Spatiotemporal dynamics of development inequalities in Lahore City Region, Pakistan

Abstract City Region is seen as a driving force for regional development and economic growth of a country. This study suggests an approach to evaluate temporal dynamics of development disparity in a city region, at multiple spatial scales. Lahore City Region, Pakistan is used as a case study, which is established using Reilly's law of gravitational model, and explored in the context of core-periphery model. A comparative study has been conducted over three time periods (2002, 2007 and 2012) to evaluate development level in the city region. Datasets were extracted from national databases to develop a composite index comprising fifteen indicators, covering infrastructure and socioeconomic domains. Coefficient of variation, t-tests and panel data regression were employed to understand the levels of disparity, and their dependencies. Results show that Lahore is influencing seventy sub-districts, out of which twenty-one are urban, nineteen are peri-urban, and thirty are rural. Statistical tests confirm that significant development change exists between time periods, especially in the infrastructure sector. Lahore metropolitan sub-districts have remained highly developed in every sector, followed by the rest of the urban, peri-urban and rural sub-districts. This falls in accordance with principles of core-periphery model. Results also confirm that infrastructure development in a city region influences its socioeconomic growth. This study has explicitly focused on quantifying development disparities at various spatial scales, which can be replicated in other countries in assessing and mitigating inequalities for balanced regional development.