Abstract
Residents of informal settlements are often faced with lack of essential services. These include services such as water, sanitation and electricity. Authorities responsible for providing these services often use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for analysis prior to proposing developments in these settlements. However, the information used in the GIS analysis is often based on the physical characteristics of the informal settlement being analysed. In contrast, there has been a growing call for the use of information collected from the actual residents of the settlements for analysis prior to the upgrading of the settlements. The work done in this study is conducted in partnership with a local NGO that uses baseline information in informal settlements to create strategies to lower incidences of crime. This paper specifically focuses on introducing GIS spatial analysis and mapping in relation to informal settlements upgrading based on information gathered from the residents of the informal settlement. Moreover the final produced maps will be interpreted together with VPUU, which represents residents of Monwabisi Park community, simply because they have indigenous knowledge of the area. This research outlines a methodology of GIS analysis for Informal settlements upgrading using GIS, making use of five different analysis methods: Buffer analysis, thematic mapping, Thiessen polygons, distance mapping and Multi Criteria Evaluation. The case study area is Monwabisi Park in Cape Town. The study has revealed that the use of indigenous knowledge in GIS analysis for upgrading could be very valuable in making scientific and alternate decisions during informal settlement upgrading process. Key words : Informal settlements, GIS participation, Buffer Analysis, Distance Matrix, Thiessen Polygons, Thematic Mapping, Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE)
Highlights
B) Lack of formal electricity: This results in a high rate of informal electrical connections to households
These households are constructed from timber and corrugated metal. It appears that households nearby the surrounding main roads are regularly flooded during heavy rainfall, due to poor construction material. This is the case as roads are situated on higher altitude terrain (Figure 6), and a proper drainage system along the roads assists in channelling storm water away from them, towards the shacks in Monwabisi Park. 4.2 Buffer Analysis and Thematic mapping investigating fire disaster After being advised by Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU), fire disasters were categorized into two groups
GIS technology has the ability to assist in improving the quality, and efficiency of informal settlements
Summary
1.1 Background and Motivation Khayelitsha is Cape Town’s biggest township, which was created for the black population as a result of the South Africa’s apartheid legislation. VPUU, together with the community of Monwabisi Park, collected the demographic data used in this study through questionnaires and mapping each household structure. This more “democratic” application of GIS, which allowed the community to participate, was conducted based on prescriptions of the body of knowledge known as Participatory GIS (PGIS) or Geographical Knowledge Systems (GKS). Rambaldi et al (2006) made use of ephemeral mapping, sketch mapping and scale mapping These result in a sustainable technique of data capturing being established, and a quick process of data collection, as residents are knowledgeable of problems affecting the community (Musungu et al, 2012). Indigenous information systems are dynamic, and are continually influenced by internal creativity and experimentation as well as by contact with external systems’’ (Flavier et al, 1995, p. 479)
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