempelikos, 2002). Moreover adjustable and
retractable shading devices can be adjusted to fulfill the changing requirements at will, but fixed
devices exert their effect in a predetermined fashion, depending on the interplay between their
geometrical configuration, orientation and the diurnal and annual patterns of the sun movement.
To adjust this effect to the functional requirements, it is necessary to take into account all these
considerations when designing the shading devices (Givoni, 1963).
Innovative and dynamic building envelope elements have recently been employed to create a
high quality indoor environment and control solar gains. At the same time, significant savings in
electricity consumption for heating, cooling and lighting are realized if the above systems
operate optimally (Athienitis and Tzempelikos, 2002). Advanced windows, complex fenestration
systems and new types of shading devices are being produced and studied to be integrated in the
building envelope (Breitenbach et al. 2001). But compared with windows, little is known at
present of the thermal characteristics of sunshades and the effect of sun shading. This applies to
internal sunshades, sunshades between panes of window glass, as well as external sunshades. A
recent literature review (Dubois 1997) suggested that further development of calculation
methods to assess energy use and comfort in buildings equipped with shading devices still needs
to be carried out.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

A good answer to overheating problems consists of controlling solar radiation incident on the
building. Using solar-protective glazing is one simple solution which can be easily integrated
into the building design (Olgyay and Olgyay 1957). Furthermore, the use of special glazing
generates less construction and maintenance costs than shading devices (Soebarto and Degelman
1994). However, one major drawback of solar-protective glass is that it reduces solar gains in the
building even during wintertime. Therefore, in countries with dominant heating requirements, a
61
Evaluation of the Performance of Commonly Used Shading Device Applied Over Windows in the Context of Dhaka City
moveable-shading device is a better solution (Dubois 1999). But again manual control of
moveable shading devices is not reliable and may cause a constant disruption for the occupants
and most of the people of our country can’t afford the system of dynamic control of motorized
shading devices. Shading provision should be considered as an integral part of fenestration
system design, especially for facades with high solar gains. As shading devices may control
solar gains, block direct sunlight and transmit diffuse daylight in the room (Tsangrassoulis et al.,
1996), eliminating glare and high contrast and creating a pleasant luminous environment. It is
necessary, on the one hand, to classify the shading devices by their geometric characteristics; on
the other hand, to analyse their energy and luminous performance through the definition of man-
made parameters and calculation methodology. In the context of Dhaka, there is no tested rule
for shading devices. According to construction act, 1952 (E.B. Act II of 1953) section 18, (IAB,
1999) which is followed by RAJUK, it is said that maximum depth of shading device will not
exceed .5 meter (approximately 20 inches) over compulsory setback areas. But this rule may not
have come from any investigation or analysis of shading performance nor any comparative study
and evaluation for different climatic situations. Therefore buildings are being constructed
without proper attention to the performance of shading devices. Nobody in concerned about
whether proper shading is achieved or not. But time has come to understand what type of
shading device is actually needed and why, due to our increased concern about energy efficient
buildings and thermal comfort as well. Experiments and analysis should be made for different
type of shading devices, especially by varying the depth. Through study the relationship between
depth of shading device and amount of shade that cast on the windowpane, which is essential for
thermal comfort and exclude heat gain (energy consumption) from solar radiation should be
established and eventually incorporated in the design process.
Horizontal shading device has been considered in the context of Dhaka (with respect to latitude)
for simulation study whose depth of shading varies between 10 inch to 26 inch from the exterior
surface of the 10-inch wall, over a window having a dimension of 4.5’ X 6.0’ on the south
façade of a building. The task is to find out whether an optimization of the depth of shading can
be done independent of window width.
OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the performance of the shading device in terms of insolation and energy savings
using a computer based tool.
To suggest design modification on the existing model based on the performance.
METHODOLOGY
Setting the context:
i) To evaluate the performance of a horizontal shading device – a fixed window size (4.5’x6’)
has been considered.
ii) For the ease of drawing and calculation, thickness of the shade has not taken into account
and a study plane at the level of the interior surface of the window wall has been considered.
62
iii) For each case two planes were generated. Plane 1- the vertical plane, that was the window
with fixed dimension and plane 2 was the horizontal plane (shading device) of varying
depth, started form 10 inches up to 26 inches (in each step 2 inch increment has been
considered).
iv) For computer simulation-a typical sequence of the analysis was created in the model using
the interactive program ICON, and saved it on a sequential data file. A quantitative
appraisal of the overall shading was obtained by using the graphical display facilities of
ICON, with reference to the latitude: 23.5o, Month: April, Day: 15, Hour: 14.00, Min: 0.00
(Figure 1).
v) Calculation for evaluation was done for six months starting from April to September, as
they are considered as hot-dry and hot-wet seasons. (Ahmed, 1995)
vi) Then quantitative values for the energy received on the particular plane of interest (plane 1)
was tabulated with the program SHADEN
Figure 1.a Depth of Shading Device: 10" Figure 1.b Depth of Shading Device: 12"
Figure 1.c Depth of Shading Device: 14" Figure 1.d Depth of Shading Device: 16"
Figure 1.e Depth of Shading Device: 18" Figure 1.f Depth of Shading Device: 20"
63
Figure 1.g Depth of Shading Device: 22" Figure 1.h Depth of Shading Device: 24"
Simulation Parameter
Latitude: 23.5o
Month: 4
Day: 15
Hour: 14
Minute: 0
Figure 1.i Depth of Shading Device: 26"
Figure 1: Shadow profile on windowpane for various depth of shading devices during 15 April at 14.00
hrs.
SIMULATION PARAMETERS
(i) Rotation (An azimuth rotation angle to be applied to the whole model. A positive value
means a clockwise rotation when viewed from above. This parameter can be used to
examine the effects of changing the model orientation): 0 degree
(ii) Latitude (The latitude of the site in degrees): 23.5o N
(iii) Start Month (The first months for which results are required): 4 (April)
(iv) No. of Months (Number of months for which results are required): 4 to 9 (April to
September)
(v) X-Scan interval, Y-Scan interval (The scanning intervals for the shading calculation,
normally in meters): 0.10, 0.10
(vi) No. of planes (The number of planes to be analyzed): One
(vii) Plane No (The plane number of the planes to be analyzed): 1
CALCULATION PROCESS
The calculation was performed at intervals of fifteen minutes for four days per month for the
chosen period of months. The days were spread evenly through the month. For each time the
model was transformed into the sun’s view frame and the planes of interest (windowpane) were
64
scanned to find the area seen by the sun. The areas were multiplied by the incident direct
radiation (assuming clear skies) and the values integrated to find monthly totals for each face of
interest.
RESULTS
Table 1: The rate of direct solar energy incident on model face of the window pane at different
months of the year expressed in MJ/m2 as calculated by SHADEN
Shading Energy rate in MJ/m2
Depth April May June July August September
UnS* S UnS S UnS S UnS S UnS S UnS S
10 inch 153.9 55.9 34.2 4.1 1.0 0.3 9.8 1.5 86.5 16.3 254.9 148.1
12 inch 153.9 45.7 34.2 4.6 1.0 0.5 9.8 1.9 86.5 13.8 254.9 130.7
14 inch 153.9 31.7 34.2 4.8 1.0 0.5 9.8 2.1 86.5 13.5 254.9 95.0
16 inch 153.9 32.7 34.2 4.1 1.0 0.3 9.8 1.4 86.5 12.4 254.9 99.5
18 inch 153.9 29.6 34.2 4.1 1.0 0.3 9.8 1.5 86.5 12.5 254.9 87.3
20 inch 153.9 33.7 34.2 6.5 1.0 0.7 9.8 2.8 86.5 16.2 254.9 80.6
22 inch 153.9 29.7 34.2 4.1 1.0 0.3 9.8 1.5 86.5 12.5 254.9 71.1
24 inch 153.9 30.6 34.2 4.6 1.0 0.5 9.8 1.9 86.5 13.5 254.9 68.2
26 inch 153.9 31.4 34.2 5.3 1.0 0.5 9.8 2.2 86.5 14.1 254.9 66.4
Source: Shaded *UnS: Unshaded
According to Table 1, which expresses the direct solar energy incident rate on the windowpane,
certain important facts come out as follows:
(i) For all calculated months, there were no changes of incident radiation for unshaded portion
of the window irrespective of the shading depth.
(ii) Radiation intensity on shaded portion of the window varied for different months and also
for different depths of shading device.
(iii) It was evident that performance of shading devices was most pronounced during the
months of June and July while less in September and April.
Table 2: The amount of direct solar energy incident on model face of the window pane at
different months of the year expressed in MJ as calculated by SHADEN
Shading Total Energy Received in MJ
Depth April May June July August September
UnS S UnS S UnS S UnS S UnS S UnS S
10 inch 503.3 182.9 111.9 13.4 3.3 1.1 32.1 4.8 283.0 53.2 833.5 484.3
12 inch 503.3 149.5 111.9 15.0 3.3 1.5 32.1 6.3 283.0 45.0 833.5 427.2
14 inch 503.3 103.8 111.9 15.8 3.3 1.6 32.1 6.7 283.0 44.0 833.5 310.7
16 inch 503.3 107.1 111.9 13.4 3.3 1.1 32.1 4.7 283.0 40.7 833.5 325.4
18 inch 503.3 96.7 111.9 13.5 3.3 1.1 32.1 4.8 283.0 40.8 833.5 285.5
20 inch 503.3 110.1 111.9 21.3 3.3 2.2 32.1 9.3 283.0 53.0 833.5 263.4
22 inch 503.3 97.0 111.9 13.4 3.3 1.1 32.1 4.8 283.0 40.9 833.5 232.5
24 inch 503.3 100.0 111.9 15.0 3.3 1.5 32.1 6.3 283.0 44.1 833.5 223.1
26 inch 503.3 102.6 111.9 17.2 3.3 1.7 32.1 7.3 283.0 46.2 833.5 217.1
UnS: Unshaded, S: Shaded
65
Table 2 illustrates the total energy received on the windowpane. It is evident from the table that
the pattern is almost similar to the pattern as identified in table 1.
(i) Maximum amount of solar radiation incident on both shaded and unshaded portion of the
window was observed during the month of April and September.
(ii) Lowest energy received on unshaded and shaded part of the window was observed during
June and July.
(iii) Similar to table 1, amount of total incidental energy on unshaded part of the window was
same for a particular month irrespective of the depth of shading device.
(iv) Generally with the increase of shading depth a decrease of total amount of radiation was
observed.
(v) Amount of radiation on shaded part of the window varied for different months and also for
different depths of shading device.
Table 3: Total energy received on the face of interest (windowpane) for assigned period as
calculated by SHADEN
Shading Periods Total (April to September)
Depth MJ/m 2
MJ Ratio
Un Shaded Shaded Un Shaded Shaded
10 inch 540.4 226.2 1767.0 739.8 .419
12 inch 540.4 197.1 1767.0 644.5 .365
14 inch 540.4 147.6 1767.0 482.6 .273
16 inch 540.4 150.6 1767.0 492.4 .279
18 inch 540.4 135.3 1767.0 442.5 .250
20 inch 540.4 140.5 1767.0 459.3 .260
22 inch 540.4 119.2 1767.0 389.7 .221
24 inch 540.4 119.2 1767.0 389.9 .221
26 inch 540.4 119.9 1767.0 392.1 .222
According to Table 3, period total amount of energy and rate of energy received on windowpane
is same irrespective of shading depth in the case of unshaded situation.
(i) The amount and rate of energy received on the windowpane for total measured period
decreased with the increase of shading depth and vice versa.
(ii) The ratio of total energy received between shaded and unshaded portion of the window was
lowest for 22" to 24" depth of shading device while it was highest for 10" depth shading
device.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The selection of the optimal shading device type and transmittance is critical; thermal and visual
comfort and heating/cooling energy consumption are highly affected by the type and control of
the shading device used. Evaluation of the shading performance was based on the performance
of shading device having a depth of 10" as a benchmark. Comparative analysis of the
66
performance of the shading device having various depths was done with respect to energy
shaving potential.
Energy savings
Energy SavingsinAApril
pril Energy savings
EnergySavings in September
inSeptember
44 0 18 55 012 36
43
45 33
41 54
41
47
47 52 46
40
10" 12" 14" 16" 18" 20" 22" 24" 26" 10" 12" 14" 16" 18" 20" 22" 24" 26"
(a) (b)
Figure 5: Energy savings for different shading depth expressed in percentage considering savings of 10”
device as point of reference (0%)
Results of the simulation indicates that performance of shading device was at its maximum level
for the months of June and July respectively as very few amount of radiation was incident on
both unshaded and shaded part of the window. It is evident from the fact that horizontal shading
device is very effective for these periods of the year for windows facing south. It may be because
of the altitude angle of the sun. Conversely poor performance is illustrated for the month of
April and September, therefore can be treated as critical period. Therefore it is evident from
Figure 5.a that 47% energy was saved by the shading devices having 18" and 22" depth (which
is highest) for the month of April. While 20" device was saving 40% energy for the same period
of time. So the difference in energy saving from the formers is not very noticeable (only 7%).
The lowest shaving was performed by 12" device, which is 18%. For the month of September
the shading device having 26" depth demonstrated the highest performance and 55% energy was
saved (Figure 5.b) and shading device with 20” depth saved 46% incoming radiation.
One major finding of this study is that there was a considerable improve of energy saving just by
increasing 2" shading depth from 12" to 14", e.g. during the month of April, shading devices
ranges from 14" to 20" demonstrated energy saving over 40% in all cases while it was only 18%
for 12" device. Similarly in September the amount of saving for the former devices were over
33% as compared to only 12%. Therefore it can be said that 2" increase of shading depth from
12" device saves a considerable amount of energy.
67
Energy Savings (Periods Total)
47 0 13 35
47 33
40
47 38
10" 12" 14" 16" 18" 20" 22" 24" 26"
Figure 6: Energy savings for different shading depth expressed in percentage considering
savings of 10" device as point of reference (0%)
Ratio (Shaded/Unshaded for Periods Total)
0.222 0.419
0.221
0.221 0.365
0.26
0.273
0.25 0.279
10" 12" 14" 16" 18" 20" 22" 24" 26"
Figure 7: Ratio of total radiation incident on shaded and unshaded portion of the window
Looking at the energy saving profile (Figure 6) for the total calculated period, it is evident that
more energy was saved with the increase of shading depth was not always applicable e.g. energy
saving performance of 14" device was higher than 16" device, likewise 18" device exhibited
better performance than 20". Highest percentage (47%) of energy was saved by the devices
having 22" to 26" depth while the lowest was presented by 12" device, which was only 13%.
The important finding is that there was a substantial increase of energy saving from 12" to 14"
(almost 3 times) but little within the range of 14" to 20". Therefore only 2" increase of the
shading depth actually saving 22% energy. The ratio of total radiation incident on shaded and
unshaded portion of the window (Figure 7) is highest for 10” device and lowest for 22" and 24"
device.
Measurements and calculations made so far indicate that sun shading can have a large effect on
the energy balance. So the study finds out the fact that a minimum depth of shading device of
14" is advisable due to its high performance as compared to 10" or 12" devices. But between 14"
to 20" the performance efficiency is less significant. Therefore as far as the overhang is
concerned, the best use is, as known, for south orientations, and the right depth must be carefully
68
calculated. One point must be considered in selecting shading device is that- an increase of the
depth means a bigger shadowed area and a diminution of the shading factor with the daylight
factor.
REFERENCES
Ahmed, K.S., 1995. Approach to Bioclimatic Urban design for the tropics with special reference to Dhaka,
Bangladesh, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, A.A. School of Architecture, p.18.
Athienitis A.K. and Tzempelikos A., 2002. A Methodology For Simulation Of Daylight Room Illuminance
And Light Dimming For A Room With A Controlled Shading Device. Solar Energy, Vol. 72 No.
4, pp. 271-281.
Breitenbach J., Lart S., Langle I. and Rosenfeld J., 2001, Optical And Thermal Performance Of Glazing
With Integral Venetian Blinds, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 33, pp. 433-442.
IAB, 1999, Directory ,1999, Institute of Architects Bangladesh, p.45.
Dubois M.-C., 1999. The Design of Seasonal Awnings for Low Cooling and Heating Loads in Office. In:
Proceedings of the fifth symposium on Building Physics in the Nordic Countries. Gothenburg,
Sweden.
Dubois, M.-C., 1997. Solar Shading and Building Energy Use, A Literature Review, Report TABK—
97/3049. Lund (Sweden): Lund University, Lund Institute of Technology. Dept. of Building
Science.
Givoni,B., 1963. Man Climate and Architecture, Elsevier publishing Company Limited. pp.208-214.
Olgyay, A. and V. Olgyay, 1957. Solar Control and Shading Devices. Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey.
Soebarto, U.I. and L. O. Degelman, 1994. Effectiveness of External Window Attachment Based on Daylight
Utilization and Cooling Load Reductions for Small Office Buildings in Hot, Humid Climates. In:
Proceedings of the 9th Symposium on Improving Building Systems in Hot and Humid Climates,
Department of Mechanical Engineering. College Station (Texas): Texas A & M University.
Tsangrassoulis A., Santamouris M. and Asimakopoulos D., 1996. Theoretical And Experimental Analysis
Of Daylight Performance For Various Shading Systems, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 24 No. 3,
pp. 223-230.
69
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
STATUS OF HOUSING QUALITY IN RAJSHAHI CITY: A GEOGRAPHICAL

STUDY
Mallik Akram Hossain

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Rajshahi University
Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
The present study examines the quality of housing conditions in Rajshahi city and their internal
profile. It filters three main factors determining the housing quality and shows the geographical
pattern of their distribution and tries to reveal the composite areas of housing of different
environmental syntheses. These composite areas are, the geographical regions differentiated by
different physical facilities, social and economic conditions of the dwellers. This study shows that
the overall housing quality is as low standard as to subhuman level, since half of the city areas are
dominated by low quality housing consisting of kutcha houses with inadequate urban amenities.
The findings will be useful in providing the planners and policy makers with strategies for intra-
urban housing and to formulate sustainable urban housing policy as well in Bangladesh so as to
make the housing environment habitable.
KEY WORDS: Housing quality, Principal Component Analysis, Rajshahi City.
INTRODUCTION
To the bafflement of the rapid urbanization in Bangladesh is posing tremendous pressure on
housing needs by the influx of the migrants towards the city. These needs are left unmet with a
greater gap. The dearth of private and public housing has forced many people to land in
precarious houses, mostly located on the marginalized land. Quality of housing is a mere
question to them where livelihood is at stake. The low-income level of urban people is also a
contributing factor to the deteriorating housing quality (HQ). The quality of housing is basically
a qualitative judgment based on both available quantitative data and human qualitative
perception of the situation. By virtue of the total amount of areas under housing in urban areas,
the component is possibly the most important interurban phenomenon. The quality of housing
thus impacts on the urban physical expansion, the location of public facilities, urban internal
residential mobility and of course on the implementation procedure of the city plans. But the
major question lies on how to define housing quality-whether it is based on available physical
structure or the social advantages or on both. Housing quality is a very loosely defined term, and
there is no consensus in the housing literature on its measurement. It is also context-dependent
and variable over time (Lawrence, 1995). Thus to reaching to a universal definition of housing
quality is not possible.
70
Elucidation of housing quality has multiple avenues. It is defined in terms of the structure of the
dwelling and other facilities offered by the house, including amenities like availability of
kitchen, bath and toilet facilities, area, number of rooms, and the physical environment including
the location (Sengendo and Shuaib, 1999). Hence, the parameters defining housing quality are
too many. The parametric standardization of housing quality is very difficult. Virtually, housing
quality is a function of individual preferences. Insufficient data frequently have been noted as
major shortcomings of determining or defining housing quality in developing countries. The
relative lack of data on specific housing attributes, coupled with disagreements about how best
to measure housing quality, have long hampered policy makers and planners from effectively
formulating comprehensive housing policies consistent with current problems (Follain and
Jimenez, 1985). The difference of cross-cultural situation which influences on the scale of
quality judgment is another problem in defining housing quality. For example, the situation in a
city of Bangladesh is quite different from that of European, Australian and North American
cities. Another problem is to identify the importance of the influencing factors, which greatly
vary from city to city.
The overall housing situation in Bangladesh is very critical (Islam, 2003). The measures taken
by both private as well as governmental sectors aiming to overcome this situation is inadequate
and thus left unsolved in correcting the housing problems together with its standard of quality. In
the urban areas, housing situation is more degrading as it is characterized by higher degree of
inequality (Khatun, 1996). However, cities also differ from one another in housing
characteristics due to socio-economic differentials. Efforts have been made to study the urban
housing scenario both at home and abroad. A good number of studies solely on housing quality
and its relation with other issues have been carried out around the world (David, 1973;
Lawrence, 1995; Evans and Cooperman, 2001; and Tiwari, 2002). An excellent study by Tiwari
in 2002 on, “Regional qualitative and quantitative aspects of houses in Tokyo Metropolitan
Region (TMR)” has revealed housing quality among the five prefectures of the TMR, using
hedonic approach to estimate a quantifiable measure of housing quality. Very few housing
quality studies have been undertaken in developing countries to help inform policy decisions
(Fiadzo et.al. 2001). Among them the study carried out by Fiadzo et. al. (2001) is a remarkable
one in which a constructed housing quality index was applied to study the housing quality in
Ghana. The indicators used in this study include structural quality indicators, type of physical
amenities and access to public amenities. There have been lots of studies on different aspects of
housing in Bangladesh (Shaikh, et, al.1987-88; Islam and Hoque, 1990; Islam, 1996; Khatun,
1996). Unfortunately, the study of housing with special reference to its quality pertaining to
Bangladeshi cities is insufficient or non-existent. Considering all these studies, the housing
quality in this present study has been measured on the basis of the three main indicators
(factors): residential quality, family composition and urban amenities which include
multidimensional aspects of housing attributes.
Assessing housing quality is an important prerequisite for the design of future housing policies.
The present study aims to analyze the spatial pattern of housing quality in Rajshahi city and
identify ecological areas based on the housing situation. The intention of this study is to help
policy makers in designing housing policies particularly to ease the deteriorating housing
condition in urban areas of the country.
71
Status of Housing Quality in Rajshahi City: A Geographical Study
The significance of studying the status of housing quality in Rajshahi city is of high
paramounce. The paper explores the housing quality in Rajshahi city in spatial context; identifies
determinants; visualizes a composite scenario of HQ and provide a set of recommendations for
the policy planners.
PROFILING THE STUDY SITES

This study was carried out in Rajshahi city (Figure 1), the fourth largest metropolitan city of
Bangladesh in terms of population size. Rajshahi City, lying between 24° 21″ to 24° 23″ north
latitude and 88° 18″ to 80° 38″ east longitude, has been emphasized to develop as an urban
centre mainly after 1947 and importantly after it was declared City Corporation in 1992.
Recently the city is divided into 35 administrative wards. For this study, 30 wards were taken
into account for the convenience of data availability. At present, the city has got a population of
3.40 lac (2001) and spread on an area of 51.29 sq. km (RDA, 2003). A survey by Asian
Development Bank (ADB 1996) puts the population growth rate of Rajshahi City to be just over
2 percent per annum which is not much higher than the natural population increase (RCC and
WHO, 1997).
Rajshahi City, known as administrative and educational centre in an agricultural setting with
trading and some industries, got Municipality status in 1876. Because a Municipal Corporation
in 1987 and finally a Metropolitan City Corporation in 1992. The growth of the city got impetus
due to the establishment of many educational and government institutions during the past
decades. The service sector is the most important single employment generator of Rajshahi city
(RCC and WHO, 1997).
The growth of Rajshahi city has not been taken place in a planned way. The haphazard
development of the city has exposed a loosely demarcated land use pattern. The largest portion
of city’s land is occupied by residential land uses. The city’s northwest and northeast fringes are
72
still dominated by non-urban activities like agriculture and horticulture. Other than the city’s
central areas, all other areas are used for residential purposes mixed with other land uses but in
different magnitude. These various land use mélange, land value and historical background have
influenced the geographical distribution of housing standard in the city.
METHODS AND MATERIALS

