Slums are informal housing settlements commonly found in urban areas of developing countries which are characterised by poor shelter, low service provision and lacking in security of tenure. Slums are growing and new slums are forming. The international development community has been actively working to improve the living conditions of slum-dwellers and to reduce poverty via slum upgrading methods. There are various slum upgrading delivery models and approaches to tackle the urbanisation of poverty in developing countries. Many adaptive and proactive measures have been implemented through a variety of slum upgrading initiatives and partnerships; however there has been limited investigation of the longer term sustainability of such interventions. This research follows a qualitative methodology to investigate the sustainability of differing slum upgrading interventions. Four case studies have been examined; two in Kenya and two in India, demonstrating a range of physical upgrading approaches. Alternative slum upgrading delivery models have been selected covering housing rehabilitation and in-situ water and sanitation upgrading and demonstrating top-down and bottom-up approaches. The case studies are of varying ages and were implemented via partnerships with differing agents including government, NGO, CBO, private developer and donors. The influence and design of the delivery model upon the upgrading sustainability has been assessed via stakeholder perception during extensive fieldwork. The data gathered has been analysed according to four key themes; status of life for slum-dwellers today, perception of upgrading success, institutional reform from external factors and development aspirations. Data was gathered via semi-structured interviews with slum-dwellers and project stakeholders using a ground-level methodology that enabled the capture of personal and honest accounts. Analysis of the data has found that there are many misconceptions around slums which can affect the sustainability of measures to upgrade informal settlements. The way that international development organisations and westerners view slums is often very particular and not always resonant with the way that slum-dwellers view their living situation. Priorities for development are not always consistent across stakeholders. For sustainability, any slum upgrading activity must be sensitive to the situation of an individual community and culture, and not assume that the residents are unhappy living in desperate poverty, as it has been shown, many choose to reside in a slum. Slums may be dirty, poorly serviced and overcrowded but are also places of great human energy, community spirit, kindness, hard-working, creative and happy places that many consider home.

This thesis is focused on the israeli-palestinian conflict, which is an often discussed topic, but especially in the Czech literature the perspective of common people is missing. The main focus will be on family memory and how it transfers within the generations. This will be demonstrated on an analysis of interviews with members of four families (of three generations: grandparent, parent, child) living in the West bank. That is why the method of oral history will be used. The main timeline will be year 1967 which is remembered by the oldest member of the interviewed families. In 1967 the third arab-israeli war took place when Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan and started occupying the Golan Heights, Sinai peninsula and a large part of the Palestinian territory including the eastern part of Jerusalem. This war caused another exodus of Palestinians and the beginning of building illegal settlements in the West Bank. This event is usually described from the political point of view but little is known about what happened to common people. The point of this thesis is to view this issue from different than official sources and give the topic a new dimension.

D.Ing. (Civil Engineering) / The thesis investigates the whole life cycle of the community ablution facilities in the eThekwini municipality, and aimed to identify the technical success factors in rolling out communal ablution facilities as an interim measure in the upgrading of informal settlements throughout South Africa. The eThekwini municipality is based on the east coast of South Africa. Approximately 12% of the 3.4 million inhabitants of eThekwini are housing informally in one of the 420 informal settlements scattered around the urban and peri-urban areas. The municipality is responsible for the provision of basic interim services to these informal settlements within their jurisdiction and is in the process of rolling out containerised ablution facilities to all informal settlements as an interim measure. They have successfully provided 302 communal ablution blocks from 2009. The findings of this thesis were based on the rollout of these communal ablution blocks. The thesis is structured in the life cycle of the community ablution blocks. The thesis required a broad set of data from a number of stakeholders in order to understand each stage in the life cycle, using a number of different data sources, such as (i) interviews with the municipality, professional service providers, and the caretakers, (ii) municipal and project related documentation and data, (iii) surveys of the existing community ablution blocks, and (iv) data logging of the water meters at the community ablution blocks. The pre-implementation stages of the community ablution blocks investigated the planning, design and construction stages of the project. In the planning stage, the municipality prioritised each settlement based on a set of technical criteria, such as location to existing infrastructure, transport routes, bulk water and sanitation services, social infrastructure, the population of the settlement; to ensure that all interim infrastructure are considered within an integrated framework in order to reduce fruitless capital expenditure. Each settlement required community buy-in for both the placement and provision of the ablution facility and the selection of the caretaker. The design stage deals with the hydraulic design of the water supply and sewerage pipes as these were unknown parameters. The ablution structure and the sanitary fittings were discussed, but these were not significant in the design due to the space constraints within the containerised ablution facilities. There were significant delays found in the construction phase, which increased the initial estimated time required for construction by a factor of approximately three, which not only places a burden on the municipality to maintain the momentum of the project at scale but also increases the budget required for construction. The post-implementation stages were not found to function as intended. The key success factors in the post-implementation stages were dependent on the quality of the caretaker and the quality of the support given to the caretaker. Furthermore, all maintenance work has to be performed rapidly to ensure that the caretakers remain proactive in ensuring the facility remains operational. The consequence of poor operation and maintenance has detrimental effects on the community, who have to resort to open defecation and other unimproved forms of sanitation. The thesis adds to the shared water and sanitation body of knowledge. The thesis provides both quantitative and qualitative data on the post-implementation stage of the community ablution blocks, an area which is often neglected in practice.

