The Department of Civil Engineering at Kardan University organized a one-day Seminar on Urban Sociology, which was facilitated by Mr. Ejaz Ahmadi, Master Candidature in “Urban Analysis and Management” (UA&M) at the University of Florence, Italy. The event took place on October 21st at the Parwan-e-Du campus.

The objective of the seminar was to engage Civil Engineering students with the idea of urban sociology or the social behavior intended by urban design.

Mr. Ahmadi stated, “Kabul is one of the fastest-growing cities in the region, and the challenges we are facing in this gradual growth are massive.” The rapid urbanization, population shift from rural to the urban areas and the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas dramatically affect the overall structure of Kabul city.

Experiencing the social behavior of cities from the viewpoint of engineering was an essential tool for the students of Civil Engineering to play their roles as young professionals in the development of the cities and to sustain the factor of vulnerability on the urban scale.

Key factors introduced at the seminar included discussion on:
• Preservation of natural ecologies, agrarian landscapes,
and cultural heritage sites
• Creating mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods
• Designing walkable streets and human-scale
neighborhoods
• Developing high-quality transit and affordable public
transport
• Matching density and mix to transit capacity

Mr. Ahmadi added, “I am greatly thankful to Kardan University, particularly the Civil Engineering Department, who helped me come up with the idea of this session.”

Kardan University organizes such academic events to enrich its student’s perspective and help them gain familiarity with a variety of topics in their field of studies.