The understanding of urban morphology as a means of exploring the materiality of urban areas has been an emerging practice amongst academics, but the reach of the methods in urban-design research has been limited. This research presents the integration of GIS application and fieldwork analysis as the main methods to support the interpretation of urban morphology as methodical, exploratory, and multidimensional. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, commonly known as the KS test, is also conducted to illustrate a contrast among the settlements. The study focuses on various dimensions of informal settlements by drawing on three case studies of informal settlements in Lahore, Pakistan. The results show heterogeneity in the urban form in terms of land-use diversity, building density, connectivity, open-space ratio, and infrastructural quality within the case-study areas. The analysis displays the context sensitivity and diversity within these settlements that provide a better understanding of how informal settlement works in relation to urban morphology. This research has the characteristics to contribute to other urban-form studies through the coherent application of the procedures to various sites. The output of mixed-use techniques exercised in this study lends itself to integration with other systematic processes related to urban areas’ design, research, and planning.

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Informal settlements have become a central part of urban imagery. It is a self-organized form of urbanization that expands beyond the reach of the state and encroaches upon, infiltrates, and inundates cities in the Global South. The forms of urban informality develop and offer a means of habitation for the urban poor, characterized by a lack of basic services, overcrowding, economic vulnerability, and an unhygienic urban environment. In Lahore, a metropolitan area with more than 11 million residents, informal settlement growth is the most perceptible. The current study deploys a case study approach to explore informal settlements in order to fully understand the intricate socioeconomic and physical issues that arise in these settlements. Fieldwork, which involved in-depth interviews, casual conversations, and photography surveys, was used to conduct this research. The data was collected using a proportionate and random sampling technique, with 80 samples from Shamspura Colony and 67 from Zia Colony obtained using Solvin’s formula. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to ensure that the data was geographically dispersed throughout the settlement.. The outcomes showed diversity in the two selected case study areas, namely Zia Colony and Shamspura Colony, in terms of the built environment, social aspects, governance issues, and economic opportunities. This research offers a more multifaceted synthesis of the problem by bringing together the social and physical constructs which may lead to a greater understanding of informal settlements issues and better strategies for addressing them at the local, national, and regional levels.