State-coordinated metropolitan expansion and land-use change in Tashkent, 1990–2025

This study reconstructs the land-use evolution of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, across three benchmark years—1990, 2010, and 2025—using GIS analysis of archival maps, satellite imagery, and open geospatial data. The analysis identifies three broad phases: a compact, functionally zoned Soviet city in 1990; a transitional landscape shaped by emerging market influences in 2010; and a phase of state-coordinated metropolitan expansion by 2025, including the incorporation of territories associated with the New Tashkent City project. Residential, commercial, and transport land uses expanded substantially, while peri-urban agricultural land declined. Rather than a linear post-socialist transition, the findings suggest a sequence of institutional reorderings through which different forms of urban coordination shaped development over time. The case highlights the importance of administrative boundary change and strategic spatial planning in metropolitan growth and underscores the value of incorporating Central Asian experiences into comparative debates on post-socialist urbanism.