analyzing the relationship between the … · categories at savar, dhaka, bangladesh through space...

International Journal of Scientific Knowledge (Computing and Information Technology)

Volume 1 Issue 4, Dec 2012 @2012 IJSK & K.J.A. All rights reserved

www.ijsk.org 1493 -ISSN 2305

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ANALYZING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INTEGRATION

CORE OF DHAKA-ARICHA HIGHWAY AND EXISTING LAND USE

CATEGORIES AT SAVAR, DHAKA, BANGLADESH THROUGH SPACE

SYNTAX ANALYSIS

Saiful Hasan Tariq

Mahbuba Afroz Jinia

Stamford University Bangladesh.

E-Mail: [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract:

With the accumulation of variety of activities in a city, the issue of land use gets significance in terms of efficient use

of the spaces and activity. Along with this issue, another unavoidable issue for proper urban development is

integration or street network. In any area, land use generates whenever movement initiates and the integration is

given. But different type of agglomeration generates different types of movement, for which an area has different

types of land use and zoning. The basic relation of spatial configuration – an output of street network, and land use

generation helps to understand a developing area and guide its land use planning. Dhaka-Aricha Highway is one of

the national highways which connect several districts with Dhaka. This highway ran through several unions in

Savar upazila. Along its way, different types of land use development took place through the course of time. This

study intends to find whether there is any significant relationship between the integration core of existing Dhaka-

Aricha highway and the land use categories in the context of Savar Upazila.

Key wards: Global Integration, Land Use, axial map, Savar upazila

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




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1. Introduction:

Land use plan allocates human activities that should

occur on limited land, and determines the level of

those activities. With the accumulation of variety of

activities in an area, the issue of land use gets

significance in terms of efficient use of the spaces

and activity. Along with this issue, another

unavoidable issue for proper urban development is

integration or street network. In any area, land use

generates whenever movement initiates and the

integration is given. But different type of

agglomeration generates different types of

movement, for which a city has different types of

land use and zoning. The basic relation of spatial

configuration – an output of street network, and land

use generation helps to understand a city and guide

its land use planning.

The study on the integration of existing road network

may define the functionality of the existing land use.

As the higher integration value means better

accessibility, the road network and connectivity may

have significant impact on the land use categories.

This study intends to find whether there is any

relationship between the integration core of existing

Dhaka-Aricha Highway and the land use categories

along its way in the context of Savar Upazila.

2. Objectives of the research

This paper aims to investigate the integration core

of existing Dhaka-Aricha Highway and the changes

in integration value due to the change in land-use

type in order to use the knowledge to make proper

land use for future development. In short the

objectives are as follows.

Review of historical background through

secondary resources.

Understanding the existing land use

categories in Savar upazila.

Finding out the changes in integration value

along Dhaka-Aricha Highway in different

segments

Understanding the relationship between

different integration values and land use.

Placing analytical comments about the

spatial configuration.

3. Methodology of the research:

At first, Literature review has been done to make a

clear conception about the study area and its

historical background based on secondary data.

Secondly, the upazila map and the land use map of

the area (Savar) have been studied to understand the

land-use in different unions in Savar. Thirdly, Dhaka-

Aricha Highway has been segmented on the points

where the union boundaries were crossed by it to

explain the integration and the land use in the easiest

way

Then the axial maps of Savar upazila have been

prepared on the basis of existing road network and

the graph analysis has been made to analyze the

integration values.

The integration [HH] values of existing road network

were analyzed by running axial map graph analysis in

“UCL DEPTHMAP v 10”. Finally the integration

value in different segments of Dhaka-Aricha

Highway along with its land use type in adjacent

areas has been compared to understand the

relationship between the integration value and the

land-use type.

4. City profile:

4.1. Location and Geographic information of

Savar Upazila:

Savar is an Upazila of Dhaka District. It is

located at about 24 km from the center of Dhaka city.

The geographic location of Savar is at 23°51.5′N

90°16′E. According to the 2011 Bangladesh census;

Savar Upazila had a population of 1,387,426 and it

has 66,956 units of household. On the north, Savar is

bounded by Kaliakair and Gazipur Sadar upazilas.