In view of examining the HQ of Rajshahi City, special emphasis was given to the selection of
variables relating to housing conditions and socio-economic aspects. The analysis was done
mainly on the basis of secondary data collected from the 1991 census. Although initially more
than fifty variables were used, ultimately only fifteen variables were selected to pursue this
study. Variables were characterized by structural characteristics, amenity services and socio-
economic characteristics.
Factor analysis, a technique for data reduction in which the goal is to identify the underlying
structure of data matrix, has been widely used in geographical analysis of both intra-urban and
regional phenomenon. To reduce the bulk of variables, this technique is very convenient. This
study has used factor analysis to examine the nature of areal variation and its factors in
determining the standard of housing. Initially, the correlation matrix of 15 variables was
computed and the inverse correlation matrix was also used to identify the multicolinearity effect
among the variables. To overcome this effect, finally the analysis was left on 11 observed
variables. The correlation matrix was then subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
along with the varimax rotation which extracted three dominant factors. The factor scores were
also computed to show the spatial pattern of the factor’s magnitude. All these analyses were
done aided with the SPSS/PC package and Fortran 77 program.
Table 1: Factor Structure

Factor Eigenvalue Common variance explained by factor
% explained Cumulation % explained
1.Residential quality 5.194 47.20 47.20
2.Family composition 1.849 16.80 64.00
3. Urban amenities 1.212 11.00 75.10
Source: Based on the table 6.
ANALYSIS FACTORS DETERMINING THE STATUS OF HOUSING QUALITY

Factors determining the quality of housing in Rajshahi City have been extracted through factor
analysis. The status of HQ in the city is characterized by three major factors: residential quality,
family composition and urban amenities. The cumulative percentage of the variances of three
factors was 75.1 (Table: 1) which was considered to be reasonably sufficient to explain the
situation. Factor 1 alone has accounted for two third of the total variances approximately.
Names assigned to the factors were chosen on the basis of factor loadings on each factor. The
spatial distribution of housing quality and their variations in distribution pattern have been
shown in map (Fig: 2, 3 & 4) with the factor scores. Following is the interpretation of those
spatial patterns.
73
FACTOR 1: RESIDENTIAL QUALITY

Factor 1 explaining 47.2 percent of the total variance is the major factor and at the same time it
is the most powerful factor in determining the status of HQ in Rajshahi City as well. It is
represented with high positive correlation (Factor loadings) with V3, V4, V8 and V15 and
negative with V1, V2 and V14 variables. This factor could be named as the “Residential
Quality” on the basis of the loadings (Table: 2). It is evident from the Table: 2 that the housing
structure is very much related to educational status, urban and non-urban activities and
amenities.
Table 2: Residential Quality

Variable Factor loadings
V1 (% of households living in Kutcha houses -.80524
V2 (% of households living in Semi-pucca houses) -.74363
V3 (% of households living in Pucca houses) .96399
V4 (% total literacy) .89957
V8 (% of households enjoying toilet facility) .95042
V14 (% households involved in non-urban activities) -.42258
V15 (% of households involved in urban activities) .74249
% Variance 47.2
Eigenvalue 5.194
Source: Based on the Table 5.
Spatial distribution of factor 1 indicates that the areas with high score include more households
using pucca structures with toilet facilities (Figure 2). People living in this areas are literate and
they are associated with urban activities like, service, business, manufacturing, etc. Medium
score areas of residential quality have constituted a compact zone in the core area of the city.
The low score characterized by low standard of residential quality covers half of the city area.
Figure 2: Spatial distribution of Factor 1
74
FACTOR 2: FAMILY COMPOSITION

Factor 2 accounts for16.8 percent of the total variances and is positively correlated with
variables referring to the percent of households having less than 4 persons (V10), per cent of
households having 4-6 persons (V11), percent of households living in Kutcha houses (V1) and
percent of households involved in non-urban activities (V14). This factor is negatively correlated
with the variable V12. Similarly, factor 2 could be named as “Family Composition” based on
factor loadings. High score area is distributed scatteredly and dominated relatively by poor city
dwellers who are associated generally with primary activities and live in mixed type of family
(consists of small, medium and large size family). Low score areas of this factor characterized
by large family size (7-9 persons), have a tendency to locate more in the fringe area of the city
(Figure 3). Medium score areas under this factor consists of some compact zones in the city
(Figure 3).
Table 3: Family Composition

V1 (% of households living in Kutcha houses) .41405
V10 (% households with <4 persons) .69729
V11 (% households with 4-6 persons) .56520
V12 (% of households with 7-9 persons) -.88536
V14 (% households involved in non-urban activities) .58297
% of Variance 16.8
Eigenvalue 1.849
FACTOR 3: URBAN AMENITIES

The third pattern illustrates urban amenities having positive correlation with V7 and negative
with V11. This factor has accounted for 11.0 percent of variance only (Table: 4). The spatial
pattern of factor 3 as revealed from the Figure 4, has drawn a satisfactory scenario considering
facilities such as the existing pure drinking water facility in the city which is exhibited by the
high score of factor 3. In other words, only a small portion of city dwellers have been denied
access to pure drinking water facility as it is indicated by the score distribution of factor 3.
Wards having medium score of factor 3 are mostly found in the northern part of the city.
Table 4: Urban Amenities

V7 (% of households enjoying pure drinking water .86304
V11 (% of households with 4-6 persons) -.49760
% of variances 11.00
Eigenvalue 1.212
75
Figure 3: Spatial distribution of Factor 2 Figure 4: Spatial distribution of Factor 3
DETERMINATION OF HOUSING QUALITY ZONES IN RAJSHAHI CITY

The distribution maps of three factors have revealed a spatial pattern to each of the factors
(Figure 2, 3 and 4). In order to produce a single composite pattern of the housing quality in
Rajshahi city, three set of factors scores have been superimposed (Figure 5). In the process,
factor scores of individual factor on 30 cases (Wards) were computed and cross linked and then
divided into three classes: high, medium and low. Scores on three factors of 30 cases have been
examined to see whether it is high, medium or low. According to the spatial distribution pattern
it has been tried to summarize the main features of those combinations using three set of factor
scores. Finally eight different types of ecological areas (Geographical areas) in terms of HQ in
the city have been identified. The major implications of identifying these areas could be realized
in prioritizing the interventions for the improvement of housing condition.
Figure 5: Single composite pattern of the housing quality in Rajshahi city
Category 1: The housing quality is low in these areas having kutcha and semi-pucca dwellings
units. The people living in large (7-9 persons) and medium size (4-6 persons) family engaged in
primary activities, cannot afford to house in pucca dwelling units.
76
Category 2: The area incorporated into this category shows that housing situation is
characterized by severe shortage of pucca housing. Mixed family type and absence of urban
facilities are the significant features in this area. Thus this category results into poor quality
housing also.
Category 3: Situated in the downtown area, this category includes the medium quality-housing.
Mixed type family is also found in this region.
Category 4: Mixed family type and shortage of pucca dwelling units have deteriorated the HQ
in this area. Large proportion of these housing units is found to be located in the fringe area of
the city.
Category 5: This category encompasses the city area of medium quality housing as it is
characterized by medium scores of factor.
Category 6: The housing quality in Ward 14 and 16 which have constituted a compact zone is
satisfactory as the indicators like pucca house, literacy rate, urban amenities and urban activities
show. It has high positive correlation with factor 1. Large family type is not significantly present
in this area.
Category 7: This area also forms a compact zone which is characterized by kutcha and semi-
pucca dwelling units and non-urban activities. So, the housing situation is degraded to some
extent in this region.
Category 8: Pucca housing associated with literacy rate, urban activities, and urban amenities
and coincidentally with large family type denoting better housing quality is likely to be found
within this category.
CONCLUSION
The study exposes a miserable condition in overall housing quality in case of Rajshahi city. The
low quality housing found mostly in the fringe areas has occupied more than half of the city area
whilst high quality housing predominates around the Central Business District (CBD). Some
areas are exhibited predominantly by middle quality housing character concentrated on the
western and eastern side of the CBD area. It has been demonstrated through the findings of the
study that there is considerable variation in the proportion of the status of HQ. Spatial variation
of housing quality in the city is demonstrated by three major factors namely: residential quality,
family composition and urban amenities. Other factors, which appear to be relatively powerful
indicators in determining this large proportion of poor housing quality, are the proportion of
kuthca and semi-pucca dwelling units, primary activities and family size of household. From the
above study it has been evident why and how the spatial distribution of HQ in Rajshahi City is
as such.
Studying housing quality might help asses aesthetic and or use values of residential buildings,
identifies of targets of upgrading or replacement of degraded existing houses and know the
77
health and wellbeing condition of the residents. Ecological areas identified based on housing
quality in the present study will help policy makers in identifying areas for interventions and
making planning strategy for sustainable urban housing policy in Bangladesh. A further study on
how HQ impacts on the overall development of the city could be carried out in cities of
Bangladesh.
REFERENCES
BBS, 1991. Bangladesh population census (Community series), Zila Rajshahi, Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics, Dhaka.
BBS (1991). Bangladesh population census, District Vol. Rajshahi District, Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics, Dhaka.
David, R. M., 1973, Interurban differences in black housing quality, Annals of the Association of the
American Geographers. Vol. 63, No. 3. pp. 347-352.
Evans, H., and Cooperman, J., 2001, Housing quality and children’s socio-economical health, Environment
and Behavior, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp,-389-399.
Fiadzo, E., D. Houston, J., E. and Godwin, D. D., 2001, Estimating housing quality for poverty and
development policy analysis: CWIQ in Ghana, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp,
137-162.
RDA 2003, Structure Plan, Master Plan and detailed Area Development Plan for Rajshahi Metropolitan
City, Draft Final Report , Development Design consultants Ltd.-RDA, P.6-2.
Follain, J., R and Jimenez, E., 1985, Estimating the demand for housing characteristics: A survey and
critique, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol. 15, pp. 77-107
Hossain, M. A., 2002, Improving urban services delivery for environmental management: A study of poor
settlements in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh, unpublished M.Sc. thesis, AIT, Bangkok, Thailand.
RCC and WHO., 1997, Rajshahi healthy city programme: Health for all-all for health, Rajshahi.
Bangladesh.
Islam, N. and Hoque, S. O. 1990, Residential circumstances of low income earning, Single working women
in Dhaka City, Oriental Geographers, Vol. 34, Nos. 1 & 2.
Islam, N. 1996, The state of the urban environment in Bangladesh, In: Urban Bangladesh: Geographical
studies, Islam and Ahsan (eds), USP, Dept. of Geography, D.U. pp. 21-30.
Islam, N., 2003, The housing situation in Bangladesh” in urbanization in development (in Bangla), Islam,
N. (eds)”, Dhaka, Bangladesh. pp. 117.
Islam, N., 2003, City for decent habitat: City without slums, In: Islam, N., (ed.), Urbanization in
Development (in Bangla), , Dhaka, Bangladesh. pp. 37.
Khatun, H., 1996, Urban housing and national housing policy of Bangladesh, In: Islam and Ahsan (eds.)
Geographical studies, USP. Dept. of Geography, D.U. pp.32-44.
Lawrence, R. J.,1995, Housing quality : An agenda for research, Urban Studies, Vol. 32, No. 10, pp. 1655-
1664.
Sengendo, H., and Shuaib, L., 1999, Housing qualities of the urban poor: Wandegeya in Kampala Uganda,
Open House International, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp, 73-80.
Shaikh, M. A., Haque, M. E. and Khan, R., 1987-88, Some aspects of urban housing characteristics of
Nilphamari and Saidpur: A comparative study, The Journal of the BNGA, Vol. 15 & 16, Nos. 1 &
2, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Tiwari, P. (2002). Regional qualitative and quantitative aspects of houses in Tokyo Metropolitan Region,
Journal of Urban Planning and Development-ASCE, Vol. 128, No. 1, pp, 41-57.
78
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
ASSESSING THE URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF KHULNA CITY:

A MULTI-LEVEL QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
Kh. Md. Nahiduzzaman1, M. Mustafa Saroar2 and Sohel Jahangir Ahmed1

1
Lecturer, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline
2
AssistantProfesstsor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline
Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh.
ABSTRACT
With the increased pace of urbanization and industrialization, the quality of urban environment in
metropolitan Khulna is at the verge of severe degradation. This has been echoed in a good number
of earlier works/studies and media reporting. Several studies had exclusively focused on the issues
from mere qualitative perspective. This study necessarily differs with those from methodological
dimension. It uses 10 quantitative indicators from a wide array of environmental parameters to
assess quantitatively the urban environmental quality of Khulna city. Finding suggests that out of 31
wards, only 13 have demonstrated moderate to better urban environmental quality, whereby rests
are substandard if not inhabitable in terms of decent living. It concludes and implies that this
“quantitative environmental assessment process” can reinforce the traditional qualitative assessment
processes and help effectively for urban policy process.
KEY WORDS: Urbanization, environmental quality, environmental parameter, quantitative

assessment
INTRODUCTION
The physical environment of urban areas includes complex mix of built and natural elements
such as physical structure and economic activities and supporting infrastructure such as, road
network, water supply, drainage and other utilities. Modern cities are comprised of central
business districts, downtown areas, and distinct industrial estates. For proper management of the
urban function, assessment of urban environmental quality is a must. Thus, urban environment is
increasingly studied and its importance is recognized from a wide range of perspectives.
However, for illustrating urban environment, most works have exclusively focused on social and
cultural dimensions—for instance, the values, behaviors, and traditions of the urban population
instead of complete socio-physical dimension. No doubt that those socio-cultural aspects may
have profound influence on the quality of life in urban areas, nevertheless for assessing urban
environmental quality we should not pay any less concentration on physical dimensions of urban
environment.
The quality of the urban environment, especially in a socio-culturally homogeneous society,

differs greatly due to other reasons. In many cities, for example, this is partly due to the lack of
79
Assessing the Urban Environmental Quality of Khulna City: A Multi-Level Quantitative Approach
proper planning, especially of zoning including land-use regulations. Moreover, over congestion
of traffic, concentration of industries in the vicinity of middle and low income class housing or
public housing in particular and their poor management have a negative impact on the overall
urban environmental quality. Thus dramatic contrasts are observed in environmental quality in
most part of the city in Bangladesh. For proper planning and management of urban environment
there is need for updated data and information concerning urban environmental quality.
Unfortunately, severe dearth of such reliable and dependable data and information primarily
restrict the urban environmental planning ventures of most cities in Bangladesh. This study is
intended to assess the environmental quality of Khulna Metropolitan city in Bangladesh which
might help devising policy instrument for environmental planning and management of Khulna
city.
KHULNA CITY AS STUDY AREA

Khulna City is selected as the study area for numerous reasons which will be discussed later in
this section. Let us first introduce Khulna city. Khulna city is the 3rd largest metropolis in
Bangladesh with a population of around 1.2 million and an area of 55 square kilometers (Figure
1). The other three major metropolises of Bangladesh are Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi.
Khulna city is located in the south-west corner of Bangladesh. Geographically, it extends from
22y48’ to 22y56’ North Latitude and 89y28’ to 89y36’ East Longitude. The city is flanked by the
world heritage site of mangrove forest- the Sundarbansiv and the Bay of Bengal at the extreme
south end. Likewise, the country’s 2nd largest sea port- Mongla Port, next to the Chittagong sea
port, is located in the hinterland of this metropolis. In fact, over the years this city has been
developed as an important complex of trade, commerce, industry, education, recreation and
administration. Apart from providing these types of economic, social, cultural links to the
adjoining tertiary cities and towns, it has developed as a hub for providing physical
transportation and communication links to the contiguous cities of entire south-west part of
Bangladesh. Due to its unique location, riverine communication, sea port facilities, cheap labour
and for other couple of factors new investments of both, domestic and overseas, are heading
towards the newly established export processing zone (EPZ) of Mongla which is only 40
kilometer from the city center. Likewise, to enjoy the magnificent beauty of the world heritage
site of the Sunderbans tourists of both domestic and overseas use this city as the gate way to
those natural sites. To support these types of facilities new investment are targeting service
sectors, like hotel, motel, restaurant, transport, communication, housing and urban informal
sectors. Investors look for a pleasant environment for sitting their service industry to cater those
tourists and commuters of the industrial zone of Mongla. However, despite these prospects the
city environment often discourages the investors to invest in the expanding service sectors.
Primarily, because the city experiences all the ills of environmental problems as usually faced by
growing urban centers of developing countries. For example, basic resources like, land, water
and air are adversely affected, particularly in the city. Moreover, overuse of agricultural
resources, inundation of large areas due to construction of engineering structures, pollution of
land, water etc; seriously deteriorate natural environment (Khulna University 1999). Such
degradation is a serious concern for the city dwellers as well as the investors. Because, rapid
iv
World’s largest single chunk of mangrove forest
80
growth and concentration of population and unplanned activities, over exploitation and irrational
use of natural resources, poor management and unplanned development with couple of other
factors project a negative image of the whole city to the prospective investors. In fact, the city is
divided as many as 31 smaller administrative units called Ward. Few areas really do not have as
such environmental problems nevertheless as there is no scientific study those good ones could
not be singled out to the investors. To revitalize the trust of the prospective investors and the
urbanites it is paramount importance to delineate the whole city into different sub-units
according to their environmental condition which may help the prospective investors and city
dwellers to find an optimum location for their enterprises as well as their dwelling units.
In fact, several earlier studies had made attempt to assess the environmental quality of
metropolitan Khulna using qualitative criteria (Alam et al. 1998, KDA 1998; Murtaza and Saroar
1998; Saroar et al. 1998; Hasan et al. 2000). Those studies had differed in their timing, variables
used and analytical approaches. The findings furnished by those earlier studies, due to subjective
nature of assessment, considerably varied from one to another, especially in micro perspective
even though all of those implied that Khulna’s environment in general is rapidly deteriorating.
Among those studies, most notably the USAID funded Environmental Mapping and Workbook
for Khulna City project had made a noble attempt to assess the urban Environment of Khulna
city quantitatively. However, that was not accomplished finally for reasons best known to them.
This study was an endeavor to explore the possibility of the use of multi-level quantitative
indicators to assess the environmental quality of Khulna city. Such quantitative assessment
would help resolving the subjective drawback of earlier qualitative assessment approach, and
may help in urban policy processes from broader context.
Khulna City Corporation (KCC)

Source: Swapan, 2004
METHOD OF STUDY
Sample Design and Data Collection

This study uses the data set of Environmental Maps and Workbook for Khulna City, Bangladesh
project (Khulna University 1999). This research project was carried out by the Urban and Rural
81
Planning Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh at the later part of 1999 with the generous
support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Under this project
a total of 1800 households from 31 wards (smallest administrative unit) of Khulna City
Corporation (KCC) was surveyed using structured questionnaire. As one of the research officer
of that project, the author was actively involved with the collection, computerization, and
analysis of data and the report writing as well. Analyzed data showing the responses (in
percentage form) of city dwellers with respects to 10 essential environmental parameters (which
will be discussed later) are used for this study as primary data.
Parameter Selection
Environmental Maps and Workbook for Khulna City, Bangladesh project had compiled a huge
amount of data for as many as 45 parameters which were in one way or other related with
environmental quality of Khulna city. We proceed with only one question: what do we really
mean by good living (urban) environment? We have figured out the responses from different
stakeholders such as, different urban services providers, service receivers- the city dwellers, and
the experts. From their responses we have singled out 10 most important factors those can signal
the quality of living environment. These factors include: condition of housing, water supply,
drainage facility, toilet facility, solid waste management, noise level/pollution, green coverage,
awareness of people (regarding environment), air quality, and water logging. For this paper we
will call these 10 basic factors as primary level parameters (PLP). For every primary level
parameter we determine necessary number of criteria which are basically characteristic of
primary level parameter. Here, we will call these criteria (of primary level parameter) as
secondary level parameters (SLP). Likewise, for secondary level parameters wherever possible
we determine necessary number of sub-criteria, which are basically attributes of secondary level
parameter. We will call these attributes (of secondary level parameter) as tertiary level parameter
(TLP). Thus from the selected 10 basic factors the delineated multi-level parameters of this
study are presented in the following table for comprehensive understanding. For multi-level
quantitative assessment the modified Functionality Matrix (and Scalo-gram) technique is used
(Jenssen, 1998)
Table 1: Multi-level Parameters for Urban Environmental Quality Assessment

Primary level parameter (PLP) Secondary level parameter (SLP) Tertiary level parameter (TLP)
Concrete
1. Housing condition 1. Construction material Brick
CI-sheet
Bamboo
Golpata
2. Year of construction Before 1947
1947-1960
1961-1970
1971-1980
1981-1990
1991-2000
2000 and onward
3. Availability of electricity % with Yes
% with No
82
2. Water supply 1. Cooking water Pipe water (own
2. Drinking water house/communal connection)
3. Bathing water Tube well (walking distance)
4. Washing water Tube well (more than walking
distance)
Pond/ditch
River/Lake
3. Drainage facility 1. Construction types Pucca (concrete/brick) closed
Pucca (concrete/brick) open
Katcha (earthen)
Others (natural)
No drain
4. Toilet facility 1. Types of toilet With septic tank
Ring slab
Hanging
No toilet facility
5. Solid waste management 1. Distance of nearest dustbin Below 50 meter
50-100 m
101-200 m
201-300 m
301-500 m
500 and above m
2. Places of waste disposal Dustbin
Drain
Nearby low land/ditch
NGO’s van
Others
3. Frequency of waste collection Everyday
Once in a week
Irregular
4. Population dustbin ratio More the ratio lower the value
(Assigned)
6. Air quality 1. Cooking Materials Electricity
LPG
Kerosene
Fuel cake
Fire wood/biomass
Dung cake
2. Sources of odor/smell No odor
Open drain
Organic solid waste
Livestock
Swamp area
slaughter house effluent
Sewer overflow
Dump site
Mills/factories
83
Others
3. Smoke emission affected Lower the % the more the
household (%) value (Assigned)
7. Water logging 1. Duration of water logging No water logging
less than 1 day
1-3 days
3-15 days
15-30 days
30 days and above
2. Extent of water logging No water logging
Covering approach road
Covering surrounding areas
Covering courtyard
Up to floor/plinth level
Others
8. Noise level/pollution 1. Sources of noise No noise
Roadside bazaar
Workshop
Vehicle’s horn/whistle
Mega phone/mike
Industry/factory/mills
Other minor sources
9. Green space 1. % of household with green Higher the % the more the
coverage value (Assigned)
10. Environmental awareness 1. Educational status Graduate
of dwellers HSC/SSC/Voc. Training or
equivalent
Primary/Literate
Illiterate
2. Citizen Participation Co-operate with KCC
initiatives
Directly participate with
community initiative
Change personal habit about
environmental hygiene
Educate children about
environmental hygiene
Take personal initiative to
improve environmental hygiene
No role
Giving Weights for Multi-level Parameters and Enumeration of Result

