Planning reform and heritage governance in Uzbekistan: a spatial analysis of urban expansion (2005–2025)

In post-socialist contexts, urban form is often expected to converge on compact or sprawling models. Uzbekistan, however, demonstrates divergent trajectories shaped by post-2016 reform and UNESCO heritage governance. Using multi-decadal GIS analysis (2005–2025) of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva, this study maps urban expansion and applies indicators of compactness, fragmentation, land-use efficiency, and ring-growth orientation. Results identify reform-accelerated corridor expansion in Tashkent and heritage-constrained peri-urban growth in the UNESCO-listed cities. Across all cases, land consumption outpaces demographic change. The study demonstrates how low-cost spatial monitoring can support evidence-based planning and operationalise SDG 11.3 in data-scarce contexts.

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