Search results

The adverse impacts of climate change coupled with rapid informal urbanization in the Southern African region are increasing the vulnerability of already sensitive population groups. Consequently, these urban regions are highly vulnerable to urban heat island effects and heatwaves due to exogenous and endogenous factors. While the dynamic interplay between the built environment, climate and response strategies is known, this paper highlights the lived experience of informal settlement residents. It presents work from a project undertaken in Melusi, an informal settlement in Tshwane, South Africa, as a multi-disciplinary project focusing on improving the local resilience to climate change associated heat stress.

Following a mixed method approach, a semi-structured observational analysis of the spatial layout and material articulation of selected dwellings along with the continuous monitoring and recording of their indoor environments were undertaken.

The paper presents the research results in terms of the dwelling characteristics, as spatial and material-use strategies and documented heat stress exposure in these structures. The findings highlight that informal dwellings perform poorly in all cases due to endogenous factors and that inhabitants experience extreme heat stress conditions for between 6 and 10 h daily during the peak summer period.

Currently, there are little empirical data on the heat stress residents living in informal settlements in Southern Africa are experiencing. This article provides insight into the indoor environments of informal dwellings and hopes to contribute future guidelines or heat health policies.

This study aims to analyze the policies and strategies used by governmental organizations to address the impacts of climate change in informal neighborhoods, kampungs, such as Bukit Duri and Melayu in Jakarta, Indonesia, focusing on canal and river flooding mitigation and infrastructure development. The research examines the displacement of residents due to the demolition of informal settlements along riverbanks, the role of different governmental organizations and the implications of these policies on affected communities.

This study uses the theoretical framework of environmental injustice to evaluate the strategies used by the Indonesian Government to address climate change adaptation in Jakarta, with a specific focus on the problem of flooding and its impact on displacement. By analyzing the history and outcomes of flood mitigation policies, this paper assesses the government’s strategies related to infrastructure, evacuation and socialization. In doing so, the study examines the social impact of these policies on affected communities. Furthermore, social listening and media analysis of Twitter data and various news outlets are conducted to gain insights into the living conditions and experiences of displaced residents in two public housing projects.

The study revealed the challenges faced by the government in implementing policies for climate change adaptation and flood mitigation in Jakarta, including a lack of community engagement with residents of the Kampungs in the decision-making process for relocation. Despite government efforts and providing low-cost apartments (rusuwana), the analysis sheds light on the various forms of injustice that result from the government’s approach to climate change adaptation in Jakarta.

This study examines social justice issues in Jakarta’s informal neighborhoods and explores locally driven efforts vs government-mandated policies for managing natural hazards and adapting to climate change.

This paper analyses changes in the activity pattern of Damascus city from late modern era (late Ottoman rule) to the contemporary era. The research objective is to explore the impact of the socio-historical process on the evolving morphological structure of the urban core and to draw implications for post-war reconstruction.

Space Syntax methodology was employed to trace the historical and morphological changes in the urban core of Damascus. The timeframe was divided into five periods covering the city's socio-political transformation and five maps depicting these periods. Local and global integration measures were used to analyse the changes in the urban core across each period. Normalised angular choice (NACH) measure was used to identify the changes in the city planning system.

The results revealed that the urban core corresponded to the main streets, which had socio-economic importance across history. However, introducing a new planning system influenced by Western planning ideals led to the creation of multi-morphological patterns. At the city level, the study found that the urban core was more accessible in the preplanned areas, while the organic expansion of the informal settlements was exclusive of the core area. At the local level, some informal settlements showed an intense core. Intelligibility analysis revealed that earlier periods showed considerably higher values, implying declines in the ease of navigation of the city over time.

This study did not account for the political, economic and cultural factors that could shape morphological changes in Damascus. In addition, the study adopted historical reference points to understand the morphological changes, as high-quality geospatial data was not available to monitor the recent post-war situation.

