Catalysing governance transformations through urban resilience implementation : the case of Thessaloniki, Greece

In the twenty-first century, in response to an array of existential threats, the concept of resilience has risen to prominence in urban studies to address the amplified complexity, uncertainty and accompanying risk contemporary urban environments face, stemming from economic, environmental and socio-political volatility and rapid change (Bourgon, 2009; Chandler, 2014; Duit, Galaz, Eckerberg, & Ebbesson, 2010; McGreavy, 2016; Normandin, Therrien, Pelling, & Paterson, 2018). Under the banner of urban resilience - a concept that has emerged, as an amalgam of previously applied ‘resilience’ concepts in various scientific disciplines (Alexander, 2013) - urban planners and policy-makers have sought more holistic, integrated and communitycentred governance approaches that offer a variety of ‘qualities’ and ‘principles’ for confronting this emergent complexity and uncertainty of city life (Meerow, Newell, & Stults, 2016; Moser, Meerow, Arnott, & Jack-Scott, 2019; Normandin, Therrien, Pelling, & Paterson, 2019; Sellberg, Ryan, Borgström, Norström, & Peterson, 2018; Tobin, 1999)

Creating ‘resilience imaginaries’ for city-regional planning

Resilience narratives have gathered increased attention in city-regional planning over the last two decades, emphasizing holistic foresight, long-term strategic visioning, cross-sectoral integration and collaborative modes of planning. Combining such resilience narratives with the established idea of socio-spatial imaginaries, we introduce the novel concept of ‘resilience imaginaries’ and explore its application in the city-region of Thessaloniki, Greece. This paper illustrates that resilience imaginaries can be viewed as dynamic and politically contested visions for long-term city-regional development, collectively structured by civic stakeholders, institutionally expressed through city-regional governance transformations and materially manifested through city-regional planning interventions

Slum health mapping as catalyst for a collaborative agenda for research, practice, local citizens and volunteers

Background and purpose. Following the paradigmatic examples of the use of OSM for crisis mapping, there have been sustained efforts to use OSM for mapping preventively vulnerable communities in the global South. This includes, for instance, participatory mapping in the slums of sub-Saharan Africa (Hagen, 2017) and the Missing Maps project. Researchers have also started to study these mapping activities (e.g. Albuquerque et al. 2016; Herfort et al. 2017). However, a collaborative agenda in this area is missing that is able to reflect views and needs of researchers, OSM volunteers, humanitarian organisation practitioners and local communities. Methodology and Findings. After a brief review of existing methods used for mapping disadvantaged communities and slums, we introduce the approach and report on preliminary results from an ongoing large-scale project (NIHR Global Health Unit on Improving Health in Slums), which uses OSM for mapping slums in five cities: Dhaka (Bangladesh), Karachi (Pakistan), Nairobi (Kenya), Ibadan and Lagos (Nigeria). Our methods are based on the combination of satellite imagery digitisation with ground-truthing and participatory mapping. The maps produced will result in enhanced information regarding environmental features of the slums and the location of healthcare facilities, which will also be used as a basis for the health-science surveys of the project. In this manner, our approach is aimed at achieving a threefold goal: (a) participation and inclusion of local stakeholders as a strategy to build resilience; (b) worldwide collaboration, connecting to the global Humanitarian OSM network and student mapping societies; (c) quality evaluation mechanisms for generating high-quality data that can also be used for scientific research. Final discussion/Impact. We would like to discuss the approach and results of our project as a basis to invite OSM researchers, practitioners and volunteers to join us in defining a collaborative agenda towards improving methods and practice for mapping vulnerable communities in OSM. This should include challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective that account for technical, methodological, social and ethical issues. As a result, we would like to contribute to the emergence of an OSM research agenda that goes beyond solely using OSM geographic data for research, but also includes ways of engaging the OSM community and local communities in the research process

Towards a Participatory Methodology for Community Data Generation to Analyse Urban Health Inequalities: A Multi-Country Case Study

