Housing the Poor in Urban Economies in Battambang Town, Cambodia1. INTRODUCTIONUnited Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is undertaking a regional project entitled “Housing the Poor in Urban Economies” in Cambodia, Nepal, Mongolia, and Timor Leste. The main objective of the project is to build the capacity of the national and local government officials, policy makers and civil society organization to address the issue of low-income housing more effectively in their countries.

In Cambodia, a pilot project was conducted in Battambang town which is one of the fast-growing towns in the country. It was selected based on the emergence of low-income informal settlements and a scale that facilitates the replication of the model in other urban areas.

As the first step for the implementation of the pilot project, physical documentation is needed on the selected site. Physical documentation requires detailed mapping of the pilot project site, existing houses and the distribution of service utilities. To achieve this first step, GIS was used for data creation, analysis, and presentation with the help of the ArcGIS Desktop 9.0 and Microsoft Access 2003 software.

2.METHODESRI Geodatabase was used to model both spatial and attribute data needed for the project ,and a more user-friendly form was built based on the Microsoft Access 2003 to help users to manage the attribute data more efficiently.

3. RESULTBased on the available data, a land use map of the study area (in Figure 8) was produced.

4. CONCLUSIONAfter finishing these tasks, we can safely conclude that GIS plays a vital role in many applications, particularly in social research and planning. It facilitates the process of collecting and managing data, analyzing the data to produce new information, and to present the data or information in form of maps, charts, tables, and reports. For example, in this ““Housing the Poor in Urban Economies” project, it helps to produce information about local land uses, exiting infrastructure, and living conditions of the people, which in turn, will serve as a good resource for the planning stage.

UNESCAP

Figure 4: A student sketching on the balloon photo Figure 5: A student interviewing the household

Figure 3: User-friendly Form for Managing Attribute DataFigure 2: Geodatabase structure

Prepared by Mr. Sokhorn PinFaculty of Land Management and Land AdministrationPhnom Penh, CambodiaTel: (+855)11 370807E-mail: pin_sokhorn@yahoo.com

Supported by Land Management and Administration ProjectAddress: N° 771-773, Preah Monivong,Phnom Penh, CambodiaTel & Fax: (+855) 23 211 354E-Mail: lmap@camnet.com.kh

Additionally supported by Germany Technical CorporationMailing Address: GTZ Office Phnom PenhP.O. Box 81, Phnom Penh, CambodiaTel: +855 23 2121 80/79Fax: +855 23 2127 83Email: gtz-kambodscha@gtz.de

Technical advisor: Dr. Jan-Peter Mund Germany Technical Corporation (GTZ) Phnom Penh, CambodiaTel: (+855)12 333537E-mail: jpmun03n@yahoo.com

Technical assistant : Mr. Veha LaFaculty of Land Management and Land AdministrationPhnom Penh, CambodiaTel: (+855)15 718466E-mail: laveha_lmla@yahoo.com

Data collection process was financially supported by UNESCAP.Address: Room 7A23, United Nation BuildingRajamnern Ave. Bangkok 10200, Thailand.Tel: (66-2)288 1600 & Fax: (66-2) 288 1097

Royal University of Agriculture Faculty of Land Management and Land AdministrationAddress: Cham Kar Daung, Dangkor, Phnom Penh,Cambodia, P.O Box 2696,Tel: (855) 23 219 829, Fax: (+855) 23 219 753/690

Spatial data was collected based on a high-resolution balloon photo taken in 2006. This photo was printed out on two pieces of the A0 paper and taken to the field by a group of students. The required data, such as land uses and other resources were collected by manually sketching on the printout photos.

Attribute data was collected based on a questionnaire designed by UNESCAP and the students. This questionnaire was used to interview the local people, particularly the house owners to get the information about their properties and living conditions.

Spatial and attribute data collected from the field were then digitized and entered in ArcMap (one of the ArcGIS desktop’s component) and Microsoft Access 2003 respectively. This digital data will be used by the analysts to derive new information they need for other phases in the project.

Figure 1: Map of Study Area

Figure 6: A student computerizing the collected data in the office

The whole process of the data collection can be summarized as Figure 7.

Data collection

Attribute dataSpatial data

Preparing balloon photo

Geodatabase

Designing questionnaire

Sketching on the balloon photo Interviewing households

Digitizing in ArcGIS Desktop 9.0 Entering data in MS. Access 2003

Figure 7: Flow Chart represents the Data Collection processBaloonBB.png

Figure 8: Land Use Map of the study area

Designing work

Field work

Office work

Notices:The size of the study area is approximately 2000 m * 60 m. It took 1 month to complete the whole process of data collection with the help of 4 students. We understand the risk of collecting very detailed information from households. This information can be used for or against the households.