Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study is concerned with aspects of housing and urban development related to the lower income groups in the context of urbanization in Athens, Greece. It identifies and evaluates typical low income housing settlements presently existing in Athens and develops a land utilization model along with a set of related planning guidelines to provide for future planned low income urban developments. The approach has been to determine the requirements of a low income housing program by identifying and evaluating the inadequacies and potentials of related existing conditions. / by Triada Kitsiou. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-224). / Lim Chow-Weng. / M.Arch. / M.C.P.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 187-192. / by Edward Stanley Popko II. / Ph.D.

The relationship between humanity and environment influences the health and quality of the environment. In turn, the state of the environment determines the quality of life that inhabitants are bound to live. Urbanization and shortage of housing among the economically deprived groups coupled with lack of affordable housing has encouraged formation of informal settlements in cities throughout South Africa. Poor environmental health conditions are characteristic of such settlements, and these conditions can be attested to numerous factors such as politics, policies as well as failure by local municipalities to strategically improve living conditions of the economically disadvantaged. Twenty years into the new democratic South Africa, communities in these informal settlements are still faced with environmental uncertainties, poor service delivery and forced removals. Authorities are failing to come up with strategies that counter the ever growing urban poor populations that often result from migration of poverty. Communities of these settlements are not homogenous, and thus they perceive their prevailing environmental health conditions differently depending on their world view. Makause informal settlement in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) lack basic services such as sanitation, water and electricity, which compromise the environmental health of the area. Residents of this settlement have a history of staging marches in a quest to obtain basic services. Their protests have been intercepted by the heavy arm of the law in the form of South African Police Services. This has been tailored into many other factors that can inform perceptions of their prevailing environmental health. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate local environmental health perceptions in Makause informal settlement with attention to factors that inform these perceptions. Semi-structured interviews formed the major research method employed for this research with a random selection of interviewees from the settlement. The sample generally expressed dissatisfaction with their prevailing environmental health and living conditions. This points to the fact that the government is faced with a task to improve living conditions in informal settlements around the country.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Living in informal settlements is associated, theoretically, with the exposure and vulnerability to Brown Environmental Problems. Literature further stresses the association of informal settlements and poor living conditions by demonstrating that the establishment of informal settlements around the cities is intricately associated with poor living conditions that enforce circumstances of perpetual risk and high levels of vulnerability to Brown Environmental Problems. Overcrowding, poor service provision and heavy reliance on dirty fuels characterizes informal settlements and therefore link these settlements and environmental risks and hazards. The link between informal settlements and environmental risks and hazards is in return making people who live in these settlements vulnerable to, among other things, the Brown Environmental Problems, such as indoor pollution, dirty water, poor sanitation and poor waste management. It therefore became increasingly necessary to investigate the vulnerability to Brown Environmental Problems associated within these settlements. The investigation was done in Seshego, Zone 6, mostly known as Shushumela (Rainbow-Park). The study adopted a combination of the qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative approach was used to describe the characteristics of the informal settlement, the types and origins of the Brown Environmental Problems, the living conditions within the settlement, and to detail the individual accounts of the informal settlements population’s opinions and experiences on their vulnerability. Additionally, quantitative approach was used to measure the demographic profile of the households within the settlements, to determine the population density in the settlements, the frequency of the households’ exposure to a variety of Brown Environmental Problems and the amount of time of exposure to dirty fuels, dirty water, and poor sanitation. The prevalence rate of the different types of the Brown Environmental Problems was also quantitatively constructed. The study compiled its conceptual framework by digesting and synthesising contributions from the system of ideas that involves the general assumption about the relationship between informal settlements living conditions and vulnerability of the populations therein to Brown Environmental Problems. Zone 6 is an informal settlement in Seshego, this settlement is also known as Rainbow Park-Shushumela. Like other informal settlements, Shushumela comprises of people who need a place to stay but unable to find one due to various reasons one of them being affordability issue. Shushumela informal settlement does not have basic services. Its residents stay in shacks and use their own ways to survive the situation of living without electricity, adequate sanitation and waste removal services. The residents are exposed to various Brown Environmental Problems such as indoor air pollution due the use of paraffin wood and coal, waterborne diseases and sanitation-borne diseases due to the limited access of water and use of pit latrines. The residents’ overall living conditions expose them to Brown Environmental Problems.

