A Review and Mapping of Urban Sprawl in the Selected Zones along CPEC Corridor

CPEC would change Pakistan’s socio-economic, environmental and geographic landscape, in addition to bringing economic growth and development through an enormous development of infrastructure, industrialization, huge employment opportunities, increased power generation and commercial amalgamation with the establishments of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). But this could pose serious challenges for ecosystems, public health, natural resources, traffic management and governance due to urban sprawl, if not planned and executed with care. The emergence of SEZs around the world in general and Pakistan in particular gained importance for attracting employment, foreign direct investment (FDI), mass migration and urbanization. Urban sprawl possesses a serious threat to a developing country like Pakistan due to the lack of good governance. Government authorities and institutions no longer address the essential problem of urbanization, which arise due to poor planning, execution and management of urban centers that generate problems of access to basic health and sanitation services, traffic congestion, air pollution, poor livelihoods and sustainability issues for the poor communities.The urban expansion has attracted the attention of ecologists, urban planners, civil engineers, sociologists, administrators, legislators and, finally, communities. This study would serve as baseline information for the formulation of strategies and plans relevant to the growth of urbanization and industrialization along the CPEC corridor and would generate policy advice by mapping and evaluating urban sprawl. This would serve as a basis for capacity building and strengthening the institutional framework and understanding to enable holistic development along the CPEC corridor by creating and understanding on the underpinning challenges and opportunities, which would eventually serve to exploit the potential benefits of this megaproject.