The research findings give a foundation for a more contextualised historical understanding of spatial structure and changes, which can contribute to the post-war reconstruction and redevelopment of Damascus city.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to trace historical spatial changes in Damascus from a space syntax approach, weaving together socio-historical and configurational studies. In doing so, it shows how historically informed and spatially aware urban planning and design policies can support policymakers and built environment professionals in planning and redevelopment.

Informal housing stands out as a major challenge surrounding the massive reconstruction of Syrian cities, devastated by a bloody war and a terrible earthquake. The purpose of this article is to assess the adequacy of the Syrian Law to adequate provide a solution to this problem.

With the purpose of informing the question, this paper offers a legal-institutional analysis of the informal housing phenomenon and the corresponding regulatory responses in Syria. A literature review is conducted, and functional analysis of the legal texts and their effective implementation is provided.

First, informal housing in Syria has been fostered by the existence of an erratic regulation, particularly burdened by the incoherence of passing repressive provisions against informal housing while master plans were conspicuously absent or incomplete. Second, the regulatory policy seems to be leaning toward the urban renewal option, indicating a supply-oriented housing approach that may face serious challenges due to the scarcity of capital. In this context, regulation should not underestimate any policy tools at hand (renewal and upgrading; with the contribution of public, private and cooperative sectors).

Although there have been several studies on informal housing in Syria, none has taken a legal institutionalist approach. Furthermore, this study offers an up-to-date account of the problem, taking into account the problematic after the 2023 earthquake and the content of Law 2/2023.

Although there are several established frameworks for health and safety in construction, there are inadequate health and safety conditions at informal construction sites, and no framework has been designed to address this problem. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated framework for health and safety risk management (HSRM) in informal construction sites with the aim of supporting Sustainable Development Goals 3, 8 and 11 of the 2030 Agenda, which are to ensure everyone enjoys a healthy life and to create inclusive, secure, robust and sustainable cities and human settlements, respectively.

The study is based on HSRM questionnaire survey and interviews with construction workers working on informal construction sites in Tanzania. A total of 13 health and safety specialists in construction were specifically chosen to validate the proposed framework for HSRM in informal construction to determine its applicability, efficacy and adaptation.

The validation results demonstrated that all of the suggested metrics within the framework for HSRM in informal construction scored higher than the test value, proving the framework’s feasibility

This research adds to the body of knowledge on the issue in a never-before-seen setting. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical study in Tanzania to develop and validate a framework for HSRM in informal construction.

The purpose of this article is to examine Cairo's master plans during the past 70 years, including the establishment of the New Administrative Capital City—which is based on two fundamental courses on the phenomenon of urbanisation—and other initiatives to address Cairo's Plans based on the thoughts of three planning schools—Chicago, Los Angeles and Liverpool. The aim is to determine if the right time to relocate Egypt's capital to a different place makes sense.

Cairo has experienced significant urban challenges throughout its millennial history due to the continually shifting socioeconomic and political changes. This research uses prospective and retrospective methods to examine how planning theories have historically influenced building Cairo’s urban fabric and provides insight into the city’s master plans from the July Revolution of 1952.

It is assumed that Cairo's socio-spatial transitions over time were caused by scattered expansion, leading to contemporary Cairo's socio-spatial evolution. The paper ends with some questions about the future of the city. Should planning policies change to cope with socioeconomic, spatial and political transitions?

The article's significance stems from the necessity of adaptable and considerate ideas that move Cairo's communities towards a better setting and provide a crucial route for enhancing their environments. Using digital technologies to implement new capital while creating platform urbanism may be accomplished even with constrained budgets and short course lengths.

Achieving tenure security is a global challenge impacting cities of the global south. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of technology-enabled solutions as an enabler for the tenure rights of slum dwellers.

In this paper, we adopted a case study approach to analyze the use cases for technologies aiding India’s securitization of land tenure. The flagship state mission of Odisha, named the Jaga Mission, and that of Punjab, named BASERA – the Chief Minister’s Slum Development Program – were used as cases for this paper.

