A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built
Environment, University of Witwatersrand, 2016 / This thesis is concerned with the relationship between informal settlements and green
infrastructure. It uses the concept of just sustainability to explore the ways green
infrastructure can contribute to more just and sustainable informal settlement
interventions.
The study draws on a case study design, with three low-income areas in
Johannesburg serving as case studies. The first, Kya Sands, is an informal settlement
that has not experienced substantive intervention. The second, Ruimsig, is an
informal settlement that has experienced in situ intervention through reblocking. The
third, Cosmo City, is a green-field housing development where households from
informal settlements were relocated. The thesis utilised qualitative methods (semistructured
interviews, transect walks, focus group discussion) for data collection
across the case studies. These were supplemented by a quantitative component for
data collection in an individual case and in-depth interviews with purposively
selected key informants.
The three cases reveal how the low-income residents in these areas derive a range of
ecosystem services from natural ecosystems. A range of ecosystem disservices also
came to the fore. In Ruimsig settlement, reblocking involved spatial reconfiguration
that created opportunities for greening. Co-producing the in situ intervention
involved some processes and outcomes related to equity and inclusion but also
included situations that were exclusionary. Relocation from informal settlements into
a new housing environment in Cosmo City formally created spatial opportunities for
greening and reduced dependency on the natural ecosystem for certain basic
resources. However, the course of events leading up to relocation and postoccupancy
trajectory of green spaces reveal shortfalls in relation to justice and
incognisance on socio-ecological and socio-economic realities at the planning stage.
Juxtaposition between the cases of Ruismig and Cosmo City shows that in situ
intervention can fulfill more principles of just sustainability in comparison with
relocation.
This thesis argues that careful assessment of the relationship between poor
households living in informal settlements and green infrastructure — their interaction
with natural ecosystems should influence the approach to informal settlement
interventions. The cases reveal that achieving just sustainability in relation to green
infrastructure in informal settlement intervention is not straight-forward, but not
impossible. Progress towards just sustainability in the form of improvement in
quality of life and in the environment requires navigating (with foresight rather than
hindsight) the intricacies and dynamics obtainable in contexts into which informal
settlements are embedded. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22349 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Adegun, Olumuyiwa Bayode |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (139 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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