Social and Political Transformation in the Callejón de Huaylas (III to X Centuries)Archaeological investigations between 1997-1999 in the Callejón de Huaylas, Peru -localized around the Pierina gold mine- have discovered prehispanic settlements corresponding to diverse chronological periods. The article focuses on the Early Intermediate Period and Middle Horizon, examining Recuay settlement pattern, and showing how it was transformed Wari control that probably intruded into the Callejón de Huaylas in the 6th century. However, local domestic patterns appear to have remained little changed, suggesting that new demands for taxes must not have been excessive. Only a few signs of foreign domination are evident. / Consecutivos proyectos de investigacion y rescate arqueológico realizados entre 1997 y 1999 en el área de explotación de la mina Pierina, Callejón de Huaylas, han permitido estudiar un conjunto de asentamientos prehispánicos de diversos periodos cronológicos. En este artículo se pone énfasis en los sitios del Período Intermedio Temprano y Horizonte Medio, se explica el patrón de asentamiento recuay y cómo fue transformado y absorbido por las fuerzas exógenas wari que irrumpen en el Callejón de Huaylas alrededor del siglo VI. El sistema de articulación local, sin embargo, persiste y solo se pueden detectar algunas señales de dominación externa.

Currently, the actions of housing provision in Brazil have a high degree of institutional and financial complexity, in despite of their massive divulgation in overly simple propagandas. It is observed that the implementation of the housing policies is motivated by interests related to the accelerated growth of the housing production in national level. Therefore, in several cases, such policies are not in connection with the regional dynamics and the local environmental demands. In view of this, the present research is justified by the needed of an analysis of the deployments and effects of the new Brazilian housing policies, situating it in the context of the intrametropolitan differences. It was defined as general objective: analyze the housing expansion in the metropolitan zone of Aracaju (SE) - MZA between the years of 2000 and 2013, taking in to account it relations with the urban environment, infrastructure situation and the arising of new agglomerates of housing buildings. The bibliographical and documental research, the survey of secondary data, as well as the direct observation and the photographic survey done in field allowed to identify, from socioenvironmental indicators and cartographic analyzes, the areas of MZA with densification of housing built with resources of the government obtained through of financings started in the 2000 decade. It was analyzed the conditions of urban infrastructure of the new occupied spaces by categories of analysis established. Considering the frame observed from the evolution of the quantity, of the location and of the types of buildings that emerged in the MZA; from the typologies of the domiciles and the characteristics of the evolution and distribution of the population, it can be perceived that the intense provision in market popular housing will, until a certain point, be justified by the diminution of a housing deficit based in objective terms. It was evidenced that the effects of the housing policy implemented between the years of 1980 and 1990 and the housing shortages certainly should to move in the sense of the regularization of precarious settlements and improvement of the habitability conditions for the residential unities that were massively implanted until now. If these movements do not occur, the new condominiums built with the perspective of the supply to the needed of the middle class will consist in an big volume of buildings that will be rented by families that have conditions to migrate to newer housings and get out from areas with little urban infrastructure, or just that desire to live in these new spaces, but cannot to buy the new buildings and are influenced by the massive divulgation of the advantages of to live in the closed condominiums. In the evaluation of the interfaces between the housing provision and the natural constraints in the MZA, it can be stated that the new fronts of occupation are mostly in lands that already were semi-grounded or grounded since 2004, however located to the margin of areas of natural content that must be conserved. The frontier area between Aracaju and São Cristóvão (the neighborhoods of Jabotiana and Cabrita) corresponds to the portion of the MZA where it is found the bigger events of dismount of natural characteristics. Finally, with respect to the questions formulated for the research, it can be stated that the applications of the federal resources in housing does not occur in agreement with the socioenvironmental dimensions established in their policies and programs in the areas that are most affected. / Atualmente as ações de provisão habitacional no Brasil possuem elevada complexidade institucional e financeira, apesar da sua massiva divulgação em propaganda demasiadamente simples. Observa-se que as políticas habitacionais são materializadas por interesses originários do ideário de crescimento acelerado da política em nível nacional e, portanto, apresentam-se em diversos casos, desconectadas da dinâmica regional e demandas socioambientais locais. Esta pesquisa justifica-se pela necessidade de análise dos desdobramentos e efeitos da nova política habitacional brasileira, situando-a no contexto das diferenciações intrametropolitanas. Definiu-se, a partir daí, como objetivo geral: Analisar a expansão habitacional na Região Metropolitana de Aracaju (SE) - RMA, no período de 2000 e 2013, considerando suas relações com o ambiente urbano, situação da infraestrutura