It was found that technologies like drone imagery and digital surveys fast-tracked the data collection and helped in mapping the slums with accuracy, mitigating human errors arising during measurement – a necessary condition for ensuring de jure tenure security. The adoption of a technology-based solution, along with a suitable policy and legal framework, has helped in the distribution of secure land titles to the slum dwellers in these states.

Odisha’s and Punjab’s journey in using technology to enable tenure security for its urban poor residents can serve as a model for the cities of the global south, dealing with the challenges of providing secure tenure and property rights.

The paper aims to elaborate on the potential for regeneration of Bagamoyo (Tanzania) through adaptive reuse of its heritage sites. The town was the most important harbour for ivory and slaves of the East-African mainland during the 19th and early 20th century and the colonial capital of German East-Africa between 1885 and 1890. Today, it has 85,000 inhabitants who mainly live in informal settlements while stone town closer to the coast is largely abandoned with its historical buildings in a poor state of conservation.

The first part of the paper describes the history and heritage of the old stone town Bagamoyo, and how it impacts its identity. Additionally, it summarises the critical reception of the town's role in the application to UNESCO World Heritage for “The Central Slave and Ivory Trade Route”. This, in order to consider the reuse of its heritage sites more as part of a layered regeneration process than of a singular narrative for preservation. The second part presents research-by-design proposals investigating the economic, social and cultural potentialities of three spatial layers: the main street, the coastal strip and the shoreline.

The identity and therefore also urban regeneration of post-colonial towns such as Bagamoyo is the result of a complex combination of different narratives rather than of a singular one.

Bagamoyo's heritage has been studied as a driver for international tourism linked to slavery but without successful implementation. This study proposes an alternative perspective by investigating its potential for urban regeneration in line with local needs. Developed in the context of a master studio of architectural design, it presents an innovative didactic approach. Moreover, the methodology of research-by-design can be inspirational for other historical towns.

To critically assess the reconstruction process's outcomes four months after a wildfire disaster in Viña del Mar, Chile, comparing the governmental reconstruction plan and the actual rebuilding efforts by the dwellers.

A geographic information system (GIS)-based analysis to deliver a spatial-based comparison of (1) the cadastre of damaged dwellings; (2) the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism’s (MINVU) reconstruction plan and (3) the actual reconstruction that has been carried out by the dwellers themselves up to November 2023 (as surveyed through fieldwork and drone flights).

Around 307 dwellings (97.7% of the 314 examined households) had been rebuilt by November 2023, all through the dwellers’ self-reconstruction efforts, except for two houses delivered by MINVU. Around 105 of these dwellings (34.2%) were granted a reconstruction subsidy by MINVU, while 155 (49.4% of the sample of 314 dwellings) were rebuilt without this aid. Also, 47 houses were rebuilt by dwellers in areas deemed “non-rebuildable” due to their high-risk levels.

We use a mixed-methods approach to examine disruptions between planned reconstruction and actual rebuilding processes following a wildfire disaster in areas with significant informality.

This study addresses the COVID-19 infection and its relationship with the city’s constructive intensity, commuting time to work and labor market dynamics during the lockdown period.

Microdata from formal workers in Recife was used to adjust a probability model for disease contraction.

The authors' results indicate that greater distance to employment increases the probability of infection. The same applies to constructive intensity, suggesting that residences in denser areas, such as apartments in buildings, condominiums and informal settlements, elevate the chances of contracting the disease. It is also observed that formal workers with completed higher education have lower infection risks, while healthcare professionals on the frontlines of combating the disease face higher risks than others. The lockdown effectively reduced contagion by limiting people’s mobility during the specified period.

The research shows important causal relationships, making it possible to think about public policies for the health of individuals both when commuting to work and in living conditions, aiming to control contagion by COVID-19.

The lockdown effectively reduced contagion by limiting people’s mobility during the specified period.

It is also observed that formal workers with completed higher education have lower infection risks, while healthcare professionals on the frontlines of combating the disease face higher risks than others.

The authors identified positive and significant relationships between these urban characteristics and increased contagion, controlling for neighborhood, individual characteristics, comorbidities, occupations and economic activities.