Slum-Spatial Decision Support System

Abstract

Spatial decision-making plays a vital role in resolving spatial problems over standard decision support systems. Since spatial problems are complicated, there is no single correct solution and it needs to provide alternatives to let the user choose the solution that is appropriate to the given conditions. Slum development is a multidimensional problem and involves various stakeholders. To improve the slum situation, there were many schemes and programs by the central and state governments and many non-government organizations also worked toward the same. Despite all this, the desired results were not achieved and research was needed for identifying why this was so and to also find out what was required to attain the target. Lack of spatial component and multi-stakeholder participation in decision-making were identified as two of the important causes of such failures. The present chapter discusses the need for the spatial component in the decision support system and introduces the Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for slums. It also insists upon multi-stakeholder participation in spatial decision-making. The detailed structure of SDSS was explained and to showcase the efficacy of the slum-SDSS, a sample slum area was chosen from within the 60 slums of Kalaburagi city. The selection of the sample slum was not done arbitrarily but instead done scientifically using spatial analysis in the GIS environment. The system was developed with slum community participation at the core along with other stakeholders ranging from GIS experts to local administrators. The system developed alternative scenarios based on community input and the results were visualized as a three-dimensional model using appropriate software. Involving all the stakeholders in the spatial decision support system will ensure the successful implementation of slum development programs and achievement of the national mission.