Focus on urbanisation issues in Karachi

IIED collaborated with partners to look at urbanisation in Karachi.

Project
Archived
,
Ended 2015
Contact: 
Aditya Bahadur
,

Principal researcher, Human Settlements research group

Collection
Urbanisation and rural-urban linkages
A programme of work on urbanisation and the links between rural and urban areas
A view of Karachi from the film Karachi Rising (Image: Arif Hasan)

A view of Karachi from the film Karachi Rising (Image: copyright Arif Hasan)

With Karachi building upwards to house its expanding population, but unregulated building leaves poor families at risk, an IIED film, 'Karachi rising', outlines solutions that could benefit the whole city.

IIED worked with partners in Karachi on a series of key policy issues related to urbanisation in Karachi.

Also under the intellectual leadership of Arif Hasan (as with our work on density), this has included studies of land contestation (summarised in a working paper, a book and a journal article), informal textile production under pressure from globalisation (summarised in a working paper) and urban transport (summarised in a working paper).

These studies were debated at public forums organised by the Urban Resource Centre, most have been covered by the press, and contributed to ongoing policy debates in Karachi. As the IIED publications indicate, they also have lessons for other cities.

With Karachi building upwards to house its expanding population, but unregulated building leaves poor families at risk, an IIED film, 'Karachi rising', outlines solutions that could benefit the whole city.

Additional resources

Land contestation in Karachi and the impact on housing and urban development, Arif Hasan (2015), Environment and Urbanization, Vol 27, No 1, pages 217-230.

Karachi: the land issue, Arif Hasan, Noman Ahmed, Saeed Ud Din Ahmed, Mansoor Raza and Asiya Sadiq-Polack (2015), Oxford University Press

Partners

Arif Hasan

Karachi URC

Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology

Donors