URBAN CONTEXT ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPT OF SPENCER'S BIOLOGICAL THEORY USING GIS: BALAD CITY CASE STUDY

Abstract

Concepts of evolution theory (by Herbert Spencer) were analyzed using a Geographic Information System according to living notions in the context of an urban city. The idea of the theory was applied to the society within the context of Balad city to find out whether the concepts of contrast, integration, specialization, and exclusivity on which the theory is based have an impact on the services in the city and an effect on the structure of the social elements and the stages of its development. The research problem centered on the shortcomings of the theory in predicting and explaining the morphological and functional structure of the city, while the main objective is to analyze the concepts of biological theory according to the requirements of the context of the study area. The analysis results of the living context notions present in the city were compared with the urban housing standards using GIS to determine the extent to which the context conforms to the concept of Spencer's theory. The research found the inability of the biological side of the theory to explain the population concentration in residential neighborhoods, as well as the lack of reliance on the concepts of contrast and integration in predicting the reasons for the growth and expansion of the city, and that the city neighborhoods showed a variance in their services without showing integration and exclusivity in these services, that is, the lack of integration organic between the biological parts of the city.