This study contributes to the developing countries' public policy discourse by linking outcomes of the past and present urban housing policies in Tanzania to both the organisational structures and work methods of the state and to environmental factors. By tracing the historical development of urban housing policy formulation and implementation in Tanzania, the study provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the factors responsible for the poor performance of urban housing policies in Tanzania. The study is also important because it locates the policy development within the general literature of urbanisation and housing in the developing countries and within theoretical debates relating to policy explanation in these countries. The study documents a detailed case study of a specific project (the National Sites and Services and Squatter Upgrading Project - NSSP) aimed at addressing urban housing problems in Tanzania and uses this to identify a range of politico-administrative issues which affect policy formulation and implementation in Tanzania. In pursuing this task the study adds to the understanding of the factors affecting policy performance in developing countries experiencing constraints and contextual variables similar to those of Tanzania.

The transformation of urban space is determined by the social and economic relations in every mode of production. Under the condition of capitalist accumulation, the transformation of squatter areas is a significant debate. Therefore, the transformation of squatter areas should be analyzed in respect to the rent and the rent distribution by considering structure and agency relationship. In order to understand the rent distribution, political interest groups and capitalist power holders should be scrutinized. In other words, this thesis has focused the transformation of squatter areas in the capitalist production relations. Urban space is the most significant field in which the neoliberal policies are embedded. In the squatter areas, various urban transformation processes have realized post 1980. Two basic legal regulations constitute the frame of these transformation models. These are Law Numbered 2981 which entails the improvement plans and the 73th article of Law Numbered 5393 which facilitates the urban renewal projects. The basic motivation of the thesis is to indicate the differences between the development rights given to squatter owners in the transformed areas in accordance with these laws. After the discussion of urban transformation in terms of rent and property concepts, different transformation areas implemented in Ankara-Mamak District are analyzed comparatively. Then, difference of the development rights of squatter owners in urban renewal projects is indicated by considering the transformation process in Ilker Neighborhood.

This study is an initial attempt to assemble a dual history of the topics of informal settlements and sustainability within architectural discourse over the past fifty years. During the 1960s and 1970s, architecture adopted a renewed sense of social immediacy, which increased the study into informal and slum settlements, as well as a burgeoning concern of its own ecological impact, which encouraged investigation into sustainable design. While these interests all but disappeared amidst the artistic and political climate of the 1980s, they have again become relevant to architectural discourse, albeit as separate entities. The aim of this study is to unite these two discussions within architecture so that they may together become more potent. / text

This study is an investigation of the constraints and opportunities in the implementation of the Slums Clearance Programme in the Ethekwini Metropolitan Area (EMA). It embraces a case study method and, as such, uses Quarry Road West Informal Settlement, Welbadagt West and Urnzomuhle Parkgate Relocation Areas. Furthermore, the study has an endeavour to uncover the factors that influence the formation and increase of informal settlements within the city. To realise this fundamental objective, questionnaire surveys (including socioeconomic information) of the beneficiaries and interviews with the Metro Council Officials and others were employed in areas used as case studies to gather as much data as possible regarding the constraints and opportunities of this programme. It has become explicitly clear, moreover, that the majority of people living in the three case studies came from areas outside Durban for employment opportunities. Due to the fact that they were unemployed at the time of this research project and were still looking for jobs, they stated that they had no option but to live in the informal settlements closer to the city to minimise travelling costs. Apparently, some of these informal settlements are located closer to high-risk areas such as flood lines, dumping sites and so on, as a consequence of this, the National Department of Housing in conjunction with the Ethekwini Municipality (Metro Housing Department), are in the process of implementing the Slums Clearance Programme in order, according these bodies to respond to such situation. The Slums Clearance Programme, which basically involves upgrading and relocating the affected informal settlements, is analysed in the light of the past and contemporary experiences within the context of developing countries to broaden the horizons of this project. A relevant theoretical framework and literature review is presented as a support for the study and to put it in a relevant perspective. The results based on the hypothesis indicate that although the Slums Clearance Programme is in deed, at face value, an appropriate response to dealing with the affected informal settlements, it fails to meet the basic needs of the beneficiaries. Such basic needs include, among other things, access to employment opportunities, access to public facilities such as health care, education and others. One of the recommendations highlighted in this study is that holistic development approach should be emphasised to avoid the marginalisation of the project beneficiaries. In conclusion, some of the major challenges when implementing the programme have been mentioned, which include among other things, beneficiaries high unemployment rate, excessive distances between areas of economic opportunities and places of residence and lack of holistic development approach in the implementation of the programme. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, 2003.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.