No abstract

Traffic accidents are the most critical problems related to safety and security in the city, and they have negative effects on human life and psychological, health, and economic impacts on people, society, and the city. After 2003, the number of cars increased in Iraqi cities and traffic accidents increased, as the number of traffic accidents in Iraqi cities reached between 8-11 thousand accidents annually during the period 2012-2018. The percentage of accidents in Baghdad Governorate 12.1 % of all incidents in Iraq, 66% of accidents in Baghdad Governorate are inside the Baghdad city (the capital), divided by 70 % in Rusafa and 30% in Karkh in 2017 and 2018. By preparing a questionnaire on the causes of accidents in Iraqi cities, it showed that the most important reasons are the lack of adherence to traffic laws and the weak knowledge of them and old laws and their non-conformity with technological developments and communications in the transport sector. The research proposes to develop an integrated framework that adopts sustainable transport along its social, institutional, and economic aspects to solve the problem of accidents in Baghdad city.

The classification of land uses in the city is an essential element for the organization and distribution of land uses when it is preparing and updating master plans for cities. The land uses in each country are divided into single, secondary, hierarchical or other classifications according to the planning requirements for land uses in the country. The problem of research is that most land-use classifications in Iraqi cities lack a uniform and convergent classification of land uses which they depend for updating or preparing the master plans, so, the studying and analyzing the classification of land uses for seven Iraqi cities, we note that there is no uniform and convergent classification, and there isn't overlap and complementarity of land uses for the existing and future of land use classification in these cities. The aim of the research is to prepare a proposal for the classification of land uses for Iraqi cities as a reference and guide when the preparation and updating of the master plans for Iraqi cities. One of the most important research conclusions is unclear classification of the land uses in Iraqi cities either primary or secondary classification but there is a different classification of each city according to the existing of land use, and its adoption in whole or near total for future land uses. The research proposed to classify land uses into seven major classifications, including residential, economic, mixed, public services, recreational, infrastructure and other land uses, these major land uses have been classified into 19 secondary classifications and more than 60 land use in detail.

Urban population growth requires an appropriate and suitable place for future population to cope with the expected urban expansion of major cities in developing countries, and to identify an indicator urban expansion to guide planners, architects and decision makers, and help them reduce negative effects of city expansion with improvement in the ability to live in cities.  The density (population and building), fragmentation (saturation and openness) and compactness (proximity and cohesion) are the most important indicators of urban expansion of cities, which gives a clear perception of how city expands and possibility of adopting the most suitable ones when updating or preparing master lans. Most cities, especially Arab ones, suffer from excessive urban expansion, resulting in various urban problems affecting quality of life, services and city performance, which is the problem of research. This research is aimed at identifying factors influencing urban expansion of cities in developing countries when preparing for their future expansion, by analyzing the indicators of urban expansion of a set of cities to reach appropriate indicators for urban expansion sustainable future of the city to ensure orderly development of cities and make them more productive, more comprehensive and sustainable in upcoming decades.

Rapid urbanization in some cities has led to the emergence of numerous subsidiary settlements around their primary cities. Due to this rapid urbanization and growth, there is a great demand for urban land, mostly for commercial, industrial, and residential uses. Urban green spaces and vegetation are at risk due to a large amount of urban land, as seen by a decline in connectivity and increased fragmentation, especially due to land conversion. However, the identification of the spatial and momentary variability in the clustering and fragmentation of vegetation patterns in urban settings has not made full use of local indicators of spatial distribution measurements, such as Baqubah, a city in Iraq. Since it is essential to measure the degree of fragmentation and evaluate urban expansion trajectories consistently, this study proposes a new approach to assessing the anticipated direction of urban extension, using the fragmentation indicator of built-up patterns in urban areas. Sentinel-2 data was used to map the fragmented urban centres and their future extent in the city at a single time point. The proposed method employs indices to capture the initial distribution of spatial patterns of vegetation cover and built-up areas. The main extracted land cover classes, landscape fragmentation performance, and surface density analysis were accomplished in ArcGIS. The results indicate that the entire built-up area in Baqubah has a high degree of fragmentation at 75%, and about 23% of the open space within the urban extent of the city. Two predicted trajectories of urban expansion were also revealed: one may follow the external road direction, while the other is multi-directional, commencing from the edges of the built-up area. The study concludes that the new method is useful for comprehending and assessing urban landscape fragmentation, as well as anticipating its path. This integrated approach to remote sensing and GIS can sufficiently and effectively determine priority urban regions for successful planning and management. In addition, our study's findings highlight the potential of the suggested strategy as a useful spatially explicit method for determining the spatial clustering and fragmentation of urban landscape patterns. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-09-04 Full Text: PDF