Keraniganj upazila is on the south. Mirpur,

Mohammadpur, Pallabi and Uttara thanas of Dhaka

City are on the east and Dhamrai and Singair upazilas

on the west. The land of the upazila is composed of

alluvium soil of the Pleistocene period. The southern

part of the upazila is composed of the alluvium soil




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of the Bangshi and Dhalashwari rivers. Main rivers

are Bangshi, Turag, Buriganga and Karnatali.

4.2. Institutes and other infrastructures in Savar:

Savar is the home of Jahangirnagar University,

one of the renowned Public University of Bangladesh

and only University for full student residence

facilities.

The 9th Division Army Cantonment is located at

northern part of Savar. The Military Firm and Govt

Dairy Firm are just beside Jahangirnagar University.

The only training centre for the public service

commissioned officers in Bangladesh, BPATC

training center (Public Administration Training

Centre) is situated in Savar. Bangladesh Krira

Shiksha Pratisthan (BKSP) is also situated in Jirani

Bazar, Savar. Dhaka Export processing Zone, DEPZ

is also situated in this upazila.

4.3. The unions in savar upazila:

Savar upazila consists of savar paurashava and

11other unions like Shimulia, Dhamsona, Yearpur,

Ashulia, Birulia, Bhakurta, Pathalia, Banagram,

Kaundia, Tetuljhora and Amin Bazar.Dhaka Aricha

highway runs through Savar paurashava, Pathalia,

Banagram, Kaundia, Tetuljhora and Amin Bazar. For

this reason, these unions were taken into account to

analyze land use types along Dhaka-Aricha highway.

Lots of infrastructures have been developed along

this highway in these unions. Jahangir Nagar

University, National Memorial, Savar Cantonment

and Savar dairy farm is most notable landmarks in

Pathalia union at Savar. Military Dairy firm, Radio

station and bank colony established along Dhaka

Aricha Highway in Savar Paurashava. But in the

Banagram, Tetuljhora and Amin Bazar union the

highway did not put much impact on urban

development; rather these unions are still

characterized by agricultural fields and rural

settlements.

Fig: 1. Upazila map, Savar, Dhaka, source: Maps of

Bangladesh blog post




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Fig: 2. Land Use map, Savar, Dhaka, [part map] source:

Rajuk

4.4. Existing land use category:

Savar upazila shows distinctive organic growth

pattern of an area. Dhaka-Aricha road, which is one

of the main highways that connects several divisions

in Bangladesh, runs through the urban center of savar

upazila and serves as the main artery of vehicular

transport here. In the integrated detailed area plan

map of Dhaka, the land area of savar area was

categorized among different land use categories

based on field and GPS survey. Here is the short

discussion of the categorized land use of the unions

which were crossed by Dhaka-Aricha Highway:

Pathalia union is occupied by urban residential area

at its northern and south-eastern part. The western

part is characterized by agricultural lands and flood

flow area. At north-east, Savar cantonment and Jatiyo

Smriti Soudho is marked as overlay zone in the land

use map [fig: 2]. Jahangirnagar University and Savar

Dairy Firm occupies a large area at South-east corner

of this union.

Fig: 3. Satellite Image, Pathalia union, Savar,

source: Google earth

Savar Paurashava is characterized by mostly urban

residential zone and Administrative areas. The urban

center of savar is in this area and main urban core is

crossed by Dhaka-Aricha highway. Accept the

northern part, the whole paurashava area is marked as

urban residential zone in the land use map [fig:

2].The northern part is occupied by military dairy

firm. This area has the highest density of urban built

forms in the whole savar upazila. Some residential

cum general industrial use of land are also common

here along Dhaka-Aricha highway.




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Fig: 4. Satellite Image, Savar paurashava, Savar, Dhaka,

source: Google earth

Banagram, Tetuljhora and Amin Bazar union is

characterized by rural settlement, agricultural fields

and flood flow zone in the land use map [fig: 2]. But

few urban development is seen at the northern part of

Aminbazar union which is grown along the Dhaka-

Aricha Highway.

