Compressive uses and its role in the spatial expansion of the holy city of Kerbala

Introduction

In this chapter, we have dealt with the phenomenon of spatial expansion, which occupied the thoughts of many geographers, planners, and economists, as the city of Karbala is one of the Iraqi cities that was subjected to this expansion in a large way, due to the nature of its geographical location, the flatness of its land, and the availability of population and functional requirements in it, but this Expansion collided with determinants that stood as an obstacle to its spatial extension, and the most important of these determinants are the human determinants. Urban developments have had a great impact on the development of the city of Karbala, in all economic, social and cultural fields. These developments put pressure on the city center as a starting point for the spatial expansion of the city, in directions that allow this expansion according to future plans developed by the Urban Planning Department and the municipality in Karbala, to alleviate the pressure generated in the center. The knowledge of the reasons according to which this expansion occurred can be known by studying the changes that occurred in the urban land uses and the urban stages that the city of Karbala went through, to highlight the images of the variation in the urban expansion and mapping processes that have been clarified, as well as a future prediction that will happen in the size of the population and estimate The area using statistical methods that rely on official data and identifying the urban expansion axes of the city.

Analysis of the concept of compressive uses

The pressure uses are the uses of the land, originating and distributed within the urban framework or outside the built-up area of the city, and they are urban and rural uses and environmental aspects that are compressive because they represent undesirable uses by the urban dweller due to functional, social, psychological or morphological considerations. And the pressing uses can be urban or non-urban land uses, usually endemic at the outskirts of the urban space, and as the city grows, it expands, and this matter leads to the demolition of the old wall and swallowing it up in the process of growth, and its location is exploited as a ring road that usually surrounds the city, as happened in most cities old. (Salah Hamid Al-Janabi, 1977, p. 92) [1] . And we can summarize the concept of compressive uses as a functional pattern performed by the unit area and on this basis, compacted areas may be devoid of use such as high areas, sharp edges, deep valleys, gardens, open areas, etc., and some others, which are the most represented by humaninduced compaction uses, such as cemeteries and quarries of construction materials garbage dumping areas, camps, industrial areas, non-urban use, etc. The most important pressure uses that cities suffered from since their inception and until the beginning of the twentieth century were the walls, which were compressive stone belts that limited the growth of the cities spatially, and in some cases the necessity required the construction of new walls around the city, and as the city grew and expanded, this matter led to the demolition of the old wall and swallowing it up. In the process of growth, its location is exploited as a ring road that usually surrounds the city, as happened in most of the ancient cities. As for today, cities have got rid of their pressing stone belts, and there are also pressing uses that appeared under legal legislation, and among these uses are high-pressure towers and their taboos, taboos for external roads and highways, taboos for oil pipelines and environmental determinants for some polluting uses, in addition to archaeological sites and their taboos and military taboos, as well as Irrigation and drainage network taboos Some uses and their legal taboos in non-crowded areas.. For example, cemeteries should be far away: A. 3 If it is proven to the Department of Antiquities that there are some antiquities in any place, the Minister may decide to consider that place along with the lands surrounding it, according to scientific need, as historical sites.

While the camps imposed some distances on the urban plan to move away from the military sites with different distances that may reach (7 km).

Picture 1:

The role of roads in the spatial expansion of the city In the picture above, it shows how transportation methods play a role in the urban expansion of cities, and this means that the city is in dire need of additional areas of land, so the increase in population and the development of urban activity necessarily means that the city needs wider areas, and this means additional traffic on the roads and an increase in different sectors, As well as providing various services such as schools, health centers and other public services. (Bassem Raouf, 1980, p. 57) [2] .

Kerbala city

The study of the spatial characteristics of the city is part of the interest of the geography of cities. The expansion and development of the city is closely related to those characteristics, and it is divided into two types: the natural characteristics represented by the location, position, geological composition, surface, climate, soil and water sources, which delineate the geographical surroundings or the geographical environment, and the population characteristics that are represented by knowing the growth of The population, its composition and its dense distribution, because of its great impact on the economic and social activities and the various services within the city. We will start with the natural characteristics as the determinant of the geographical basis of the environment.

