Affordable housing using geographical information system

Abstract

Affordable housing is a problem that many countries are taking stock of, world over. In India, the problem is much more stark with an estimated shortage of around 18 million houses, with 99% of this in the economically weaker sections of society. This paper sets out the definitions of affordable housing in India and across the world; the issues with the various definitions of affordable housing; the institutions and agencies responsible for formulating and implementing affordable housing policies in the state; the opportunites and challenges in affordable housing as well as a discussion on learnings from international experience in this sector. The Government of India (GOI) had estimated a shortage of more than 18.78 million homes at the beginning of 2012, of which 95% were in the EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) and LIG (Low Income Group) segments. Further, the country’s total urban housing shortage is projected to be about 30 million by 2022. The Indian Government currently faces an uphill task of providing for more than 2 crore dwellings by the year 2022, which translated to almost 3 million units per year to fulfill its electoral promise of ‘Housing for All by 2022’. To achieve this daunting target the government has taken various initiatives to make the affordable housing segment lucrative both for the private developers and the homebuyers. This research paper aims at assessing the impact of the government initiatives on both the parties, i.e., the private developers and the homebuyers and tries to encapsulate their views on the government policies to boost the segment. Affordable housing refers to delivering cost-effective dwelling units for those families whose income is below the median household income of the society. It is a crucial issue especially in developing nations where a majority of the population is not able to purchase houses at the market price. In the present scenario of complex, expensive and high-quality projects, profit margins have shrunk due to tough competition between developers. Hence for providing affordable housing solutions it becomes imperative to make best utilization of resources by employing efficient technologies and optimization techniques.Currently, a major drawback of the construction industry is lack of proper data flow and its management. Data is managed either on physically maintained drawing sheets or computer aided drawing and drafting tools, due to which various construction parties like the architect, the contractor, the structural engineer, the MEP, etc. Work on different platforms with their individual expertise. Hence, often the projects are impacted due clashes in members of the structural, non-structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and other service utility elements. Moreover, if any change is envisaged by a party, it needs to bring to the notice of all other concerned parties and all need to rectify their individual drawing plans, sections and elevations, which leads to loss of time or rework.One challenge that many projects face is the escalated construction costs. This is due to materials, equipment and other resources being procured and employed according to individual project needs, availability and expertise. Also, contractors invest a lot of their resources in construction of common utilities, which are piecemeal, and would otherwise be taken together with other projects. This is due to lack of data available with municipality and urban local bodies, let alone the contractors. Many activities are duplicated for different projects due lack of synchronization. Thus, if a group projects are brought on a common geographical platform where their spatial and non-spatial requirements can be serviced, it will lead to considerable saving for all the parties involved. Geographical Information System (GIS) is one such tool which can be used as it has the ability to create, store , manipulate and analyze.