Struggles to remain in Kigali’s “unplanned” settlements: the case of Bannyahe

Examining the precarious status of informal settlements in Kigali at a time of large-scale planning-induced expropriation, this article considers urban contestation in the context of the city’s changing spatial-legal regime. We analyse the case of one informal settlement’s expropriation and relocation – the settlement of Bannyahe – and the contestation that has ensued as resident property owners take the District of Gasabo to court. Through interviews with settlement residents, we follow the fates of these displaced urban citizens and consider their struggles to remain in their homes. Finally, we suggest that such contestation over legal procedural regularity and negotiation over property valuation at the neighbourhood level forms the limit of overt opposition to the city’s masterplan. Terming these limits to contestation “silent boundaries” that circumscribe contestation for property owners in the Bannyahe settlement, we offer perspectives on contestation and compromise amidst urban socio-spatial reordering in the “new Kigali”

Engaging with community researchers for exposure science: lessons learned from a pesticide biomonitoring study

A major challenge in biomonitoring studies with members of the general public is ensuring their continued involvement throughout the necessary length of the research. The paper presents evidence on the use of community researchers, recruited from local study areas, as a mechanism for ensuring effective recruitment and retention of farmer and resident participants for a pesticides biomonitoring study. The evidence presented suggests that community researchers' abilities to build and sustain trusting relationships with participants enhanced the rigour of the study as a result of their on-the-ground responsiveness and flexibility resulting in data collection beyond targets expected

The PULSE Project: A Case of Use of Big Data Uses Toward a Cohomprensive Health Vision of City Well Being

Despite the silent effects sometimes hidden to the major audience, air pollution is becoming one of the most impactful threat to global health. Cities are the places where deaths due to air pollution are concentrated most

Urban public health, a multidisciplinary approach

Urban environment is a highly complex interactive socio-physical system, with competing expectations and priorities. Public health interventions have always had a fundamental role in the control of diseases in cities. WHO considers urbanization as one of the key challenges for public health in the twenty-first century, since cities offer significant opportunities to improve public health if health-enhancing policies and actions are promoted. A multidisciplinary approach is required, but the basic differences existing between technical and health disciplines make the interaction difficult. The multidisciplinary collaboration is still at a very early stage of development, and needs to be further understood and planned. The author concludes stressing the need for a transversal training, but also for sharing knowledge, instruments and methods, involving all the actors in the planning process, to develop a real multidisciplinary approach

The effectiveness of health appraisal processes currently in addressing health and wellbeing during spatial plan appraisal: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spatial planning affects the built environment, which in turn has the potential to have a significant impact on health, for good or ill. One way of ensuring that spatial plans take due account of health is through the inclusion of health considerations in the statutory and non statutory appraisal processes linked to plan-making processes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review to identify evaluation studies of appraisals or assessments of plans where health issues were considered from 1987 to 2010.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 6161 citations were identified: 6069 from electronic databases, 57 fromwebsite searches, with a further 35 citations from grey literature, of which 20 met the inclusion criteria. These 20 citations reported on a total of 135 different case studies: 11 UK HIA; 11 non UK high income countries HIA, 5 UK SEA or other integrated appraisal; 108 non UK high income SEA or other integrated appraisal. All studies were in English. No relevant studies were identified reporting on low or middle income countries.</p> <p>The studies were limited by potential bias (no independent evaluation, with those undertaking the appraisal also responsible for reporting outcomes), lack of detail and a lack of triangulation of results. Health impact assessments generally covered the four specified health domains (physical activity, mental health and wellbeing, environmental health issues such as pollution and noise, injury) more comprehensively than SEA or other integrated appraisals, although mental health and wellbeing was an underdeveloped area. There was no evidence available on the incorporation of health in Sustainability Appraisal, limited evidence that the recommendations from any type of appraisal were implemented, and almost no evidence that the recommendations had led to the anticipated outcomes or improvements in health postulated.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Research is needed to assess (i) the degree to which statutory plan appraisal processes (SA in the UK) incorporate health; (ii) whether recommendations arising from health appraisal translate into the development process and (iii) whether outcomes are as anticipated.</p

Participatory mapping and food‐centred justice in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

