Roohi RAWAT, Banaras Hindu University, India
Apala SAHA, Banaras Hindu University, India
Sabina BANO, Banaras Hindu University, India
Sanjay KUMAR, Banaras Hindu University, India
According to the UN-Habitat Global Report on Human Settlements, Asia has the largest absolute number of slum dwellers in the world having a total of 554 million slum dwellers which is roughly 60 percent of the world's total slum population. Based on further projections it is also suggested that the next 30 years will witness an increase of around 2 billion slum dwellers globally if no firm and concrete action is taken. Urban policies are drafted on the basis of slum data collected by government agencies and any discrepancies in the data can lead to a major shift in the scale of policymaking and their implications thereof. The government documentation of slum data is frequently incomplete and largely unreliable and many slums remain even undocumented. It is, therefore, necessary to apply innovative technology and methods to locate and sample these understudied populations for an enhanced study thereafter. We have used a combination of geospatial data basically satellite data analysis and fieldwork to develop a sample of Indian slums from the city of Varanasi. This study shows that the living conditions in the slums vary throughout a broad spectrum of wellbeing, with different points corresponding to different policy requirements. This study also reveals that the majority of variation in conditions is caused by differences between rather than within neighborhoods. Remote sensing data proves as an indispensable tool for studying the undocumented slums or the ground realities of the existing ones, thus enabling the policy-making process more focused on addressing a wide range of needs.
Mots clés : slum dwellers|urban policies|undocumented|geospatial technology|remote sensing
A104949RR