Spatial heterogeneity in the urban household living conditions: A-GIS-based spatial analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The unplanned urban expansion and extreme population pressure have caused several bottlenecks for city dwellers, which have been reflected in the form of inter-urban spatial inequality in living conditions at the household level. The present study integrates GIS with a composite synthetic index to measure the spatial variation of urban household conditions across 146 urban centers in Eastern India (West Bengal). The study critically scrutinizes the influence of urban housing conditions, amenities level, and asset possession on the well-being of urban households. Based on these three inter-connected dimensions, a composite index for urban household living condition index was computed based on the optimum combinational composite index model (OCCIM). Besides, the study provides insight into the geographic distribution of urban household living conditions considering their spatial patterns, hot spots, and clusters identification. The spatial heterogeneity of the selected dimensions is shown on the maps produced using the GIS. The spatial variation was measured using Moran’s I at the global level and Getis-Ord Gi * to identify influential locations through clusters and hot spots detection of urban housing condition, amenities level, assets possession, and composite living condition scenario. Additionally, the constructed UHdCLI model’s consistency is assessed using the r-squared value of regression analysis (R2 = 0.815). The latest findings provide a realistic view of the spatial inter-urban variations that exist at the level of particular households concerning several aspects of their standard of life.