For each of the tertiary level parameters (TLP) of each of the secondary level parameters (SLP)
specific weight (ranges from 0 to 1) is given based on the magnitude or extent of contribution of
that tertiary level parameter (TLP) to quality of personal life (comfort). Likewise, weight (ranges
from 0 to 1) is given for each of the secondary level parameters (SLP) of each of the primary
level parameters (PLP) considering its contribution to quality of personal and/or communal life.
84
Same procedure of giving weight is applied for each of the 10 primary parameters considering
its relative importance in urban environmental quality. For enumerating the result of any specific
primary level parameter the following procedure is applied.
First, the percent of household (0 to 100) belongs to specific tertiary level parameter (TLP) is
multiplied by the weight of that specific tertiary level parameter. This multiplied result can be
termed as tertiary comfort score (TCS). TCS for all of the tertiary level parameters are computed
in the same way before we go for summing up all the TCS of any secondary level parameter.
Sum of all TCS of a particular secondary level parameter is then multiplied by the weight of that
particular secondary level parameter (SLP). This multiplication will lead us to get a result which
we can term as secondary comfort score (SCS). Multiplication of average of all the SCS of a
particular primary level parameter by weight of that particular primary level parameter will get
you the primary comfort scores (PCS). In this way the PCSs of all the 10 primary level
parameters are computed. Average of these PCSs, in fact, will reveal the state of urban
environmental quality of Khulna City. Likewise, individual PCS will show the state of urban
environmental quality of Khulna City with respect to a particular primary level parameter (PLP).
Following the above procedure TCS, SCS, and lastly PCS are determined for the entire 31
administrative unit (i.e. wardsv) of Khulna City Corporation (KCC). Then a comparative analysis
among the different wards of KCC is performed. The highest value obtained from the study is
41.08 and lowest is 29.98. As it is a comparative study the ward of highest value is considered as
excellent ward and the ward of lowest value is considered as worst ward in terms of
environmental quality. Covering these two extreme values the following arbitrary but rational
classification is used to delineate the urban environmental quality of Khulna city from a
quantitative approach.
Wards with average PCS (APCS): greater than 40 is Excellent, greater than 38 and less than 40
is Better, greater than 36 and less than 38 is Good, greater than 34 and less than 36 is Bad, grater
than 32 and less than 34 is Worse, and less than 32 is Worst.
The condition used for calculation is [=IF (APCS>=40,"Excellent", IF (APCS>=38,"Better", IF

(APCS>=36,"Good", IF (APCS>=34,"Bad", IF (APCS>=32, "Worse", and IF (APCS<32,
"Worst")))))].
Almost similar classification technique can be applied for each of the 10 primary level
parameters’ PCS which will be shown later.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the following section whole process of computation of PCS (APCS) for KCC Ward no 1 is
shown as a sample work. Same procedure is followed for other 30 Wards while calculation their
respective PCSs; their computation processes are not presented here, nor even necessary.
v
Lowest administrative boundary of local level government like City Corporation.
85
Table 1: Primary Comfort Scores (PCSs) Computation Process for 10 Selected Primary Level
Parameters in KCC Ward No. 1
Parameters Mean Weight: Final
SCS PLP value
(PCS)
Weight: Value
Housing condition (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1.Construction materials Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

(Secondary level parameter) TLP household X TCS
household
percent
(TCS) 0.60 38.53
Concrete 1.00 44.80 44.80
64.21
parameters
Brick 0.60 7.50 4.50

Tertiary
CI-sheet 0.40 32.80 13.12

level
Bamboo 0.20 3.00 0.60

41.68 1.00 38.64
Golpata 0.10 11.90 1.19
2.Year of construction (Secondary
level parameter)
Before 0.10 4.50 0.45

1947
1947-1960 0.20 4.50 0.90 74.74 0.60 44.84
Tertiary level
1961-1970 0.40 7.50 3.00

parameters
1971-1974 0.50 11.90 5.95

1975-1982 0.70 16.40 11.48
1983-1991 0.90 22.40 20.16
1992-1998 1.00 32.80 32.80
Weight: Value
36.53 0.70 25.57
Water supply (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1. Cooking (Secondary level Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

parameter) TLP household X TCS
household
percent
(TCS) 0.80 50.31
Piped water 1.00 9.00 9.00
62.89
parameters
Deep tube well 0.90 16.40 14.76

Tertiary
Shallow tube well 0.70 44.80 31.36

level
Pond 0.30 23.90 7.17

River 0.10 6.00 0.60
2. Drinking (Secondary level
parameter)
Pipe water 1.00 0.00 0.00
Tertiary level
Deep tube well 0.90 22.40 20.16 74.48 1.00 74.48

parameters

Pond 0.30 0.00 0.00
River 0.10 0.00 0.00
86
3. Bathing
(Secondary level parameter)
Pipe water 1.00 7.50 7.50
Tertiary level
Deep tube well 0.90 9.00 8.10

54.40 0.10 5.44
parameters

Pond 0.30 35.80 10.74
River 0.10 9.00 0.90
4. Washing (Secondary level
parameter)
Pipe water 1.00 7.50 7.50
Tertiary level
Deep tube well 0.90 10.40 9.36

52.96 0.30 15.89
parameters

Pond 0.30 40.30 12.09
River 0.10 7.50 0.75
Mean Weight: Final

Parameters SCS PLP value
(PCS)
Weight: Value
Drainage facility (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
Construction type (Secondary Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

level parameter) TLP household X TCS
household
percent
(TCS)
39.47 0.80 31.58
Pucca (concrete) 1.00 4.50 4.50
closed 1.00 39.47
0.70 28.40 19.88
Pucca (brick)
39.47
Tertiary level
open
0.30 49.30 14.79
parameters
Katcha (earthen)
Other natural
0.10 3.00 0.30
No drain 0.00 14.80 0.00
Mean Weight: Final

Parameter SCS PLP value
(PCS)
Weight: Value
Toilet facility (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
Types of toilet (Secondary level Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

household
percent 84.59 0.80 67.67
(TCS) 1.00 84.59
With septic tank 1.00 71.60 71.60 84.59
Tertiary level Ring slab 0.60 20.90 12.54
parameters
Hanging 0.30 1.50 0.45
No toilet facilities 0.00 6.00 0.00
87
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
Solid Waste management (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1. Distance of nearest dustbin in Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

meter (Secondary level TLP household X TCS
parameter) household
percent
(TCS)
<50 1.00 19.40 19.40
54.64 1.00 54.64
Tertiary level
50-100 0.90 26.90 24.21

parameters
101-200 0.70 0.00 0.00

201-300 0.50 13.40 6.70
301-500 0.20 3.00 0.60
500+ 0.10 37.30 3.73
2. Place of solid waste disposal
(Secondary level parameter) 49.50 0.65 32.18
Dustbin 0.90 9.00 8.10
Tertiary level
Drain 0.20 11.90 2.38 43.16 0.90 38.84

parameters
Nearby low land/ditch 0.40 68.70 27.48

NGO 1.00 0.00 0.00
Others 0.50 10.40 5.20
3. Frequencies of solid waste
disposal (Secondary level
parameter)
Everyday 1.00 89.50 89.50 95.65 0.80 76.52
parameter
Tertiary
Once in a week 0.70 7.50 5.25

level
Irregular 0.30 3.00 0.90

4. Population dustbin ratio 5329.00
40.00 0.70 28.00
Value 1.00 40.00 40.00
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
18.51 0.50 9.25
Air quality (Residential Ambient Air) (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1. Cooking materials (Secondary Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

household
percent
(TCS)
0.40 21.36
Tertiary Electricity 1.00 11.90 11.90
level LPG 0.90 23.90 21.51 53.41
parameters Kerosene 0.60 17.90 10.74
Fuel cake 0.30 10.40 3.12
Fire wood 0.20 25.50 5.10
Dung cake 0.10 10.40 1.04
88
2. Sources of odor (Secondary

level parameter)
No odor 1.00 0.10 0.10
Open drain 0.70 34.30 24.01
Tertiary level parameters
Organic solid waste 0.60 31.30 18.78

Live stock 0.50 0.00 0.00
50.79 0.20 10.16
Swamp area 0.40 0.00 0.00
Slaughter house 0.30 3.00 0.90
Sewer over flow 0.30 13.40 4.02
Dump site 0.20 11.90 2.38
Mills/factories 0.10 0.00 0.00
Others 0.10 6.00 0.60
3.Smoke emission (Secondary
level parameter)
60.00 0.40 24.00
Affected HH (%) 10.40
Value 1.00 60.00 60.00
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
Water logging (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1. Duration of water logging Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

(Secondary level parameter) TLP household X TCS
household
percent
(TCS)
0.70 58.06
No water logging 1.00 35.70 35.70
Tertiary level
1 day 0.80 49.30 39.44 82.94

parameters
1-3 days 0.70 7.50 5.25

45.00 0.70 31.50
3-15 days 0.50 4.50 2.25
15-30 days 0.30 0.00 0.00
30+ 0.10 3.00 0.30
2. Types of water logging
(Secondary level parameter)
No water logging 1.00 35.80 35.80
Approach road 0.50 43.30 21.65
Tertiary 63.87 0.50 31.94
Surrounding areas 0.40 1.50 0.60
level Courtyard 0.30 19.40 5.82
parameters Others 0.20 0.00 0.00
Up to floor 0.10 0.00 0.00
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
41.88 0.55 23.03
Noise level/pollution (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1.00 41.88
Sources of sound (Secondary level Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total
89
household
percent
(TCS)
No noise 1.00 10.30 10.30
Others 0.90 7.50 6.75
41.88
Tertiary Roadside bazaar 0.60 7.50 4.50
level Workshop 0.50 7.50 3.75
parameters Vehicles horn 0.40 25.40 10.16
Mega phone/mike 0.20 22.40 4.48
Industry/factory/mill 0.10 19.40 1.94
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
Green coverage (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
Green coverage situation Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

(Secondary level parameter) TLP household X TCS 64.00 0.80 51.20
household 0.80 64.00
percent
(TCS) 80.00
Household with tree (%) 76.10
Value 1.00 80.00 80.00
Mean Weight: Final

(PCS)
Weight: Value
Awareness of people (Primary level parameter) SLP (SCS)
1. Educational status (Secondary Weight: Percent of Weight:TLP Total

household
percent
0.60 35.20
(TCS)
Graduate 1.00 15.40 15.40 58.66
Tertiary
paramet
SSC/HSC/Voc. 0.70 37.90 26.53

level
Primary/literate0.40 40.20 16.08

ers
Illiterate 0.10 6.50 0.65 36.65 0.70 25.65

2. Citizen's perception (Secondary
level parameter)
Co-operative with the KCC 0.40 74.60 29.84
Participation in community
0.70 13.40 9.38
initiatives
Change personal habit 0.60 9.00 5.40 47.62 0.80 38.10
Tertiary level
Educate children about

0.90 0.00 0.00
parameters
pollution problem
Take personal initiatives to
1.00 3.00 3.00
protect environment
No role 0.00 0.00 0.00
Source: Computation based on the raw data set of Environmental Mapping and Workbook for Khulna city project
90
Table 2: Ward wise status of parameters and overall environmental quality in KCC area.
PCS for
Urban Environmental
Housing condition
Drainage facility
Green coverage
Water logging
Toilet facility
Awareness of
Average PCS
Water supply
Noise level/
Solid waste
Air quality
Ward no.
pollution
Quality
people
1 41.68 25.57 31.58 67.67 32.18 9.25 31.50 23.03 51.20 25.65 33.93 Worst
2 45.86 26.76 27.02 65.87 32.03 5.21 42.00 27.12 6.40 23.31 30.16 Worst
3 45.84 25.35 46.03 72.97 29.69 5.47 34.88 33.19 64.00 25.49 38.29 Better
4 41.31 28.5 32.02 58.94 37.59 4.88 31.09 30.85 44.80 22.79 33.27 Worse
5 43.87 27.39 51.02 74.93 41.06 11.94 30.66 29.96 64.00 23.62 39.85 Better
6 41.73 27.37 44.58 67.78 38.93 9.92 34.66 31.77 57.60 30.12 38.45 Better
7 46.23 28.70 47.49 74.05 35.11 12.67 33.01 12.02 44.80 21.97 35.61 Bad
8 48.22 34.61 50.66 75.02 44.00 9.35 40.53 11.78 6.40 29.26 34.98 Bad
9 42.66 29.31 36.66 59.38 35.87 9.28 30.33 25.55 51.20 24.00 34.4 Bad
10 45.29 32.73 40.09 63.85 37.46 10.79 32.06 26.10 44.80 27.07 35.92 Bad
11 43.27 29.59 42.91 63.30 41.16 10.33 31.77 23.34 57.60 29.76 36.7 Good
12 43.62 34.16 36.91 77.02 45.28 9.54 31.75 23.97 99.20 24.48 34.59 Bad
13 44.50 31.73 38.46 69.84 40.43 12.12 42.00 9.55 32.00 24.66 34.53 Bad
14 38.02 30.87 25.45 65.03 39.07 12.14 26.77 22.85 57.60 25.05 34.18 Bad
15 44.41 31.04 47.98 71.52 41.89 11.74 31.23 27.14 44.80 23.54 37.53 Good
16 48.45 33.12 47.98 74.30 44.90 12.01 33.86 40.43 51.20 24.49 41.08 Excellent
17 43.16 35.07 48.91 74.69 42.57 8.58 33.21 17.67 32.00 27.47 36.33 Good
18 44.56 32.84 46.90 69.88 37.97 9.49 31.31 25.77 6.40 23.67 32.88 Worse
19 44.62 32.81 44.88 67.02 39.83 11.12 32.41 30.54 32.00 23.63 36.08 Good
20 45.55 31.23 47.46 71.86 41.68 10.67 34.53 20.06 19.20 24.10 34.63 Bad
21 44.00 31.05 38.71 67.95 41.17 12.84 32.29 24.92 51.20 25.30 37.14 Good
22 45.57 36.13 40.68 71.79 37.28 10.69 31.98 35.83 19.20 35.98 36.51 Good
23 49.18 32.16 32.40 77.60 35.28 11.53 36.16 39.88 32.00 33.54 37.97 Good
24 47.23 34.50 42.35 72.67 42.73 11.06 34.60 29.43 44.80 33.36 39.27 Better
25 39.70 44.95 41.41 73.44 41.77 10.33 32.89 9.89 27.60 25.98 36.73 Good
26 50.42 31.06 44.74 72.44 46.49 8.30 41.63 30.20 19.20 25.87 37.04 Good
27 44.42 34.00 52.73 72.68 44.01 11.27 27.55 27.21 57.60 25.68 39.72 Better
28 46.01 32.86 45.39 74.18 42.98 11.72 33.16 30.42 64.00 23.05 40.38 Excellent
29 43.81 33.87 44.67 74.71 43.42 10.09 30.22 27.37 6.40 36.99 35.16 Bad
30 42.18 31.99 38.38 70.63 34.03 10.34 30.07 25.85 19.20 24.15 32.68 Worse
31 36.20 29.01 13.33 51.20 29.87 8.64 30.02 29.18 51.20 21.15 29.98 Worst
Source: Computation based on the raw data set of Environmental Mapping and Workbook for Khulna city
project
From the Table 2, with the help of statistical manipulation (i.e. using range and mid value) PCSs
for different parameters are found almost evenly grouped and categorized as good, fair and bad.
The following table illustrates the parameter-wise environmental situation of different wards of
Khulna City corporation.
91
Table 3: Environmental Quality of KCC Wards with Respect to Different Parameters

Environmental Environmental Quality of Wards
Quality With Wards with Good Status Wards with Fair Status Wards with Bad Status
Respect to
Housing 2,3,7,8,10,16,20,22,23,24,2 1,4,5,6,9,11,12,13,15,17,18 14,25,31
condition 6 ,19,21,27,29,30
Water supply 17, 22, 25 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 1125
(PCS 35 & above: Good) 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, (PCS below 30: Bad)
27, 28, 29, 3025
(PCS 30-35: Fair)
Drainage 3, 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, 17, 18, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 21, 1, 2, 4, 14, 23, 31
facility 20, 27, 28 (PCS 45 & 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30 (PCS below 35: Bad)
above: Good) (PCS 35-45: Fair)
Toilet facility 8, 12, 23 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 4, 9, 10, 11, 31
(PCS 75 & above: Good) 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, (PCS below 65: Bad)
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
(PCS 65-75: Fair)
Solid waste 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18, 19, 1, 2, 3, 30, 31
20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 22, 23 (PCS below 35: Bad)
29 (PCS 35-40: Fair)
(PCS 40 & above: Good)
Air quality 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 4
(Residential 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31 (PCS below 5: Bad)
Ambient Air) 27, 28, 29, 30 (PCS 5-10: Fair)
(PCS 10 & above: Good)
Water logging 2, 8, 13, 26 23 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11,
(PCS, 40 & above: Good) (PCS 35-40: Fair) 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28,
29, 30, 31
(PCS below 35: Bad)
Noise level/ 3, 4, 6, 16, 19, 22, 23, 26, 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 7, 8, 13, 17, 25
pollution 28 15, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27, 29, (PCS below 20: Bad)
(PCS 30 & above: Good) 30, 31
(PCS 20-30: Fair)
Green 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 4, 7, 10, 15, 24 2, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20,
coverage 21, 27, 28, 31 (PCS 40-50: Fair) 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30
(PCS 50 & above: Good) (PCS below 40: Bad)
Awareness of 6, 22, 23, 24, 29 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 14, 17, 21, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15,
people (PCS 30 & above: Good) 25, 26, 27 16, 18, 19, 20, 28, 30, 31
(PCS 25-30: Fair) (PCS below 25: Bad)
project
From the above table it is evident that the whole city is in better position with respect to standard
air quality (residential ambient air). Only one ward (i.e. KCC Ward No. 4) is encountering the
air pollution problem. It is unclear why the inhabitants of this ward are experiencing air pollution
problems, especially, when there is no as such industrial agglomeration in this ward; the reason
could be attributed with the seasonal down wind flow from nearby industrial agglomerations of
wards 1, 2, 3 and 8. On the contrary, except a few wards like 2, 3, 13 etc; the whole city is
92
experiencing severe seasonal water logging problem. The reasons may be attributed to causes
like, encroachment of natural drainage and poor management of drainage outfalls in the Bhairab-
Rupsha River because except few wards like 1, 2, 4, 14 etc. the overall drainage facility is good
for whole city if not excellent. Solid waste management situation is far better than the other three
metropolices primarily because only 4 wards (out of total 31), for example wards 1, 2, 3, and 4
located in the extreme north of the linear shaped city are experiencing solid waste management
problem. The whole city is in good position if not very good in terms of solid waste
management. The reasons may be attributed among others to the extensive involvement of
NGOs, CBOs and community with the waste management. From the above table it is also
evident that with respect to others primary parameters the city is experiencing moderate to high
problem which is self explanatory. Study findings may help the local policy makers and the
development authorities to formulate their action plan for overcoming the bad situation. The
overall urban environmental quality of Khulna city is presented in the following table.
Table 4: Overall environmental quality of different wards of Khulna city corporation

Overall Wards with Statuses:
Environmental Excellent Better Good Bad Worse Worst
Quality
16, 28 3, 5, 6, 24, 11, 15, 17, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 4, 18, 30 1, 2, 31
(relative)
27 19, 21, 22, 13, 14, 20, 29
23, 25, 26
project
From the above table it is clear that almost half of the wards are very poor in terms of overall
environmental condition. Noticeable matter is that, wards having very sorry environmental
performance are located in the north-south end of the linear shaped city whereas environmental
service providing organizations are placed at the center of the city limit. It can open up a new
debate whether service delivery distance really affects the overall environmental quality of
remotely placed areas. Of course, the badly performed wards, for example 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12,
13 and 30 have housed most of the large industries in Khulna city. Many other earlier studies,
that heavily relied on qualitative assessment, have spelled out that the sitting of these industries
have negative influence on the Khulna city’s environment. Even it is also hard to conclude from
this quantitative study approach but there is likelihood that presence of industrial activities one
way or the other affects the overall environmental quality of the city. In the following figure
(Figure 2) the overall urban environmental quality of Khulna city is presented.
93
Excellent
Good
Better
Bad
Worse
Worst
River
1 0 1 2 Kilometers
Figure 2: Overall urban environmental quality of Khulna city
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This paper is intended to compare the environmental quality of different wards of Khulna City
Corporation with respect to multilevel parameters. As we have seen, it has reflected the
differences in environmental quality among KCC wards using various arbitrary categories, for
example, good, fair, and bad for every 10 parameters. From that, at the end it comes up with a
comprehensive but comparable picture showing the differences in overall environmental quality,
using categories like, ‘Excellent’, ‘Better’, ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, ‘Worse’ and ‘Worst’. In both the
stages of such categorization, even if the boundaries of different categories are arbitrarily drawn,
they truly reflect the differences, primarily because those boarder lines are drawn from a good
blend of professional judgment and theoretical backup. However, we should not forget that these
categories are relative and highly contextual. Here, the context is Khulna city, and thus the result
must not be directly compared with other contexts for example Dhaka, Chittagong or Rajshahi
city. For making comparison with other contexts need necessary modification, which must again
be based on professional judgment, theoretical understanding and knowledge of the area
(context) in question. Nevertheless, the outcome of this study will help assisting the local policy
makers, planners, environmental service providers and the civil societies at large, in the way of
planning and managing a sustainable physical environment of Khulna city.
94
REFERENCES
Alam, A K M., M. G. Murtaza and M.M. Saroar. 1998, Problem and Prospects of the Development of
Metropolitan Khulna, Paper presented at the Silver Jubilee of Institute of Engineers Bangladesh,
Khulna.
Hasan, M.,M.G. Murtaza, S M. Momen, S M M. Mamun and MM. Saroar, 2000, Growth and Development
of Khulna City: An Analytical Review, Khulna University Studies Vol 2, No.1, pp. 263-274.
Jenssen, B. (ed.), 1998, Planning as a Dialogue, SPRING Center, University of Dortmund, Germany.
.KDA, 1998, Preparation of Structure Plan, Master Plan and Detailed Area Plan for Khulna City, Khulna
Development Authority (KDA), Aqua-Sheltech Consortium, Khulna.
Khulna University, 1999, Environmental Mapping and Workbook for Khulna City, Regional Development
Office for South Asia/US Agency for International Development, Dhaka.
Murtaza, M.G. and M. M. Saroar, 1998, Performance Evaluation of an NGO engaged in Municipal Solid
Waste Management in Khulna City, Padipan, Khulna.
Saroar, M M., M. Hasan and M.G. Murtaza, 1998, Problem and Prospects of Development in Metropolitan
Khulna: An Analytical Discussion, Bhugul Patrika (Journaal Of Geography), Vol. 17, pp. 5-23.
95
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
PLANNING STRATEGY IN HONG KONG: COMPARISON WITH

SINGAPORE AND TAIWAN
S.M. Reazul Ahsan
Lecturer, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University