Location

The location and location and the associated natural manifestations are among the most important factors influencing urban centers, and this had a direct impact on human life and stability in specific places, as the location of the dwelling is close to it and its distance from all workplaces (Riyad Kazem Salman Al-Jumaili, 2007, p. 51) [3] Various service centers, transportation lines, and communications are all important factors in urban planning or when regulating the use of land within cities.

Source: Google Earth (2011).

Map 1: Showing the location of the study area in relation to the governorates of Iraq:

The site is defined As the study of the natural characteristics of the area or space occupied by the city, including (surface -topographythe degree of slope of the land on which the city is basedits geological composition -water sources -soil -natural vegetation -the local climate (which prevails in the city)

The position in the relative scale is one of the components or items of the site. And the elements of the location affect to a large extent the shape of human settlements, their growth, their plan, and the methods of using the land in them. The city of Karbala enjoys a more suitable location than its location due to the great impact of the natural environment of the city, represented by the important agricultural and tourist areas that surround the city, which are characterized by their abundant production of fruits, vegetables, animal production, and its soil, which is part of the sedimentary floodplain, as well as the religious function that the city exercises in its dense territory. Wide. The city of Karbala is located at the eastern end of its province and is bordered to the north, northwest and east by the orchards and agricultural areas, while to the south and southwest it is bordered by the western plateau.

As for the location

It means indicating the center of the city and its relationship with the surrounding areas or those located outside its urban borders with which it has economic, social and political relations. The site has an important impact on the life of the city, its origins and development, as it is a crucible in which the natural characteristics of the place melt with the human characteristics in order to provide a kind of preference for this place that qualifies it to be a dynamic element that gives the city the characteristic of interaction and attraction for various human activities (Fouad Abdullah Muhammad, 2006, pp. 175-184) [4] . This is clear with regard to the location of the city of Karbala, which is not devoid of distinctive locational indications, as the city is located southwest of the capital (Baghdad) at a distance of (105 km), bordered on the north and northwest by Anbar province, from the south and southwest by Najaf province, and from the east and southeast by Babylon province, so it is thus The site is surrounded on four sides by ancient urban centers with a historical dimension, especially the cities of Baghdad, Babylon, Najaf and Anbar, the location of the city of Karbala in relation to the Iraqi cities is characterized as marginal, because it is located west of the Euphrates River on the edge of the western desert, and central as it is located in the center of the sedimentary plain. As for its astronomical location, it is located at latitude (32. The concept of the economy is a process of supply and demand for goods and services, so we find a strong concentration of services in it clearly, and the land uses in it are "tourist" hotel services closely related to religious places, as their number in the city of Karbala reached (245) tourist hotels in 2006 in addition to shops and stores of goods. In the center of the city of Karbala, there are main commercial streets and secondary commercial streets. The most important main streets in the old city are:

Al-Jumhuriya Street

It is considered one of the main streets that represent the highest commercial activity and continuous movement of people at all times, especially on holidays and religious occasions. The markets have varied in the holy city of Karbala.

Imam Ali Street

This street witnesses a continuous movement of citizens to shop and shop all the time, as there are various shops selling clothes, sharaf, gold and all the household items that the citizen needs that he uses in his daily life.

Maytham Al-Tamar Street

This street is characterized by continuous commercial activity due to its advantages such as the availability of various goods in addition to the fact that shops are located on the main street, which makes it easier for the shopper to park his car near those markets.

Source: Karbala Municipality Directorate, gis department, 2018. The process of control exercised by the religious factor over the rest of the uses in the land of the center stems from its being the main driver of these activities, and the process of total attraction of the uses of the land for religion is a clear indication of the difficulty of making any spatial change in the land of the center in which the price of the land and its economic value play a significant role.

