Cities, as complex social systems within society, are the most complex of all human systems. An increase in this complexity is anticipated since projections estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population will be urbanised by 2030. Cities are “melting pots” of cultures and systems that share the same spatial environment. In South Africa this challenge is exacerbated by one of the highest urbanisation rates in the world. Urban growth implies tremendous change. City centres are especially at risk to structural changes of urban growth and consequent urban decay. Governments commonly adopt urban renewal to cope with changing urban environments. However, the long term sustainability of current urban renewal practices is questioned as they tend to over-emphasise economic revival and physical intervention. The focus on people is often missed and misunderstood, even though social dynamics are the driving forces in cities. Urban renewal is complex and multi-dimensional. In theory it moved away from the linear top-down approach that focused on the physical environment towards a more inclusive, integrated and socially oriented process. This is reflected in paradigm shifts in planning thought from a physical planning and design based product orientated discipline (as reflected in historical and modernist planning approaches), to a socio-political process in which the communicative planning paradigm is the most recent post-modern theory. Understanding cities as social systems and exploring their role in central business areas to include them in urban renewal are important starting points when urban planners work with urban renewal initiatives. As research about social systems and their role in urban renewal is limited in South Africa, this study provides a step towards acknowledging and including urban social systems proactively in urban renewal initiatives. This is especially relevant in central business districts of medium sized cities such as Potchefstroom (Tlokwe Municipality) that experience urban decay and where urban renewal initiatives have not yet been implemented. The Mission Statement of the Tlokwe Municipality emphasises the need for social understanding in the economic sphere, as this enjoys a high priority in the development choices made. A qualitative ethnographic research approach was followed to explore the role of social systems in this context. This allowed the research to capture social dynamics in its natural setting where no extraneous influences occur. This resulted in rich textual descriptions of how people experience social interactions and the physical environment. Unstructured and non-participant field observations and face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were used as methods to identify social systems within the research context and to understand interactions and behaviour patterns that emerge from this context. Findings from the observations expose a dynamic and cyclical network of inter- and intrarelationships that culminate in continuous intense interaction amongst three social systems, namely the private sector, community groups and the general public. Pro-social behaviour patterns (behaviour that promotes good social relations) were observed, including cultural relativism and social awareness. Findings from the interviews provided insight into how social systems interact with one another and with the physical environment. Themes that emerged for the data to describe interactions among social systems include material support, friendliness, cooperativeness, comfortableness, accommodativeness, fixed and established relations and respect for one another. This creates a vibrant, synergetic environment conducive to sustainability and describes an environment of hope. The counter-experience includes forced flexibility and adaptiveness (due to unmet physical needs), feelings of being unsafe, limited choices and a general dissatisfaction with the physical environment in terms of its support. This describes an urban environment of fear. The role of social systems in terms of urban renewal is inclusive, participating and socially sensitive. They should be catalysts for socio-economic functions, contribute to maintenance and act as stakeholders. Based on the above, the study offers recommendations to include social systems in urban renewal in terms of the research process and method to be followed, how and where to include social systems in urban renewal projects and suggestions for physical change to make the area more supportive to the social dynamics. Practical guidelines are offered related to the practice of observations and interviews for the identification and exploration of social systems. The following suggestions are made regarding the urban renewal process: pro-active inclusion of social systems throughout the process in the pre-project stage, during the urban renewal project and post-project stage. Interventions to enhance the physical environment include provision of special requests, access to open space, application of green construction and local distinctiveness. As planners play a proactive role in urban renewal they may contribute to enhancing the sustainability of urban renewal initiatives by understanding urban social systems and their role in city centres in order to acknowledge and include them as important partners. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Cities, as complex social systems within society, are the most complex of all human systems. An increase in this complexity is anticipated since projections estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population will be urbanised by 2030. Cities are “melting pots” of cultures and systems that share the same spatial environment. In South Africa this challenge is exacerbated by one of the highest urbanisation rates in the world. Urban growth implies tremendous change. City centres are especially at risk to structural changes of urban growth and consequent urban decay. Governments commonly adopt urban renewal to cope with changing urban environments. However, the long term sustainability of current urban renewal practices is questioned as they tend to over-emphasise economic revival and physical intervention. The focus on people is often missed and misunderstood, even though social dynamics are the driving forces in cities. Urban renewal is complex and multi-dimensional. In theory it moved away from the linear top-down approach that focused on the physical environment towards a more inclusive, integrated and socially oriented process. This is reflected in paradigm shifts in planning thought from a physical planning and design based product orientated discipline (as reflected in historical and modernist planning approaches), to a socio-political process in which the communicative planning paradigm is the most recent post-modern theory. Understanding cities as social systems and exploring their role in central business areas to include them in urban renewal are important starting points when urban planners work with urban renewal initiatives. As research about social systems and their role in urban renewal is limited in South Africa, this study provides a step towards acknowledging and including urban social systems proactively in urban renewal initiatives. This is especially relevant in central business districts of medium sized cities such as Potchefstroom (Tlokwe Municipality) that experience urban decay and where urban renewal initiatives have not yet been implemented. The Mission Statement of the Tlokwe Municipality emphasises the need for social understanding in the economic sphere, as this enjoys a high priority in the development choices made. A qualitative ethnographic research approach was followed to explore the role of social systems in this context. This allowed the research to capture social dynamics in its natural setting where no extraneous influences occur. This resulted in rich textual descriptions of how people experience social interactions and the physical environment. Unstructured and non-participant field observations and face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were used as methods to identify social systems within the research context and to understand interactions and behaviour patterns that emerge from this context. Findings from the observations expose a dynamic and cyclical network of inter- and intrarelationships that culminate in continuous intense interaction amongst three social systems, namely the private sector, community groups and the general public. Pro-social behaviour patterns (behaviour that promotes good social relations) were observed, including cultural relativism and social awareness. Findings from the interviews provided insight into how social systems interact with one another and with the physical environment. Themes that emerged for the data to describe interactions among social systems include material support, friendliness, cooperativeness, comfortableness, accommodativeness, fixed and established relations and respect for one another. This creates a vibrant, synergetic environment conducive to sustainability and describes an environment of hope. The counter-experience includes forced flexibility and adaptiveness (due to unmet physical needs), feelings of being unsafe, limited choices and a general dissatisfaction with the physical environment in terms of its support. This describes an urban environment of fear. The role of social systems in terms of urban renewal is inclusive, participating and socially sensitive. They should be catalysts for socio-economic functions, contribute to maintenance and act as stakeholders. Based on the above, the study offers recommendations to include social systems in urban renewal in terms of the research process and method to be followed, how and where to include social systems in urban