The Center for Urban and Regional Planning for Graduate Studies at the University of Baghdad discussed the master’s thesis titled “The Role of Urban Planning in Reducing the Phenomenon of Drug Abuse in the City,” by student Hala Sadiq Kamel, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Nada Muhammad Abd.
The thesis aimed to analyze the role of urban planning in reducing the phenomenon of drug abuse within the city by studying the relationship between the characteristics of the urban environment and the spatial distribution of the phenomenon in Baghdad. It also analyzed the mechanism by which urban planning tools, such as land use regulation, service distribution, and the improvement of public spaces, contribute to reducing the environmental factors that generate drug abuse behavior.
The capital, Baghdad, was chosen as a case study, representing a complex urban environment where clear urban and social disparities are evident. A desk survey of 134 drug users registered at a treatment center revealed the extent to which the characteristics of the urban environment influence their behavior. The statistical analysis revealed that 68.239% of drug users were attributable to a lack of social security and stability, along with poor parental care and family dispersion. Other causes of drug use were attributed to the deterioration of the urban environment, which contributes to the reinforcement of social isolation and psychological escapism. This was in addition to overcrowding, slums, dropping out of school, and regression to the streets.
The thesis recommended the need to review the land use pattern in neighborhoods that recorded high rates of drug use, such as Al-Sadr II, New Baghdad, and Al-Shaab, where spatial analysis showed a clear overlap between residential and commercial or industrial areas, after redistributing urban services (such as water, sewage, lighting, and roads) according to the principle of “spatial justice.” The data showed that 75% of drug users reside in areas suffering from a clear decline in infrastructure and adopting continuous analytical maps via the GIS system to track developments in urban indicators related to drugs, including population density, infrastructure deterioration, and land use, and updating them periodically to guide accurate and proactive planning interventions after removing planning contradictions between the old fabric and modern expansion.
