With global population increasingly concentrating in urban areas, cities are driving national economic growth, while also grappling with challenges such as inequalities, affordable housing shortages, extreme weather events, pollution, and loss of green space. National Urban Policies (NUPs) can play a key role in managing these challenges and unlocking the …
For the first time in human history the urban population outnumbers the rural one. This is both due to villages growing to become towns and cities, and migration of the rural population to urban cities. According to the UN’s calculations, in 2003 870 million people lived in slums, and this …
The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in southern Sumatra (Indonesia) has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 2004. Home to tigers, elephants, and rare Sumatran rhinos, the Park is also home to numerous squatters since the early 1970s. Part of the Park was restored after forcible …
This paper analyzes the dynamics of population growth and urban expansion in the city of Xalapa, Mexico. It focuses on the establishment of informal settlements, which are one of the many threats to forest and farmland conservation (although these settlements are not the only source of the problem). Spatial analysis …
In Kathmandu you can smell the Bagmati before you see it; in Sundarijal you can hear this river as it cascades down from its headwaters to nourish the paddy fields in the plains below the Shivapuri hills before it finds its way into the city, much abused and yet revered. …
The Bagmati loses its way in Kathmandu amid political vacuum and urban chaos. The chaos and urban sprawl of today’s Kathmandu have taken a serious toll on the stretch of the Bagmati and its tributaries that meet in the city. In the absence of clear guidelines regulating river water use …
India has the world’s second largest urban population (after China). This paper shows the large disparities within this urban population in healthrelated indicators. It shows the disparities for child and maternal health, provision for health care and housing conditions between the poorest quartile and the rest of the urban population …
Squatters' organizations are a notable driving force of civil society movements in Nepal. Their alliance, working on urban squatter issues, has been trying to change their strategy from one of confrontation with government authorities to one of collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including non-squatter neighbours. This paper reviews a decade of …
The movement of inhabitants from a squatter settlement to a resettlement colony can be perceived as a rise in the status of slum dwellers. The slum dwellers of the resettlement colonies now have a better housing with security of tenancy. Also, they earn more than before, both in relative and …
The redevelopment and beautification of the capital for the making of a "world-class city' have entailed a heavy cost in terms of slum demolitions. A survey documenting the change of land use that has taken place on the sites of demolished slum clusters highlights the emerging processes and trends. Some …
More than 300 destitute people of South Africa's Johannesburg city are currently facing eviction from their squats. The move is part of Johannesburg's inner-city regeneration programme ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Two stadiums are being readied for the tournament. The process, which has been stalled over the past …
This paper presents and discusses primary data from a survey of 1,070 households in four poor settlements in Mumbai comprising slum-and pavement-dwellers and squatters on the living environment and health conditions. The study attempts to examine the consequences of socio-economic and environmental factors in terms of income, literacy, sanitation and …
Barely a week after passing a constitutional amendment that empowered Zimbabwe to seize land owned by the whites without paying compensation, the government has done a volte face after renewed pledges by Western donors to provide finance for land redistribution. Over the past two months black squatters have been invading …
JUST 6 months ago, Vijay Vihar was a dirty blob on the capital's ever-expanding map. The 5.67 ha of land on the outskirts of north Delhi houses a dusty, unauthorised colony of 40,000 people. But today the residents have at one shot challenged the government and the vested interests in …
AT LEAST 600 million of the 1.5 billion urban inhabitats in AsiaAfrica and Latin America live in squattersettlements on illegally occupied land or in housingdevelmopment schemes that never received municipalapproval. Their houses fail to meet government buildingstandards and their inhabitants are victims of overcrowdingpoor constructionlack of piped waterrudimentarysanitationinadequate drainage and …
Katchi abadis (illegal squatter colonies) are a common feature in Pakistan's rapidly expanding cities. Karachi alone has 362 such colonies, housing more than 3 million people -- about 40 per cent of the city's population. These settlements have sprung up since the 1970s as a result of immigration from rural …
