Beyond self-help: learning from communities in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa In: African cities and collaborative futures

In South Africa, over half the population live in urban centres, with one in five households living in informal settlements. Such unplanned settlements form a major challenge in the urban landscape, exacerbating issues related to poverty, inadequate infrastructure, housing and poor living conditions. This chapter investigates various interpretations of self-help approaches, as the term is understood in different ways by informal dwellers, community organisations and external stakeholders, using experiences and lessons learned from good available practice in the Durban metropolitan area. Community participation through co-production strategies and participatory action research methods are used to understand the level of community empowerment and sense of local ownership. The concept of self-building is analysed in terms of identifying key success factors for supporting self-help activities by local government and community support organisations. The study also explores issues related to the project management of a community-led upgrading project, including the role of stakeholder management, procurement and project governance. Empirical data is gathered in the form of semi-structured interviews, observations and focus groups with community leaders, non-governmental organisations, municipal officers and industry practitioners. The research aims to build capacity in local communities seeking to improve their living conditions and assist local authorities in enhancing their planning mechanisms

A dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in informal settlements: A case study in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

This article describes a dataset of community perspectives on living conditions and disaster risk management in Khan Road, a non-serviced informal settlement, located in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The data were collected by local community researchers via a structured questionnaire of 159 informal dwellers conducted between August and September 2022, using mobile phones via KoboToolbox. The dataset was analysed using exploratory data analysis (EDA) techniques. This household survey is part of a research project aiming to develop an evidence base of opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities related to housing construction and resource management in incremental upgrading of informal settlements in South Africa. This dataset can be used by local practitioners and policymakers involved in decision-making for informal settlement upgrading and help them prioritise resources and upgrading interventions based on what informal dwellers need. Furthermore, this cleaned dataset could support the analysis of further South African data guiding the development of digital platforms as a real-time resource management tool or guide the enhancement of existing theoretical frameworks in the field of participatory design and co-production used by academic scholars

Barriers and opportunities for participatory environmental upgrading: Case study of Havelock informal settlement, Durban

Urbanisation is one of the key challenges of this decade with 68% of the global population likely to be living in urban areas by 2050. This challenge is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa where future towns and cities will see an influx of residents living in spontaneous human settlements. As cities struggle to keep up with the speed of growth and spread of informal settlements, associated environmental challenges such as air and water pollution and waste management have been significantly increasing posing a health risk in high density settings. Using the case of Havelock informal settlement in Durban, the authors identified key challenges associated with poor environmental conditions, lack of basic infrastructure, and the implications for settlement upgrading. The study uses mixed methods combining transect walks, priority mapping, seasonal calendar, focus group discussions and household interviews to explore the households' most challenging environmental issues faced daily by informal dwellers. This paper seeks to make the case for targeted participatory environmental infrastructure and management delivery in urban settlements in South Africa. The research also highlights the value of adopting a holistic approach to infrastructure provision to effectively enhance the living conditions of communities. Targeted participatory processes are vital to ensure that holistic infrastructure interventions are acceptable, appropriate and embedded in local communities to create sustainable habitats

Regional flow duration curves for ungauged sites in Sicily

Flow duration curves are simple and powerful tools to deal with many hydrological and environmental problems related to water quality assessment, water-use assessment and water allocation. Unfortunately the scarcity of streamflow data enables the use of these instruments only for gauged basins. A regional model is developed here for estimating flow duration curves at ungauged basins in Sicily, Italy. Due to the complex ephemeral behavior of the examined region, this study distinguishes dry periods, when flows are zero, from wet periods using a three parameters power law to describe the frequency distribution of flows. A large dataset of streamflows has been analyzed and the parameters of flow duration curves have been derived for about fifty basins. Regional regression equations have been developed to derive flow duration curves starting from morphological basin characteristics

A paradigm of extreme rainfall pluvial floods in complex urban areas: The flood event of 15 July 2020 in Palermo (Italy)

In the last few years, some regions of the Mediterranean area have witnessed a progressive increase in extreme events, such as urban and flash floods, as a response to the increasingly frequent and severe extreme rainfall events, which are often exacerbated by the ever-growing urbanization. In such a context, the urban drainage systems may not be sufficient to convey the rainwater, thus increasing the risk deriving from the occurrence of such events. This study focuses on a particularly intense urban flood that occurred in Palermo (Italy) on 15 July 2020; it represents a typical pluvial flood due to extreme rainfall on a complex urban area that many cities have experienced in recent years, especially in the Mediterranean region. A conceptual hydrological model and a 2D hydraulic model, particularly suitable for simulations in a very complex urban context, have been used to simulate the event. Results have been qualitatively validated by means of crowdsourced information and satellite images. The experience of Palermo, which has highlighted the urgent need for a shift in the way stormwater in urban settlements is managed, can be assumed to be a paradigm for modeling pluvial floods in complex urban areas under extreme rainfall conditions. Although the approaches and the related policies cannot be identical for all cities, the modeling framework used here to assess the impacts of the event under study and some conclusive remarks could be easily transferred to other, different urban contexts

Definition of Water Meter Substitution Plans based on a Composite Indicator

This paper presents a water meter substitution plan based on a composite "Replacement indicator" which was defined and compared with common substitution strategies based on meter age and on run-to-fail approaches. The methodology was applied to one of the 17 sub-networks in which the Palermo city water distribution network (Italy) is divided. The analysis was carried out considering a substitution budget limitation and the results showed that the use of "Replacement indicator" outperform the classical substitution strategies based on meter age because it takes into account some other variables that may affect meter precision and wearing. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

The Effect of Damage Functions on Urban Flood Damage Appraisal

Flooding damage appraisal can been obtained by interpolating real damage data caused by historical flooding events or accounting the effects of a flood in terms of the depreciation of assets. Most often, the expected damage is evaluated by means of damage functions describing the relationship occurring between the damage and hydraulic characteristics of flood. The present paper aims to evaluate the uncertainty linked to the choice of the depth-damage function adopted in the flood damage analysis. Several possible depth-damage function formulations were selected in literature and applied to historical flooding events monitored in the "Centro Storico" catchment in Palermo (Italy). (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Analysis of the impact of intermittent distribution by modelling the network-filling process

In many countries, users acquire private tanks to reduce their vulnerability to water scarcity. In such conditions, water managers often apply intermittent distribution in order to reduce the water volumes supplied to the users. This practice modifies the hydraulic behaviour of the network and determines competition among users that need to collect enough water resource for their uses. Intermittent distribution is thus responsible for the inequality that can occur among users: those located in advantaged positions of the network are able to obtain water resources soon after the service period begins, while others have to wait much longer, after the network is full. This paper analyses the inequalities that take part when intermittent distribution is applied in water scarcity scenarios. Considering the complexity of the process, the analysis was performed by means of an unsteady numerical model. The model was applied to a real case study which provided interesting insights into the network filling process, helping to highlight the advantaged and disadvantaged areas of the network in different water scarcity scenarios