renewal projects and suggestions for physical change to make the area more supportive to the social dynamics. Practical guidelines are offered related to the practice of observations and interviews for the identification and exploration of social systems. The following suggestions are made regarding the urban renewal process: pro-active inclusion of social systems throughout the process in the pre-project stage, during the urban renewal project and post-project stage. Interventions to enhance the physical environment include provision of special requests, access to open space, application of green construction and local distinctiveness. As planners play a proactive role in urban renewal they may contribute to enhancing the sustainability of urban renewal initiatives by understanding urban social systems and their role in city centres in order to acknowledge and include them as important partners. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Le système urbain roumain este relativement neuf, créé par plusieurs vagues d’urbanisation. Les critères pour la nomination des villes et des municipalités sont objectifs mais la désignation des localités est souvent subjective, en existant des villes rurales et des communes urbaines. Le terme interstitiel n’existe pas dans l’urbanisme et dans l’aménagement du territoire qu’à une micro-échelle. L’intérêt d’étudier ce type de villes réside dans le fait que, par leur nature périphérique, elles ne sont pas visibles dans le champ scientifique (roumain, au moins). Le choix de l’interstitiel est motivé par la ressemblance avec l’interstitiel défini en architecture. Pourquoi « villes interstitielles » et pas « villes intermédiaires »?• Intermédiaire = état dans une hiérarchie, une situation entre deux états, avec une connotation plutôt positive, certains auteurs insistant même que c’est une position privilégiée, de nœud territorial (Nadou, 2010). • Interstitiel = extension dans le territoire de la définition donnée par l’urbaniste: position spatiale périphérique, insignifiance, désordre, état négatif des choses. Théoriquement, les espaces polarisés par les grandes villes sont plus attractifs que les autres. Est-ce la réalité? Que se passe-t-il dans les espaces qui ne sont pas polarisés ? L’instrument approprié pour déterminer les aires d’influence est le modèle de Huff. C’est le modèle théorique utilisé pour analyser les espaces interstitiels, à plusieurs niveaux, à partir des métropoles régionales jusqu’aux chefs-lieux de département. Ce modèle est basé sur l’attraction en fonction de la masse (fonctions, services) des villes et calcule les limites d’influence en définissant une probabilité de relation qui est le rapport entre l’influence d’un centre et l’influence de l’ensemble des centres: Pij = Fji / ∑(Fki) (la probabilité pour qu’un habitant du point i aille au point j est égale à la force d’attraction du point j à la somme des forces d’attraction de tous les centres 1..k..n).Après la détermination théorique des aires interstitielles, une méthode rélévante est l’anayse critique du PATN (Plan d’aménagement du territoire national) – Le réseau de localités, contient une série de critères dans la section Les principaux indicateurs quantitatifs et qualitatifs minimaux de définition des localités urbaines, que les municipalités et les villes doivent accomplir en vue de préserver leur statut administratif. En nombre de cas ces critères ne sont pas respectés et les cartes réalisés le prouve, sur la base des données statistiques fournies par les récensements et d’autres bases de données (INSSE, Ministères, Préfectures, Mairies). C’est ainsi qu’on a analysé huit critères, du point de vue statistique, des dix-sept existant. On n’a pas analysé tous les critères soit à cause de leur corrélation, l’un déterminant l’autre (par conséquent, un seul étant analysé), soit à cause du manque des données. Les cartes réalisées reflètent la situation des villes roumaines.Une méthode pour synthétiser les résultats et pour réaliser une typologie des établissements urbains roumains consisté dans la somme des rangs. Cette méthode consiste dans l’attribution d’un rang pour chaque unité administrative, pour chaque critère analysé. Le problème soulevé consiste dans l’hétérogénéité des données, à cause des années differentes de provenence; un autre problème consiste dans le manque des données statistiques, pour pouvoir analyser tous les critères. Ce travail démontre le fait qu’une partie des petites villes, même si elles ont une bonne accessibilité et sont de proximité avec les grandes villes, sont plus vulnérables et susceptibles d’être des villes interstitielles. Notre travail peut être continué par l’analyse des indicateurs restants et par l’intermédiaire d’autres méthodes statistiques (la classification ascendente hiérarchique, l’analyse en composantes principales). / The Romanian urban system is relatively new, created by several waves of urbanization. The criteria for the appointment of cities and municipalities are objective but the designation of localities is often subjective, existing rural towns and urban communes. The term interstitial does not exist in urban planning and land use as a micro-scale.The interest in studying this type of cities lies in the fact that, by their nature device, they are not visible in the scientific field (Romanian, at least). The choice of interstitial is motivated by the resemblance to the interstitial defined architecture. Why "interstitial cities" and not "intermediate cities"?