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.

This study examines the multiple determinants of public satisfaction with high-rise urban forms in Muscat, Oman, in the context of rapid urbanization and the need to protect and conserve culture. Based on a conceptual framework that included six latent variables—Cultural Harmony, Economic Benefit, Environmental Experience, Social Perception, Urban Connectivity, and Visual Appeal—data collected from city residents were analyzed using the quantitative technique of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The model results showed that all relationships were supported, with Urban Connectivity, Cultural Harmony, and Visual Appeal having the strongest effects on satisfaction. These findings indicate that public satisfaction with high-rise developments is influenced by the perceived integration of infrastructure, harmony with local architectural traditions, and coherently attractive views. Environmental Experience, Social Perception, and Economic Benefit had smaller, though still significant, effects, confirming the multidimensional nature of urban appraisal. This study therefore calls for a development approach that balances technical, environmental, cultural and tourism-oriented objectives. As such, this work contributes to the existing literature on urban and societal studies by examining a multifaceted model of urban satisfaction and providing beneficial recommendations to enhance the continuing debate on sustainable and contextual urbanism in the Gulf states.

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.

The addition of transit routes transforms urban development by disrupting the existing equilibrium that land parcels have achieved over time and promotes revitalization. It is based on the relationships between land parcel variables and transit route characteristics, including feeder routes and road infrastructure. Traditional parametric methods for explaining this relationship have problems with multicollinearity and generalizability while non-parametric methods are not used with the multiple variables of both transit route and land parcel changes over time. This study applies the C5.0 decision tree algorithm, a non-parametric model that creates a decision tree with leaf nodes that predict the relationship. Using the BRT Lahore case study, the time series data of parcel variables in the 2 km circle of five transit stations before BRT 2010 and after BRT 2018, as well as transit route characteristics including feeder routes and road infrastructure, were collected and analyzed. The model identified eight important predictors and explained the relationship in the form of a flowchart. Property condition emerged as the strongest predictor, followed by property value, parking, population density, land use, building height, access routes, and distance from transit stations, in that order. The results show that well-developed transport infrastructure, parking spaces, and feeder routes enable sustainable urban transformation.

The Volume 7 published for IJCI Journal.