Search

This paper presents an approach to qualitative and spatial assessment of slum population numbers in Hyderabad, India using circle-based population data from the Census of India and results of the analysis of high resolution QuickBird satellite image data (2003) derived from automatic line detection and lacunarity algorithm. This approach provides plausible and spatially explicit aggregate statistics of slum population numbers within the city. This work suggests that both over- and underreporting of slum population numbers does occur in Hyderabad, and provides an improved view on the slum distribution patterns within this urban agglomeration.

Cities and regions in different political contexts might play different roles in building communities, but when the cities shrink, they share common elements of what can be characterized as a “shrinkage identity”. One well-documented element is the independence from the country political context and a certain dependence on the effects of globalization on local industries. It can be described as economic structural dependency. Two other potential elements received very little attention: social structural dependency (so-called instituted behaviour) and urban sprawl. Case studies from Germany and England and observations in Australia witness that these three elements are specifications of the same analogue on different levels: spatial mismatches of needs and urban functions. This paper poses questions related to the role of the spatial mismatch concept and particularly interrogates social structural dependencies and urban sprawl as examples. It suggests that the latter are certainly contributing to long-term...