Functional relationship between Circulation and Land use in the CBD of Khulna city: An urban design perspective

Landuse of Ground floor in the CBD of Khulna City

Abstract

Urban Design is a special approach to planning which inherit the capability to provide environment friendly city appearance. This study depicts the application of urban design technique to achieve better circulation system and land use pattern for the CBD of Khulna city. Khulna is the third largest city of Bangladesh and Khulna CBD is the core business center of it. It is expanding day after day but its intra circulation provision is remaining unplanned and the land use is uncontrolled. So, this study aims to open up feasible urban design treatment for achieving such land use and circulation system for Khulna CBD which is more functional. The functional level of circulation and land use of the CBD of Khulna city has been analyzed on the basis of urban design criteria: permeability, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, personalization as well as urban design elements: land use, building forms and massing, circulation and parking, open space, pedestrian ways and activity support. The present study has been conducted on the basis of both primary and secondary data base. The outcomes ended with some direct causes like ignorance about urban design, lack of  skilled planning professionals, lack of proper authority, financial constraints, improper planning, ‘top-down’ decision making, denial of participatory approach, political bureaucracy etc. Actually the better urban environment is possible by considering both physical planning and urban design consideration.

                                                               Introduction             

1.1 Background

For more than 3,000 years, people traveled on foot or horseback. In primitive age, man’s main profession was agriculture and hunting and there were neither transportation mode nor any designed routes. During the Egyptian (3500 B.C.) and Mesopotamian (3500 – 3200 BC.) period, the necessity of trade and migration initiated transportation routes and road networks. However, the space for circulation was kept minimum till then. The first designed ideas for a street lay out came during the Greek period. Town of Melitas and Town Prience Aosta introduced by Hippodamous still states the pattern. During the industrial revolution and mechanization period, steam for rail engine, internal combustion engine for automobile and the beginning of the space travel took place. Now the space for movement of man and its vehicles occupies more than a quarter of the land in the urban area, (Gallion, 1998).

The circulation element of urban design offers powerful tools for structuring an urban environment. It can shape, direct, and control activity patterns in a city, as when a transportation system of public roads, pedestrian ways and transit system links and focuses movement (Sirvani, 1985).

Land use has been the focus of traditional physical planning as well as recent general and community development plans. It is quite clear that land use is still one of the key elements of urban design. Land use decisions establish the relationship between circulation density of activities/ uses within urban areas (Sirvani, 1985).

The functional relationship between circulation and land use is strictly maintained in different developed countries in the world. Cruces (1988) shows the development of the City's street network in a north/south orientation.  With few major east/west roads to create major intersections, commercial corridors became the only feasible way to meet the retail and service needs of quickly growing City.  Main, Solano, El-Paseo, Lohman/Amador, and Picacho are the City's main commercial corridors.  Policies to discourage commercial corridor patterns were not established until the adoption of the 1985 City Comprehensive Plan. For achieving better functional relationship between circulation and land use they have made some guidelines such as, i) adequate space for functional circulation shall be provided for parking and loading areas, ii) the City shall encourage the development of low intensity commercial uses to allow for maximum shopping convenience with minimal traffic and encroachment-related conflicts to adjacent uses, iii) the City shall pursue multi-modal access standards (auto, bicycle, and pedestrian transit) for high intensity commercial use and centers, iv) high intensity commercial uses and centers shall be located at the intersection of minor arterial streets, or any intersection with a major arterial street, v) low-density housing shall not front on, or have direct access to, major collector or arterial streets vi) high density residential uses shall be located and designed to minimize traffic flow through adjacent neighborhoods, and should locate on or near existing or future planned transit routes. All of the above guidelines represent the functional relationship between these two elements.

In Bangladesh, most of the urban area has been developed without maintaining any functional relationship between circulation and land use (Islam, 2001). Old Dhaka grew almost without any planning. This part was generally built before the introduction of automobiles in the city. The road network of this area is highly irregular with narrow (4 – 24 feet wide) and twisted, with a very rough east west and north-south orientation of roads. These roads are normally suitable for cycle- rickshaw, pushcarts, cycle-vans, auto-rickshaw, small pick up vans, small and light trucks and mini or microbus. Only a few roads can take large trucks and buses. Almost no roads in old Dhaka have any footpath. The function of land use of this area has been changed with the time being. At the very beginning, there were few commercial activities and most of the lands were used for residential purpose. However, many economic activities have taken place in old Dhaka in the last few years, But the roads of this area has remain unchanged. That is why the traffic jam is the very much frequent there.   

The CBD of Khulna city is mainly the commercial or the business center that includes offices, big or small shops, warehouse etc. However, the mixed land uses are also predominant here. In Dakbangla, Picture palace and its surrounding area, most of the structures are used for various purposes. This type of land use change is being taken place since few years ago, but the circulation system is not being developed with respect to land use change (Sowgat, 2002). Moreover, roadside are encroaching by various activities like fruit shop, tea stall, cloth shop, cigarette shop etc. That’s why the functional performance of circulation and land use is little here.      

