Wasteland Landuse Planning Approaches in a GIS Environment Using Space Syntax Analysis

The Greater Bangalore region has a rich geological and ecological history that has supported extensive enterprise, industries, agriculture, and now IT sector driven urbanization. While the region is transforming into a smart city, there is tremendous potential to organise spatial information within Greater Bangalore limits that could be used as a basis of context specific land use planning decisions. Space Syntax theories allow for rigorous analysis of data through modeling revealing intricacies of social-space relationship. This paper aims to identify approaches that guide study of wasteland morphology and its feasibility to transition into urban land uses. The research focuses on the study of urban wastelands (anthropogenic types) using the application of GIS in the context of Urban Bangalore, a metropolitan region in South India. It further looks specifically at mining wastelands, the spatial flows- migration, transportation; infrastructure and demographic characteristics through space syntax analysis to understand better the potential of the wasteland for future development. This methodology is proposed as a basis of land use planning decisions specific to the select typology of urban lands.