Fig: 5. Satellite Image, Banagram, Tetuljhora and Amin

Bazar union, Savar, Dhaka, source: Google earth

By analyzing the land use in the unions, it is observed

that the urban and infrastructural development in

Savar took place alongside the Dhaka-Aricha

highway. Distant areas from this road is still occupied

by rural settlements or agricultural fields and some of

the areas are flood flow zones. Because of being the

main Artery of vehicular transport, Dhaka-Aricha

highway has become the only connector among the

different categories of land development in the

existing context.

5. Space Syntax Analysis:

SPACE SYNTAX is a method for describing and

analyzing the relationships between spaces of urban

areas and buildings. Architects normally refer to

these relationships as “the layout”. In Space Syntax,

the spaces are understood as voids (streets, squares,

rooms, fields, etc.) between walls, fences and other

impediments or obstructions that restrain (pedestrian)

traffic and/or the visual field. Space Syntax also

defines spatial order through analyzing spatial pattern

with an emphasis on the relation between local

morphological relations and global patterns. The

spatial structure of a layout can be represented using

three types of syntactic maps:

• Convex map depicts the least number of convex

spaces that fully cover a layout and the connections

between them. The interface map is a special kind of

convex map showing the permeable relations

between the outdoor convex spaces to the adjacent

building entrances.

• Axial map depicts the least number of axial lines

covering all convex spaces of a layout and their

connections.

• Isovist map depicts the areas that are visible from

convex spaces or axial lines.

There are four syntactic measures that can be

calculated. They are used in quantitative

representations of building and urban layouts, like

• Connectivity measures the number of immediate

neighbors that are directly connected to a space. This

is a static local measure.

• Integration is a static global measure. It describes

the average depth of a space to all other spaces in the

system. The spaces of a system can be ranked from

the most integrated to the most segregated.

• Control value is a dynamic local measure. It

measures the degree to which a space controls access

to its immediate neighbors taking into account the

number of alternative connections that each of these

neighbors has.

• Global choice is a dynamic global measure of the




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“flow” through a space. A space has a strong choice

value when many of the shortest paths, connecting all

spaces to all spaces of a system, passes through it.

In this research, the axial map is used as syntactic

map and integration has been calculated as

syntactic measure.

5.1. The Axial map of Savar upazila:

As stated before, Savar shows the sign of organic

development and it has a lattice or mesh like road

network. All the arterial, sub-arterial and most of the

collector roads are considered here. Because of the

curvilinear nature of the roads, axial lines could not

be continued very long. Densification of lines in this

map shows an overall concentration of movement

over the area. But to discover the spatial order and

functional organization, these lines are nothing but a

piece of drawing unless placed for syntactic analysis.

5.2. Analysis of the axial map:

The Graph Analysis of the axial map of savar has

been done to evaluate the changes in the integration

value in the Dhaka-Aricha highway in different areas.

The integration value of every axial line in this road

has been taken into account and compared with the

range of 1% integration core to analyze whether these

axial lines are in the range of 1% core or not. As

mentioned in the methodology, the Dhaka-Aricha

highway has been divided into six segments to

compare the integration value and land use.

[Appendix]

Fig: 5.Axial map of Savar, Dhaka, source: Author

Fig: 6.Global integration [HH] map of Savar, Dhaka,

source: Author

5.3. The integration core:

By running the graph analysis, total number of

5310 references was found. The highest integration

[HH] value was found 0.611654 and the lowest

integration [HH] value was 0.145564. To specify the

integration core, 1% of the total reference number is

taken. Therefore, highest 54 nos. integration [HH]

values were taken into account to find out the highest

range of integration value. [For chart see Appendix]




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Total number of

integration

(ref. number)

5310

Highest integration

[HH] value

0.611654

Lowest integration

[HH] value

0.145564

1% integration core 0.611654 to 0.551374

Therefore, the range of 1% integration core is found

from 0.611654 to 0.551374

The following analysis shows the integration values

in Dhaka-Aricha highway

Table: 1. Global integration [HH] values of Dhaka-

Aricha highway, source: Author

SEGMENT AXIAL

LINE

[REF.]