This paper presents results from the application of a methodological framework developed as part of an ongoing research project focused on understanding inequalities in the healthcare access of slum residents of cities in four countries: Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and Nigeria. We employ a systematic approach to produce, curate and analyse volunteered geographic information (VGI) on urban communities, based on a combination of collaborative satellite-imagery digitization and participatory mapping, which relies upon geospatial open-source technologies and the collaborative mapping platform OpenStreetMap. Our approach builds upon and extends humanitarian mapping practices, in order to address the twofold challenge of achieving equitable community engagement whilst generating spatial data that adheres quality standards to produce rigorous and trusted evidence for policy and decision making. Findings show that our method generated promising results both in terms of community engagement and the production of high-quality data on communities to analyse urban inequalities

Advancing equitable ‘resilience imaginaries’ in the Global South through dialogical participatory mapping : experiences from informal communities in Brazil

Over recent years, and as a result of the recent global health pandemic, resilience has become increasingly central to contemporary policy discourses in urban planning and development in both the Global North and Global South. Drawing from ongoing empirical studies of community resilience and everyday practices that have been co-designed and co-produced alongside Brazilian marginalised communities which are highly vulnerable to a range of natural hazards, this paper highlights the growing importance of dialogical stakeholder engagement methodologies in designing alternative urban visions – so-called resilience imaginaries or counter-cities - across the Global South based on social diversity, equity and spatial justice. More specifically, the dialogical participatory mapping approach outlined in this paper utilises citizen science approaches to develop local resilience imaginaries, building on the pedagogical work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and the conceptualisation of dialogue as a comprehensive and progressively unfolding methodological approach. Practically, we adopted a range of community engagement approaches that allowed local citizens to become more aware of their own risk context and embed this tacit knowledge into the operation of civil protection programmes. Our empirical results highlight the potential of such dialogical participatory approaches to capture lay knowledge from local citizens and contribute to the development of enhanced resilience approaches. The paper concludes by reflecting on the role of formerly marginalised voices in the advancement of local urban policy and on the novelty and promise of critical pedagogical approaches to co-production within existing regimes of urban governance and the imagining of radically independent counter-cities

Dialogic data innovations for sustainability transformations and flood resilience: the case for waterproofing data

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and have increasing impacts, which disproportionately affect marginalised and impoverished communities. This article proposes and assesses a new methodological approach for developing innovative solutions based on urban data analytics to address sustainability challenges in light of changing climate conditions. The approach draws inspiration from Paulo Freire's dialogic pedagogy and has been implemented in the international transdisciplinary project “Waterproofing Data”, with multiple study sites in Brazil. The project has introduced three methodological interventions: making data practices visible, engaging citizens and communities with data, and sharing data stories. Our study demonstrates that these methods have expanded the types of data used in flood risk management and have engaged a wider range of social groups in the generation, circulation, and utilization of data. We present a framework that provides guidance about the ways in which data innovations can contribute to transformative change, aiming to ensure that future development trajectories are just, inclusive, and equitable. The findings provide evidence that our approach not only helps fill existing data gaps and promote more equitable flood risk governance but also democratises decision-making in climate adaptation. Citizens were empowered to take proactive measures to improve resilience to disaster risks, thereby saving lives and safeguarding livelihoods

The role of data in transformations to sustainability : a critical research agenda

This article investigates the role of digital technologies and data innovations, such as big data and citizen-generated data, to enable transformations to sustainability. We reviewed recent literature in this area and identified that the most prevailing assumption of work is related to the capacity of data to inform decision-making and support transformations. However, there is a lack of critical investigation on the concrete pathways for this to happen. We present a framework that identifies scales and potential pathways on how data generation, circulation and usage can enable transformations to sustainability. This framework expands the perspective on the role and functions of data, and it is used to outline a critical research agenda for future work that fully considers the socio-cultural contexts and practices through which data may effectively support transformative pathways to sustainable development