e o surgimento de novos aglomerados de edificações. Para tanto, realizou-se pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e de dados secundários; bem como a observação direta e levantamento fotográfico em campo. Além disso, identificaram-se a partir de indicadores socioambientais e análise cartográfica as áreas da RMA com adensamento de edificações enquadradas nos financiamentos governamentais desde a década de 2000 e; analisaram-se as condições de infraestrutura urbana dos novos espaços mediante as categorias de análise estabelecidas. Considerando a evolução da quantidade, localização e tipos de construções que emergiram na RMA, as tipologias de domicílios e características da evolução e distribuição da população, percebe-se que a intensa provisão na habitação popular de mercado dificilmente pode ser justificada pela diminuição de um déficit habitacional fundamentado em termos objetivos. Evidenciou-se que ainda repercutem na RMA, os efeitos da política habitacional implementada nos anos 1980 e 1990, e a satisfação das necessidades habitacionais deveriam caminhar no sentido da regularização de assentamentos precários e melhoria das condições de habitabilidade para as unidades residenciais que já foram implantadas massivamente até então. Caso essa mudança de direção não ocorra, os novos condomínios edificados com a perspectiva de suprimento à necessidade da classe média consistirão em um grande volume de imóveis destinados à locação, seja por famílias que tenham condições de migrar para as habitações mais novas e sair das áreas com pouca infraestrutura urbana, ou então, para aquelas que almejam morar nos novos espaços, mas não conseguiram adquirir os imóveis e encontram-se tendenciadas pela divulgação massiva das vantagens de morar nos condomínios fechados. Na avaliação das interfaces entre a provisão habitacional e os condicionantes naturais na RMA, pode-se afirmar que as novas frentes de ocupação estão em sua maioria em terrenos que já se encontravam semiaterrados ou aterrados desde 2004, contudo já margeiam áreas de conteúdo natural que deve ser conservado. A área limítrofe entre Aracaju e São Cristóvão (bairro Jabotiana e região da Cabrita) corresponde à porção da RMA onde se constatam os maiores eventos de desmonte das características naturais. Por fim, em se tratando das questões formuladas para pesquisa, pode-se afirmar que a aplicação dos recursos do Governo Federal em habitação, nas áreas que têm seus efeitos mais evidenciados, não ocorre em concordância com as dimensões socioambientais estabelecidas em sua política e programas.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The instruments of environmental management contribute to the sustainable development of the Settlement Projects (PS) of land reform, once it´s allowed the protection and the monitoring of natural resources; It is therefore the object of study of this research. Participatory methodologies were used for collecting data quantitative and qualitative aiming: to analyze if the actions of the Regional Superintendence of INCRA in Sergipe contribute to the sustainable development of the rural zone; to select indicators of sustainability; to value the rates of the ecological, social, environmental and spatial dimensions; apply the Ecology scenery in 6 PS's selected. The results of the research indicate that: the INCRA has had fundamental participation in the creation of Units of Conservation of Integral Protection of Sergipe; the most ancient PS's present bigger rates of sustainable development and of quality of scenery than the newer ones; the majority of the environmental existent impacts in the PS's are related to the social and economics problems, such as infrastructure deficiency and services and absence of public policies to prevent the effects of the drought; the 32 investigated PS's present a percentages of vegetation in accordance with to the environmental Brazilian legislation, having its legal reservations and its environmental licenses properly regularized; the insertion of the Ecology scenery in the analysis of the sustainability of the 6 selected PS's, enable the inclusion of the spatial dimension in the environmental management of the project s registrations. / Os instrumentos de gestão ambiental contribuem para o desenvolvimento sustentável dos projetos de assentamentos (PA) de reforma agrária, uma vez que permitem a proteção e o monitoramento dos recursos naturais; sendo, portanto, objeto de estudo desta pesquisa. Utilizaram-se metodologias participativas para a coleta de dados quantitativos e qualitativos visando: analisar se ações da Superintendência Regional do INCRA no Estado de Sergipe colabora com o desenvolvimento sustentável da zona rural; selecionar indicadores de sustentabilidade; avaliar os índices das dimensões ecológica, social, ambiental e espacial; aplicar a Ecologia da paisagem nos 6 PA s selecionados. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que: o INCRA tem tido uma participação fundamental na criação de Unidades de Conservação de Proteção Integral de Sergipe; os PA s mais antigos apresentam maiores índices de desenvolvimento sustentável e de qualidade da paisagem dos que os mais novos; a maioria dos impactos ambientais existente nos PA s está relacionada aos problemas sociais e econômicos, tais como deficiência de infraestrutura e serviços e ausência de políticas públicas para prevenir os efeitos da seca; os 32 PA s pesquisados apresentam percentuais de vegetação de acordo com a legislação ambiental brasileira, estando suas reservas legais e suas licenças ambientais devidamente regularizadas; a inserção da Ecologia da Paisagem na análise da sustentabilidade dos 6 PA s selecionados, possibilita a inclusão da dimensão espacial na gestão ambiental dos projetos assentamentos.