• Intermediate = status in a hierarchy, a situation between two states, with a positive connotation rather, some authors even insisting that it is a privileged position, territorial node (Nadou, 2010).• Interstitial = extension in the territory of the definition given by the planner: spatial position device, insignificance, disorder, negative state of affairs. Theoretically, spaces polarized cities are more attractive than others. Is this reality? What happens there in spaces that are not polarized? The appropriate instrument to determine areas of influence is the Huff model. This is the theoretical model used to analyze the interstitial spaces at various levels, from the cities to the regional chief towns of the department. This model is based on the attraction of the mass function (functions and services) cities and calculates the limits of influence defining a probability of relationship is the relationship between the influence of a center and the influence of all centers: Pij = FJI / Σ (Fki) (the probability that an inhabitant of i go to j is equal to the force of attraction of point j to the sum of all forces of attraction centers .. 1 .. k n).After the theoretical determination of interstitial areas, a relevant method is the critical analysis of PATN (National Territory’s Development Plan) - The network of localities, contains a series of criteria in the section The main quantitative and qualitative indicators to define minimum urban localities, municipalities and cities must do to preserve their administrative status. In many cases these criteria are not accomplished and the maps proved it, on the basis of statistical data provided by the Census and other databases (INSSE, Ministries, Prefectures, town halls).Thus we analyzed eight criteria, the statistical point of view, of the seventeen existing. We did not test all criteria either because of their correlation, one determines the other (hence, one being analyzed), either because of lack of data. The maps produced reflect the situation of Romanian cities.A method for synthesizing the results and to make a typology of Romanian urban establishments consisted of the sum of ranks. This method consists in assigning a rank for each administrative unit and for each criteria analyzed. The problem is in the heterogeneity of data, due to the different years, another problem is the lack of statistical data to analyze all criteria. This work demonstrates the fact that some small towns, even if they are good accessibility and proximity to large cities, are more vulnerable and likely to be interstitial cities. Our work can be continued by analyzing the remaining indicators and through other statistical methods (hierarchical ascend classification, the principal component analysis). / Sistemul urban românesc este relativ recent, creat prin mai multe baluri de urbanizare. Criteriile de înființare a municipiilor și orașelor sunt obictive dar alegerea localităților este adesea subiectivă, existând „orașe rurale” și „comune urbane”. Termenul interstițial nu există în urbanism și în amenajarea teritoriului decât la micro-scară.Interesul cu care poate fi studiat acest tip de orașe constă în faptul că, prin însăși natura lor periferică, acestea nu sunt vizibile în câmpul științific (românesc, cel puțin). Alegerea termenului interstițial este motivată de asemănarea cu termenul interstițial definit de arhitectură. De ce „orașe interstițiale” și nu „orașe intermediare”?• Intermediar = stare într-o ierarhie, o situare între două stări, cu o conotație mai degrabă pozitivă, unii autori insistând chiar că aceasta este o poziție privilegiată, de nod teritorial (Nadou, 2010). • Interstițial = extense în teritoriu a definiției date de urbanism: poziție geografică periferică, nesemnificativ, dezordine, stare negativă a lucrurilor.Teoretic, spațiile polarizate de marile orașe sunt mai atractive decât altele. Este aceasta realitatea? Ce se întâmplă în spațiile nepolarizate? Instrumentul potrivit pentru a determina ariile de influență este modelul lui Huff. Este modelul teoretic pentru a analiza spațiile interstițiale, la mai multe niveluri, plecând de la metropolele regionale până la reședințele de județ. Acest model este bazat pe atracția determinată de masa orașului (funcții, servicii) și calculează limitele definind o probabilitate a relației care este raportul dintre