Mosul, the second most populated city in Iraq, has been growing irregularly for almost two decades. The pattern of this sprawl shows imbalance in the city’s growth. The study mostly focusing on the urban structure of the city, includes indicators of social, economic, and political irregularities. This study used a mixed-method approach to reach its findings, by applying more than a test. The study aims to check how this irregularity is taking place in Mosul, by studying the geographical and the syntactic models. The study is an analytical one and has a descriptive aim. It checked the indicators of imbalanced growth by observing the city’s growth through three decades. Satellite images were used to observe the growth, and then a field survey of the distribution of the most important elements (such as schools and hospitals) was conducted. Educational and healthcare facilities represent the most important infrastructure needed for any city to grow, and their distribution patterns can show if the growth patterns of a city are regular or not. Axial segment analysis, part of Space Syntax analyses, was also used to check the integration values of the local cores in the city and how they changed through time. The results show clear indicators of unbalanced growth and distribution of facilities across the city. The results also indicate irregularity in the city’s growth through the last three decades. The study shows that the Eastern bank of the city is growing three times faster than the western bank, and that the Eastern bank has 1.5 to 2 times more health and education infrastructure. Space Syntax showed that the values of integration for the local cores are becoming weaker as the city is expanding. The maps produced by the study can prove useful for any party trying to develop a new masterplan for the city.
Bayaty et al. (Sun,) studied this question.