Influence of floods on spatial variability of wetslums using geo-information techniques: A case study of specific human habitat in Korail, Dhaka
Written by: Koen Olthuis, Kasirajan Mahalingam, Pierre-Baptiste Tartas and Chris Zevenbergen.
Abstract
A previous study by the authors found that most slum physical upgrading projects traditionally focus on basic services, elaborated with citywide data, without addressing locational and environmental aspects. However, such data tends to hide the highly heterogeneous nature of slums. Thus, this paper’s objective is to further investigate the spatial variation resulting from the influence of water on the living conditions within slums, by proposing a framework that can quantify it. This framework is used to establish the correlation between the impact of flooding denoted by a Flood Proneness Index and living conditions denoted by a Slum Living Conditions Index in Korail, Dhaka. The paper concludes that in Korail, both flooding and living conditions exhibited spatial variability, with the former seeming to have a significant influence on the latter, particularly in areas located close to or on a water body. As a result, the paper proposes to define slums which exhibit considerable correlation between flooding and living conditions as wetslums. The analysis in Korail further revealed cluster formation and as such strengthens the hypothesis of locational variability in these specific human habitats. Subsequently, wetslum areas that require resilient physical upgrading are identified thus highlighting the importance for location-specific upgrading.
Keywords: flood proneness, living conditions, slum index, upgrading, slum heterogeneity.