Food vendors are pivotal in the local food system of most low‐income informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, despite being seen as an obstruction and as agents of disease and filth by city authorities. This paper explores the geography of these foodscapes – defined as public sites of food production and consumption – in selected low‐income settlements in Nairobi, focusing on the interaction of food vendors with their surrounding environment and infrastructure services. The research uses participatory geographic information system tools, including food mapping with mobile apps and high‐resolution community aerial views with balloon mapping, to capture and contextualise local knowledge. The community mappers collected data on 660 vendors from 18 villages in Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru, and situated them on multi‐layered synoptic geographic overviews for each settlement. The resulting data on hazardous areas in relation to food spaces and infrastructure provision allowed local communities to prioritise areas for regular clean‐up activities and assisted advocacy to improve these places in cooperation with local authorities. These multiple visual representations of foodscapes make local food vendors, and the risks they face, visible for the first time. Reframing their “right to safe food and environment” from a social and environmental justice perspective allows local communities to put their experiences, knowledge, and challenges faced at the forefront of urban development planning, policy, and practice

Sí Se Puede: Using Participatory Research to Promote Environmental Justice in a Latino Community in San Diego, California

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) increasingly is seen as a potent tool for studying and addressing urban environmental health problems by linking place-based work with efforts to help effect policy-level change. This paper explores a successful CBPR and organizing effort, the Toxic Free Neighborhoods Campaign, in Old Town National City (OTNC), CA, United States, and its contributions to both local policy outcomes and changes in the broader policy environment, laying the groundwork for a Specific Plan to address a host of interlocking community concerns. After briefly describing the broader research of which the OTNC case study was a part, we provide background on the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) partnership and the setting in which it took place, including the problems posed for residents in this light industrial/residential neighborhood. EHC’s strong in-house research, and its training and active engagement of promotoras de salud (lay health promoters) as co-researchers and policy change advocates, are described. We explore in particular the translation of research findings as part of a policy advocacy campaign, interweaving challenges faced and success factors and multi-level outcomes to which these efforts contributed. The EHC partnership's experience then is compared with that of other policy-focused CBPR efforts in urban environmental health, emphasizing common success factors and challenges faced, as these may assist other partnerships wishing to pursue CBPR in urban communities

Rights, Knowledge, and Governance for Improved Health Equity in Urban Settings

All three of the interacting aspects of daily urban life (physical environment, social conditions, and the added pressure of climate change) that affect health inequities are nested within the concept of urban governance, which has the task of understanding and managing the interactions among these different factors so that all three can be improved together and coherently. Governance is defined as: “the process of collective decision making and processes by which decisions are implemented or not implemented”: it is concerned with the distribution, exercise, and consequences of power. Although there appears to be general agreement that the quality of governance is important for development, much less agreement appears to exist on what the concept really implies and how it should be used. Our review of the literature confirmed significant variation in meaning as well as in the practice of urban governance arrangements. The review found that the linkage between governance practices and health equity is under-researched and/or has been neglected. Reconnecting the fields of urban planning, social sciences, and public health are essential “not only for improving local governance, but also for understanding and addressing global political change” for enhanced urban health equity. Social mobilization, empowering governance, and improved knowledge for sustainable and equitable development in urban settings is urgently needed. A set of strategic research questions are suggested

Homicide and geographic access to gun dealers in the United States

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Firearms are the most commonly used weapon to commit homicide in the U.S. Virtually all firearms enter the public marketplace through a federal firearms licensee (FFL): a store or individual licensed by the federal government to sell firearms. Whether FFLs contribute to gun-related homicide in areas where they are located, in which case FFLs may be a homicide risk factor that can be modified, is not known.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Annual county-level data (1993–1999) on gun homicide rates and rates of FFLs per capita were analyzed using negative binomial regression controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Models were run to evaluate whether the relation between rates of FFLs and rates of gun homicide varied over the study period and across counties according to their level of urbanism (defined by four groupings, as below). Also, rates of FFLs were compared against FS/S – which is the proportion of suicides committed by firearm and is thought to be a good proxy for firearm availability in a region – to help evaluate how well the FFL variable is serving as a way to proxy firearm availability in each of the county types of interest.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In major cities, gun homicide rates were higher where FFLs were more prevalent (rate ratio [RR] = 1.70, 95% CI 1.03–2.81). This association increased (p < 0.01) from 1993 (RR = 1.69) to 1999 (RR = 12.72), due likely to federal reforms that eliminated low-volume dealers, making FFL prevalence a more accurate exposure measure over time. No association was found in small towns. In other cities and in suburbs, gun homicide rates were significantly lower where FFLs were more prevalent, with associations that did not change over the years of the study period. FFL prevalence was correlated strongly (positively) with FS/S in major cities only, suggesting that the findings for how FFL prevalence relates to gun homicide may be valid for the findings pertaining to major cities but not to counties of other types.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Modification of FFLs through federal, state, and local regulation may be a feasible intervention to reduce gun homicide in major cities.</p