GIS for Understanding Physical and Social Change in Urban Settings: A Case from Amman, Jordan

Abstract

Data-poor environments, or where data are not routinely collected and/or poorly archived, or where public records are not easily accessible understandably create a major obstacle to research and the reaping of the benefits of research for urban policy and urban management. However, in such rather unwelcoming research environments GIS seems to provide enhanced opportunities for maximizing the benefits of whatever data are available, as scarce as they may be. This research condition may not be unique to the case study presented here but presumably may apply to most countries in the developing world. The authors' use of GIS for the analysis of the case of an old neighborhood of Amman outlines a procedure for zooming in on areas of construction activity and understanding the relation between physical and social change, social change being here represented by change in landownership.

Remote sensing application for property tax evaluation

“…Gluhih and Portnov (2004) visualized spatial patterns of inter-urban income disparities in Israel. Dayyeh and Ziadat (2005) applied remote sensing and GIS for understanding physical and social change in urban settings in conjunction with the other attribute data related to the statistical data on the construction of buildings and land ownership registry. Lo (2003) evaluated the use of satellite data for zone-based estimation of population and housing units from land use/land cover maps.…”