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Since the proclamation of the capital city of Bangladesh in 1971, Dhaka city had become an exponent of rapid urbanization in South Asia. It has now become one of the largest and most densely populated cities in the world. It is fast approaching towards an abysmal city growth situation where growth control would be difficult to achieve. In absence of appropriate land use planning policies and practices, the concerned regulatory and service providing agencies failed to act coordinated way to manage the needs of infrastructure, utilities and amenities for work and living places. This thesis work attempts to review the current state of coordination among the urban planning agencies, their roles and responsibilities in general. It also endeavours to recommend how the principles of 'integration’ and ‘separation’ can be adopted to formalize roles and responsibilities of the concerned urban planning agencies to ensure better-coordinated service deliveries to the city dwellers.

Sustainable city with sustainable transportation system in now become the heartiest demand for burgher, especially in a city like Dhaka; where ecological imbalance lead to unbearable livable condition with unsustainable growth in every sector resulting the degradation of life quality. Transportation sector in Dhaka is one of the major adherents behind ecological deterioration by emitting enormous CO2 in atmosphere. Thus this study aimed at determining the transport footprint for vehicles travel in Dhaka. The study estimates the CO2 emission from motorized vehicles using average emission factor method and then determines the average bio-capacity of Dhaka city to compare it with the footprint. The study finds out that only for vehicles CO2 emission and physical transportation network; the transport footprint is seventy times larger than the bio-capacity. In transportation sector of Dhaka; ecological footprint credibly depicts the present condition, that is not at all sustainable from environmental friendly transport system context and it also an absolute indication for future concerning transport development pattern and their holes. At this point for developing sustainable transportation system considering ecological balance; Transport Demand Management (TDM), low carbon transport, transit oriented development (TOD), and creation of green corridors can be of some greatest tools for Dhaka.

This paper applies different methods of map comparison to quantify the characteristics of three different land change models. The land change models used for simulation are termed as “Stochastic Markov (St_Markov)”, “Cellular Automata Markov (CA_Markov)” and “Multi Layer Perceptron Markov (MLP_Markov)” models. Various model validation techniques such as per category method, kappa statistics, components of agreement and disagreement, three map comparison and fuzzy methods have then been applied. A comparative analysis of the validation techniques has also been discussed. In all cases, it is found that “MLP_Markov” gives the best results among the three modeling techniques. Fuzzy set theory is the method that seems best able to distinguish areas of minor spatial errors from major spatial errors. Based on the outcome of this paper, it is recommended that scientists should try to use the Kappa, three map comparison and fuzzy methods for model validation. This paper facilitates communication among land change modelers, because it illustrates the range of results for a variety of model validation techniques and articulates priorities for future research.

Recent population trend in Khulna city shows a sharp increase of migrated people due to repetitive natural disasters and lack of jobs in agricultural sector. Salinity intrusions boom shrimp cultivation also makes surplus labor force. Populations in slums have grown 58.7 percent during the last decade. About 57.6 percent of total city population is now living in slums, squatters and substandard houses. In 2012, UNDP identified 5080 poor settlements in Khulna city. This study tries to identify the access of those poor people to primary education and health services. UNDP and other project databases were used for spatial location of services, road network, ward wise city population and density. Proximity and route analysis were done to assess physical accessibility. For deeper understanding, Location Quotient (LQ) and density analyses were done. The study found that only 31 percent of poor people are able to enroll their children into formal schools. Among the migrated families, almost 94 percent have no access to schools. Around 65% settlements are largely concentrated on core areas of the city. Though most of the government hospital concentrates on the core city areas, up to 43 percent poor people have the facilities within 1.5 kilometer distance. In contrast, private clinics are fairly distributed but high service charge restricted their access. Distance to health services is important as more than 61 percent patients are carried by non-motorized vehicles. Service availability decreases proportionately to the distance from city core area. Furthermore, results from LQ analysis reveals that despite of having relatively large numbers of service points, some wards are badly served. Poor economic conditions, thus another important reason behind poor accessibility. The city holds 90% private informal houses and the city authority do not have proper plan or capacity to provide services to those haphazardly growing areas. Small scale place making rather than long-term master planning and regional economic integration is necessary to keep population growth in control and improve economic condition. Authority’s incentives to private and NGO operated clinics can also bring a large group of people under health coverage.

Identifying prospects of water recycling at the household level was the main focal point of this research. It was an attempt to reduce dependency on ground water by reusing household’s grey water for non-potable uses. The hypothesis was examined on one of the planned residential areas of Khulna city. Albeit based on secondary data, the study interviewed a number of relevant organizations. Research papers, organization’s reports, plans and policies were consulted to get the water consumption pattern, building design, water pipeline system and other household data of the area. The study found that Khulna Water and Sewerage Authority have managed to supply water to only 46% of its total population and the water system is almost dependent on ground water extraction. However, daily water uses by households were found as high as 192 liters per person. A significant amount of the water was used for one single purpose-bathing took near 80 liters on an average. Both the shower and kitchen water goes straight to drainage system to be more polluted with other toxic wastes, failed to draw attention of the concerned authority. Nevertheless, being located in coastal region, Khulna city and surroundings have been facing salinity and arsenic contaminations in ground water, making it too vulnerable to provide fresh water to its 1.5 million citizens in coming years. Water treatment at household level still remains uncovered in Bangladesh. Authorities repeatedly had gone for capital intensive ground water extraction or central treatment plant but because of ill treated sewage and piped water network, the hope for supplying fresh water to all turned to a nightmare. Thus, keeping in mind the ease, affordability and available technology, dual-reticulated recycling method was advised where the greywater will go again for toilet flushing and gardening after minimal treatment. It was found that the system can successfully reduce water demand up to 35 percent and organizations cost to 20 percent. It will help the organizations spending to bring the unserved areas under water coverage.