ABSTRACT
Hong Kong, one of the four Tigers in Asia, has come a long way-from a small fishing village to an
Asian World City and the economic gateway of China. In 1950’s with the economic take-off a huge
number of people migrated to Hong Kong from Main Land (China) due to communist revolution.
Since then Hong Kong government has to pay more attention in physical planning like Housing,
Transportation, and Land reclamation to cope with the excess demand. The planning approach in
Hong Kong is a top-down approach where the Chief Executive-appointed Executive Council is the
highest policy making body. While, some of the policy proposals may be published for public
consultation, the final decision for various policies rest with the Executive Council. In its three-tires
of Planning Hierarchy the first tire Territorial Development strategy, which maps the long term
socio-economic needs of Hong Kong and decided by the Chief Executive Council and the last stage
the District Level is responsible to execute the plan. In different decades Hong Kong adopt different
Planning Policy to meet the current demand of that particular time period and at present the main
focuses of Hong Kong Planning are economic growth, urban renewal, environmental protection and
sustainability. This paper focuses the planning process adopted by the Hong Kong Planning
Authority for a better Hong Kong since 1950’s.
KEY WORDS: Hierarchy of planning, Urban Renewal, Land leasing.
BACKGROUND
Hong Kong has come a long way- from a small fishing village to a world-class city and the
economic gateway of China, in 1840s to a vibrant city housing close to six million people in an
area of 1,070 km 2 (Ng, M.K, 1997, pp. 31). It seems the Governing and economic system of old
Hong Kong was managed in complete planned way since 1800’s to dream about today’s Hong
Kong. It can also be said that Hong Kong a sound planning system or planning strategy in all the
stages.
But the term “planning” when applied to governmental activity in an urban area would have it be
synonymous with the activity known more fully as land use planning or town planning that is the
purpose of those who make use of the land (Taylor, 1989). The land use planners guides the
growth of a city or region so as to produce a spatial pattern of land uses reflecting the functions
that society attach to its cities. An identifiable group of professional planners, carrying out the
96
activities normally associated with land use planning, has been part of the government
administrative machinery in Hong Kong since 1950’s. Since then planning in Hong Kong means
physical land use plan to accommodate its huge population within this small territory.
Colonization has been part of the history of Hong Kong. It was a British colony from 1842 to
1997. However, Hong Kong did not start its economic take-off until 1950’s, when mainland
(China) capitalists and refugees fled to Hong Kong to escape the Communist rule after the
establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In July 1997, Hong Kong become a
Special Administrative Region (SAR) in China under the ‘One Country, Two System’ concept
agreed to in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration (Ng, M.K, 1999, pp.9) Since 1949 with the
economic take-off Hong Kong Government pay more attention in physical planning like
Housing, Land, and Land reclamation to cope with the excess demand. In 1950s Hong Kong
planning strategy focused mostly on the Population growth, Housing, Land Reclamation but
these days it focuses on Economy, Urban Renewal, Environment and Sustainability and
Transportation to make Hong Kong as an Asian World City.
With the change of time frame, political economy (British colony to SAR of China),
globalization and also after the economic depression in 1997 the planning approaches has also
changed for Hong Kong, but still the main focus of Hong Kong planning is land use planning.
The planning process for Hong Kong is a top-down approach, the Planning Department (PD),
taking policy directives from the high-level Chief Secretary Committee, and the Planning,
Environment and Lands Bureau, is responsible for all types of planning at the territorial, sub
regional and district levels (Ng, M. K.1999, pp. 17). It means the top most planning body in the
Planning Department organizes all sector of planning and the local authority is responsible to
execute the plan.
This study focuses on the planning administration and hierarchy, planning process, and planning
strategy in Hong Kong as well as the sectors where they pay more attention to evaluate the Hong
Kong Planning process. A quick comparison of planning hierarchy with Singapore and Taiwan
also made for better understanding of Hong Kong planning process in terms of other two Asian
Dragons. Planning strategy can be viewed as a decision making process. According to this
process the government provides a framework for the development plan, allocate the resources
and implement the plan at the regional level. There should be a relationship between the local
level planning authority and the Central planning authority that is Planning Department. The
planning approach for Hong Kong should be one of two-way, rather than top-down approach.
PLANNING ADMINISTRATION AND PLANNING HIERARCHY IN HONG KONG

In Hong Kong, the Chief Executive-appointed Executive Council is the highest policy decision
taking body. While, some of the policy proposals may be published for public consultation, the
final decision for various policies rest with the Executive Council. Before policies are sent to the
Executive Council for deliberation and endorsement, they are scrutinized by the Chief
Secretary’s Committee, which comprises various policy secretaries. The Land Development
Policy Committee (LDPC) chaired by the Chief Secretary set the overall land development and
planning policy framework (Ng. M.K. 1999. p. 28)
97
Planning Strategy in Hong Kong: Comparison with Singapore and Taiwan
The policy bureau responsible for urban development and planning issues is the Planning
Environment and Land Bureau (PELB), which provides policy directives to the Planning
department, Land Department, Building Department, Environmental Protection Department and
the Land Registry. Figure 1 shows the Urban Planning Administration in Hong Kong (see
Appendix 1).
Territorial Development strategy, which maps out the overall land development strategy to meet
the long term socio-economic needs of Hong Kong. The second tier is the sub-regional
development strategies, which translate territorial development goals into more specific planning
objectives for the five sub-regions in Hong Kong. At the district level or third tier, there are four
types of plans and only two of them are statutory. In other words, only two types of plans in the
whole planning hierarchy are statutory and involve mandatory citizen participation in their
preparation. The rest of the plans are prepared administratively (Ng. M.K. 1999. pp. 37).
Planning Hierarchy in Hong Kong is shown in Figure 2 (see Appendix 2).
PLANNING PROCESS IN HONG KONG

As it was mentioned earlier, only two of the four district plans in the three-tier planning
hierarchy in Hong Kong are statutory in nature. The making of these two types of district plans
is provided in Town Planning Ordinance (TPO). Section 2 of the TPO provides for the
appointment of the Town Planning Board consisting of official and non-official members
appointed by the Chief Executive (Planning Department, 1996b). The Chief Executive in
Council may make regulation for the purpose of facilitating the work of the Board. The Town
Planning Board is also responsible for preparing development permission area plans under
Section 20. As provided in Section 3(1) of the TPO, the Town Planning Board shall undertake
the systematic preparation of draft plans for the lay-out of such areas of Hong Kong as the Chief
Executive may direct, as well as for the types of building suitable for erection therein; and draft
development permission area plans of such areas of Hong Kong as the Chief Executive may
direct (Planning Department, 1996b). The above draft plans are basically land use zoning plans
demarcating land for various uses. The draft plans prepared under the direction of the Board,
which the Board deems suitable for publication, shall exhibited by the Board for public
inspection at reasonable hours for a period of two months (Ng. M.K.1999. pp. 52). Figure 3
shows the Hong Kong plan-making process (see Appendix 3)
PLANNING STRATEGIES IN DIFFERENT DECADES

After the Second World War Hong Kong adopt different planning policy in different decades.
The first planning approach was taken from 1970’s.
1970’s The Hong Kong government took 10 years Housing policy. The main strategy was to
accommodate the huge population at any cost. So the planning authority was more concern
about land and they do not care about sustainable development and public participation.
1980’s is a turning point for Hong Kong planning, the first TDS (Territorial Development
Strategy) established in 1984. The first container ports, the 3rd and 4th Industrial estates were
98
developed under this strategy. From then the Government concentrated about economic planning
but even though they were absent for sustainable planning and public participation.
1990’s the Port and Airport strategy was taken and that were the first time Hong Kong planning
authority started thinking about sustainable development and public participation in planning.
The top-down approach of Hong Kong planning tries to focus on the bottom-up approach and
include the local residents in planning process. Since 1990’s there is a paragraph about
sustainability in every planning report but this clause is seldom practice for real life planning.
After the Asian economic crises in 1997, the Hong Kong government becomes more concern
about economic development as well as sustainable development. The planning strategy gets a
long-term vision. Public participation becomes a part of the planning process, and the
government tries to adopt an open door policy in the planning strategy and make their policy
transparent to the common. This planning process or decision-making process is neither perfect
nor problem free. People criticized the various aspects of the land use planning. In land use
planning Hong Kong mainly focuses on some certain things, like Housing, Population growth,
Demands for land and Conservation. These days they are more concern about economic growth
and the cross boundary link with main land.
From the very beginning, Hong Kong government always focuses on three main key factors for
developing the planning strategy. The three key factors are Housing, Population and Land and
very recently Countryside Conservation gets attention in new planning paradigm of Hong Kong.
KEY POINTS OF HONG KONG PLANNING

The year 1950 was the turning point of Hong Kong economy with the communist revolution in
Mainland China. So the main planning focus was population and housing oriented. After the
rapid economic growth of Hong Kong, together with its swelling population, has resulted in
great demand for building sites to accommodate all types of development from luxury housing to
transport terminals to amusement park. So land becomes a major concern in the planning of
Hong Kong. Since 1970’s they started land reclamation to meet that excess demand.
Housing
Since 1950 Hong Kong government has built public housing of increasingly high quality, in line
with the increasing expectations among Hong Kong residents, at a pace, which is probably
unequaled anywhere in the world except Singapore. The planning system concentrated more
with public housing aspect at the Colony’s development. By the end of 1964 over 600,000
persons had been accommodated in Resettlement and Government Low-Cost Housing estates.
Yet about the same number of squatters remain, a problem which a recent Government white
paper drew attention to by outlining a ten construction programmer aiming at a target of
providing additional 1,900,000 housing units by 1974 (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp. 283).With the
economic boom after 1950’s a huge number of people migrated from main land (China) to Hong
Kong and that caused the housing demand and forced the Planning Division to concern on
housing sector. The Planning Division was established in 1953 to coordinate planning proposals
99
and, in particular, to prepare outline developments for the expanding districts of the Colony; to
solve the housing needs (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp. 283). The scenario is changed from 1954
government has built so many public housing of increasingly high quality, to meet the increasing
demand. The following statistics can give an indication of the government achievement in the
planning of public housing. In April 1986 there were 2,350,000 Hong Kong residents living in
more than 550,000 rental-housing units managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. New
housing units were going up at the rate of more than 35,000 per year, a rate that has been
sustained each year since 1980-1981. Almost 70,000 units had been made available since 1979
under a “home ownership scheme” designed to encourage public housing tenants to buy their
own homes (Taylor, 1989.pp.333). Housing is always a problem in Hong Kong even in the past.
The government pays a lot to provide housing. Very recently they allocate most of the site in the
west Kowloon site for residential area. Even it’s a great headache of the government planning
strategy. In the fiscal year 1985-1986, the capital expenditures on housing in Hong Kong
amounted to HK$ 3.31(US$ 424 million) billion which was 30% of total government
expenditure (Taylo, 1989. pp. 338). According to the latest census, 2001 the present housing
demand in Hong Kong is 85000 units per year.
Population
Since 1950 till today population is one of the most ridiculous problems in Hong Kong. In 1961
the overall urban density in the built up area of the city was approximately 380 persons per acre.
Though certain districts like Wanchi had 847 persons per acre and Sheung Wan had 963 persons
per acre (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp. 284). Professor C.D. Buchan the immediate past President of
the Town Planning Institute visited the Colony and in the press conference he stated: “Your
chief problem in Hong Kong must be what to do with the population. When I think that in
London one regards 200 persons to the acre as very high density-and that is only being achieved
in one or two localities in London-then I come to Hong Kong, and find densities at 2,000 or
3,000 persons to the acre, I realize that this to a visitor is quite staggering.” (Wigglessworth,
1993. p. 284). Population always indeed one of the serious problems facing by the town planners
in Hong Kong, thus government and planning authority always paid their maximum effort in this
regard for better accommodation and sustainable planning for them since 1950’s.Even in the past
Hong Kong had the highest population density in the built up urban area, according to the census
in March 1961 the Colony covered an area of about 400 square miles and the urban area was
represent only 4% of the total land with 80% of the total population (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp.
284).
Demands for Land

Public Housing and Industry are the two largest sectors in Hong Kong that consume the
maximum building sites, at the same time the sites for other uses are also critical to support the
economic growth of Hong Kong. The demand of land usually solve by land reclamation from the
sea. Still it is a continuous process of the government to allocate land from the sea to meet the
excess demand. The new international airport at Kai Tak was built on reclaimed land as a by-
product released 117 acres of land previously occupied by the old runways. The new industrial
satellite town Kwun Tong, which was started in 1956, is also largely built on reclaimed land.
Between 1887 and 1963 about 2000 acres of land has been reclaimed from the sea and
consideration is being given to the reclamation of a further 2,000 acres in the New Territories
100
and on Lantao Island (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp.285). After 1984 when the TDS was completed
the more land has become the most important criteria for the new development. The
recommendations of the TDS were concern about the need for the community for the additional
land, services and had a close look with the development potential in each major sub regions of
Hong Kong.
The team of planners responsible for the TDS concluded that new land should be reclaimed off
the coast of the main urban area to accommodate, among other things, new public housing for an
additional 310,000 people, an expanded central business district, an additional open space to
serve densely built-up urban areas of western Kowllon and northwestern Hong Kong island
(Taylor, 1989. pp. 339).
Countryside Conservation
The country parks are a relatively new addition to Hong Kong landscape, appearing only since
1976. They serve a variety of roles benefiting the community. The parks provide facilities for
outdoor recreations, which are increasingly in demand in Hong Kong as the population enjoys
higher disposable income and more leisure time. They serve as greenbelts surrounding the major
population centers. Much of the country parks land serves as a natural water catchment area.
Despite the small area and high density, fully 40 percent of Hong Kong land area is set aside as
permanent open space Figure 04 shows the distribution of these so called country park, which
cover not only the more remote reaches of the territory but also include some land surprisingly
near to urban areas (Taylor, 1989. pp 341).The rest of Hong Kong’s rural land, however, is not
the same degree of protection as the country parks. Countryside conservation in Hong Kong thus
should be viewed as only a partial success; nonetheless, the accomplishments that have been
made in the area of parkland management are significant achievement, which would not have
happened without forceful government action.
Figure 4: Country Parks in Hong Kong. (Source: Taylor, 1989. pp. 342).
Evolution of Hong Kong Planning

Since the establishment of the planning office in 1947, the process of planning has come a long
way. Abercrombie plan could be viewed as the first territorial development strategy. In the
101
1950s the Government took a housing led approach in planning and development with the aim of
providing decent and affordable housing (Wigglessworth, 1993. pp.285). With the introduction
of the new town program in the 70s town planning became the efficient means to facilitate the
urban development to meet the housing as well as the community facilities needs. The 80s saw
the Government’s decision to prepare the Territorial Development Strategy mainly to identify
the further growth areas and to produce long-term land use plans so that it would help in the
planning of transportation networks and investment in the infrastructures. The issues of
reclamation, further development or conservation and the urban renewal became the prime
issues of the 90s. The challenges for the new decade for the town planning in Hong Kong agenda
are sustainable development, limitation on the urban growth, interaction with the Pearl River
Delta region, projection of Hong Kong as world-class city, and highlighting the role to the
planners. The objective of town planning in Hong Kong is to serve most conflicting of the
interests like the private and the public interest, local and the community interest. Similarly, their
objective is to cater to the short-term demand as well as they have to plan for the long-term
benefits. Town planning in Hong Kong is mainly concerned with the land use planning, which
forms the guideline for the development of the built environment for the collective good. Town
planning system in Hong Kong consists of basically two components: Land Use plans and
Guidance system
Land Use Plans

The physical planning process like the administrative process in Hong Kong is also the top down
planning process. The Territorial Development Strategy is at the top of the hierarchy of plans in
Hong Kong. This tier is followed by the Sub Regional plans for the main urban area (Metro
Plan) and New Territories Sub regional plans (four plans). Sub-regional plans are prepared to
translate the territorial development goals into more specific planning objectives. The third tier
refers to the local plans, which include Outline Zoning Plans (OZP) and the Development
Permission Area Plans; and the departmental outline development, and layout plans. OZPs are
the only plans, which are statutory in nature that the public can object on and OZPs are bound by
the Town planning Ordinance to have the public consultation. The public consultation is done
through the District Council. Except for the formulation of the OZPs all the other plans are
prepared administratively and it is not mandatory for the Government to involve the people (Ng.
M.K. 1999.pp.37). Though the hierarchy of plans looks simple and straightforward to address
the problem and in decision-making, the process is not that simple. This has a lot to do with the
very independent nature of the various departments. For example, the Planning Department is
under the Planning Environment and Lands Bureau but they have a completely different set of
policy for the transport under the Transport Bureau and thus the planners have to compromise.
102
Figure 5: Continuing efforts to meet the community’s land needs. Source: Taylor, 1989 pp.335.
Guidance System
The guidance system for preparing all the plans, which act as the reference is the Hong Kong
Planning Standard and Guidelines and these guidelines, are defined by the Government. This
guidance system helps in the plan making process. It would control the change of use and helps
on the planning application. For example it should have guidelines for enforcement against the
unauthorized development.
A COMPARISON OF PLANNING HIERARCHY BETWEEN HONG KONG,

SINGAPORE AND TAIWAN
The setup of planning hierarchy of a country usually influenced by the political setup and it’s
background. The political influence of Singapore made the link between the strategic and the
local plans. In Hong Kong, the links among three tier plans are not explicit; some of the
strategies and plan are prepared administratively and not published. The system in Taiwan is
more complicated, where the related plans are made for different geographic levels.
A) Plans in Hong Kong: Hong Kong has a three-tiered system of land use plans:
(i) The Territorial Development Strategy maps out the overall land development strategy to
meet the long-term socio-economics needs for Hong Kong.
(ii) The function of the Sub –Regional development strategy is responsible to translate the
territorial development goals into more specific planning objectives for the five sub-
regions in Hong Kong.
(iii) Only two types of district plans in the whole planning hierarchy are statutory and involve
mandatory citizen participation. Rest of the plans is prepared administratively.
B) Plans in Singapore: two-tier hierarchy
Two instruments guide Singapore’s planning system: the Long-term concept plan and the
statutory Master plan with in the preview of the Urban Redevelopment authority.
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(i) Master Plan only depicts what has happened in the past and does not indicate future
development possibility because of the dynamic development
(ii) The concept plan maps out the long term land use and development strategy for the year
2000 and beyond, whilst the Development Guide Plans (DGPs) translated the intentions of
the Concept Plan to guide development at the local level.
The Concept Plan is equivalent to the Territorial Development Strategy in Hong Kong and
represents long-term physical development strategy for Singapore.
The non-statutory national comprehensive development plan aims to 03. Plans in Taiwan: four-
tier hierarchy. Taiwan has four tiers in their planning hierarchy and linked the plans.
(i) Promote a reasonable distribution of population and economic activities; to improve the
living environment; and to conserve and develop natural resources.
(ii) Four regional plans are responsible to a reasonable distribution of population and
production; acceleration of an all-round economy; improving the living environment and
social welfare.
(iii) The country and city joint development plans are made to promote economic development,
improve the living environment, and allocate land for future development of public
facilities; transport and communication, education and medical service.
(iv) Local levels there are three types of urban plans: city plans, country and town plans and
special district plans. Within each of these urban plans, two tires of plans have to be
prepared master plan and the detail plan both are zoning plan.
The tiers of planning hierarchy usually depend on the geographical boundary and the political set
up of the country. Thus Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan has different numbers of tiers in
their planning hierarchy. The following table shows a comparison of their planning hierarchy.
Table 1: Hierarchy of Plans in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan

Hong Kong Singapore Taiwan
Name of plans Statutory Name of plans Statutory Name of plans Statutory
National N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. Comprehensive N
development
plan
Regional N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. Regional plans Y
East, south,
West and
North
Country N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. Metropolitan N
region or Joint
development
plan
City-wide urban land use N Concept plan N Country and N
Strategic plan City joint
development
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Hong Kong Singapore Taiwan

Name of plans Statutory Name of plans Statutory Name of plans Statutory
Territorial N Master plan Y Master plan Y
Development
Strategy
Sub- Sub-regional N N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.
regional Development
Strategies
District Outline zoning Y Development Y Detailed plan Y
plan guide plan
Outline N Urban Design N N N
development Structure Plan
plan
Layout plan N Conservation N N N
Master Plan
Source: Ng, M.K, 1999.pp. 38.
It means Hong Kong and Singapore don’t have National even regional level planning where as
Taiwan has National and regional level planning. The district level plans for Hong Kong and
Singapore are more detail than Taiwan. The district level plans needs more detail planning for
execution but Taiwan is far beyond from that policy. In that sense Hong Kong has more detail
planning at the district level even they follow the top-down approach in the planning process.
Hong Kong and Singapore has a strong link with each tire where has Taiwan has four tiers with
loose link. The main problem of each of the planning hierarchy is none of it has bottom-up
approaches, means the planning approaches are not made from the district level or the
community level and just meet the demand of the Regional or sub-regional level.
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HONG KONG PLANNING STRATEGY

The Planning strategy in Hong Kong is not a complete and perfect one. It has some weakness
and strength for its location, communication with the main land as well as other worlds and the
economic condition.
Strengths
The annual growth rate in the territory between 1983 and 1993 average 6.4% and its per capita
GDP in1992 was second in Asia among the non-oil- producing economies. It means Hong Kong
strength lies in its ability to facilitate and enhance capital accumulation. Another thing is the law
and order. After more than a century of British colonial influence it has much higher respect for
law and order. The private and public sectors have learnt many useful lessons and accumulated
valuable experience in planning and managing various aspects of compact urban development in
the small territory (Ng, M.K. 1999.pp.63).
Hong Kong has a strong Public Corporation to tackle up the necessity of various developments
and planning. For example MTR (Mass Transport Railway) Corporation and the KCR (Kowloon
Canton Railway) Corporation. Hong Kong has an open economy, which guarantees, the freedom
105
of capital movement. The city is linked with the rest of the world by an efficient transportation
system and communication network. These give Hong Kong a better opportunity for further
expansion.
Weakness
Since the beginning the planning always focus on Housing and accommodation of its huge
population. So Hong Kong planning has a little experience in planning for social and other
needs. The top-down approach seldom looks for the public participation so they are lacking
behind for social planning. The proclaimed “positive non-intervention” economic policy in the
territory sets the limit for effective land use planning.
Hong Kong also lacks experience in regional planning and development, which have become
urgent as a result of the economic integration of China and Hong Kong (Ng, M.K, 1999.pp. 63).
One of the most important things is the executive-led administration. The administration is not
enough accountable to the general public and they are do not care about listening the common
people voice even in the face of so many uncertainties.
Opportunities
The most positive thing is Hong Kong has a developed institutional framework to carry out
planning and development compared to Singapore, China and Taiwan. Then the open economy
can help to invest more for the infrastructures and develop a sound planning system. Since
1990’s the government trying to develop a strategy to link up the grass routes in the planning
process and become more concern about public participation, so the hierarchy will be both top-
down and bottom-up.
Threats
Political uncertainty is probably the greatest threat for the territory and to make a complete
planning. While the “one country two system” concept always makes fear that China will choose
to interfere in the running Hong Kong after 1997 (Ng, M.K. 1999.pp.64). There is a poor
coordination in the various local development authorities as well as the government bureaus who
are responsible for decision making. That may cause the trouble, like the right decision may not
be taken for the right place at the right time.
Strategic Planning Issues

From the above discussion about the strength and weakness, the professionals identify three
planning issues:
(i) Existing strength in terms of effectuating the planning, design, financing, construction and
management of city development by public- private partnerships, should be fully utilizes in
order to built a better living environment.
(ii) To overcome weaknesses of the land use planning system in accommodating all-round
development needs, maximum efforts should be made to satisfy economic as well as social
and environmental needs.
(iii) To over come the lack of regional planning expertise, and to explore opportunities in the
expanding China market, there should be a vision and genuine efforts to develop Hong
106
Kong and southern China as an even more competitive mega-urban region in Pacific Asia
(Ng, M.K. 1999.pp. 51).
Thus Hong Kong needs a concrete and sequential strategic planning to overcome the weaknesses
for being a world Class in Asia pacific.
CONCLUSION
The beginning of planning exercise, the administrative set up in Hong Kong has left the
Planning Department a limited choice. The whole planning hierarchy follows the top-down
approach so there is no means of getting public voice and comment in decision making process.
In 1980’s they first concern about sustainable development. Since 1980’s land use planning in
Hong Kong has to concern to make sense of the economic restructuring process in order to
reshape the existing urban fabric. The TDS has pointed out the need for a “sustainable
development system” so that economic development and environmental and social needs can be
achieved within the constrains of resources availability (Planning Department, 1996, quoted in
Ng, M.K, 1997.pp.31).
At the beginning the planning strategy was to accrue land and accommodate the huge
population. Later on the Hong Kong government pays more attention to the economic
development but not sustainable development. The very recent issue and it can be said, as a
burning issue in the planning strategy is sustainable issue. The government set up all the
planning policy more or less sustainable issue oriented even though they are not so active on
that. Public participation is another new addition in the Hong Kong planning Policy.
It seems with the change of decades and demands the strategy has changed to meet the demand
for better living and economic environment; it is a positive sign at the same time Hong Kong
also need a continuous relation with the top–down to the bottom up in their hierarchy of plan.
REFERENCE
Ng. M.K. 1997. Strategic Planning and the Theoretical Development Strategy Review in Hong Kong,
HKPA. Vol. 6.1; pp. 31-59.
Ng. M.K., 1999, Political Economy and Urban Planning, The Planning Journal Progress in Planning. Vol.
51 No.1, pp. 1-86.
Planning Department, 1995, Town Planning in Hong Kong: A quick Reference. Government Printer, Hong
Kong.
Planning Department, 1996b, Consultation Paper on Town Planning Bill. Government Printer, Hong Kong.
Taylor. B., 1989, Planning in Hong Kong: accomplishments and failures, Urbanization in Asia Spatial
Dimension and Policy Issue. pp. 333-355. University of Hawaii Press, U.S.A
Wigglessworth. J.,1993, Planning in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Planning Authority. pp. 283-289. Planning
Department. Hong Kong.
107
Appendix 1
CHIEF EXECUTIVE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Chief Secretary
Others
Some Major Planning related
Secretary
Financial
Attorney
General
Statutory Boards
Chief secretary’s Committee Housing Housing