Pharmacies in informal settlements : a retrospective, cross-sectional household and health facility survey in four countries

Background Slums or informal settlements characterize most large cities in LMIC. Previous evidence suggests pharmacies may be the most frequently used source of primary care in LMICs but that pharmacy services are of variable quality. However, evidence on pharmacy use and availability is very limited for slum populations. Methods We conducted household, individual, and healthcare provider surveys and qualitative observations on pharmacies and pharmacy use in seven slum sites in four countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). All pharmacies and up to 1200 households in each site were sampled. Adults and children were surveyed about their use of healthcare services and pharmacies were observed and their services, equipment, and stock documented. Results We completed 7692 household and 7451 individual adults, 2633 individual child surveys, and 157 surveys of pharmacies located within the seven sites. Visit rates to pharmacies and drug sellers varied from 0.1 (Nigeria) to 3.0 (Bangladesh) visits per person-year, almost all of which were for new conditions. We found highly variable conditions in what constituted a “pharmacy” across the sites and most pharmacies did not employ a qualified pharmacist. Analgesics and antibiotics were widely available but other categories of medications, particularly those for chronic illness were often not available anywhere. The majority of pharmacies lacked basic equipment such as a thermometer and weighing scales. Conclusions Pharmacies are locally and widely available to residents of slums. However, the conditions of the facilities and availability of medicines were poor and prices relatively high. Pharmacies may represent a large untapped resource to improving access to primary care for the urban poor

Pharmacies in informal settlements : a retrospective, cross-sectional household and health facility survey in four countries

Background Slums or informal settlements characterize most large cities in LMIC. Previous evidence suggests pharmacies may be the most frequently used source of primary care in LMICs but that pharmacy services are of variable quality. However, evidence on pharmacy use and availability is very limited for slum populations. Methods We conducted household, individual, and healthcare provider surveys and qualitative observations on pharmacies and pharmacy use in seven slum sites in four countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). All pharmacies and up to 1200 households in each site were sampled. Adults and children were surveyed about their use of healthcare services and pharmacies were observed and their services, equipment, and stock documented. Results We completed 7692 household and 7451 individual adults, 2633 individual child surveys, and 157 surveys of pharmacies located within the seven sites. Visit rates to pharmacies and drug sellers varied from 0.1 (Nigeria) to 3.0 (Bangladesh) visits per person-year, almost all of which were for new conditions. We found highly variable conditions in what constituted a “pharmacy” across the sites and most pharmacies did not employ a qualified pharmacist. Analgesics and antibiotics were widely available but other categories of medications, particularly those for chronic illness were often not available anywhere. The majority of pharmacies lacked basic equipment such as a thermometer and weighing scales. Conclusions Pharmacies are locally and widely available to residents of slums. However, the conditions of the facilities and availability of medicines were poor and prices relatively high. Pharmacies may represent a large untapped resource to improving access to primary care for the urban poor

Analysis of OpenStreetMap data quality at different stages of a participatory mapping process : evidence from slums in Africa and Asia

This paper examines OpenStreetMap data quality at different stages of a participatory mapping process in seven slums in Africa and Asia. Data were drawn from an OpenStreetMap-based participatory mapping process developed as part of a research project focusing on understanding inequalities in healthcare access of slum residents in the Global South. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis were employed to examine the following research question: What is the spatial data quality of collaborative remote mapping achieved by volunteer mappers in morphologically complex urban areas? Findings show that the completeness achieved by remote mapping largely depends on the morphology and characteristics of slums such as building density and rooftop architecture, varying from 84 in the best case, to zero in the most difficult site. The major scientific contribution of this study is to provide evidence on the spatial data quality of remotely mapped data through volunteer mapping efforts in morphologically complex urban areas such as slums; the results could provide insights into how much fieldwork would be needed in what level of complexity and to what extent the involvement of local volunteers in these efforts is required