influența unui centru și influența tuturor centrelor: Pij = Fji / ∑(Fki) (probabilitatea pentru ca un locuitor din punctul i să meargă în punctul j este egală cu forța de atracție a punctului j la suma forțelor de atracție ale forțelor de atracție ale tuturor centrelor 1..k..n). După determinarea teoretică a ariilor interstițiale , o metodă relevantă este analiza critică a PATN (Planul de amenajare a teritoriului național) – Rețeaua de localități; acesta conține o serie de criterii în secțiunea Principalii indicatori cantitativi și calitativi minimali în definirea localităților urbane, pe care municipiile și orașele trebuie să le îndeplinească pentru a-și păstra statutul administrativ. În numeroase cazuri aceste criterii nu sunt respectate iar hărșile realizate dovedesc acest lucru, pe baza datelor statistice furnizate de recensămintele populației și ale altor baze de date (INSSE, Ministere, Prefecturi, Primării). Astfel au fost analizate opt criterii, din punct de vedere statistic, dintre cele optsprezece existente. Nu au fost analizate toate criteriile fie din cauza corelației dintre ele, unul determinându-l pe celălalt (prin urmare, doar unul dintre ele fiind analizat), fie din cauza lipsei datelor. Hărțile realizate reflectă situația orașelor românești.O metodă pentru a sintetiza rezultatele și pentru a realiza o tipologie a orașelor românești este cea a sumei rangurilor. Această metodă constă în atribuirea de ranguri pentru fiecare dintre unitățile administrative, pentru fiecare criteriu analizat. Problema ridicată constă în eterogenitatea datelor, din cauza anilor diferiți de proveniență; o altă problemă constă în lipsa datelor statistice, pentru a putea analiza toate criteriile. Această lucrare demonstrează faptul că o parte din orașele mici, chiar dacă au o accesibilitate ridicată și sunt în apropierea marilor orașe, sunt mai vulnerabile și susceptibile să fie orașe interstițiale. Lucrarea noastră poate fi continuată prin studierea indicatorilor neanalizați în cercetare și prin intermediul altor metode statistice (clasificarea ascendentă ierarhică, analiza în componente principale).

La complexité des systèmes urbains est un défi constant pour les acteurs qui y sont confrontés. L’appréciation de ce phénomène est largement conditionnée par la posture (usager, technicien, pouvoir public, chercheur) et le bagage culturel, disciplinaire et professionnel, comme en rend compte une littérature pluridisciplinaire prolifique. Sur le plan de la recherche, multiplier les regards sur les systèmes complexes contribue à déceler des pistes de développements originales. Cette thèse est le fruit d’une rencontre entre le génie industriel, les sciences politiques et l’urbanisme autour d’une logique de transfert technologique. En effet, les technologies de la conception, notamment collaborative, et de l’innovation centrée-utilisateur sont parmi les réponses du génie industriel aux problématiques générées par la complexité et auxquelles doit faire face le monde industriel. Notre analyse nous amène alors à considérer le potentiel que représente l’adaptation de la conception collaborative distribuée (CCD). En conséquence, nous formulons des outils, des méthodes et un environnement nécessaires au développement d’une CCD dédiée aux projets urbains afin de favoriser leur acceptabilité globale et durable. Ces travaux posent alors la question de la place accordée à l’usager final dans le processus de conception des projets urbains. Dans ce cadre, les sciences politiques nous aident à comprendre les rapports entre citoyens et experts. Ce faisant nous pouvons poser les bases d’une approche collaborative dès la phase de conceptualisation car celle-ci influence l’ensemble du développement des projets. Plus globalement, le collaboratif participe à l’émergence de villes durables / The complexity of urban systems is a constant challenge for the actors who are confronted with it. Prolific multidisciplinary literature shows the appreciation of this phenomenon is widely conditioned by personal culture, disciplinary knowledge and professional know-how. From a research angle, analyzing complex systems from various points of view (user, technician, public authority, researcher) helps generate original development opportunities. This thesis results from a meeting between industrial engineering, political sciences and town planning around a logic of technology transfer. Indeed, the technologies of collaborative design and user-centric innovation are among the answers industrial engineering brings to problems generated by complexity. Our analysis brings us then to consider the potential that the adaptation of distributed collaborative design (DCD) represents. Consequently, we formulate tools, methods and one specific environment necessary for the development of a DCD dedicated to urban projects to facilitate their global and sustainable acceptability. These studies ask subsequently the question of role which should be given to the final user in the urban project design process. Political sciences help us to understand the relations between citizens and experts. This gives us elements to develop a collaborative approach from the conceptualization phase as this impacts the whole development of the projects. More globally, such collaborative processes may contribute to the emergence of sustainable cities

