Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan

The inadequate supply of electricity in Pakistan disrupts everyday life and hampers industry and business; in this it is an emblematic indicator of the poor quality of urban governance pervasive in much of the Global South. We focus on the governance of Karachi’s electricity distribution system, and...

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Main Authors: NAQVI, Ijlal, POORTHUIS, Ate, GOVIND, Anirudh
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3442
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4699/viewcontent/1_s2.0_S2214629621002590_main.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.soss_research-46992021-12-22T01:56:33Z Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan NAQVI, Ijlal POORTHUIS, Ate GOVIND, Anirudh The inadequate supply of electricity in Pakistan disrupts everyday life and hampers industry and business; in this it is an emblematic indicator of the poor quality of urban governance pervasive in much of the Global South. We focus on the governance of Karachi’s electricity distribution system, and its spatial unevenness across this sprawling metropolis of 15 million residents which encompasses huge informal settlements alongside upscale housing and commercial plazas. Using a dataset with granular, neighborhood-level electricity data, we apply spatial and statistical modeling techniques to understand how transmission and distribution losses, i.e., the utility’s ability to bill for the electricity it supplies, vary across the city. These electricity losses provide a useful lens on the unevenness of urban governance in the city, especially where other sources of detailed socio-economic data are scarce. Our models link losses to higher proportions of residential consumers rather than commercial or industrial. Moreover, based on an analysis of model residuals, we can start to specify the degree to which urban governance is driven by the underlying characteristics of the neighborhood and bring some precision to understanding the spatial distribution of urban governance. Our findings reinforce the importance for governance reforms to be locally situated and informed, while also opening up new possibilities for visualizing electricity governance at a very local level and thus promoting democratic transparency. 2021-09-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3442 info:doi/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102166 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4699/viewcontent/1_s2.0_S2214629621002590_main.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Research Collection School of Social Sciences eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Electricity Urban governance Pakistan Asian Studies Urban Studies Urban Studies and Planning
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Electricity
Urban governance
Pakistan
Asian Studies
Urban Studies
Urban Studies and Planning
spellingShingle Electricity
Urban governance
Pakistan
Asian Studies
Urban Studies
Urban Studies and Planning
NAQVI, Ijlal
POORTHUIS, Ate
GOVIND, Anirudh
Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
description The inadequate supply of electricity in Pakistan disrupts everyday life and hampers industry and business; in this it is an emblematic indicator of the poor quality of urban governance pervasive in much of the Global South. We focus on the governance of Karachi’s electricity distribution system, and its spatial unevenness across this sprawling metropolis of 15 million residents which encompasses huge informal settlements alongside upscale housing and commercial plazas. Using a dataset with granular, neighborhood-level electricity data, we apply spatial and statistical modeling techniques to understand how transmission and distribution losses, i.e., the utility’s ability to bill for the electricity it supplies, vary across the city. These electricity losses provide a useful lens on the unevenness of urban governance in the city, especially where other sources of detailed socio-economic data are scarce. Our models link losses to higher proportions of residential consumers rather than commercial or industrial. Moreover, based on an analysis of model residuals, we can start to specify the degree to which urban governance is driven by the underlying characteristics of the neighborhood and bring some precision to understanding the spatial distribution of urban governance. Our findings reinforce the importance for governance reforms to be locally situated and informed, while also opening up new possibilities for visualizing electricity governance at a very local level and thus promoting democratic transparency.
format text
author NAQVI, Ijlal
POORTHUIS, Ate
GOVIND, Anirudh
author_facet NAQVI, Ijlal
POORTHUIS, Ate
GOVIND, Anirudh
author_sort NAQVI, Ijlal
title Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
title_short Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
title_fullStr Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Urban governance and electricity losses: An exploration of spatial unevenness in Karachi, Pakistan
title_sort urban governance and electricity losses: an exploration of spatial unevenness in karachi, pakistan
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2021
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3442
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4699/viewcontent/1_s2.0_S2214629621002590_main.pdf
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