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Cities in developing nations are having a difficult time dealing with the influx of people from rural immigration within their own country as well as refugee immigration from other nations. This influx is causing rapid growth of informal settlements, and is straining the cities’ ability to provide essential services to their people. As much as 30% to 60% of the urban population of most large cities in developing countries are living in informal settlements (Veljanovski, 2012) and these cities lack the data necessary to apply monitoring systems for the purpose of planning and management. Population estimates for these areas are highly variable and highly debatable – for example in Kibera, Kenya, the population estimates range from 170 000 to 1 million residents (Veljanovski, 2012). Estimates done via field surveys are time consuming and expensive, and pose a potential safety risk to field workers (Earthzine, 2011). Remotely Sensed imagery is one possible information source to help cope with this problem.

Our study location is Cape Town, South Africa. It is the largest city in the Province of Western Cape, and has an estimated population of 3.96 million people, up from the 3.7 million people reported in the 2011 census. An average household is comprised of 3.17 people. There are now almost 1.3 million households in Cape Town, with a substantial portion of new households being informal settlements(Integrated Annual Report, 2016.)

Veljanovski, Tatjana, Urša Kanjir, Peter Pehani, Krištof Oštir, and Primož Kovačič. “Object-Based Image Analysis of VHR Satellite Imagery for Population Estimation in Informal Settlement Kibera-Nairobi, Kenya,” 2012.

“City of Cape Town Integrated Annual Report, 2015/2016.” City of Cape Town. http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review/City%20of%20Cape%20Town%202015_16%20Annual%20Report%20Final_A.pdf

“Population Estimates in Informal Settlements Using Object-Based Image Analysis and 3D Modeling.” Earthzine, August 16, 2011. https://earthzine.org/2011/08/16/population-estimates-in-informal-settlements-using-object-based-image-analysis-and-3d-modeling/.