Authority Department
Land Airport
Planning, Env. &
Development Authority
Others
Transport
Housing
Bureau
Lands Bureau
Bureau
Corporation
Appeal Board
Town Planning
Board
Planning Department
Building Department
Land Department
Env. Protection Dep.
The Land Registry
Figure 1: Urban Planning Administration in Hong Kong (Ng. M.K. 1999. pp.27.)
108
Appendix 2
Territorial Development
TERRITORIAL Strategy
STRATEGY
SUB-REGIONAL Sub-Regional Plans
Statutory Outline zoning Plans and Hong Kong Planning

Development Permission Area Plans Standards Guidelines
DISTRICT/LOCAL Outline Development Plans
Layout Plans
Figure 2: Hierarchy of plans in Hong Kong. (Source: Planning department, 1995)
109
Appendix 3
Chief Executive’s instruction to prepare plan

3 months
Publication of planning study for public comment
Publication of Publication of draft for

amendment plan for public inspection (2
public inspection months)
(6 weeks)
Publication of representation for

Proposed public comment (1 month)
amendment to meet
adverse
representation by Preliminary consideration of
TPB representation & comment
9 months
Inquiry by TPB
Publication of the Submission of draft plan to C.E.

amended draft plan in C
Refusal to approve
Reference Plan
back of plan valid for
Approval of plan with for 12
or without amendment Revival of previous plan amendment months
Figure 3: The proposed plan-making process in Hong Kong. (Source: Planning Department, 1996, pp. 17)
110
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
THE CONCEPT, DELINEATION AND PLANNING IMPLICATIONS OF

URBAN FRINGE
Associate Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University

ABSTRACT
Geographers brought the concept of 'urban fringe' into the field of urban research during early
twentieth century. Scholars from the relevant fields from different continents enriched the concept
during 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s decades. Urban or rural urban fringe can well be described as
'geographical no man's land' in the sense that it is neither rural nor urban, again embraces the both,
more aligned to the urban influence. But one thing is clear that while studying urban fringe in south
Asian perspective, one must distinguish between the morphology, sociology and spatial aspects of
the fringe in western countries and south Asian countries like Bangladesh. Before conducting
academic study on urban fringe one must delineate urban fringe using some criteria. The author
suggests six parameters for achieving better precision in delineating fringe boundary. The
parameters are population density, occupation of the household head, drainage and land use. All
fringe areas offer excellent opportunity for planned development, due to their low density and
comparatively virgin condition. This is why all past planned development efforts in Bangladesh
were targeted to the fringe areas. Urban development with appropriate planning can build a future
livable urban environment, because today's fringe is the future core area of an urban centre.
Key Words: Urban Fringe; Delineation; Rural-urban Fringe; Built up Area.
INTRODUCTION
With the increasing rate of urbanization in Bangladesh, urge is being gradually felt at all quarters
regarding more rational use of land. This calls for spatial planning in urban areas before making
use of land both, at public and private sectors. Planning is more crucial for a country like
Bangladesh where land is fast dwindling in the face of population explosion and mass rural-
urban migration. In a fixed land mass population boom inevitably lead to environmental
degradation and livability problems. In an intensely built up the core area of a city there is very
little scope of planned development. It is only the fringe, with its urban expansion in the process,
where planning intervention can more effectively be applied. It is high time to explore the urban
fringe vigorously and devise ways and means of planning intervention.
111
The Concept, Delineation and Planning Implications of Urban Fringe
THE CONCEPT OF URBAN FRINGE

The concept of ‘urban fringe’ or ‘rural-urban fringe’ was popularized as a field of research by
the geographers from early twentieth century. It became an important area of urban geographical
study because of its strategic location in the urban fabric. With the emergence of urban planning
discipline as a field of knowledge and profession the subject underwent more rigorous study and
research. The urban planning literature in recent times, uses a wide range of terminologies
synonymous to urban fringe, like, ‘rural-urban fringe,’ ‘peri-urban,’ ‘sub-urban,’ ‘suburb,’
‘urban periphery’ and more recently ‘extended metropolitan region.’ Whatever the nomenclature
is, they mean almost the same place with degrees of variation in their characteristics. Authors
like, Pryor (1968) distinguished ‘urban fringe’ from ‘rural-urban fringe’ by narrating ‘urban
fringe’ as “…… that sub-zone that is in context with a contiguous to the central city. Its density
of occupied dwellings is higher than the median density of occupied dwellings for ‘rural-urban
fringe’ as a whole. It has high proportion of residential, commercial, industrial and vacant land
as distinct from farmland. And it has higher rates of increase in population density, of land use
conversion from farm to non-farm and of commuting than does the rural-urban fringe as a
whole. “Sinha (1997) classified fringe into two components – rural (outer) and urban (inner). He
terms,” the gradual fading out of the gradient of the parameters of urbanity and rurality away
from their respective sides,” as the reasons for such conceptualisation. There is, however, hardly
any difference between the concepts of Pryor and Sinha. Gaplin (1915) worked out a broader
definition in which he termed urban fringe as the rural land adjoining to urban area, in the
process of conversion into urban. Smith (1937) expressed the similar view as Gaplin. He termed
fringe as the built up area just outside the corporate limit of the city.
Salter (1940) in his definition of urban fringe emphasised on land use. He defined urban fringe
as mix up land uses of farming and non-farming type. Andrews (1942) distinguished between
urban and rural fringe. As urban fringe he means the actively expanding sector of the compactly
built economic city and rural fringe is the area adjacent to the peripheral zone of the urban
fringe. Phl’s (1965) observations are based more on social elements. The four characteristics of
the urban fringe observed by him, are: i) separation, ii) selected migration, iii) mobility and iv)
geographical and social stratification. He observes emergence of the fringe through a dynamic
process of social stratification.
Dewery (1948) views that growth in fringe areas take place primarily with migration of core
urban population to the fringe. Occupational pattern in the fringe is shaped up with intermingling
of the urban migrants and the rural people already living there. However, the new society in the
fringe is highly influenced by urban culture. This concept may be true for affluent western
society with high level of car ownership but not for impoverished developing countries, where
large pauperised people find their shelter in low cost fringe areas of the city.
Redehover’s (1947) concept of fringe is similar to that of Dewery. In fringe settlements he

observes two directional movements. Farmers living near industrial areas move to the city to
avail themselves of the employment and educational opportunities, while the city people move
closer to the rural areas to build their residences in calm and natural environment. The half of the
concept is true for developing countries, while the other half is not. It is true that rural people
move to urban areas in search of job but it is not equally true that city people move closer to the
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rural areas to build their residences. This is again another western concept. Galledge (1960)
termed fringe as, “geographical no-man’s land” in the sense that it belongs to neither rural nor
urban. Studying the fringe of Sydney, he observes seven characteristics of the fringe. These are:
(i) Smallness of the farm,
(ii) Fluid pattern of the land use,
(iii) Intense cultivation mobility of the mobile population with sparse to modest density,
(iv) Rapid residential expansion,
(v) Lack of service facility centers,
(vi) Abundant provision of speculative buildings, and
(vii) Peculiar dynamism.
According to Congen (1960) fringe is a potential determinant of the morphology of urban

settlement, where urban morphology is termed as a product of the continuous influence of the
former fringe encompassed successively by the advancing urbanity. His visualisation of the
fringe is composed of two parts, first, the adjacent inner margin where development is closer and
more continuous and distant or outer margin where growth is more sporadic and development
more scattered in character. Wissink (1965) in his exhaustive study of the American city fringes
in mid sixties, made a number of classifications of the fringe, like, ‘suburb,’ ‘pseudo suburb,’
‘satellites,’ ‘pseudo satellite.’
Studies on fringe by scholars in the seventies are mostly centered around particular
characteristics of the fringe or case specific. Johnson (1974) identified fringe by observation of
two elements, first, a measure of separation from the central city, second, a degree of
dependence upon it. Berry (1975) observes some cultural preferences in the fringe area that are
more widely and efficiently satisfied in the fringe. These are:
i) love of newness, ii) desire to the closer to the nature, iii) freedom to move, iv) individualism,
and v) social acceptance.
Scholar Oosthwisezen (1969) used the term ‘sub-urban area’ to describe fringe. He views it as
rural suburbs and quasi-urban area or quasi-urban township where there are satellites or growth
centres that are cluster like villages without any recognised form or urban authority and placed
away from the metropolitan city and is identified by place name.
From the concepts of urban fringe expressed in the foregoing sections one thing is clear that
while studying fringe in south Asian perspectives one must distinguish between the morphology,
sociology and the spatial pattern of fringe in western countries from that in the south Asian
countries like Bangladesh. The pattern of urbanization all over the world is influenced by the
social and economic scenario and attitude of the people, the nature of urban planning and
development activities, physical structure of the urban area, the income level and the standard of
living of the people. In the western cities where the general income level is higher, the high-
income group people, to get rid of the chaos and monotony of the city core, move to the fringe,
which is more open and imbued with natural features. However, this is not the only reason for
their migration to the fringe. Good accessibility, cheaper land and the availability of basic urban
services also prompt their migration. On the contrary in underdeveloped countries like
Bangladesh where urban areas are dominated by low income people there is a general tendency
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of the common people to look for low cost areas. Urban fringe is such an area where they can
find their shelter at affordable cost even though many basic urban services including transport
are not adequately available there. This is why the fringe areas in countries like Bangladesh are
mostly inhabited by low, lower middle and the middle income groups. Not only that low-income
people move out for low cost residences only but also those small investors can set up their
productive enterprises at lower cost.
Delineation of Urban Fringe: Procedures Evolved by Scholars

Either for planning or for research it is quite rational to proceed with identification and
delineation of the fringe. Since the beginning of the study on the subject the scholars have used a
wide variety of criteria to delineate urban fringe.Russwurm (1960), who referred fringe as
“frontier of discontinuity between the city and the country,” used a precise survey approach to
study London (Ontario) fringe. He grouped each 200 acre plot according to the occupation of the
residents, owner or tenant. He delineated those plots as rural-urban fringe in which 50 percent or
more families were engaged in non-farm occupations.
Hindsmith (1962) used four indices to delineate fringe. These are:

(i) Land sub-divided but not yet developed or recorded by the planning board,
(ii) Farm land ‘for sale’ for urban purposes, as indicated by realtors,
(iii) Land in non-farm ownership, either lying idle or cultivated by the tenant,
(iv) Farmland assessed at higher than normal farmland as shown by local assessors.
While studying Orlando fringe (Florida), Mukherjee (1963) sub-divided the study area land into
pieces and identified their intensity of urban use. The intensity of urban use on the sub-divided
adjoining lands and the extent of the builtupness of these land uses were taken as the prime
criteria for delimitation of the urban fringe.
Leon (1966) used percentage distribution of the type of population of three census categories.
The areas where 54 percent of the population belonged to farm category is put in rural category,
while where 51 percent or more population belong to urban category are termed as urban areas.
The areas in between these two categories are called fringe areas. Pryor (1968) in his paper,
“Defining the Urban Fringe,” carried out an exhaustive list of connotative characteristics and
factors of the fringe. He termed rural-urban fringe as a zone of transition in respect of land use,
social and demographic characteristics.
According to him the rural-urban fringe lies between contiguous built up urban and sub-urban
areas of the entral city, and the rural hinterland. He fixed characteristics of the fringe as follows:
i) Almost complete absence of non-farm dwelling occupation and land use,

ii) Both urban and rural-orientation of the people,
iii) Incomplete range and penetration of urban services,
iv) Uncoordinated zoning or planning regulations,
v) Areal extension beyond, although continuous with political boundary of the central city,
vi) An actual and potential increase in population density,
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vii) Current density higher than surrounding rural areas but lower than central areas of the
city.
viii) This exhaustive definition of the fringe sounds ambiguous. However, it can serve as a
good guide for researchers in the study of fringe. Scholars like binda thakur terms pryor’s
study of urban and rural fringe, based on upper and lower rates of increase in residential,
commercial, industrial and commuter population, as rather vague. In another article pryor
included higher rate of car ownership as a factor to characterise rural-urban fringe which
is yet another example from western countries and not acceptable for developing
countries where the case is simply the reverse.
Lal (1980), for delineating the rural-urban fringe of Bareilly, adopted three categories of
determinants, namely, spatial determinants, occupational determinants, demographic
determinants. Raja Ram Mohan Singh (1973) delineated fringe in line with Lal. He classified
fringe as ‘inner’ and ‘outer.’ According to him the inner fringe covers vast farmland with
scattered settlement lying beyond the main built up area. To demarcate the inner boundary of the
inner fringe he used such indices as, density in built up areas, differences in house types and
pattern of streets, occupational structure, provision of civic and essential services and density of
population and dwelling. He delineated fringe upto 3 to 5 km. radius from the city centre. This is
a belt of rural character supplying daily necessities like, milk, vegetables and raw materials for
selected manufacturing.
Dubey (1977) attempted to delineate fringe using indices like, house and street structure,
occupational structure, population, new urban developments, existence of lime and brick kilns.
Sinha (1980) delineated rural-urban fringe of Patna based on thirteen qualified parameters,
namely, i) isochrones, ii) urban influence, iii) public utility services, iv) land value, v) non-
agricultural activities, vi) number of families per house, vii) sex-ratio, viii) number of daily
commuters, ix) population density, x) literacy rate, xi) primary activities, xii) agricultural
activities, and xiii) built up area.
For delineation of the fringe he collected data from the field, processed and manipulated those
using statistical tools. He used numerical weightage awarded to different factors, put them in a
matrix of correlation for urban index.
Many international agencies developed criteria or defined fringe for their particular purposes.
The International Urban Research Unit of the University of California recommended to include
those areas within urban fringe where at least 65 percent of the labour force is engaged in non-
farm agricultural economic activities.
DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA FOR DELINEATION OF URBAN FRINGE IN

BANGLADESH CONTEXT
There have been a number of studies on urban fringe in Bangladesh by scholars and academics.
However, most of these studies were on Dhaka City fringe. But none of these studies made any
attempt to delineate fringe area for their respective studies using any kind of criteria. Instead of
going for scientifically evolved method of fixing the fringe boundary most researchers went for
115
simple observation or reconnaissance survey of the characteristics of the fringe that are already
known Therefore, no set criterion is found for delimitation of the fringe in local studies. In an
attempt to devise a methodology for delineation of fringe the author suggests a two stage
procedure. On the first hand preliminary delineation of the fringe through simple field
observation and second, final delineation based on pre-determined standard or criterion.
Preliminary Delineation
The first hand delineation can be made through reconnaissance survey of the visually observable
physical parameters. The survey will identify such characteristics as, land use, density of
dwellings, availability and condition of infrastructure, etc. Land use of the fringe will be
admixture of farm and non-farm uses having clearly visible trend towards non-farm uses when
compared with adjoining villages or city core areas. Density of dwellings will be much lower
than central parts of the city. There may or may not be availability of municipal services or if
available may be limited in supply. Others features are limited or absence of drainage and
sewerage network, narrow and tortuous roads of herring bone bond or without pavement. Based
on findings of the reconnaissance survey a preliminary fringe can be delineated on the map. The
next step would be to fix up standards and go for scientific investigation for final delineation.
Fixing up Standards for Delineation of the Fringe

There exists a wide variety of parameters that can be taken into account for identification of the
fringe. But it would be unwise to consider too many parameters when a few can give the same
results. Too many parameters only increase time and cost of the study. In the preceding section it
is observed that many researchers adopted only one or two parameters. Leon, for example, used
the criterion of occupation for delineation of the fringe. He categorised areas as rural where 54
percent of the population belong to farm occupation, while the areas where 51 percent or more
population belong to urban occupation are termed by him as urban areas. That means the area
where occupation of the population is between these two percents belong to the fringe. For
delineation of the fringe the author suggests six parameters to achieve better precision. These
are, i) density of population, ii) condition of roads, iii) structural condition of dwelling, iv)
occupation of the household heads, v) drainage facilities, and vi) land use.
Density of population of the fringe will be somewhere in between the density of city core and
the remote rural area. But the problem remains as to determination of the density of a study
cluster that does not always coincide with census cluster or even if it does, it is not possible to
get data for inter-sensual period. The one option seems to be rough estimation of the cluster
population based on estimation of population size of sample dwellings. This would, however,
require estimation of total number of dwelling units in a cluster. The number of dwellings can be
ascertained either from an up dated physical survey map, if available, or from a recent satellite
imagery. To compare the density of the study cluster the researcher will, at the same time, have
to estimate the densities of the central or core area of the main city and that of a typical village.
The density of the central core area and rural area can be estimated from census data.
For estimating the density of Dhaka core the author has used the following procedure. First
selected the eight core thanas of the city, namely, Dhanmandi, Mirpur, Gulshan, Mohammadpur,
Motijheel, Raman, Sabujbagh and Tejgaon were selected. The old Dhaka thanas have been
116
avoided as in those areas either vertical or horizonatal expansions are more or less saturated.
From each of the selected thanas a core ward is selected and its density of population is
estimated. The mean of density of eight thanas gives 148 persons per acre, which is the density
of the city core area. For determining the density of the rural areas the author selected Dhamrai,
a remote northern most thana of Dhaka district. One village from each of its sixteen Unions was
selected randomly and its density worked out from census data. The mean density of sixteen
villages gives 6 persons per acre, which can be termed as the density of the rural area. Now the
density of the urban fringe clusters will be somewhere in between 6 and 148 per acre.
Assessment of the condition of roads can be done by simple field observation of the study area.
For obvious reasons in a fringe area a very few roads are found paved or herring bone bond.
Fringe area structures are usually dominated by semi-pucca and kutcha type. If the 60 percent or
more structures of any cluster are found kutcha and semi-pucca it can be grouped as fringe.
Structural condition can be determined from a recent survey map of the area. If survey map is
not available, an observation survey may be carried out using an old base map or a recent
satellite imagery.
Data on occupation of the household heads can be ascertained from census report. In case census
data is not available a sample survey can be conducted. This survey can be done as a part of
enumeration of the households of the study area to be done for the purpose of household survey.
Drainage condition can be ascertained through field observation. This would require field visit
and illustration of the status of the drainage network in a suitable map. The drainage in the fringe
is characterized by absence of any network in most areas. Sometimes unpaved or kutcha
discontinuous drains are found that end up into local ditch or low land. Land use can be
determined from a recent land use survey map of the area. If survey map is not available, an
observation survey may be carried out using an old base map or recent satellite imagery.
Planning Implications of the Fringe

Urban fringe has particular implications in the field of spatial planning. With its particular
morphology, structure and level of growth, urban fringe offers excellent opportunity for planning
intervention by urban development authorities. But before exposing the significance of the
fringe in planning it is necessary to shed some light on the status of urban planning in
developing countries, like Bangladesh.
Urban planning in Bangladesh like most other developing countries is still at rudimentary stage.
Planning is often peace meal, low covered, largely unexecuted and not time responding.
Planning for major urban centres in Bangladesh started in late fifties. But none of the plans could
achieve significant level of implementation. Many plans were revised in 90s and some are being
currently revised. Land use plans were prepared for small and medium size towns (zila and
upazila shahars) in the 80s. But that were not institutionalised for execution. The identified
major reasons behind non-execution of spatial plans include, lack of recognition of the
importance of spatial planning at policy level, resource limitation, lack of institutional capability
in planning and development agencies, lack of innovative approaches in urban planning and
development.
117
Thus, while ambitious proposals were set in the city plans of 50s, 60s and 80s very little of those
could be executed. Review of execution of past plans reveal that except throwing some arterial
roads a very few major development works as per plan could be materialized.
One important feature of the past planning is, that major development proposals were located in
fringe areas carefully avoiding the built up city cores. If we look at the development planning
efforts in Dhaka, it will be seen that most developments were directed away from the city core.
During planning of Motijheel C.A, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhanamndi R.A, Gulshan Model
Town and recently developed Uttara Model Town, all were located in the city fringe. Lands
were either fallow, marshy or under farm use. There had not been much difficulty in land
procurement in those areas using the power provided by the Compulsory Land Acquisition Act.
Land acquisition and development cost was low, not only because land value was low but also
that the acquisition did not involve huge compensation for affected structures that always were
few in number in fringe areas. Therefore, development authorities had to face very little eviction
problem. Opposition to development schemes by the local people was minimal. For all these
advantages the development authorities always preferred fringe areas for new development.
Built up areas are avoided unless it is a necessity for vital community or national interest
supported by comparatively low cost of development and fairly minimum evictions. Planning
intervention in the fringe can be justified on the ground of its low level of development that
again, are mostly non-permanent. This makes development proposals easier without affecting
structures and the residents. Comparatively lower land value keeps the cost of development low.
Fringe areas offer opportunities to capture natural drainage system to build an efficient drainage
network for the future city. With planning intervention, efficient and standard road network can
be developed to create a livable environment in spontaneously developed fringe areas.
CONCLUSION
Planned spatial development is a pre-condition for creating a congenial environment for living,
working and enjoyment. Planning ensures not only rational and economic use of land but also
serves as a tool for developing environmentally sound living space. In a land constrained country
like Bangladesh approach to planned spatial development is an utmost priority. Promotion of
planned development should aim at creating a livable habitat imbued with basic infrastructure
with assurance of optimum use of scarce land resources. In a fast growing city action on planned
development should also be rapid and targeted. Otherwise, in the wake of rapid growth all the
opportunities of planning intervention disappear fast. This happens faster in the central areas of
the city where demand for land is intense. It is the fringe and not the core that offer greater scope
for planning intervention. Urban development agencies should avail of these opportunities to
create an organized fabric of urban habitat served by appropriate land use provision,
interconnected by a well knit circulation system and supported by infrastructure conducive to
living, working and enjoyment. Today’s fringe is tomorrow’s urban core. Hence proper shaping
of the fringe means shaping the future city.
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REFERENCES
Andrews, R.B.,1942, Elements in Urban Fringe Pattern, Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics,
Vol.18,1942.
Conzen, M.R.G., and Alnwick, N., 1960, A Study in Town Plan Analysis, Trans. Inst. Geogr. Vol. 27 p.
58.
Dewey,R., no date, Peripheral Expansion in Miwankee Country, American JI., Sociology, Vol. 54, pp.1-19.
Gaplin,C.J., 1915, The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community, University of Wisconsin, Res. Bull.,
No. 34,1915, p.43.
Golledge, R.G., 1960, Sydney’s Metropolitan Fringe: A Case Study in Rural–Urban Relation, Australian
Geographer, Vol.7, pp.243-255.
Hindsmith,J., 1962, The Impact of Urban Growth on Agricultural land : A Pilot Survey, In: Colemn, pp.
11-12.
Thomas , D., 1974, The Urban Fringe: Approach and Attitude Vide in Johnson, J.H. (ed), op. Cit., p.18.
Leon, A.P., 1966, Towards an Operational Definition of Rural Urban Fringe, Indian Sociology Bulletin,
July 1966, pp. 296.
Mukherjee, D.,1963, The Concept of Urban Fringe and its Delineation :A Case of Orlando,
Florida,Geogl.Rev. of India, Vol. 25,1963.
Oosthwisezen, A.J.G., 1969, Delimitation of Urban Area, Journal for Geography, Vol.III, 1969.
Phl, R.E.(1965), Urbs in Rure: The Metropolitan Fringe in Herfordshire
Pryor, R.J.(1968), The Sampling Frame for Rural-Urban Fringe, The Prof. R. Goegr., Vol.20, 1968.
Redehaver, M.W. 1947, Fringe Settlement as a two Directional Movement, Rural Sociology, Vol.54, 1947.
Russwurm,L.H., 1963, The Rural Urban Fringe with Comparative Reference to London, In: Alice, Colmen,
The Planning Challenge of Ottawa Area, Geog. Paper No. 42, Deptt. of Eneregy, Ottawa, 1963,
p.11. , Geog. Pap., No.2, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Salter, L.L., 1940, Land Classification Along the Rural Urban Fringe, Agri.Expt.St.Bulle.,No.421,
University of Missouri.
Singh. R. R., 1973, Jaunpur and its Rural – Urban Fringe: A Study in Settlement Geography, Unpublished
Ph. D Thesis, B.H.U., Varanasi,1973.
Sinha, M.M.P, 1980, The Impact of Urbanisation on Landuse in Rural-Urban Fringe-A Case Study of
Patna, 1980.
Sinha,R.L.P.,1997, Urban Fringe Approach and Policy Options. ITPI Journal, 1980, Vol.15, No.1,
June,1997.
Smith, T.L, 1937, The population of Lusiana: Its Composition and Changes, Lusiana Bulle, No.293.
Wehwein, G.S., 1942, Rural-Urban Fringe, Eco. Geog. Vol.18, 1942.
Wissink, G.A., 1962, American Cities in Perspectives with Special Reference to the Department of their
fringe areas, 1962, p.201.
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ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND LOCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR

INDUSTRIES OF THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE LESSONS FROM
SOUTH ASIA
Dr. Mahmudul Hasan
Associate Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University

ABSTRACT
This paper discusses contemporary industrial promotion practices of South Asian countries. The
aim is to inform the reader the broad range and general characteristics of such practices. The study
is based on the Doctoral dissertation of the author and secondary sources from some selected
countries and cities. The review is mainly about the policies of the industrially more advanced and
newly industrializing countries (NICs) of South Asia. The polices of Bangladesh including Dhaka
City Region are also discussed to provide with an insight about their similarities, idiosyncrasies, and
efficacy in this connection. This study identified five general types of industrial promotion
strategies in cities and regions of these countries: (i) macro-economic adjustment strategies (ii)
incentive measures (iii) skill development (iv) spatial redistribution and (v) land-use planning, and
infrastructure investment strategies. It is also found that these strategies and policies are often
intermixed with each other and their priority also varies from country to country and between cities.
This also changes over time. It is also found that in recent times, firms and industries in these cities
and regions, indifferent of these measures, are opting for locations other than the government
designated areas where they can find market competitiveness.
KEY WORDS:
INTRODUCTION
Governments in the developing countries have been experimenting with policies to influence the
distribution and expansion of industry for the last couple of decades. The following types of
policies have generally been adopted in most developing countries and cities: 1) macroeconomic
adjustment policies, aimed at creating a conducive environment for industrial growth; 2) spatial
redistribution policies, to prevent over-concentration of economic activities in the largest cities;
3) human resources development policies, to better prepare the labour force for modern sector
employment; 4) incentive programmes, to stimulate private investment and develop private
enterprise in high priority locations; and 5) land use and infrastructure development strategies, to
create an attractive industrial investment environment (Hasan, 1998). It is also found that the
policies set out above, are often inter-mixed with each other, and a clear distinction between
120
different policies is not always discernible. There exists great variety in the priority and share of
the above policies between different countries and cities, and this also changes over time.
Macroeconomic polices
Most developing countries have attempted to stimulate industrial development through
macroeconomic adjustment policies. During the 1950's and 1960's, governments in many
developing countries adopted import substitution strategies for accelerating industrialization.
This strategy initiated industrial development in a number of developing countries and city
regions; however, gradually lost impetus because of a number of major drawbacks. These
included limited domestic markets for industrial goods, difficulties for expanding into
intermediate goods industries, and reliance on projectionist policies, all of which reduced
international competitiveness and increased rent-seeking tendencies (Auty, 1995; Lofchie,
1997).
In the early 1970's South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore switched to Japanese style
export oriented industrial development strategy while maintaining labour intensive production
and protecting domestic industries in which they had competitive advantage, During the mid
1970's this strategy was followed by countries like Brazil, Chile and Turkey and in the late
1970's and early 1980's Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, China and Indonesia also switched
to export promotion strategies. However, many of these countries which adopted export
promotion strategies, also continued to protect indigenous industries, producing goods aimed at
domestic markets (Chowdhury, Kirkpatrick, and Islam, 1988; Auty, 1995; Tadaro, 1997).
Bangladesh adopted an industrial policy (by nationalizing major industrial establishments after
the war of liberation) in the beginning of the 1970's, and import-substituting strategies were its
mainstay. During the second half of the 1970's, socialistic policies were gradually abandoned;
however, many of the import substituting strategies were maintained. In the 1980's, import
restrictions were liberalized and the Government put emphasis on export oriented labour
intensive strategies. To attract foreign investment, procedures for the establishment of export-
oriented industries were simplified, adequate banking facilities were provided, and the
availability of infrastructure in the primate cities (i.e. Dhaka and Chittagong) were gradually
improved (BGTD, 1994). The export oriented industrial growth in Bangladesh is however
overwhelmingly dominated by the low-technology, cheap labour type of industries (Hasan,
1998).
South East Asian countries, especially the four "Asian Tigers", were successful in
industrialization through macroeconomic measures, but their success has not been based on
laissez-faire policies. As Balassa (1988), Dicken (1992) and Auty (1995) imply, these are based
on pragmatic and effective government intervention. They redistributed productive assets
through land reform and agricultural development policies before diversifying into labour
intensive manufacturing. They took deliberate steps to broaden their domestic markets and
create effective demand for manufacturing goods at home at the same time as they developed
export markets.
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Spatial Distribution and Locational Implications for Industries of the Developing Countries: The Lessons from South
Asia
However, when one looks at the success of these newly industrializing countries (NICs) of Asia
in detail, it becomes clear that their development process shows an interplay between external
and internal forces (Dicken, 1992). There is no doubt that the state of the world economy in
the1960's and early 1970's was a crucial element in the development of the NICs. The massive
expansion of world trade, the rapid growth of Transitional Corporations (TNCs), and the
development of enabling technologies were of vital importance. But, on their own, these do not
explain particular NIC development. It was the way in which these various forces coincided with
internal conditions in particular countries that explains why certain countries industrialised
others did not (Dicken, 1992, Auty, 1995).
Studies of industrial development in South Korea and Taiwan for example, both demonstrate the
importance of concrete experiences in the role of particular historical, cultural, and political
factors. Both countries had experienced approximately fifty years as Japanese colonies, during
which time the imperial power built up the physical infrastructure to facilitate the countries’ role
as suppliers of primary products to Japan. Much of this infrastructure remained after the
Japanese left in 1945. During the colonial period, a substantial educational system had been
developed in both rural and urban areas. After the Second World War, both countries received
massive aid from the United States to act bulwarks against communism (Dicken, 1992; Hamdi
and Goethert, 1997). Both had experienced substantial change in their agricultural and land
tenure system which reduced the power of an entrenched land holding class. In both countries,
there is a strong sense of national identity and purpose wedded to a strongly centralized
government (Dicken, 1992, 1998).
Thus the nature of the international economic environment, together with the particular
conditions existing in individual countries, explains the progress of industrialisation in a specific
Third World nation. In some cases, the local circumstances include a natural resource
endowment, although in the cases of Singapore and Hong Kong this is clearly not so.
Industrialisation of these two countries owes much to their particular historical evolution as ports
and commercial centres under British rule, together with their geographical position and their
cultural and political make up (Dicken, 1992, 1998).
Many other developing countries have been less successful at industrialisation through macro-
economic measures. In many countries, industrialisation policy was controlled by vested interest
rent-seeking groups (Auty, 1995). The poor economic performance of many Third World
countries was due to excessive levels of government intervention and the weakness of inward
oriented policies (Balassa, 1988; World Bank, 1993). Some of the drawbacks in this regard was
the inherent bias towards inefficiency of state enterprises (Shirley, 1983) and the superiority of
export diversification over the manipulation of commodity prices through producers’ country
cartels (Duncan, 1993).
In the wake of the international oil shock (1973 and 1979), the serious economic recession of the
late 1970’s and the debt crises of early 1980’s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
World Bank pressurized many governments to restructure their economics. These structural
adjustment policies required governments in developing countries to adopt economic
stabilization measures aimed at controlling inflation, loss of foreign exchange reserves, capital
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flight, and public sector budget deficits. Structural adjustment policies sought to remove
obstacles to long term economic growth by liberalizing market restrictions, eliminating
excessive taxes and subsidies, controlling prices and interest rates, reducing high tariffs and
import restrictions, and modifying or eliminating distortions in incentives for private sector
investment. The World Bank (1983) provided structural adjustment loans aimed at reducing
government employment and public expenditures, privatizing public services, and reducing
government interference in market activities (Khan, 1987; Lal, 1987).
Under these changing circumstances, the policy pursued by many of these governments to
accelerate industrialization included trade deregulation, the creation of investment incentives,
and privatization of utilities and state enterprises. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Bangladesh has been
engaged in extensive austerity structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) guided by these
International Assistance Organization. The foreign trade deficits of the country were reduced
through policies designed to promote exports and improve foreign exchange rate management.
Government deficits were lower through cutbacks in public investment. Policies were pursued to
deregulate private-investment licensing procedures, and to undertake major privatization
programmes in infrastructure and the public industries (Todaro, 1997).
The impacts of macro-economic adjustment policies on industrial expansion of the developing

region, as discussed, have been mixed. In the case of most successful South Asian countries,
their success in industrial expansion was the outcome of a pragmatic government policy and the
interplay between internal and external forces. In many developing countries, however, such
policies have resulted in higher urban unemployment and lower incomes for poorer segments of
the urban labour force (Hasan, 1998).
POLICIES PROMOTING SPATIAL REDISTRIBUTION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Over the past decades, as indeed in developed economics previously, governments in most
developing countries have attempted to redirect migration and economic activity away from the
largest cities to secondary cities and towns and to expand rural and frontier employment
opportunities. The strong concentration of urban population and modern productive activities in
one or two major metropolitan areas has been a continuing source of dissatisfaction for
governments of these countries (UNDIESA, 1989).
Governments have tried to moderate the continued concentration of economic activities in

metropolitan areas by adopting policies to slow primate city or metropolitan population growth,
relocating the national capital, promoting the growth of counter-magnet cities, or establishing
new towns. Many governments have also adopted policies to expand economic activities and
employment in small towns and intermediate sized cities or to promote the expansion of rural
centres (Rondinelli, 1988).
Metropolitan growth control policies were never seriously implemented, partly because they
operated against fundamental market forces (Dewar, Todes, and Watson, 1986; Rondinelli,
1990). South Korea was one of the few countries that tried seriously to redistribute urban
population and economic activities from its primate city to other parts of the country (Rondinelli,
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Asia
1984). During the 1970's the Korean government sought to slow migration to the Seoul
Metropolitan Area. A complex of agricultural and rural development policies, price and wage
controls, land use regulations, industrial estate programs, and infrastructure investment and
location polices was used to build the capacity of rural towns and intermediate cities to absorb
large numbers of people and productive activities (Choi, 1987; Kim and Donaldson, 1979).
The government also tried to create jobs in cities and towns outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area
by making it more difficult for large industries to continue to locate. It enacted stronger zoning
regulations, required construction permits for factory building and expansion, and gave financial
incentives for industrial relocation. New growth control included a residence tax on metropolitan
citizens, discriminatory tax laws against factories built in the metropolitan area and
discriminatory school fees based on city size (Kin and Donaldson, 1979).
The impacts of these policies on slowing Seoul’s growth are unclear. The land development
regulations, combined with strong financial incentives for industrial relocation and substantial
government investment in infrastructure and services in secondary and intermediate cities, seem
to have been successful in slowing, if not preventing, the continued concentration of people and
industries in the national capital and in expanding employment opportunities elsewhere. But how
much of the change in Korea’s urban settlement system can be attributed to spatial policies and
how much to national economic policies remains unknown (Rondinelli, 1984).
To disperse industrial concentration from Bangkok, the Board of Investment (BOI) of Thailand
adopted a zoning policy in the mid 1980’s which gives differential tax concessions and
privileges in different parts of the country. For this purpose, the country was divided into three
zones with levels of incentives ascending from Zone I (Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Region),
to Zone 2 (The neighborning provinces), and Zone 3 (The rest of the country), Empirical
evidence shows that industries and firms in Bangkok are gradually moving to the periphery,
which is partly as a result of government policy intervention, and partly a consequence of firms
‘voting with their feet’ in order to maintain business efficiency and market competitiveness. It
appears that new industrial centres are developing principally within Zone 2, areas adjacent to
the Greater Bangkok Metropolitan Region (Wongsuphasawat, 1997).
To distribute industries in Bangladesh, in the Third Five Year Plan (1985-90), the country was
divided into three zones: a) developed areas, where adequate infrastructure exists and
industrialization has taken place (areas around three main cities of the country i.e. Dhaka,
Chittagong and Khulna b) less developed areas, where particular infrastructure has developed
and some industrialization has taken place (some important district towns), and c) least
developed area, where infrastructure is very inadequate and little industrialization has taken
place (the rest of the country). The tax holiday scheme was five, seven and nine years for these
three areas respectively, and the rate of import duty on capital machinery was 20%, 7.5% and
2.5% for industries to be set up in developed, less developed and least developed areas
respectively. The government has also taken certain other measures like developing 20 industrial
estates by Bangladesh Small & Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in the old district
headquarters of the country to disperse industries. However, all these measures have not been
effective in dispersing industrial concentration from Dhak. Nearly half of the total formal sector
manufacturing employment of the country is found in Dhaka, and the city accounts for about 60
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percent of the country’s manufacturing establishments (RCMI, 1993). Asian countries had only
been marginally effective in slowing the growth of the largest metropolises or in industrial
development in other urban places (Simmons, 1978). Although government policies focused
heavily on developing rural towns and small cities, the impact of these policies on redistributing
population and economic activities has been variable. Policy implementation has also been
undermined by the lack of political commitment (Oberai, 1993).
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

Most developing countries adopted policies and programmes to enhance human capital as a way
to prepare the urban force for modern sector work. Many of these countries have substantial job
training, vocational education, and special education programmes, as well as training for labour
force with special skills. Governments in most Asian, African and Latin American countries
claimed to have adopted human resource investment and job training policies (UNDIESA,
1989).
An abundant supply of relatively well educated, highly motivated labour was crucial in South
Korea’s economic growth. In South Korea, government and private firms used various training
arrangements to upgrade labour force skills. Vocational high schools were established along
with formal and non formal, institutional and on-the-job training programs (Golladay and King,
1979). The government sought to tailor its human resource development programs to the export
oriented, labour intensive manufacturing strategy it adopted during the 1970’s and 1980’s (Park,
1988).
Human resources development policies were also crucial in Singapore’s successful growth and
employment expansion strategies. Singapore adopted the Basic Education for Skills Training
(BEST) program to raise literacy and numeracy levels for more than 300,000 workers. The
primary and secondary education systems were expanded first; the government then created a
system of polytechnic colleges, vocational training institutes, and industrial training centres.
Computers facilities, information technology, and science curricula were strengthened in the
college, and the National Productivity Board extended programs to improve workers attitudes,
productivity, and occupational safety (Shantakumar, 1984).
In Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka City Region, some skill development programs have been
adopted; however these are often not tailored to the needs of different industries. Highly
educated university and college graduates, in many cases, remained unemployed, being neither
suitable for industrial work, nor willing to work in low-paid factory jobs. Some polytechnics,
textile training schools, vocational training centres, and one ceramic institute were established in
Dhaka City, but these institutions are not sufficient to meet the requirements of different
industries in reality. More importantly, however, lack of opportunity for basic or primary
education hinders the possibility of skill development of the unskilled, illiterate workers in a
great majority of firms (Hasan,1998).
The effects of human resource development policies to promote employment have been variable.
One of the keys to success of newly industrializing Asian countries has been a conscious attempt
125
Asia
to develop and use their human capital resources effectively as part of their economic growth
strategies. Newly industrializing Asian countries were successful in raising the quality of the
labour force through human resources development programs at pace with the expansion of job
opportunities and in concert with changes in the industrial structure of the economies. They
thereby avoided creating a labour force whose training and skills were inappropriate to economic
conditions or generating a large group of educated unemployed - problems that plagued many
low income countries in the developing region (Rondinelli and Kasarda, 1993).
INCENTIVES TO STIMULATE PRIVATE INVESTMENT

Governments in developing countries have provided incentives to stimulate private investment
and encourage private enterprise as a way of industrial promotion. Most have adopted incentives
and controls to influences the location of employment generating enterprises. Nearly all
governments in developing countries provide public infrastructure or subsidize investment in
physical facilities to lower the production and distribution costs of firms (UNDIESA, 1989).
Both socialist and capitalist governments use investment in infrastructure and services to create
conditions conducive to employment expansion. From the late 1970's, the government of China,
for example, invested in infrastructure, services, and productive activities in three levels of
municipalities. Provincial capitals- the secondary cities in the Chinese urban hierarchy-received
the bulk of investments for heavy industry, modern infrastructure, heave utility production, and
major highways. Prefecture cities received investments for light industry, agro-processing, light
farm machinery production, and manufacturing plants using intermediate technology and locally
available materials. Smaller urban places and rural towns were seen as a centre for rural-urban
interaction, and the Government encouraged agricultural equipment repair services and small-
scale production of farm inputs in these towns (Yu and Gu, 1984).
In mixed economies, governments have used subsidies and incentives to influence territorial
patterns of private investment and employment expansion. In Korea, inn the 1970's and 1980's,
the government used a combination of incentives and regulations to control population growth
and distribute industries in Seoul. Simultaneously, the government used its investments in
overhead capital, social services, physical facilities, and redirected productive activities to make
secondary cities more attractive for large and small scale industries (Rondinelli, 1990,1991).
Incentives for industrial decentralisation in Korea simply created a bipolar pattern of urban
concentration around Seoul and Pusan, with factories relocating from Central Pusan to
immediately surrounding districts, redistributing job within the Seoul Metropolitan Area rather
deconcentrating economic activities to other Korean Cities (Hahn,1989).
Bangladesh has also adopted a number of strategies to stimulate industries in the private sector.
Various procedures and regulations relating to the establishment o industries in the private sector
were simplified and this sector is encouraged though tariff rationalisation and appropriate fiscal
measures. Import and export policies have also been made more supportive to the private sector
and the process of disinvestment of public sector enterprises continues (Todaro, 1997). The
policy measures have hastened investment in the private sector, but these developments are
126
mainly concentrated in the two primate cities of the country i.e. Dhaka and Chittagong
(Hasan,1998).
More recently, some Asian countries have taken other approaches to promoting private
enterprise development, including privatize enterprise and some public services, and
encouraging greater private sector participation in providing urban services and infrastructure.
Bangladesh’s Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002) recommends the privatization of some utilities
like water supply and generation of electricity in the private sector. Similarly, Thailand's Sixth
Plan calls for privatising many public utilities and urban services (Pakkasem, 1987). Private
sector provision of shelter, infrastructure, and services is becoming more popular in Asian
countries as urbanisation creates greater demands on limited government budgets.
LANDUSE AND INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT POLICIES

Some land-use and infrastructure investment policies and strategies of the developing countries
and cities have already been mentioned in the previous sections along with four other policy
packages. These mainly include land use regulations, zoning, industrial estates program the
development of counter magnet cities, the establishment of new towns, the promotion on
economic activities in small towns, and developing infrastructure for cities of different levels. A
further discussion is now given about the strategies and programs of some selected city regions
in this regards.
In this section, the land development and infrastructure investment practices of some selected
cities of the developing world (i.e. Seoul, Shanghai, and Bangkok) including Dhaka are briefly
discussed to gain some ideas about the range of practices which are being adopted in these city
regions. These cities are from the industrially more advanced countries of the developing would.
Like Dhaka, they are all situated on both sides of a river, Bangkok and Seoul are also susceptible
to inundation and flooding (like Dhaka City Region).
A number of land-use practices in Seoul have already been mentioned in the earlier sections, and
a few more are addressed here. In Seoul (which in situated on both sides of the Han river), to
promote growth on the southern part of the river (Kangnam), the Seoul City Government took
land development and zoning measures including large scale land readjustment projects and
relocation of the express bus terminal form central Seoul (Kangbuk) to the southern part. In
order to integrate control considerations into the development process, Seoul Metropolitan
Region (SMR) was divided into five strategic zones in 1984 (Kahng, 1988). The Urban
Redevelopment Act was passed in 1977 with the intention of revitalizing the downtown area of
the city and of integrating and intensifying land use within Seoul Metropolitan Area. To
integrate Kangbuk (the old city on the north) more intimately with Kangnam (the southem part
of the city), the first subway line began operating in 1973 (with a length of 53 kilometres) and
since 1986, a further 180 kilomerters of subway have been in operation. Together with the
improved arterial road network, the subway is expected to integrate the city into a multi-nuclei
metropolis, with both halves of the city mingled into a unified system (Kim, 1989).
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Asia
To control the urban sprawl of Seoul, since 1971, a green belt has been developed around the
outskirts of the city. To distribute industries to the outskirts of the city, Sengnam and Gwcheon
were developed as satellite towns around Seoul, and Yeongdong, Jamsil, and Youido were
developed as massive built up areas on the periphery of the city.
In 1977, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) passed the Industrial Relocation Act
which provided an institutional way of removal of and relocation of large and or disruptive
factories within the Metropolitan Area of Seoul, and the Environmental Conservation Act (ECA)
was enacted in 1977 requiring all large scale development projects to submit an environmental
assessment statement.
In Shanghai, to expedite industrial growth, a ring-road as well as ring rail line was developed
around the city. Industrial satellite towns were developed on the edge of the city with the
concept of functional zoning pattern. To expedite growth on the opposite side of the Huangpo
River, three traffic tunnels, a subway was built connecting the southwest and northeast parts of
the city. Rail and other mass rapid transit systems were developed to extend commuting traffic
distance up to 50-70 kilometres.
In 1990, the pudding New Area, was opened on the eastern part of Huangpo River, for further
urban growth and industrial expansion of Shanghai City. With the aim of internationalization
and modernization as a target for development, the Pudding New Area comprising of a land
mass of 177 square kilometres, is expected to be the most advanced economic centre of the
country in the near future (Fu-Xian, 1992). This area, reinforced by harbour facilities, a free
trade zone, scientific and educational districts and connected by a inner and outer ring road with
the western part of Shanghai (Puxi), is being developed to attract trade, services and other high
technology industries.
The first two National Plans (1961-71) of Thailand emphasized development of physical
infrastructure in Bangkok to facilitate industrial development. Accordingly, a strong
infrastructure was developed in the city and a number of industrial estates were set
up(Wongsuphasawat,1997). In Bangkok, and inner ring road was completed in the last decade
and an outer ring road is under construction. Major arterial roads and express ways have been
developed and capacity has been added to a number of existing corridors by double decking with
the goal of moving more vehicles. The construction of the Second Bangkok International Airport
(SBIA) and the Eastern Sea Board Phase II development is under way Aviation complexes are
being developed, multi modal transportation complexes including commuter rail corridors,
elevated express-ways and rail rapid transit systems are under construction (Kaothien and
Webster, 1995).
Manufacturing industries in Bangkok have mainly developed along radial roads while the airport
has attracted a number of tertiary industries. The emerging knowledge intensive industries are
spatially concentrated in the five business centre in Bangkok's core areas and these are
characterized by high end business services (Kaothien and Webster, 1995). The regulatory
planning system in Bangkok is of the mixed use zoning type which allows a greater freedom of
industrial location (for industries of different types) within the city (Kidokore, 1995).
128
These strategies and programmes have facilitated industrial growth in Bangkok: however, they
have also created the problem of over concentration. Since the mid-1980's there has occurred a
degree of deconcentration of manufacturing activity from the Bangkok Metropolitan Area
(BMA) to the periphery within the Extended Bangkok Metropolitan Region (EBMR), but a
highly concentrated pattern of manufacturing within Bangkok still persists (Wongsuphasawat,
1997).
In Dhaka City Region, according to the Dhaka Improvement Trust (DIT) Master-plan of 1959,
some industrial estates were developed in the central city area in the 1960's to accommodate
industries. This master-plan also proposed a planned industrial town at Tongi (a peripheral
settlement of Dhaka) which was completed in the late 1960’s; some well planned industrial
districts were developed in these settlements which are now fully occupied. Land development
and infrastructure provision are under way in some peripheral towns of Dhaka. A number of
state owned enterprises (SOE) were developed in these townships. The completion of a new
airport on the outskirts of the downtown area was accomplished in the 1970's with expanded,
efficient cargo and passenger handling facilities. Relocating the main bus terminal from the city
centre to three locations on the edge of the central city (but within its area) was completed in the
1980's to reduce traffic congestion (Hasan, 1991).
A rail container terminal was built at the main railway station in Dhaka in the 1980’s to facilitate
container movement between Chittagong sea port and Dhaka. A bridge was constructed over the
river Buriganga (in the 1980's) to expedite development of the city on the opposite side of the
river. An Export Processing Zone (EPZ) at Saver was started in the 1990's and this is still in
progress. This EPZ has ready factory spaces, sites with improved infrastructure, utilities, and
provision of incentives and banking facilities for investors. A flood protection chime as well as a
road was built around the central city in 1990 which would make many low-lying areas of the
city accessible to infrastructure provision and land development. The first phase of this flood
protection embankment is now complete (Hasan, 1998).
The expansion of digital telecommunication network in Dhaka City Region began in the 1990's.
A river container terminal at Narayanganj River Port is under way which will facilitate cargo
handling for Dhaka City.
The Metropolitan Planning authority of Dhaka (RAJUK) which was established in 1956
(previously know as Dhaka Improvement Trust), is the main planning agency in the city.
RAJUK has a land-use plan for Dhaka, and a mixed use-zoning system (the zoning system in not
particularly rigid and allows a mix of different uses) is usually employed as a regulatory plan. As
for development control measures, each industrial establishment has to obtain planning
permission from JAJUK and follow certain set-back rule, height regulations and floor area
rations. The Department of Environment and Pollution Control (DEPC) is responsible for
environmental quality in the city, and asks for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the
polluting firms (for example, leather, and textile dyeing). JAJUK recently prepared a strategic
plan for the city in 1995, know as Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan/1995 (DMDP) for the
period 1995-2015. DMDP has three main components: a structure plan, an urban plan, and a
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Asia
detailed area plan. This plan, if implemented, could be the guideline for future development of
the city. The DMDP strategic plan, however, does not presume to embrace and economic plan or
strategy, rather to adopt policy which seeks to nurture and reinforce economic growth by
integrating that growth into an ordered and predictable overall development strategy. The
policies relate mainly to locational issues and as such, seek to inform existing private sector
business vested interest groups, would be-investors and the public sector of DMDP's intention in
respect of locational priorities, related infrastructure investment programmes and any
inducements and conditions that may exist in relation to these to these policies and programmes
(DMDP, 1995).
In Dhaka City, there exist a number of institutions to guide and control land use and
infrastructure development programs within Dhaka Metropolitan Region. The Board of
Investment (BOI) Dhaka city Corporation (DCC), Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority
(DWASA), Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (DESA), Bangladesh Export Processing Zone
Authority (BEPZA), public works Department (PWD) Department of Public Health Engineering
(DPHE), Telegraph and Telephone Board T&TB), Roads and Highways Department (R&H) and
Titas Gas (TG) are important government agencies in this connection other than JAJUK and
DEPC (Hasan.1991).
There is considerable overlap in terms of responsibility between many of these agencies, and the
lock of proper co-ordination and integration is one of the impediments to the industrial
development process in the metropolitan region. In spite the government's various attempts to
promote industry by land use and infrastructure in investment policies, it had been clear in recent
decades, that many industries have chosen to locate in areas other than the industrial estates or
industrial satellite towns. Often firms have developed in an unplanned manner in different areas
of the city (Hasan, 1980).
From this discussion, it can be seen that an important thrust of land use and infrastructure
development programmes in the developing cities was initially directed towards the equitable
distribution of economic activity within the city region. The government adopted different policy
measures to facilitate, consolidate or distribute industries. These included zoning industrial
estates, developing special zones, export processing zones, and strategic infrastructures such as
port, airport, radial and orbital roads. Later the emphasis, in most cases, shifted to
deconcentration to satellite towns or to secondary cities, and this often acted against the
fundamental tendency of market forces. Dualism in policy emphasis is commonly found and in
some cases, strategies and policy instruments are not contributory to the needs of firms and
industries.
CONCLUSION
From this discussion of industrial promotion policies in the developing countries and city
regions, it has emerged that government in these have simultaneously adopted different kinds of
policy instruments (i.e. macro-economic, incentive measures, land-use, and infrastructure
investment) with their priority and importance changing over time. Developing agencies in these
regions have also concurrently adopted strategies for industrial dispersal from and industrial
130
promotion to their metropolitan cities. Industrial dispersion strategies may have reduced the rate
of industrial concentration in some metropolitan city regions, however, firms have continued to
grow in the periphery or suburbs. Effective zoning policy, stem land-use regulation, incentive
measures and industrial relocation policy have slowed the pace of industrial concentration in
Seoul, while laissez-faire policy and mixed use zoning strategies in Bangkok and Dhaka have
often encouraged industries to locate in different areas of the city. In these two cities the market
led tendency of industrial concentration in the metropolitan locations has usually been supported
by government policies of quick economic growth, industrial development and employment
generation. It is also evident that conventional strategies like industrial districts and industrial
satellite towns have been successful in attracting industries in the metropolitan cities of the
developing world. However, firms have often tended to gravitate around strategic infrastructure
locations like radial and ring road, express way, port and airport. In recent decades, mainly
because of an increase in urban diseconomies such as pollution, congestion, higher rent, and land
price, industries are increasingly choosing locations other the government designated areas (i.e.
industrial districts, zones, and satellite towns), to places where they can find of conductive
environment for operation. Firms often develop in an unplanned manner in different parts of the
city region taking advantage of different locational attributes.
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ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
REGULATORY ARRANGEMENTS AND THEIR PROBLEMS IN

BEAUTIFICATION OF CITIES IN BANGLADESH WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO KHULNA CITY
Mohsin Uddin Ahmed

Assistant Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University
ABSTRACT
In the context of town planning, city beautification preserves the meaning involved with planned
city development including all of its ancillary services. All of those services should be arranged
physically in consideration with the fairness, aesthetic views, combination with the nature and
science, smell and dust, design, colour, height and density of the buildings. Road layouts including
parking facilities, traffic signals and control, scientific traffic management system are also included
with the meaning of city beautification. Environmental considerations such as decent advertisement,
sanitary building with proper limewash, construction of cattle shed and slum, irregular development
of shops and factories, systematic garbage disposal system, preservation of ancient monuments, etc.
are also parts of city beautification. All these environmental aspects should be controlled according
to the guideline prescribed through town planning rules and regulations. The regulations firmly
provide the city beautification is the major field of study. The component is included in human
nature and behavior operating through private and public sectors. It is considered that, human nature
and behavior is dominating the role on city beautification and is controlling through prescribed rules
and regulations. Effectiveness of those regulations generates clean and beautiful city including
healthy living environment. Therefore, the causes of city beautification problems fall within the
limit of poor regulatory arrangements in Bangladesh. The study has tried to trace all of those
regulatory weaknesses and the activities performed by the related enforcement authorities. A
recommendation is also prescribed on the basis of problems identified in the study. The
recommendation emphasizes on the city planning views rather than legal studies.
KEY WORDS: City beautification, regulation, City Corporation, Municipality, Pourashava,

advertisement, sanitary building, limewash & colour, cattle shed and slum, irregular development,
garbage disposal.
INTRODUCTION
In the context of town planning, city beautification preserves the meaning involved with planned
city development including all of its ancillary services. These services should be arranged
physically in consideration with their fairness, aesthetic views, combination with the nature and
science, smell and dust, design, colour, height and density of the surrounding buildings. Road
layouts including parking facilities, traffic signals and control, scientific traffic management
133
Regulatory Arrangements and their Problems in Beautification of Cities in Bangladesh with Special Reference to Khulna
City
system are also included with the meaning of city beautification. Environmental considerations
such as decent advertisement, sanitary building with proper limewash, construction of cattle shed
and slum, irregular development of shops and factories, systematic garbage disposal system,
preservation of ancient monuments, etc. are also parts of city beautification. All these
environmental aspects should be controlled according to the guideline prescribed through town
planning rules and regulations.
OBJECTIVE & DATA SOURCES

In Bangladesh, city area is more polluted than rural area. This pollution is largely creating
problems on city’s aesthetics. Some city areas are suffering from acute problems of
beautification. Perhaps the regulatory gaps and their consequences directly or indirectly
contribute to all these problems. Environmental features of the city areas have been considered
as the major components of this study. Primarily, these features are related with the physical
establishments. Regulations involved with the physical features like city beautification are the
main objectives of the current study. It has been tried in the analysis to incorporate the
regulations directly related with the human living environment in the city areas. Enforcement
authorities and their functions according to the prescribed statutes and enactments have been
considered for their proper functioning. Contemporary regulations on city beautification have
been established not too long ago. Again, solutions of all the problems do not prevail with the
regulations. So, it may be said that, there are regulatory gaps in the regulations and in their
application procedures prescribed by the government. A suggestion has been prescribed in the
study to deal with these problems. The suggestions emphasize on the city planning rather than
legal studies.
The regulations firmly provide the city beautification as the major field of study. The component
is associated with human nature. It is considered that, human nature and behavior play a vital
role in city beautification and it is controlled through prescribed rules and regulations. Effective
use of these regulations generates clean and beautiful city including healthy living environment.
City beautification problems result from poor regulatory arrangements. The study traces all these
regulatory weaknesses and the enforcement problems associated with the related enforcement
authorities. Mostly, secondary materials on regulations and reports have been considered for
furnishing this study. Acts, Ordinances, Annual Reports of the public authorities are the main
sources of information.
STATUTES & ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES

Table-1 presents a list to understand the volume of contemporary laws involved with city
beautification in Bangladesh. The list also includes statutes framed on individual problems and
authorities responsible for the execution. When government can not find any authority for
enforcement it engages the Deputy Commissioner for execution. Some of the statutes have been
prescribed on the particular problems. Enforcement authorities for those statutes are also
established at that time. After a certain period, those authorities were abolished or merged with
other authorities. But, the statutes remain active with all their legal supports until repealed.
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Table 1: Statutes and enforcement authorities involved with the city beautification of
Bangladesh
Enforcement authorities Name of the statutes/enactments
Directorate of environment Conservation of Environment Act, 1995.
Building Construction Act, 1952.
Deputy Commissioner Undesirable Advertisements Control Act, 1952.
Indecent Advertisements Prohibition Act, 1963.
Municipality Municipal Administration Ordinance, 1960.
Pourashava authorities Pourashava Ordinance, 1977.
Directorate of Archeology Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1976.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1978.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1978.
Khulna Metropolitan Police Khulna Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1978.
Dhaka City Corporation Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance, 1983.
Khulna city corporation Khulna city corporation Ordinance, 1986.
Rajshahi city corporation Rajshahi city corporation Ordinance, 1987.
Chittagong city corporation Chittagong city corporation Ordinance, 1982.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha Town Improvement Act, 1953.
Chittagong Development Authority Chittagong Development Authority Ordinance, 1952.
Khulna Development Authority Khulna Development Authority Ordinance, 1961.
Rajshahi Development Authority Rajshahi Town Development Authority Ordinance, 1986.
The regulation largely involved with the city environment of Bangladesh forms the focus of the
present study. Among all the listed statutes certain numbers are on urban environment and
support city beautification activities indirectly. Tank improvement, drainage and sanitation
facilities, forest and razing of hill are primarily related with the environment. Therefore, the
regulations on forest, preservation of hills, drainage and sanitation facilities have not been
considered in this study.
The table shows that, about 17 authorities are involved with the enforcement of 18 statutes for
the control of city beautification activities. In the table Pourashava, Municipality, Zila Parishad,
Thana Parishad and Union Parishad have been considered as the single authority. Among the
authorities, local governments are directly involved with enforcement, while others are
indirectly.
Regulation on the city beautification have different components namely – indecent

advertisement, insanitary building, construction of cattle-shed, slum formation, etc. All these
components are primarily considered for ensuring city beautification rather than environmental
pollution. To maintain sustainable standard of city beautification, regulatory role played by
different authorities in the city premises are sequentially produced below.
Indecent Advertisement
The word ‘advertisement’ includes any notice, sign, visible representation, announcement, bill,
handbill, circular or pamphlet, whether pictorial or otherwise”1 A decent advertisement increases
the city beautification. But, indecent advertisements present the reverse scenario. For the control
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of indecent advertisement in urban premises, government promulgated the Indecent

Advertisement Prohibition Act 1963. In section 3 of the Act it is said, “i) no person shall take
any part in the publication of any advertisement which is indecent; and ii) no person having the
ownership, possession or control of any property or public place shall knowingly allow any
advertisement, which is indecent to be displayed on such property or place, or to be announced
therefrom.” The indecent advertisement can be prohibited by the Police Commissioner according
to the section 95 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976.2 It is very much clear that,
above two statutes are sufficient on the control of indecent advertisement. But, the enforcement
procedure is too loose. Therefore, wall, tree, fence, pole and forest in the urban premises are
loosing their beauty.
Insanitary Building
Regulations are the same on insanitary buildings for all the City Corporations, Pourashavas and
Municipalities in Bangladesh, only sections are changed. The section 74(1) of the Khulna City
Corporation Ordinance 1986 it is stated, “the Corporation may by notice require the owner or
occupier of any building or land which is in any insanitary or unwholesome state – a) to clean
or otherwise put it in a proper state; b) to make arrangement to the satisfaction of the
Corporation for its proper sanitation; c) to limewash the building and to make such essential
repairs as may be specified in the notice; and d) to take such other steps in regard to such
building or land as may be so specified.”
Regulation on the insanitary condition of the building demands repairing work, limewash and
sanitation facilities. Repairing work and sanitation facilities of the private buildings depends on
the necessity and financial capability of the owners. Limewash of the public building in the city
premises is worsening than private buildings; the above regulations could not ensure the
limewash of the public buildings.
The local government have power to enforce the regulations on buildings dangerous for
inhabitants through the section 79(1) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960.3
Again, according to the section 79(2), the Municipal Committee may take necessary steps and
measures on the insanitary buildings.4 For the City Corporation areas the regulations are same as
Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960. Only section 109(1) and (2) are inserted instead of
section 79(1) and (2).
Cattle-shed
In Bangladesh, many urban areas have cattle-sheds. A large number of cattle-sheds scatteredly
exists in the Khulna City. Some of them are open as stated in the regulations and some of them
are fenced with boundary walls or thatches. According to the section 6B of the Cruelty to
Animals Act 1920, “it shall be lawful for [a Pourashava] in towns or places where this Act
applies to refuse to grant or renew licenses for cattle-sheds in buildings with boundary walls or
when granting or renewing such licenses to insist upon the licenses to keep the cattle-sheds open
on all sides to facilitate the detection of any offense against section 6”.5 In the urban areas of
Bangladesh, local governments are enforcing such rules.
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Slum Formation
Regulatory role on slum formation and improvement is too poor in Bangladesh. Section 11(1)(f)
of the Rajshahi Town Development Authority Ordinance 1976 states, “the authority should,
pursuant to the general development plan, prepare in the prescribed manner of a functional
Master Plan relating to - roads, highways and traffic circulation, community planning, housing,
slum clearance and slum improvement.” According to the section 95 of the Pourashava
Ordinance 1977,6 the Pourashava authority may frame slum improvement scheme. The
regulation is same in the section 74 of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960 for all the
municipal areas of Bangladesh. Slum clearance and improvement may be incorporated as the
regulation stated in the Pourashava Ordinance.
Shops and Factories

The shops and factories Act controls environment of commercial and industrial areas. Section 18
of the Shops and Establishments Act 1965 states, “every establishment shall be kept clean and
free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy or other nuisance and shall be cleaned at such
time and by such method as may be prescribed.” To clean the factory premises, section 12(1) of
the Factories Act 1965 is sufficient.7
Disposal of Garbage
In Khulna City, there are three types of garbage namely, human waste, animal waste and
industrial and commercial garbage. Municipal authority is responsible for disposal of garbage
through conservancy activities. According to the prescribed regulation the term ‘environment
conservation’ means the quantitative and qualitative improvement of different components of
environment and prevention of degradation of their standard. But, local authority means it as the
dispose of garbage and sweeping of street only. In the municipal areas, Municipality is
responsible for removal, collection and disposed of refuse and in the City Corporation areas,
City Corporation and in the Pourashava areas Pourashavas are responsible for the same. The
regulations are the same for the Municipality, Pourashava and City Corporation. Section 44(1),
(2), (3) and (4) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960 describes the garbage disposal
of all the Municipalities. Responsibilities of City Corporation and Pourashava are included in the
section 77(1), (2), (3) and (4) of the Act.
Again, section 44(1) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960 states, “a Municipal
Committee shall make adequate arrangements for the removal of refuse from all public streets,
public latrines, urinals, drains, and all buildings and land vested in the Municipal Committee,
and for the collection and proper disposal of such refuse.” Section 44(2) on the building owners
or occupiers says, “the occupiers for all other buildings and lands within the municipality shall
be responsible for removal of refuse from such buildings and lands subject to the general control
and supervision of the Municipal Committee.”
Regulations on the establishment of dust-bins have been prescribed in the section 44(3) of the
Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960.8 Municipal authority is the sole proprietor of all the
dust-bins and receptacles, stated in the regulations of section 44(4).9 To control the factory
garbage, section 13(1) of the Factories Act 1965 states, “effective arrangements shall be made in
every factory for the disposal of wastes and effluents due to the manufacturing process carried
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City
on therein.” Again, provisions of the garbage disposal of the industrial building have been
prescribed in the section 22(2) of the Building Construction (Amendment) Rules 1996.10 But
the regulation does not suggest where the garbage will be disposed off.
Ancient Monument Preservation

In most of the important cities of Bangladesh, different types of ancient monuments can be
found. These monuments are significant components of city beautification. For the preservation
of ancient monuments Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904 have been prepared.
Section 5 of the Act says, “the Director may, with the previous sanction of the government to the
owner to enter into an agreement with the government for the preservation of any protected
monument in his district through an agreement with the different matters.”11
AN OVERVIEW OF THE KHULNA CITY

The Khulna City Corporation preserves right to control, develop and maintain within its
jurisdiction all the trees, parks, gardens and forest, and make city clean from garbage, maintain
and improve drainage and sanitation facilities. From section 123 to 128 of the Khulna City
Corporation Ordinance 1984, section 114 to 119 of the Pourashava Ordinance 1977, section 126
to 131 of the Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance 1983 and section 94 to 99 of the Municipal
Administration Ordinance 1960 have regulations on the trees, parks, gardens and forests on the
urban areas. These regulations12 are not being properly followed by the Khulna City Corporation
(KCC).
The activities performed by the KCC relating to city beautification are conservancy, construction
of urinals and latrines, control on the establishment of slaughter house, canal improvement and
provide water and sanitation facilities. Different funding agencies supply funds for undertaking
these activities. Table-2 presents a list of the funding agencies for funding development projects
of the Khulna City Corporation.
Table 2: Funding Agencies on Development projects in the KCC, 1994-95

Name of the project Budget sanctioned by (Million Taka)
Revenue Development ADB UNICEF IDA
Development of water supplies 125.00 95.10
system.
Construction and repairing of 80.00 297.11
buildings.
Development of drainage & sanitation system. 7.57
Slum improvement projects. 20.00
Municipal services projects. 20.0
Source: Annual Report (1998), Khulna City Corporation, Khulna.
There are two stadiums in the Khulna City, of them Khulna District Stadium is considering as
the main and important one, situated beside the Khulna Circuit House. In context of urban
design, both the stadiums do not equally add to the city beautification. One is situated beside a
narrow road, within the Central Business District (CBD) areas with absence of available parking
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facilities and poor structural condition. The other is established on the Khulna–Jessore Highway
without available open spaces on its surroundings. Monotonous shops and proto-type
architectural design could be found in both the stadiums.
Park is considered as a recreation place for urban dwellers. Park and open spaces with planned
development may make a city beautiful. According to the regulation, park is considered as
Public Park or garden.13 Private Park and Shishu (children) Park also maintaining an important
position in the urban planning context. But, regulations are absent on these two establishments.
There is one park named ‘Hadith Park’ in Khulna City. This is not an ideal park with greenaries
and large open space as like the Ramna Park or Chandrima Uddayan in Dhaka. The area is
covered with some trees on its boundaries, pond and an open space like play field. This park is
frequently used as political and cultural centre with large stage, bookstall, pavilion, etc. There
are four Shishu Parks in the Khulna City named - Khalishpur Shishu Park, Golakmoni Shishu
Park, Shantidham Shishu Park and Mahanagari Shishu Park. The qualities of Shishu Parks are
also do not make any addition to increase the city beautification.
In the year 1978, Khulna City Corporation planned to construct a prominent and modern town
hall in the city premises. They started work in the year of 1983-84 and completed the town hall
named Zia Hall on 1.5 acres of land in the city centre near Shibbari. With a large auditorium and
modern facilities, this premise is used to stage socio-cultural performances. This town hall
stands as a landmark, not as a beautiful structure to add to the beauty of the city.
Colour or limewash of building, planned development including structurally sound, planned and
improved road network including footpath, proper garbage facilities, available open spaces
including greenaries are the primary element in city beautification. Haphazard development
including commercial activities, sponteneous growth and expansion, irregular and narrow road
network, absence of proper cleaning and watering of road, hanging electric line, poor drainage
facilities including water stagnation, absence of colour and limewash of public buildings, poor
and unplanned open spaces are general scenario of the Khulna City. Different authorities like
Khulna City Corporation, Khulna Development Authority, Directorate of Public Health
Engineering, National Housing Authority, Power Development Board, Roads and Highways
Authority are performing their development activities without any coordination through Annual
Development Plan but not based on a master plan with long term perspective and consideration
of city beautification.
Haphazard and indecent advertisement can be viewed all over the city areas. There is no control
on such activities though there is an Act and a legal authority present to supervise. The KCC can
not prepare any by-law on the Indecent Advertisement Prohibition Act 1963. Khulna
Metropolitan Police Authority, according to their Ordinance can prohibit and control the
postering and other activities on public and private walls. But, the general scenario is that, public
and private walls are frequently used for political slogans and commercial advertisements, which
is creating an unfair environment in the city.
Worst scenario can be found in the government housing estate, ancient buildings, market areas
and old structures (particularly enemy properties). All these establishments have created dirty,
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noisy and visually unfit image of Khulna City. Roads, footpaths and drains are occupied with
garbage and informal activities. Unauthorized occupation of public land, slum formation is the
general character of the City. There are different public authorities and regulations to control all
these activities and make the city clean, but the city is loosing its living environment due to all
these problems.
THE PROBLEMS
The above discussion indicates that, there are some gaps between regulations prescribed and role
played by the relevant authorities. Perhaps all type of city beautification problems is being
created due to the lack of appropriate regulations and efficient enforcement by the authorities.
Efficiency of the authorities depends on the easy and modern regulations. But, in Bangladesh,
every sector of the city environment is dominating by the outdated regulations. The regulatory
problems of city beautification are presented below:
• As the regulations are outdated, enforcement procedures are also backdated and
documentary only. Enforcement procedures set by the authorities through by-laws are based
on the regulations. In Bangladesh, prime contents of the by-laws contain only the approval
procedures. Physical involvement with close supervision is generally absent which is most
important for the efficient regulatory control.
Most of the statutes are framed with particular objectives, but they are found outdated against
modern development activities. Enactment of Factories Act 36 years before is now irrelevant to
new urban and industrial development. Absence of necessary regulatory controls is observed in
the section 12(1) of the Factories Act 1965. The regulation emphasizes on the garbage disposal
and control of insanitary condition of buildings. Moreover, where and how the refuse will be
disposed off is totally absent in the statute. Therefore, surroundings of the factories are polluted
with solid and liquid refuse throughout the countries.
• A large number of regulations in every statute are incomplete and express different
meanings. Section 19 of the Shops and Establishments Act 1965 says, “every establishment
shall be ventilated in accordance with such standards and by such methods as may be
prescribed.” The statute however, does not fix any standard on ventilation and the method
of provision. So, how it will be measured that, how much ventilation is sufficient for 10
workers in a 100 sq. meter shop or in a commercial establishment? Which method should be
appreciated for this situation? Again, it is stated in the section 20 of the Shops and
Establishments Act 1965, “every establishment should be sufficiently lighted during all
working hours.” Same question can be raised, what is the measure of ‘sufficient light’?
• Contradictions arise on the enforcement of regulations. Activities may be controlled and

