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 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.

Over the past decade the construction of shacks on fonnally developed residential sites within the predominantly african residential townships of South Africa have been increasing in number. These infonnal structures have become commonly known as backyard shacks and have been constructed, mainly by the urban poor, in response, inter-alia, to the restrictions and difficulties placed upon them by the policies of the past government, in respect to access to land and housing. Research on this housing option is limited and has unfortunately either concentrated on quantifying the extent of the development or has been overshadowed by investigation and debate on other methods of infonnal housing. Therefore this dissertation sets about, by reason of research in Umlazi (one of the largest, predominantly african townships within South Africa), to contextualise, identify and place firmly on the agenda, the issues and needs of the backyard shack residents. In support thereof, a review of the spatial development of backyard shacks over the past decade in Umlazi, is also provided. From this study it has then been possible to fonnulate recommendations for housing policy and town planning so as to address these issues and needs. With specific reference, as this dissertation recognises the extent of the housing crisis and the role that backyard shacks play in providing shelter for the urban poor within the urban centres of the country and hence the likely pennanency of this housing option; recommendations, including the densification of the urban centres as a means of providing land for housing, the fonnalisation of the backyard shack as a secondary dwelling unit, the re-defming of subsidies in relation thereto and the delivery of services, are put forward. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

The present study approaches Third World urbanization through a critical analysis of the cultural adaptation process of rural migrants (CAP). Social scientists identify the CAP as a transitional situation in which people must learn to function simultaneously in different cultural systems, typically circumscribed into a dual categorization: 'the traditional' versus 'the modern'. Taking place between these two conditions, the CAP is influenced and constrained by socio-economic macrostructures and processes that define cultural change. This thesis explores rural migrants' CAP by analyzing the material culture of Chalco, a squatter settlement located in the outskirts of Mexico City. / Self-help transformations of migrant housing produce a unique phenomenon. House forms and the selection of building materials, for instance, are defined not only by spatial or functional needs, but also by social priorities for adaptation. Preconceived aspects of housing evolution such as comfort or the reproduction of rural life are not necessarily priorities for migrants. On the contrary, the informants in Chalco favor the use of distinctive material signs that may help them to create their identity as urbanites. Hence, it is essential to view rural migrant housing as a physical expression of both residents' attempts to adapt to the urban culture (i.e., to participate in social mobility) and of the reproduction of social inequalities resulting from the nature of urbanization and development processes. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

In Kenya, as in most developing countries, the provision of adequate housing for the urban poor has been an elusive exercise for the past five decades. Since the early 1960s when serious concerns were raised over housing provision for low income groups and the proliferation of slums and informal settlements, various intervention strategies have been applied without much success. The failure of these interventions has been attributed to high costs of implementation hindering their replication, and displacement of targeted beneficiaries by better endowed income groups upon their completion. As a result, the realised moderate density housing has been transforming into multi-storey housing with intense densification. Housing and the built environment in general are realised within the prevailing systems of social, physical, and economic, settings and are influenced by development and urbanization trends. The purpose of this study therefore was to identify, account and document the prevailing systems of settings and the embedded systems of activities in the informal settlements that determine and sustain them in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. The study analysed these systems at the city, the neighbourhood, and the dwelling levels with the objective of establishing relevant systems of settings and their embedded systems of activities appropriate for adaption in the regularization of informal settlements for sustainable housing development for the urban poor in Nairobi. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodology was utilised in this explorative study. The research methodology applied entailed questionnaires, interviews, observations and discussions. Three case study areas were selected representing three different settings for informal settlements namely; informal settlement on government land with minimal level of interventions; community based informal settlement upgraded for rental housing; and site-and-service settlement informally transforming into multi-storey tenements. Theories and concepts that informed this study include Environment-Behaviour Relations, Environment-Attitude Relations, Sustainable Livelihoods, Social, and Market Theories. The study was conducted in Mathare Valley informal settlement of Nairobi which is located approximately six kilometres from the city centre. The settlement was selected because of the varied informalities it hosts in addition to being the oldest informal settlement in the city. The findings of the study show that the social, economic and physical systems of settings are crucial determinants of housing outcomes and determine the location, nature and characteristics of these settlements including the activities they embody at the city, the neighbourhood and the dwelling levels. Similarly, the study shows that the dwellers adapt to the prevailing systems of settings in response to their livelihood constraints, opportunities and capabilities. As a consequence, limitations arising from economic constraints have led to the predominance of rental housing over owner-occupied housing. Limited access to land has led to crowding and densification. Poverty and unemployment has led to uncontrolled commercial activities within residential neighbourhoods. The study recommends that intervention approaches spearheading regularization of informal settlements commence by considering the problem of informal settlements at city level where their recognition and acceptance is important. This should then be related to job opportunities, ease of access to work, and other social amenities. At the neighbourhood and dwelling levels where the two are intertwined, emphasis should be given to maximum utilization of land and development of housing typologies that evolve with economic improvement of the nation. The government and local authorities should still be responsible for infrastructure development whereas private investors encouraged to develop rental housing targeting the low-income groups and on land designated for such purpose by the government. Market forces should be allowed to determine rent levels. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.