Land readjustment strategy in Slum redevelopment using Gis. Case study: Mzambarauni Slum in Mtwapa, Kilifi County

Abstract

The developing world is facing rapid urbanization which has led to the proliferation of slums in most of the urban areas. Many models and strategies have been tried in the attempt to redevelop slums. This study demonstrates how land readjustment, as a tool that has been widely applied in urban areas, can be used in redeveloping slums. The project focused on using GIS mapping and analysis in land readjustment and reallocation of the newly planned regular settlement area of Mzambarauni slum. Redevelopment of slums usually involves manipulation and analysis of large datasets both spatial and non-spatial. This can be challenging without a platform that can integrate all these datasets as well as enable visualization of the spatial distribution. GIS provides a platform for integration, scientific analysis and visualization of spatial data resulting in the decision-making process being easier and efficient in land readjustment for slum redevelopment. The study discusses the application of land readjustment strategy as an alternative to the conventional approaches to slum upgrading, through consideration of initial structure/plot sizes when drafting proposals and reallocations. It also showed how GIS can be a useful tool for improved accuracy and reliability of datasets in the entire land readjustment process from mapping of the existing situation to the drafting of the proposals and reallocation of the planned land parcels.