The continuous progression of urbanization has resulted in an increasing number of people living in cities or towns. In parallel, advancements in technologies, such as the Internet, telecommunications, and transportation, have allowed for better connectivity among people. This has engendered drastic changes in urban systems during the recent decades. From a social geographic perspective, the changes in urban systems are primarily characterized by intensive contacts among people and their interactions with the surrounding urban environment, which further leads to subsequent challenging problems such as traffic jams, environmental pollution, urban sprawl, etc. These problems have been reported to be heterogeneous and non-deterministic. Hence, to cope with them, massive amounts of geographic data are required to create new knowledge on urban systems. Due to the thriving of Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI) in recent years, this thesis presents knowledge on urban systems based on extensive VGI datasets from three sources: highway dataset from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project, photo location dataset from the Flickr website, and GPS tracking datasets from volunteers, taxicabs, and air flights. The knowledge primarily relates to two issues of urban systems: the urban space and the corresponding human dynamics. In accordance, on one hand, urban space acts as a carrier for associated geographic activities and knowledge of it benefits our understanding of current social and economic problems in urban systems. On the other hand, human dynamics reflect human behavior in urban space, which leads to complex mobility or activity patterns. Its investigation allows a derivation of the underlying driving force that is very instructive to urban planning, traffic management, and infectious disease control. Therefore, to fully understand the two issues, this thesis conducts a thorough investigation from multiple aspects. The first issue is investigated from four aspects. First, at the city level, the controversial topic of city size regularity is investigated in terms of natural cities, and the conclusion is that Zipf’s law holds stably for all US cities. Second, at the sub-city level, the size distribution of spatial units within different cities in terms of the clusters formed by street nodes, photo locations, and taxi static points are explored, and the result shows a remarkable scaling property of these spatial units. Third, enlightened by the scaling property of the urban space at the city or sub-city level, this thesis devises a novel tool that can demarcate the cities into three categories: compact cities, normal cities, and sprawling cities. The tool is then applied to cities in both the US and three European countries. In the last, another representation of urban space is taken into account, namely the transportation network. The findings report that the US airport network displays the properties of scale-free, small-world, and disassortative mixing and that the individual natural airports show heterogeneous patterns that are probably subject to geographic constraints and socioeconomic factors. The second issue is examined from four perspectives. First, at the city level, the movement flow contributed by agents using two types of behavior is investigated through an agent-based simulation, and the result conjectures that the human mobility behavior is mainly shaped by the underlying street network. Second, at the country level, this thesis reports that the human travel length by air can be approximated well by an exponential distribution, and subsequent simulations indicate that human mobility behavior is largely constrained by the underlying airport network. Third, at the regional level, the length that humans travel by car is demonstrated to agree well with a power law with exponential cutoff distribution, and subsequent simulation further reproduces this levy flight characteristic. Based on the simulation, human mobility behavior is again revealed to be primarily shaped by the underlying hierarchical spatial structure. Finally, taxicab static points are adopted to explore human activity patterns, which can be characterized as the regularities in space and time, the heterogeneity and predictability in space. From a complex system perspective, this thesis presents the knowledge discovered in urban systems using massive volumes of geographic data. Together with new knowledge from empirical findings, the development of methods, and