Introduction. The issue of choosing the strategic development vector becomes key to the sustainability of cities that have great cultural and historical significance and serve as religious centres. The religious factor produces a high effect on all urban processes and has to be considered whenever urban development is planned. This issue is particularly relevant for Iraqi cities, as they have suffered greatly over the past years. Materials and methods. The article offers an urban planning approach to assessing the current situation in the urban environment in order to determine the strategic vector of the city’s future development. We used the SWOT analysis method that allowed us to apply a systematic approach to assessing the strengths and weaknesses that determine the current situation, and to identify development opportunities and threats that may act as hurdles. The SWOT analysis is applied to transportation planning in Karbala, Iraq. Results. Principal theoretical and experimental results, relevant data, relationships and regularities, identified in the course of the research, are presented in the article. At the same time, new results and data of lasting significance, important discoveries, conclusions that overturn existing theories, as well as the data that, in the co-authors’ opinion, are of practical importance are preferred. Conclusions. The data, obtained by the co-authors, should serve as the basis for a strategic plan of urban development of Karbala city, Iraq. Also, the approach and method of urban research, used there, can be applied to other religious cities that face similar problems affecting their sustainability and the quality of their urban environment.

The expansion of transport networks as a result of urban growth with low coverage and low integration leads to low transport efficiency and inaccessibility. This leads to poor connectivity in ancient urban areas of the Iraqi provinces. Identifying the Iraqi provinces with the lowest transport efficiency by performing the supply-demand ratio of the master plan for the center of Iraq's provinces (for example, the city of Karbala) is an indicator of the availability and accessibility of transport in urban areas. Solutions to meet transport needs have not focused on improving road capacity and meeting demand by improving operational efficiency even in surrounding communities. In this research theoretical model measured the degree of accessibility of the road network in the city to assess the effectiveness of transport. It has been identified that closer the coefficient of supply-demand to the zero points will provide a comfortable level of service to all road users. This theoretical model evaluates and improves the impact of changing the function of the road network and using different modes of transportation taking into account religious factors, full range of demand control, system efficiency, and infrastructure capacity clarifications.

Introduction. Historical cities, functioning as religious sites, often encounter transport problems affecting the operation of road networks. The problem of traffic capacity exhaustion is particularly relevant due to large numbers of tourists and pilgrims coming to historical cities on certain days and staying there during the periods of religious holidays. The problem affects the safety, comfort, and quality of the urban environment for urban residents and guests. Materials and methods. The authors have formulated an approach to assessing the operation of urban road networks and use it as a research method whereby they calculate the transport demand and supply factor for the transport infrastructure ensuring different types of population mobility. Load factor k and levels of service (LOS) are employed to assess the operation of urban networks. The subject of research is the operation of the transit system in the historical city of Karbala, Iraq, which is a religious centre for Muslims from all over the world. Results. The authors conducted a field study on the transport situation in the Karbala – Babil area, analyzed the operation of transport and pedestrian infrastructures in three selected zones featuring characteristic urban planning conditions, depending on the distance between each zone and the historical religious centre. Transport demand and supply data are applied to calculate load factors; the level of public service is determined for ordinary days as well as days and periods of religious holidays. Conclusions. Given the assessment results, obtained for the urban road network using the developed approach, the main problems of the present-day transport system in the city of Karbala and their solutions are formulated, which is the first step towards the transport system reconstruction for the purpose of sustainable urban development.