How are digital technologies impacting decision-making for urban development in rapidly urbanizing contexts?
Investigating the impact of GIS-based Master Plans in Indian cities
This research examines how, or whether, digital technologies – specifically, geographic information system-based Master Plans (GIS-MPs) – are reshaping decision-making in urban development in India’s rapidly urbanizing cities. Although Master Plans remain the statutory framework for long-term urban planning, they face persistent institutional challenges. The nationwide roll-out of GIS-MPs under schemes such as AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) places them at the intersection of technocratic digital tools and political-bureaucratic interests, making them a key site to study the digital turn in India’s urbanization. Framing GIS-MPs as socio-technical artefacts, the study explores both their technical integration and the socio-political contexts that influence their use. Using a mixed-methods approach, it combines document analysis, interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and comparative case studies in two Indian cities to trace how GIS tools are adopted, reinterpreted, or marginalized. The research asks whether GIS-MPs strengthen or weaken statutory planning and how they mediate tensions between project-driven initiatives and formal planning systems, offering insights into digitalization that can be applied to other rapidly urbanizing contexts.
- GIS-based Master Plans as socio-technical artefacts
- discourses, practices, and actor constellations
- decision-making in urban development
- localized trajectories of digitalization in rapidly urbanizing contexts
Context
Urbanization in many parts of the world is accelerating, with Asia and Africa expected to account for 90% of global urban growth by 2050.1 Policymakers are turning to digital technologies to manage this expansion, with smart city initiatives gaining prominence worldwide.2 India, fuelled by its IT boom, has rapidly embraced digitalization. National programmes such as the 100 Smart Cities Mission and the AMRUT scheme promoting GIS-based Master Plans (GIS-MPs) exemplify this trend. Yet, Master Plans face persistent structural, institutional, and procedural weaknesses – delays, fragmented governance, and limited scope.3 Much of master planning is bypassed by politically driven ‘sovereign planning’4 led by political and bureaucratic actors. The roll-out of GIS-MPs now positions them at the intersection of technocratic tools and socio-political interests, shaping urban decision-making and futures in Indian cities.
Aims
The project aims to investigate how GIS-based Master Plans are influencing statutory planning and shaping decision-making in Indian cities. It asks:
- Why and how are GIS tools integrated into Master Plans?
- How do local socio-political contexts shape their creation and adoption?
- How are GIS-MPs being used in practice in city-level statutory urban planning decision-making?
- Do GIS-MPs strengthen or weaken city-level statutory planning amid project-led planning dominance?
By addressing these questions, the research contributes to both planning theory and practice: It offers a grounded understanding of how digital planning tools intersect with local planning and institutional cultures, and questions whether they strengthen planning capacities locally or reinforce technocratic and elite-driven processes.
Research design
This project integrates theoretical reflection with empirical investigation and synthesis. The methodology combines document analysis, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, and comparative case study research. This multi-scalar approach enables an understanding of both the technical operation of GIS systems and the socio-political contexts in which they are embedded.
The dissertation will be structured across four phases:
- Theoretical foundation – A systematic review of literature on (1) urbanization in the ‘Global South’, (2) GIS as a key digital tool in planning, and (3) decision-making in the framework of master planning establishes the theoretical framework. This phase positions GIS-based Master Plans as socio-technical artefacts.
- Case study research – Fieldwork will be conducted in two Indian cities with contrasting governance, institutional capacities, and political contexts. This comparative design allows for tracing how GIS-MPs are operationalized, appropriated, or marginalized across different urban settings.
- Cross-case analysis – Insights from the case studies will be systematically compared to identify patterns and divergences.5 The analysis focuses on how technical systems interact with institutional logics and how digital planning tools shape decision-making in practice.
- Synthesis and reflection – The final phase integrates theoretical and empirical insights into a unified argument about the role of digital technologies in statutory planning. It reflects on the implications of GIS-MPs for decision-making in urban development in rapidly urbanizing contexts and proposes strategies for more inclusive and context-sensitive planning.
Supervisors:
