An investigation into the land use pattern of Dhaka: Identifying activity nodes for a compact city

With Dhaka?s urbanization, there is a need to develop policies aimed at respecting the city?s natural environment, preserving open spaces, and targeting new growth into a compact city, where promoting polycentric nodes could be one of the sustainable planning strategies. For such a strategy in Dhaka?s context, identifying the nodes that generate daily urban activities can provide useful directives, as they play crucial roles in facilitating accessibility to create dense, mixed-use, and pedestrian- and transit-friendly urban centres. With this rationale, this study investigated the land use pattern of Dhaka to identify potential activity nodes for compact city planning. At first, sixteen activity nodes were identified by analysing the city?s key land use distribution pattern, along with the existing transportation nodes. Then, the land use composition around the identified nodes was examined. The findings show that while most of Dhaka?s activity nodes exhibit moderate to reasonable levels of land use mix, they are mostly unplanned, and lack adequate planning and cohesive design to ensure a pedestrian- and transit-friendly compact city. The nodes identified and their attributes will help policymakers formulate specific urban design and planning strategies for Dhaka?s nodal development.