Second: the housing factor of the land uses within the city and in response to a number of variables, the most important of which is the population increase, the total expected increase of urban land uses in the city of Karbala will amount to (7763.1) hectares distributed among the various land uses, which will provide a suitable area for the distribution of land uses that meet human needs and be able to perform its functionality. The housing percentage constituted (42%) of the center's land, which includes (67608) people, who constituted (14.8%) of the city's total population distributed over (9) residential neighborhoods: Al-Abbasiya Al-Sharqiya, Al-Gharbia, Bab Al-Taq, Bab Al-Najaf, Bab Baghdad, Bab Al-Salameh, and Bab Tuwairej And the camp, we notice as a result of the areal pressure on the center of the city of Karbala, where this pressure is reflected in three areas: Where the figure above shows the different percentages of urban land uses in the holy city of Karbala, and we note that the security of residential use is the highest percentage of other uses, then followed by commercial use, then religious and public services and hotels.

The urban land uses in the study area tend to accelerate and develop due to rapid population growth as a result of natural increase and incoming immigration to the city, which puts great pressure on the level of services in the city center of Karbala, as this is reflected in a decline in the health, cultural and social level, and this also leaves pollution Great environmental, especially in times of religious events when millions of visitors flock to the city of Karbala. We will also use a map showing the population density in the city of Karbala through an aerial image in which a GIS plan was used to clarify the focus of the city study to know the population density in the city of Karbala.

Source: Researcher's work, Karbala Municipality Directorate, 2018. We note that most of the buildings have multiple floors, in addition to the basements that are used as warehouses. It is not surprising to note the expansion of this use, as its area in 2011 AD reached (414.9 hectares) and is expected to reach (482.3 hectares) in the target year. 2017 AD), with an increase of (27.4 hectares) between the base year and the target year, and this is thanks to religious tourism and the high standard of living of the city's residents.

Fourth: industrial use

As for industrial use, its area in 2011 reached (348.5 hectares) and is expected to reach (404.1 hectares) in the target year. As for land use for transportation purposes, it is the main factor in the urban expansion and future growth of the city through the development of a network Transportation, as the area of this use in 2011 reached (188.1 hectares) and is expected to reach (215.1 hectares) in the year (2017 AD) due to the increase in the number of cars in the city and the increase in the number of garages (garages), in addition to the bridges and tunnels that have been developed. As for the service uses, they also developed greatly between the base year and the target year, due to the population and urban growth witnessed by the study area and the emergence of modern residential neighborhoods and meeting their needs of various services, Table (2). center (the court, the Land Registry Department, the municipality) 4. Most services are concentrated in the city center, which causes pressure on them (water and sewage). 5. Establishing an optical cable in the city center.

Conclusion

The compressive uses have become endemic as a result of several reasons, some of which are endemic in its location by virtue of urban planning, and others are endemic in the absence of municipal authority according to the principle of squatters. And the absence of a future vision in the perception of the size of the problem that may result from the endemic uses that compress the areal expansion within the borders of the urban space has led to an enlargement of the problem even more. Therefore, we note that some pressing uses have become a realistic matter that cannot be removed or mitigated, such as cemeteries, large industries, and others. We find that the nature of these uses varies in the degree of their impact based on the difference of each type of these pressing uses. While it is possible to implement a measure to reduce the impact of some of them without high material costs, others require very high material costs to remove them. However, there are some measures suggested by the study to reduce the impact of the compact uses on the areal expansion of the city of Karbala. There are no obstacles to implementing them, especially the physical ones, and then they can be implemented if they receive moral and material support from the state.

References

1. Muhammad FA. The role of some local and local characteristics in shaping and directing urban development in the city of Hilla, Al-Qadisiyah Journal for Human Sciences. 2006;9(1-2):175-184.
2. Karbala Municipality Directorate, personal interview with the director of the GIS department, 19-3-2018.
3. The Urban Planning Department in Karbala, 13-3-2018.
4. Karbala Municipality Directorate, another visit to the GIS department, an interview with the assistant professor of the department on 3-8-2018.
5. A field study, Karbala City Center, in cooperation with the Karbala Municipality, 10-3-2018.