The recuperation of degraded areas due to mining activity namely sand mining is carried out by the forest recomposition with native species. In the present work the availability of nutrients along with amount of living matter cover accumulated in a native ciliary wood and in five fragments of forest recomposition of areas previously used for sand mining in the municipality of Tremembe SP. Such areas are currently at different phases of vegetative development process, ranging from 1, 5 and 11 years. The content of nutrient, organic matter, soil acidity and total production of living matter cover and coarse living matter leaves ,twigs and roots were analyzed .The living matter cover was sampled in 1 m2 fragments the 0-20 and 20-40 cm layers at five different random points in the beds and between the beds in all areas. The soil samples were analyzed in terms of the attributes pH, organic matter, P, K, Ca , Mg , H , Al , base aggregation , cation exchange capacity and base saturation percentage. The comparison of the living matter cover production and the chemical attributes between the areas were analyzed by means of variance analysis complemented by the Tukey test. A smaller production of total living matter cover was observed in the fragments over 6, 5 reforestation years. As from that period however, the relation between the content of the organic matter and the amount of living matter cover in the superficial layer of the soil tends to differ. There is an increase in the nature of organic matter and the reduction of the production of living matter cover possibly due to the cumulative effect of the organic matter in the soil through the organic composts that are more resistant to decomposition and respond for the humus formation. By means of the analyses of the chemical attributes the soils of the forest fragments were classified as dystrophic and moderately fertile. The nature and level of nutrients presented average values for Ca and Mg, high for P and low for K. The higher values for Ca, Mg and P may be a result of the residual effect of the fertilization carried out during the planting process. / A recuperação de áreas degradadas devido à exploração mineraria, notadamente pela extração de areia, é realizada pela recomposição florestal com espécies nativas. No presente trabalho analisou-se a disponibilidade de nutrientes e a quantidade de serapilheira acumulada em um fragmento de mata ciliar nativa e em cinco fragmentos de recomposição florestal de áreas anteriormente utilizadas para exploração de areia no município de Tremembé, SP. Estas áreas apresentam-se em processo de desenvolvimento vegetativo com períodos diferentes, variando de 1,5 a 11 anos. Foi analisado o teor de nutrientes, matéria orgânica, acidez do solo e a produção da serapilheira total e fracionada em folhas, ramos e raízes. As serapilheira foi amostrada em parcelas de 1m2, nas camadas 0-20 e 20-40 cm em cinco pontos escolhidos aleatoriamente nas leiras e entre leiras, em todas as áreas. Nas amostras de solo analisaram-se os atributos pH, matéria orgânica, Fósforo, Potássio, Cálcio, Magnésio, Hidrogênio, Alumínio, soma de bases, capacidade de troca catiônica e porcentagem de saturação de base. A comparação da produção de serapilheira e dos atributos químicos entre as áreas foi analisada por meio de análise de variância complementada pelo teste de Tukey. Observou-se menor produção de serapilheira total nos fragmentos a partir de 6,5 anos de reflorestamento. Entretanto, a partir deste período, a relação entre o teor de matéria orgânica e a quantidade de serapilheira da camada superficial do solo tende a diferir, com aumento no teor de matéria orgânica e redução da produção de serapilheira, decorrente, possivelmente, do efeito acumulativo da matéria orgânica no solo através de compostos orgânicos mais resistentes à decomposição responsáveis pela formação do húmus. Por meio das análises dos atributos químicos, os solos dos fragmentos florestais foram classificados como distróficos e de fertilidade moderada. Os teores dos nutrientes apresentaram valores médios para cálcio e magnésio, alto para o fósforo e baixo para o potássio. Os valores mais elevados de cálcio, magnésio e fósforo podem ser decorrentes do efeito residual da adubação realizada na época do plantio.

