Integrated urban morphology approach to investigate urban design of Qambar Sindh

Abstract

Qambar city is the head quarter of Qambar-Shahdadkot district in Sindh province of Pakistan. The city is at latitude 27.5911425 and longitude 68.008461 or 27°35′28.1′′N 68°00′30.5′′E on the earth’s surface. There is no published book or research paper available to describe the urban design and planning history of this city. The city has no comprehensive plan document to explain how conscious planning and urban design took place. No sequential records available about the formation and transformation of Qambar. Therefore, primary question explored in this paper i.e., how this city formed and transformed over the time with an integrated approach of urban morphology. The proposed approach is developed by integrating existing approaches of urban morphology developed internationally. The knowledge contribution of this paper is the novel approach of Integrated Urban Morphology for exploring undocumented and unplanned cities where no data available about the urban design, development, and planning history. To explain the usefulness of this approach the city of Qambar, Sindh, investigated and its brief findings are given in this paper. The value contribution of this research to industry, expected in the form of improvement in methodological approaches within the planning, development, and urban design professions. Vis-à-vis integrated urban morphology, remote urbanised settlements will be delved into with minimal professional expertise and financial, managerial resources to contribute merit towards urban planning, urban design, and urban development of uncharted urban contexts.