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

The INNOVATE project centred around the informal settlements of Dhaka and focused on four interwoven topics of vital relevance for the future development of the megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh: First, climatologic and air pollution effects from the local to global scale; second, socioeconomic development, limitations, and improvement strategies; third, informal growth of settlement structures, and fourth, public health issues related to climate and air pollution, socioeconomic factors, and living conditions. The research was undertaken in a spatially explicit way, linked in with remote sensing derived meta-indicators, and integrated via GIS-based modelling approaches. As local effects were embedded in a multiscale framework, we aimed at providing a focus on public health as to derive relevant indicators in the context of global, regional, and local driving forces. On the one hand, results were intended to facilitate integrated modelling approaches 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 were designed to open up the opportunity to transfer the result to other megacities. Socio-ecological aspects were considered on spatial and temporal scales, allowing us to contribute new findings to the scientific discussion.