prevented by different authorities according to their prescribed statutes. Example may be
sited on the use of public spring or reservoir. According to the section 277 of the Penal
Code 1860, “whoever voluntarily corrupts or fouls the water of any public spring or
reservoir, so as to render it less fit for the purpose for which it is ordinarily used, shall be
punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three
months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred taka or with both.” Punishment for
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illegal use of bathing and washing place has been stated in the section 82 of the Dhaka
Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976. The section states, “whoever baths or washes in or by
the side or a public well, tank, pond, pool or reservoir not set apart for such purpose by
order of the Police Commissioner shall be punishable with fine, which may extend to two
hundred taka.”The regulations contain different punishments on same offences.
• Some of the activities related with the city beautification are regulated by more than one
authority according to their respective regulations. Government is trying to maintain
coordination for efficient execution of the regulations through a coordination cell. But, all
the authorities execute their own regulations according to their own by-laws. An example
may be produced here. Individual authority controls approval procedure for other public
authorities, prescribed punishment is followed according to the individual authority.
Coordination cell only can provide guideline for further planning and development or a
strong supervisory role as special activities. Generally, an individual authority follow the
role of planning and development activities but the members from different authorities
prepare guideline.
• There are many offences that penalties alone can control. But, in Bangladesh, there are some
statutes related with the city beautification that do not prescribe any penalties on their
contravention. Some regulations have prescribed insufficient penalties, which is not enough
to control the distortion of city beautification.
To control the city beautification, section 98 of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ordinance
1978 provides punishment in the following manner, “whoever without the consent of the owner
or occupier, affixes any bill, notice or paper against or upon any building, wall, tree, fence, post,
pole or other erection with chalk, ink or paint or in any manner whatsoever shall be punishable
with fine which may extend to Taka 200.” Due to this minimum punishment, walls and fences in
the urban areas of Bangladesh are found with the affixes of political slogans.
• A general picture may be viewed in the city area that is roadside building construction
activities performed by the landowners ignoring the danger and problems created for people.
It is prescribed in the relevant Act that, during repairing work and maintenance of the
buildings, if any danger arises on human life, the person responsible will be punished
according to the section 288 of the Penal Code 1860. The section says, “whoever in pulling
down or repairing any building, knowingly or negligent omits to take such order with that
building as is sufficient to guard against any probable danger to human life from the fall of
that building, or of any part thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to
Taka 1000, or with both.” Six months imprisonment is insufficient against a danger on a
human life. The danger may cause fatal injury to death.
Table 3 presents the penalties and offences in short as they are in different statutes prescribed by
the Government. The causes and consequences of the contravention of regulations are more
important to find out the causes of executional problems of regulations. On the observation of
the Table-3, it may be stated that, city beautification of Bangladesh is vigorously hampered due
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City
to the insufficient provision of punishment. Some statutes have been amended several times but
the severity of punishment remains the same. Only the term ‘Taka’ has been inserted in case of
‘Rupee’.
Table 3: Punishment according to the different statutes and causes

Causes Name of the statutes Maximum punishment
Indecent advertisement Dhaka Metropolitan Police Fine with two hundred taka.
Ordinance, 1976
Indecent Advertisements Six months imprisonment.
Prohibition Act, 1963
Building repairing. Penal Code, 1860 Six months imprisonment or with fine
which may extend to one thousand taka, or
with both.
Any offence under this Conservation of Five years imprisonment or fine with one
Ordinance. Environment Act, 1995 lakh taka, or both.
Destroys, removes, injures, Ancient Monuments Fine with five thousand rupees, or three
alters, defaces or imperils preservation Act, 1904 months imprisonment, or with both.
protected monument.
Any offence under this Municipal Administration Fine with five hundred taka.
Ordinance. Ordinance, 1960 and
Pourashava Ordinance, 1977
Any offence under this Dhaka City Corporation Fine with ten thousand Taka.
Ordinance. Ordinance, 1983
Any offence under this Khulna City Corporation Fine with one thousand taka.
Ordinance. Ordinance, 1984
Source: As the statute mentioned.
• All the statutes on city beautification do not preserve the right to involve police power in the
executional process. Local governments, who have administrative power, but do not have
the right to involve police power as and when necessary according to the statute prescribed
for them. Some of the authorities can involve the police power through a lengthy and time-
consuming process and some of the authorities are entitled to involve police power or same
activities according to their necessities. There is minimum number of statutes where
employees of the authority preserve the right to act as police officers.
• The people are hampering city beautification due to the ignorance about regulations
concerning indecent or undesirable activities. As like other necessary regulations, people are
not aware about the regulations on the advertisements. People’s ignorance about the causes
and consequences of the problems of city beautification is largely involved with the
prescribed regulations. According to the section 3(I) of the Indecent Advertisements
Prohibition Act 1963, “no person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement
which is indecent; and (ii) no person having the ownership, possession or control of any
property or public place shall knowingly allow any advertisement which is indecent to be
displayed on such property or place, or to be announced therefrom.” People are not aware
about this regulation, therefore, indecent advertisements are viewed in all the city premises
of Bangladesh.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
The above discourse indicates three-dimensional problems - administrative problems, regulatory
problems and enforcement problems. The study emphasizes on the regulatory and enforcement
problems than administrative problems. The recommendations are concerned with the problems
stated earlier.
• Executional conflicts are observed with respect to some specified functions in urban centers
like divisional towns. Establishment and control of public parks regulations are enforced by
three authorities namely, park authority, local government and development authority.
Control on forest and forest produces are controlling by two authorities namely, Directorate
of Forest and Local Government. To remove the executional conflicts among authorities one
point enforcement system should be imposed. Single authority with individual problem is
more effective than the involvement of different authorities with individual problems.
• Enforcement procedure may be divided into two parts i.e. direct and indirect. Direct
enforcement procedure is generally termed as direct control over the activities or functions
with physical presence of the authorities. Indirect enforcement procedure needs the approval
or written permission offered by the authorities to the beneficiaries. In Bangladesh, most of
the enforcement procedures are indirect. In absence of direct control over the activities
performed by the people, a suitable living environment has not been created in the city
premises. So, it is necessary to impose an easy and rapid enforcement procedure by the
authority with the frequent supervisory role on the private and public activities related with
the city beautification. All types of enforcement procedures should be guided according to a
set of by-laws and efficient management by the authorities. Single authority with individual
regulations and body may play better role.
• Most of the statutes related with the environment were formulated long ago. Some of them
have been amended several times, but the objectives and process of execution remain the
same as before. According to the Table-4, it is found that, obsolete statutes are used to
control the city environment. It is necessary to incorporate modern and dynamic provisions
in the existing statutes through amendment. These regulations should cover a wide range of
the components of city beautification. The regulations should be specified, self-dictatory
and easy with its meaning. Regulations on city beautification should be framed separately,
because process and components of city beautification are different for each element.
Emphasize should be given on the peoples activities and their control.
Table 4: Name of the statutes and their year of commencement

Name of the statutes Year of 1st commencement
Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904
Building Construction Act 1952
Chittagong Development Authority Ordinance 1959
Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance 1983
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976
Environment Pollution Control Ordinance 1977
Khulna Development Authority Ordinance 1961
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City
Name of the statutes Year of 1st commencement

Local Government Ordinance 1976
Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960
Pourashava Ordinance 1977
Rajshahi Town Development Authority Ordinance 1982
Town Improvement Act 1953
Undesirable Advertisements Control Act 1952
Indecent Advertisements Prohibition Act 1963
Source: Different statutes.
• According to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976, punishment for slaughtering
of animals without permission results a fine with Taka 500. But, in the section 11(1) of the
Karachi Cattle Slaughter Control Act 1950, says, “whosoever contravenes any provisions of
this Act or of the rules framed thereunder shall be punished with fine which may extend to
Rs. 1000 but shall not be less than Rs. 100 or with imprisonment of either description which
may extend to six months, or with both.” Comparison with the Act of Pakistan shows that
the penalties for the offences related with the slaughtering of animals in Bangladesh is
insufficient. It should be re-arranged with the incorporation of severe penalties like the
Karachi Cattle Slaughter Control Act 1950.
It is prescribed in the Undesirable Advertisements Control Act 1952, “whoever contravenes any
of the provisions of section 3 shall, on conviction, be punishable with imprisonment, which may
extend to one year or with fine, which may extend to Taka 1000, or with both.” The
imprisonment prescribed here is sufficient but the amount of fine suggested is poor due to the
devaluation of money from 1952 to 2000. So, it is suggested that, all the punishment involved
also with fine should be increased according to the proportionate devaluation of money.
Punishment implied in the Local Government Ordinances should be specified for contravention
of regulation and punishment. All such other statutes should follow the same directions.
• A large number of authorities reserve no right to involve the police power with execution of
law. Again, some authorities conceive specified regulations on the punishment but how the
convict will be arrested are not specified in the statutes. There are some regulations, which
are totally depended on the supervisory role of the authorities. Involvement of police power
will not produce positive result on the execution. To remove such problems, regulation
should be changed according to the Penal Code 1860. Generally, involvement of police
power in any offence may follow the statute named Metropolitan Police Ordinance. Any
other authority may request the police authority as a supporting force to control the
unnecessary problems.
• City is polluted by the activities of people. This is happening due to the ignorance about
environmental, also ignorance of regulatory stands. In the civilized world where large
number of people is literate they have also some ignorance about the regulatory provisions
and are not conscious. Illiterate people do not know anything about the regulatory problems.
City beautification problem in Bangladesh is being created in both the ways.
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It is necessary to create people's awareness in the country through different activities and
techniques. One of the techniques is people's participation in the public sector with direct
involvement on the preservation and development of city environment. These may be activate
like, plantation of trees, dispose of garbage, limewash of the building, fair advertisements, etc.
Indirect approach may be the generation of people's awareness by the public sector through
different advertisements in mass media. The process should incorporate negative impact of the
environment pollution on people's health. Seminar and workshop for literate people on various
aspects of city environment should be arranged regularly in different parts of the country.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
To check the city beautification problems of Bangladesh, both the parties i.e. public and privates
should perform their roles according to the regulations of the Acts. It should not be termed that,
the private beneficiaries will only perform their responsibilities and the public authorities will
maintain their bureaucracy. It is obviously true that, the involvement of responsibilities is
emphasized through regulations on the public authorities than private users. According to the
section 23(4) of the Bangladesh Wild Life Preservation Order 1973, construction of access
roads, rest houses and hotels and provision of amenities for the public has to be so planned that
may not impair the primary object of the establishment of a national park. The regulation does
not reflect the activities of private owners. Again in the Second Schedule of the Local
Government Ordinance 1976, it is prescribed that Zila Parishad can perform the following
activities:
- Plantation and preservation of trees on roadside and public places.

- Discourages of establishment and improvement of slums & squatters.
- Planned residential and commercial development according to the master plan.
- Control on the limewash and colour of building.
- Removal of old and dangerous buildings.
- Imposition of zoning provision & landuse control as prescribed in the master plan.
- Proper provision of garbage cleaning and disposal ground.
- Maintain building line and establish footpath on both side of all the urban roads.
- Preservation of all water bodies in a planned manner.
- Establishment of park and open spaces as a refreshment place of urban dwellers.
But it is interesting that, Zila Parishad does not prepare the Master Plan. City Corporation
(where existing) is performing part of these activities and development authority is responsible
to approve building plan, construction of major roads (except maintenance) commercial and
neighbourhood development. A single authority according to the regulatory measures prescribed
by the Government should control all the activities involved with the city beautification. As a
result, cities of the Bangladesh will be beautiful with their entire physical environment.
145
City
Notes
1
Section 2(1). East Bengal Undesirable Advertisements Control Act, 1952.
2
Section 95 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976 is stated that, “whoever without the consent
of the owner or occupier, affixes any bill, notice or paper against or upon any building, wall, tree, fence,
post, pole or other erection with calm, ink or paint or in any manner whatsoever shall be punishable with
fine which may extend to two hundred taka.”
3
Section 79(1) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960, “if any building, or anything fixed
thereon be deemed by the Municipal Committee to be in a ruinous state or likely to fall or in any way
dangerous to any inhabitant of such building or of any neighbouring building or to any occupier thereof or
to passers-by, the Municipal Committee may be notice require the owner or occupier of such building to
take such action in regard to the building as may be specified in the notice, and if there is default, the
Municipal Committee may take the necessary steps itself, and the cost incurred thereon by the Municipal
Committee shall be deemed to be a tax levied on the owner or occupier of the building under this
Ordinance.”
4
Section 79(2) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960 is stated that, “if a building is in a
dangerous condition, or otherwise unfit for human habitation, the Municipal Committee may prohibit the
occupation of such building till it has been suitably repaired to the satisfaction of the Municipal
Committee.”
5
Section 6 of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1920, “if any person performs upon any cow or other milk animal
the operation called phuka he shall be deemed to have committed a cognizable offence and shall be
punished with fine which may extend to five hundred taka, or with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to two years, or with both, and the owner of the cow or other milk animal and any person in
possession of or control over it shall be liable to the same punishment.”
6
Section 95 of the Pourashava Ordinance 1977 is prescribed that, "a Pourashava may, and if slum
improvement so required by the prescribed authority shall draw up a Master Plan for the municipality
which shall, among other matters, provide for – a) a survey of the municipality including its history,
statistics, public services and other prescribed particulars, b) development, expansion, and improvement of
any areas within the municipality, and c) restrictions, regulations and prohibitions to be imposed with
regard to the development of sites, and the erection and re-erection of buildings within the municipality."
7
Section 12(1) of the Factories Act 1965 is pronounced that, “every factory shall be kept clean and free
from effluvia arising from any drain privy or other nuisance, and in particular - a) accumulation of dirt and
refuge shall be moved daily by sweeping or by any other effective method from the floors and benches of
workrooms and from staircases and passages and disposed of in a suitable manner. b) the floor of every
workroom shall be cleaned at least once in every week by washing, using disinfectant where necessary or
by some other effective method. c) where the floor is liable to become wet in the course of any
manufacturing process to such extent as is capable of being drained, effective means of drainage shall be
provided and maintained. d) all inside walls and partitions, all ceilings, or tops of rooms and walls, side and
tops or passages and staircases shall – i) where they are painted or varnished, be repainted or re-varnished
at least once in every five years; ii) where they are painted or varnished and have smooth imperious
surfaces, be cleaned at least once in every fourteenth months, by such methods as may be prescribed; iii) in
any other case, be kept white-washed or colour-washed and the white-washing or colour-washing shall be
carried out at least once in every fourteenth months; and iv) the dates on which the processes required by
clause (d) are carried out shall be entered in the prescribed register.”
146
8
Section 44(3) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960, “the Municipal Committee may cause
public dust-bins or other suitable receptacles to be provided at suitable places and in proper and convenient
situations in streets or other public places, and where such dust-bins or receptacles are provided, the
Municipal Committee may be public notice, require that all refuse accumulating in any premises or land
shall be deposited by the owner or occupier of such premises or land in such dust-bins or receptacles.”
9
Section 44(4) of the Municipal Administration Ordinance 1960, “all refuse removed and collected by the
staff of the Municipal Committee or under their control and supervision and all refuse deposited in the dust-
bins and other receptacles provided by the Municipal Committee shall be the property of the Municipal
Committee.”
10
Section 22(2) of the Building Construction (Amendment) Rules 1996, “provisions to discharge the
garbage of the industrial building should be provided”.
11
The matters are - a) the maintenance of the monument; b) the custody of the monument, and the duties of
any person who may be employed to watch it; c) the facilities of access to be permitted to the public or to
any portion of the public and to persons deputed by the owner or the Director to inspect or maintain the
monument; d) the restriction of the owner’s right to destroy, remove, alter or deface the monument or to
build on or near the site of the monument; e) the notice to be given to the government in case the land on
which the monument is situated and offered for sale by the owner, and the right to be reserved to the
government to purchase such land, or any specified portion of such land, at its market-value; f) the
proprietary or other rights which are to vest in government in respect of the monument when any
expenses are incurred by the government in connection with the preservation of the monument; g) the
appointment of an authority to decide any dispute arising out of the agreement; and h) the payment of any
expenses incurred by the owner or by the government to connection with the preservation of the
monument; i) any matter connected with the preservation of the monument which is a proper subject
of agreement between the owner and the government.
12
1) Lay out and maintain within the City with such public gardens as may be necessary for the recreation
and convenience of the public, and such public gardens shall be maintained and administered in such
manner as the by-laws may provide. 2) Provide and maintain open spaces for the convenience of the public
and such spaces shall be grassed, hedged, planted and equipped with such amenities and in such manner as
the by-laws may provide. 3) Frame and enforce Forest Plans providing for the improvement, development
and exploitation of forests and plant, maintain and work forests in accordance with such plans. 4) Control
the felling of any tree which is dangerous or the trimming of the branches of any tree which overhang and
are likely to interfere with traffic or are otherwise inconvenient. 5) Take steps with regard to the excavation
and re-excavation of tanks and the reclamation of low-lying areas, as it thinks fit.
13
For more details, Section 2(a), Public Parks Act, 1904.
REFERENCES
GoB,1995, Conservation of Environment Act, 1995 (Act No. I of 1995), Government of the People’s
Republic of Bangladesh (16th February 1995), Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs,
Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoI, 1904, Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 (Act No. VII of 1904), Government of India (18th
March 1904), Law Department, Gazette of India.
GoEP, 1953, Building Construction Act, 1952 (East Bengal Act No. II of 1952), Government of East
Pakistan (21st March 1953), Law Division, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
147
City
GoB, 1996, Building Construction (Amendment) Rules, 1996 (Notification No.S. R. O. No. 112-L/96),
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (18th July 1996), Ministry of Law and
Parliamentary Affairs,Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1960, Municipal Administration Ordinance, 1960 (Ordinance No. X of 1960), Government of East
Pakistan (11th April 1960), Law Division, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoB, 1977, Pourashava Ordinance, 1977 (Ordinance No. XXVI of 1977), Government of the People’s
Republic of Bangladesh (27th June 1977), Ministry of Law and Justice, Dhaka Gazette,
Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1953, Town Improvement Act, 1953 (Act No. XIII of 1953), Government of East Pakistan (15th May
1953), Law Division, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1959, Chittagong Development Authority Ordinance, 1959 (Ordinance No. LI of 1959),
Government of East Pakistan (27th July 1959), Law Division , Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary,
Dhaka.
GoB, 1976, Rajshahi Town Development Authority Ordinance, 1982 (Ordinance No. LXXVIII of 1982),
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (19th October 1976), Ministry of Law and
Justice, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1961, Khulna Development Authority Ordinance, 1961(Ordinance No. II of 1961), Government of
East Pakistan (21st January 1961), Law Division, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoB, 1983, Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance, 1983 (Ordinance No. XL of 1983), Government of the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh (24th August 1983), Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs,
Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoB, 1986, Khulna City Corporation Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. LV of 1986), Government of the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh (9th July 1986), Ministry of Law and Parliamentary Affairs,
Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1965, Shops and Establishments Act, 1965 (Act No. VII of 1965), Government of East Pakistan
(1965), Law Division,Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoI, 1860, Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860), Government of India (6th October 1860), Law
Department, Gazette of India, India.
GoB, 1976, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1976 (Ordinance No. III of 1976), Government of the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh (1976), Ministry of Law and Justice, Bangladesh Gazette,
Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoB, 1978, Chittagong Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1978 (Ordinance No. XLVIII of 1978),
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (22nd November 1978), Ministry of Law and
Justice, Bangladesh Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1952, East Bengal Undesirable Advertisements Control Act, 1952 (No.XV of 1952), Government of
East Pakistan (22nd November 1952), Law Division , Dhaka Gazette,Extraordinary, Dhaka.
GoEP, 1963, Indecent Advertisements Prohibition Act, 1963 (Act No. XII of 1963), Government of East
Pakistan (11th June 1963), Law Division, Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, Dhaka.
The Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, 9th February 1956, Part IVA.

The Dhaka Gazette, Extraordinary, 29th June 1968, Part IVA.
KCC, 1988, Annual Report 1998, Khulna City Corporation (KCC), Khulna.
148
ISSN 1608-7844
Khulna University
Guide to the Contributors
149
Guide to the Contributors
150

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Plan Plus

A Journal of Planning, Development, Urbanization & Environment

Volume 1 Number 2 September 2004

Urban and Rural Planning Discipline

Cover & Design

Prof. Dr. Raquib Ahmed

Dr. Shabbir Ahmed

Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam

Dr. Dilip Kumar Datta

Prof. Dr. Maudud Elahi

Dr. Roxana Hafiz

Prof. Md. Nurul Haque

Prof. Dr. Azizul Mowla

Prof. Dara Shamsuddin

Prof. Dr. S. Rafi Ahmed

Prof. Dr. A.T.M. Nurul Amin

Dr. Peter Anderson

Prof. M Abdul Quadir Bhuiyan

Prof. Nabeel Hamdi

Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Abul Kalam

Dr. Nurul Islam Nazem

Prof. Dr. Golam Rahman

Dr. Kam Tin Seong

Akhter Husain Chaudhury

Developing an Interactive Digital Guide Map of Dhaka City 52-59

Status of Housing Quality in Rajshahi City: A Geographical Study 70-78

The Concept, Delineation and Planning Implications of Urban Fringe 111-119

Plan Plus Volume 1 No 2 2004 (1-12)

NDVI DERIVED SUGARCANE AREA IDENTIFICATION AND

STUDY AREA - AN OVERVIEW

SUGARCANE – PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECT

SPECTRAL REFLECTANCE, VEGETATION AND NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE

Figure 1: Location map of the study area

Figure 2: Soil types of Charghat Thana

NDVI = (NIR-VIS) / (NIR + VIS)

Remote Sensing Data

Minor Crops Rice

Results and Discussion:

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1: Spatial extent of different land cover/use

Table 2: Crop Condition of Sugarcane in the Study Area

Figure 6: NDVI image (Derived from IRS LISS II, Band 4, 3)

Figure 7: Classified image (According to NDVI value of Band 4 and 3)

Figure 8: Sugarcane area distribution (extract from classified image)

Figure 9: Crop condition-sugarcane (Classified from NDVI value of Band 4, 3)

Plan Plus Volume 2 No 1 2004 (13-25)

KNOWLEDGE BASED SPATIAL EXPERT SUPPORT SYSTEM IN

Md. Mujibor Rahman1 and Dr. A. P. Subudhi2

Figure 1(A): Location map of the study area.

Dehradun City & Its Environment

Figure 1(A): Location map of the study area.

Design What are the alternatives?

Choice Which alternative is best?

Figure 2: Three phases of decision-making process.

Remote Sensing data Collateral data

IRS LISS III +PAN

Generation of thematic map

Preparation of suitability unit map

Comprehensive assessment and expert evaluation of class for site suitability

Labeling the class Calculation of each class areas

Site suitability map with expert classes

Figure 3: Overall methodology of the study.

Evaluation Criteria Constraints