Informal Settlements, economic and environmental change, and public health - strategies to improve the quality of life in Dhaka

<p>DHAKA-INNOVATE is centred around the informal settlements of Dhaka and
focuses on three interwoven topics of vital relevance for the future
development of the megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh: Firstly, socioeconomic
development, limitations, and improvement strategies; secondly, climatologic
and air pollution effects from the local to global scale; thirdly, public
health issues related to socioeconomics, climate and air pollution and
living conditions. The research is undertaken in a spatially explicit way,
linked in with remote sensing derived meta-indicators, and integrated via
GIS-based modelling approaches.</p>

<p>The research takes into account the globalised framework of relevant
processes, both socioeconomically and environmentally. Local effects are
hence embedded in a multiscale framework, providing a focus so as to derive
relevant indicators in the context of global, regional and local driving
forces. Results will on the one hand facilitate integrated modelling
allowing for future perspectives in the light of relevant processes in the
Dhaka context. On the other hand, indicator based and spatially explicit
explanation pathways open up the opportunity to transfer results to other
megacities.</p>

<p>Results after something over one year of intensive research indicate that
commonly accepted theories on fragmentation and segmentation in a megacity
like Dhaka do not necessarily hold true. Spill-over effects from formal to
informal structures and vice versa affect processes concerning urban
economy, ecology and related public health conditions alike. We hence
hypothesize that processes affecting formal-informal relationships have to
be re-considered and research will focus on these inter-linkages in the
forthcoming project period. Ideally, parallel research in the PRD projects
should either confirm our hypothesis in China or reveal relevant
differences.</p>