the design of theoretic models, this thesis also shares the research community with geographic data generated from extensive VGI datasets and the corresponding source codes. Moreover, this study is aligned with a paradigm shift in that it analyzes large-size datasets using high processing power as opposed to analyzing small-size datasets with low processing power. / <p>QC 20121113</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:03:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuciaMF_DISSERT.pdf: 4358555 bytes, checksum: 1a9d061dffe256178596d20701eec009 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-04 / The growing accumulation of people in urban centers caused chronic problems of the cities to begin to take an increasingly unsustainable. Primarily related to lack of infrastructure coupled with sanitation and lack of investment in critical sectors such as health, education, housing and transportation, these problems start to deteriorate markedly the quality of life of city dwellers and put into test management policies of the spaces urbanized. To reverse this situation, shows is essential to the use of tools (highlighting this harvest rates and environmental indicators) that help in assessing the current conditions and may assist in predicting future scenarios. From the information listed above, now put the research seeks to present an index called ISBA Environmental (Sanitation Index) which looks at the four urban systems (water, sewer, solid waste and urban drainage) from the viewpoint of application in a geographical cutout specific - in this case the Drainage Basin XII, defined by the Plan of Urban Drainage Stormwater in the city of Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte. This index, together with analysis of other factors sought to trace the current conditions of the basin and thus, assist in proposing the best solutions. For the preparation of the index was applied a questionnaire with a sample of 384 (three hundred eighty-four) households that aimed to study two variables: access to services and satisfaction of the population in relation to these. The ISBA has shown that the system is the most deficient collection and disposal of effluents (ICE = 47.66%), followed by the drainage of rainwater (IDAP = 54.17%), water supply (AAI = 61, 36) and solid waste collection (IRS = 78.28). With the ISBA was possible to verify that the qualitative data shows whose subjectivity is evident (as is the case of user satisfaction) can be of great importance when an assessment, since we obtained the correlation coefficient between the variables "Access" and " Satisfaction "equal to 0.8234, showing a strong correlation between the existence / quality of service offered and the impressions of the population that receives them / O crescente ac?mulo de pessoas nos centros urbanos fez com que problemas cr?nicos das cidades passassem a tomar propor??es cada vez mais insustent?veis. Relacionados principalmente a falta de infra-estrutura de saneamento e somadas a falta de investimentos em setores cr?ticos como sa?de, educa??o, habita??o e transporte, estes problemas passam a degradar acentuadamente a qualidade de vida dos citadinos e colocam em teste as pol?ticas de gest?o dos espa?os urbanizados. Para reverter tal quadro, mostra-se imprescind?vel o uso de ferramentas que auxiliem na avalia??o das atuais condi??es e possam auxiliar na predi??o de cen?rios futuros. A partir das informa??es elencadas supra, a presente pesquisa busca apresentar um instrumento ambiental denominado ?ndice de Saneamento B?sico (ISBA) que visa a analise dos quatro sistemas urbanos (?gua, esgoto, res?duos s?lidos e drenagem urbana) sob a ?tica de aplica??o em um recorte geogr?fico especifico no caso a Bacia de Drenagem XII, definida pelo Plano de Drenagem Urbana de ?guas Pluviais da cidade do Natal, capital do Rio Grande do Norte. Este ?ndice, juntamente com an?lises de outros fatores ajuda a tra?ar as atuais condi??es da bacia e com isso, auxiliar na proposi??o das melhores solu??es. Para a aplica??o do ?ndice foram utilizados obtidos atrav?s de um question?rio com uma amostra de 384 (trezentos e oitenta e quatro) resid?ncias que objetivava estudar duas vari?veis: acesso e a satisfa??o da popula??o aos servi?os de saneamento. O ISBA mostrou que o sistema mais deficit?rio ? o de coleta e destina??o final de efluentes (ICE=47,66%), seguido pela drenagem de ?guas pluviais (IDAP=54,17%), o abastecimento de ?gua (IAA=61,36) e a coleta de res?duos s?lidos (IRS=78,28). Com o ISBA foi poss?vel verificar que dados qualitativos cuja subjetividade mostra-se evidente (como ? o caso da satisfa??o dos usu?rios) podem ser de grande import?ncia quando de uma avalia??o, visto que se obteve coeficiente de correla??o entre as vari?veis Acesso e Satisfa??o igual a 0,8234, mostrando grande correla??o entre a exist?ncia/qualidade de servi?o oferecido e as impress?es da popula??o que os recebe