Urban design is composed of two words “Urban” and “Design”. Simply the urban means the area where most of the economic activities are non-agricultural, where there is well circulation system and high population density (Islam, 2001). Design means the imaginative creation which help to create something that fulfill the special purposes like social, economic, aesthetic, technical etc. Therefore, urban design is the art of beautify the space between the buildings and within the buildings in urban area. Urban planning is mainly deals with the infrastructural development of the urban area and always tries to make an optimal use of space. However, the urban design also tries to optimal use of land including aesthetic beauty. That’s why the study aims to find out the functional relationship between circulation and land use and recommend some guidelines with the urban design perspective.

  

1.2 Statement of the problem

The interacting relationship between land use and circulation system is at present widely recognized among the planners and the authorities. The mutual impact of these two particular activities plays a vital role in achieving a desirable city form. The functional development of one element (circulation or land use) has a great impact on another. The figure 1.1 shows the interlocking relationship between land use and circulation of an area.

Land along the road becomes more accessible. This increased accessibility makes the land more valuable and attractive to the developers. As land along the road is developed, traffic volumes and the number of driveways (function of circulation) increase. This results in more congestion and a deterioration of the road’s capacity to efficiently move the people and goods. The reduced efficiency of the road eventually necessitates roadway capacity improvements that may encourage additional development and the start of a new cycle. Again any change in the land use affects the circulation system and results in the same cycling effects.  

Land use is interrelated with circulation and traffic in the context of planning. Different land uses generate different type, volume and mode of traffic. The function of circulation like traffic generation, volume, movement frequencies and road type etc. depend on the type of land use and its location. Commercial land use is responsible for traffic generation and higher frequency of movement. Circulations are combined with other land uses in various ways. Land in urban use serves as a physical base to support urban construction (circulation and facilities), on the other hand circulation facilities are an asset to urban land use.

The rapid growth phenomena associated with urbanization i.e. population increase, uprising vehicle ownership and traffic, increasing land use densities and expanding areas, together have the effect speeding-up land use and circulation interaction of the CBD of Khulna city. By considering, all of these aspects the present study has been selected. The following problem tree is the pre assumption of the study by which the reality and expectation has been discussed.      

1.3 Objectives

1. To observe present circulation and land use distribution in the CBD of Khulna city.
2. To identify the functional relation between circulation and land use in terms of urban design criteria.
3. To propose some guidelines to improve the functional relationship between circulation and land use.

1.4 Study area: The CBD of Khulna city

Khulna is the administrative headquarter of Khulna district and Khulna division. As an industrial town it has got a little bit of attention with respect to road facilities. Existing roads neither fulfill industrial need nor the commercial need. Moreover, roads of Khulna CBD fail to ensure comfort for the city people (Billah, 2000).

For the purpose of conducting present study the following (Table 1.1) road segments have been used and the functional relationships of them to surrounding land use have been discussed.

Table1.1: Existing circulation pattern in the CBD of Khulna city

Name of the road	Direction	Circulation way
Khan-E-Sabur	Zero point to Power house moar	Double lane
Lower Jessore road	Zero point to Picture palace cinema moar	Single lane
Old Jessore road (seg-I)	Hooglee bakery moar to rail station	Single lane
Old Jessore road (seg-II)	Hooglee bakery to Picture palace cinema moar	Single lane
Clay road (seg-I)	Zero point to Hooglee bakery	Single lane
Clay road (seg-II)	Hooglee bakery to K.D Ghosh moar	Single lane
K.D Gosh road	K.D Ghosh moar to thana moar	Single lane
Station road	K.D Ghosh moar to rail station	Single lane
Sir Iqbal road	Picture palace cinema to thana moar	Single lane

Source: Author’s field Survey, June, 2004

1.5 Limitations of the study

The present study does not aim to find out detail functional relationship between land use and circulation rather it deals with the general functions of these two elements as it over looks the designing level of circulation infrastructures and land use unit. However, in this study only four blocks (Nixon Market Block, Picture Palace Block, Hooglee Bakery Block and Railway Market Block) of Dak Bangla are considered as the CBD area of Khulna city, but the actual CBD area of Khulna city encompasses other areas such as Moilapota intersection, Daulatpur intersection, Sibbary intersection. Besides this different factors are being over looked due to different reasons which are listed in below:

±  The on-street occupancy takes different form in different time of the day. Its magnitude in working day is different from the weekend. But due to manpower shortage the survey has been conducted only on 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM of working day which represent the peak hour occupancy scenario.

±  For determining the socio-economic condition of the users, few data has been collected from secondary source (Hossain, 2003) which may not represent the present (in the year of 2004) status of the users because it was being collected at 2003.

Inspite of these limitations, the present study has tried to achieve the actual relationship between circulation and land use of the study area.