Spatial search: New settlements for Israel's ultra-orthodox population

This chapter presents a GIS-based search aimed at finding locations for housing the growing ultra-orthodox population in Israel. This sector has an outstandingly high population growth rate, continuously demanding public housing solutions. In order to avoid intra-urban conflicts between the orthodox and the non-orthodox sectors (e.g. Shilhav, 1984, 1993), the Ministry of Housing and Construction has decided to examine the feasibility of building new, purely orthodox, settlements. Bounded by several sectorial restrictions, such as proximity, and/or high accessibility to Jerusalem, and low-rise buildings, the Ministry assigned the author (Enviroplan Ltd, 2009) to find feasible locations to accommodate a minimum of 50,000 dwelling units. Feasibility is defined by several objective and subjective indicators. Both the indicators and the search procedure are presented in this chapter. A paired-comparison analysis of location criteria is also used to examine the rank-orders of feasible locations by the leaders of the ultra-orthodox population and the community of urban planners. An agreeable solution and learned insights are put forward at the end of the chapter.