Need for an integrated deprived area "slum" mapping system (IDEAMAPS) in low-and middle-income countries (LMICS)

Ninety percent of the people added to the planet over the next 30 years will live in African and Asian cities, and a large portion of these populations will reside in deprived neighborhoods defined by slum conditions, informal settlement, or inadequate housing. The four current approaches to neighborhood deprivation mapping are largely siloed, and each fall short of producing accurate, timely, and comparable maps that reflect local contexts. The first approach, classifying "slum households" in census and survey data, reflects household-level rather than neighborhood-level deprivation. The second approach, field-based mapping, can produce the most accurate and context-relevant maps for a given neighborhood, however it requires substantial resources, preventing up-scaling. The third and fourth approaches, human (visual) interpretation and machine classification of air or spaceborne imagery, both overemphasize informal settlements, and fail to represent key social characteristics of deprived areas such as lack of tenure, exposure to pollution, and lack of public services. We summarize common areas of understanding, and present a set of requirements and a framework to produce routine, accurate maps of deprived urban areas that can be used by local-to-international stakeholders for advocacy, planning, and decision-making across Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). We suggest that machine learning models be extended to incorporate social area-level covariates and regular contributions of up-to-date and context-relevant field-based classification of deprived urban areas

Wildland urban interface of the City of Cape Town 1990–2019

Wildfire affecting urban areas at the wildland urban interface (WUI) is a growing global concern, where management is important for urban residents as well as wildland vegetation. We used a socio-ecological system perspective to investigate the interactions of urban land with a fire-dependent wildland in South Africa’s City of Cape Town (CoCT). We examined changes in population growth, land cover change and related WUI footprint, occurrence of large fires, and related policies over time. We used Landsat data to track changes over the period 1990–2019 in the formal and informal urban and wildland footprint, census data to track changes in population, and difference normalised burn ratio and MODIS burned area product to track large fires. The urban footprint has expanded greatly and through consolidation has led to the reduction of the WUI. Furthermore, evidence points to an increase in fire suppression, even though national policies ask for wildfires to run their course where possible and appropriate. As a result of pressure from urban residents, local managers prefer short term fire suppression to long term risk reduction for urban areas and ecological management of wildland. Framing the problem as a socio-ecological system enabled us to highlight how WUI management is a product of interaction between urban development, wildland type and policies. Our findings emphasise the point that wildland management is driven by urban residents and local municipalities, with national fire and disaster management policies not fully implemented

Open Villages within the Exclusive City : an Empirical Study on Urban Villages in Shenzhen, China

Since the mid-1980s, rural-to-urban migration in China has been taking place at an unprecedented rate. Many rural villages have been encompassed into newly developed urban areas in the process of economic and industrial development. These so-called “urban villages” provide migrants with affordable housing and fundamental utilities. Since urban villages are constructed and maintained on the basis of self-help in the absence of formal regulations, they are often associated with squalor, overcrowding and social problems. Consequently, official policies are foremost heading at demolition and redevelopment of these areas, especially into large-scale modern living and service facilities. This paper explores the role that urban villages play in the extremely fast growing metropolis of Shenzhen. Using data collected from field reconnaissance, interviews, and planning authorities, we analyse the development of urban villages with respect to their geographical, social and institutional position in the city system. We find that many urban villages are critical sub-markets of urban housing, providing a realistic and effective affordable housing solution for migrants. We suggest that the current policies focusing on redevelopment of urban villages would lead to immediate and significant housing stress in certain areas, which may in the long run, negatively impact the openness of the cit

Open Villages within the Exclusive City : an Empirical Study on Urban Villages in Shenzhen, China

Since the mid-1980s, rural-to-urban migration in China has been taking place at an unprecedented rate. Many rural villages have been encompassed into newly developed urban areas in the process of economic and industrial development. These so-called “urban villages” provide migrants with affordable housing and fundamental utilities. Since urban villages are constructed and maintained on the basis of self-help in the absence of formal regulations, they are often associated with squalor, overcrowding and social problems. Consequently, official policies are foremost heading at demolition and redevelopment of these areas, especially into large-scale modern living and service facilities. This paper explores the role that urban villages play in the extremely fast growing metropolis of Shenzhen. Using data collected from field reconnaissance, interviews, and planning authorities, we analyse the development of urban villages with respect to their geographical, social and institutional position in the city system. We find that many urban villages are critical sub-markets of urban housing, providing a realistic and effective affordable housing solution for migrants. We suggest that the current policies focusing on redevelopment of urban villages would lead to immediate and significant housing stress in certain areas, which may in the long run, negatively impact the openness of the cit