INTEGRATION

[HH] VALUE

01 2 0.3745

3 0.3881

4 0.4024

4512 0.4167

5 0.4327

4508 0.4491

6 0.4642

4507 0.4804

7 0.4980

8 0.5165

987 0.5315

02 986 0.5471

9 0.5656

10 0.5670

4552 0.5745

4551 0.5823

4754 0.5905

12 0.5987

42 0.6074

13 0.6116

14 0.5930

15 0.5757

16 0.5580

03 17 0.5358

18 0.5139

19 0.4937

20 0.4736

21 0.4551

22 0.4388

04 23 0.4220

24 0.4058

05 25 0.3901

06 26 0.3755

27 0.3620

28 0.3493

29 0.3374

6. The Relationship between the integration core

and land use:

The integration values in the 1% integration core

range have been picked up from the integration

values in Dhaka-Aricha highway at Savar Upazila.

The values have been compared with the adjacent

land use of Dhaka-Aricha highway in the following

table:

Table: 2. 1% range of integration core and land use

type along Dhaka-Aricha highway, source: Author

Axial

line

[ref.]

Integration

[hh] value

Land use along

dhaka-aricha

highway

9 0.5656 Jahangirnagar

university, savar dairy

firm

10 0.5670 Military Dairy firm

4552 0.5745 BPATC

4551 0.5823 BPATC

4754 0.5905 Radio station

12 0.5987 Urban residential area


13 0.6116 Urban residential

area, Administrative

area



area, bank colony


area, mixed use




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7. Observation and Findings:

From the table of the relationship between the

integration core and land use [Table :2], it is found

that majority of the axial lines in the segment of

Dhaka-Aricha highway which ran through the Savar

Paurashava area [segment-2] is in the range of 1%

integration core. The highest integration value is

0.6116 and the lowest is 0.5580 in this segment in the

range of 1% integration core. The central

administrative area and the main urban residential

area have developed around the road segment which

shows the highest integration value of 0.6116. Other

integration values in the 1% integration core range

shows similar characteristics of urban development

along Dhaka-Aricha highway in the Savar upazila.

Fig: 7.Global integration [HH] and land use type, Savar,

Dhaka, source: Author

Fig: 7 show that the urban core of Savar has grown

along that part of Dhaka-Aricha highway which is in

the range of 1% integration core of the total area.

Therefore this study reveals that, the highly

integrated road network triggers the urban

development and the urban core has distinctive

relationship with the highest range of integration

core.

8. Conclusive remarks:

Savar is undergoing rapid urbanization, but still on

the way to reach the peak of its urbanization. Over

the years, scores of industries, shopping centers, and

other infrastructures have sprung up to change the

face of the area. Both built and vacant areas along the

integration core are still attracting new developments

and redevelopments. In such an urban state like

Savar, planning decisions have a lot of scope to

explore a city in a properly thriving way.

As it is seen in this research that Dhaka- Aricha

highway is in the present integration core and it is

attracting mostly residential, institutional and similar

other land uses. Future planning decisions can be

taken accordingly considering the proposed road in

detailed area plan for Greater Dhaka. Syntactic

analysis is a tool which can help the planners to see

the unforeseen about this area.

References:

Hillier, B. “Spatial Sustainability in Cities Organic

Patterns and Sustainable Forms”, Proceedings of the

7th International Space Syntax Symposium, 2009

Farida, N., Nayma. K. “Spatial Logic of

Morphological Transformation A Paradigm of

Planned - Unplanned Areas in Dhaka city”,

Proceedings of the 7th International Space Syntax

Symposium, 2009

Hillier, B. The Common Language of Space,

University College London, 1998

Farida, N., Nuzhat. Z. “Process of Morphological

Transformation and the Emerging Pattern of Built-

Form along Gulshan Avenue in Dhaka”, EAAE /

ARCC International Conference on Architectural

Research, Italy.

P.H. Verburg, A. Veldkampb, L.O. Fresco,

“Simulation of changes in the spatial pattern of land

use in China”, Applied Geography 19 (1999) 211–

233,1998.

analyzing the relationship between the … · categories at savar, dhaka, bangladesh through space...

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