A presente pesquisa ocorreu na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre em seis assentamentos ligados à COOTAP (Cooperativa dos Trabalhadores Assentados da Região de Porto Alegre), incluindo o Assentamento Capela onde se localiza a COOPAN (Cooperativa de Produção Agropecuária Nova Santa Rita LTDA). Entre os objetivos do trabalho estão o levantamento de dados relativos à melhoria de vida dos agricultores associados e às mudanças culturais em relação aos métodos produtivos. A pesquisa foi realizada com o uso de entrevistas semiestruturadas e observações feitas em saídas de campo. Entre os resultados mais relevantes está a opção pela produção orgânica e as consequências políticas desse caminho. / The present research occurred in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre in six settlements linked to COOTAP (workers cooperative from Porto Alegre), including the Capela Settlement, where COOPAN is located (cooperative of agricultural production Nova Santa Rita LTDA). Among the objectives of this work, are the data collection related to the improvement of the life of the associated farmers and the cultural changes in relation to the productive methods. The research was made using semi-structured interviews and observations made in field trips. Among the most relevant results there is the choice for organic production and the political consequences of this path.

Residents of informal settlements (slums) are vulnerable to various disturbances; e.g. diseases spreading and fluctuations in food prices and local access to credits. The lack of credits derives from the continuous outflow of money from communities. This study examines a financial innovation called Sarafu-credits (SC) implemented in Kenyan informal settlements by the organization Grassroots Economics (GE). SC is a community currency (CC), more particularly vouchers only used within a network of micro-businesses, which aim to complement scarcity of conventional money. In addition, GE have initiated community activities, e.g. tree planting, trash collection, food gardens and cultural events, where residents can be paid in SC to improve the community socially and environmentally. This study examines the design and practice of SC, and the activities, using mainly semi-structured interviews with SC-network-members and GE key persons, to understand how a CC can contribute to sustainable livelihood. The concepts specified and general resilience are used to understand the links between SC and the various social-ecological disturbances facing slum-dwellers. The results suggest that SC-members who are actively trading with SC are able to increase their sales, savings and access to basic goods and services thanks to SC. The results also suggest the networks and community activities are strengthening social contacts in the neighbourhood, and constitute examples of how a CC can help finance management of local environmental problems, where SC paid for community services also support local trade. The identified challenges are related to local leadership, where trust, communication and consistency of rules are lacking. In one of the networks, the confidence in the usefulness of the currency is lacking, due to these challenges. GE have experimented with different designs where one successful innovation is the ability to exchange SC to conventional money at certain occasions, which seem to strengthen the confidence in SC.

A prova de carga estática lenta é tradicional na engenharia de fundações, no mundo todo. Mas sua realização pode envolver um tempo excessivo e, por isso, tem havido tentativas para reduzir sua duração. O ensaio rápido, ao contrário, é realizado em apenas algumas horas, mas, sem dúvida alguma, os recalques obtidos nesse ensaio são bem inferiores aos do ensaio lento. Uma alternativa promissora pode ser o ensaio pelo método do equilíbrio, que parece reunir as vantagens daquelas duas modalidades. Nesse método, utiliza-se a carga mantida apenas no início do estágio e, depois, deixa-se a carga diminuir livremente até atingir uma condição de equilíbrio, com recalque e carga estabilizados, em cada estágio. Neste trabalho, são apresentadas comparações entre as três modalidades, em ensaios de placa, em modelo, em solo arenoso colapsível, em duas condições: inundado e não-inundado. / The slow mantained load is a traditional test in foundations engineering worldwide. Nevertheless, its implementation may take too long, so there have been attempts to reduce its duration. The quick mantained load test, in other hand, takes only a few hours to be accomplished and the obtained settlements are lower than the slow maintained load test. The method of equilibrium is an attractive option. It seems to combine the advantages of these two methods, using maintained load at the beggining of the stage and then allowing to freely decrease the load to reach its equilibrium. This study compares these three methods in two conditions: non-flooded and flooded colapsive sandy-soil model.