Towards sustainable urban redevelopment: urban design informed by morphological patterns and ecologies of informal settlements

Urban Ecology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 377-411
Author(s):  
Wenjian Pan ◽  
Juan Du
Author(s):  
V. Rautenbach ◽  
S. Coetzee ◽  
A. Çöltekin

Informal settlements are a common occurrence in South Africa, and to improve in-situ circumstances of communities living in informal settlements, upgrades and urban design processes are necessary. Spatial data and maps are essential throughout these processes to understand the current environment, plan new developments, and communicate the planned developments. All stakeholders need to understand maps to actively participate in the process. However, previous research demonstrated that map literacy was relatively low for many planning professionals in South Africa, which might hinder effective planning. Because 3D visualizations resemble the real environment more than traditional maps, many researchers posited that they would be easier to interpret. Thus, our goal is to investigate the effectiveness of 3D geovisualizations for urban design in informal settlement upgrading in South Africa. We consider all involved processes: 3D modelling, visualization design, and cognitive processes during map reading. We found that procedural modelling is a feasible alternative to time-consuming manual modelling, and can produce high quality models. When investigating the visualization design, the visual characteristics of 3D models and relevance of a subset of visual variables for urban design activities of informal settlement upgrades were qualitatively assessed. The results of three qualitative user experiments contributed to understanding the impact of various levels of complexity in 3D city models and map literacy of future geoinformatics and planning professionals when using 2D maps and 3D models. The research results can assist planners in designing suitable 3D models that can be used throughout all phases of the process.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Tillner ◽  
◽  
Eva Maria Kuehn ◽  

“Habitat 5.0 – Towards affordable and sustainable housing in the developing world” strives to build communities by following urban design patterns for sustainable settlements and goes beyond the mere production of individual housing structures. It is a blockchain-based approach that leads to “disruptive innovations” in order to achieve “quality good enough”1 to upgrade informal settlements. The key approach relies on the secure and verifiable transfer of existing, qualified knowhow that enables residents to participate in the process. The self-building of houses with ecological materials is safer, cheaper, faster, sustainable, and supports the vision of “Glocalization.” Habitat 5.0 is a need-based approach: The need is the lack of affordable and adequate housing which leads to the surge in informal settlements. The idea is to improve informal housing in situ. This need is aggravated when disasters strike, as informal settlements are the most vulnerable when heavy rainfall, floods, storms or earthquakes hit unstable land and unsafe structures. Apart from informal housing, many other cheaply built structures are usually affected and destroyed by natural disasters. Therefore, disaster relief housing is another major potential of this approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2042 (1) ◽  
pp. 012049
Author(s):  
Jonathan Natanian ◽  
Francesco De Luca ◽  
Thomas Wortmann ◽  
Guedi Capeluto

Abstract This paper addresses the limitations of existing Solar Envelope (SE) methods to explore the trade-offs of solar radiation and urban shading, and to simultaneously account for several different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It offers an alternative parametric workflow - the Solar Block Generator (SBG) - which is based on an additive voxelization method by which multiple solar-driven massing alternatives are generated and evaluated for a given site, corresponding to a set of user-defined environmental KPIs. This method is tested here on an urban redevelopment case study in the Mediterranean (Tel Aviv). The results help achieve a more holistic approach for solar driven urban design.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorina Pojani

Purpose While a substantial amount of study of informal settlements has been undertaken, they remain largely unstudied in terms of urban form. In this analysis, the purpose of this paper is to set forth a conceptual framework, which considers the context in which informality takes place, the settlement itself, the houses contained therein, the dwellers of those houses and the process through which a settlement is designed and transformed over time. Design/methodology/approach This is a literature review. Findings This framework aims to be sufficiently flexible to be deployed across diverse national settings. Its formulation is important because informal settlements are a permanent fixture of the global urban landscape, and are increasing in scale. Originality/value Any sustainable strategies to improve informal settlements depend on a better understanding of their urban space, as well as of the producers of this space – the residents themselves. Finally, professional designers may be able to learn from this contemporary urban vernacular grammar – perhaps the only one left in the era of sanitized, contrived and prosaic urban design.


2015 ◽  
Vol Volume 111 (Number 11/12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Rautenbach ◽  
Yvette Bevis ◽  
Serena Coetzee ◽  
Carin Combrinck ◽  
◽  
...  

Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) modelling and visualisation is one of the fastest growing application fields in geographic information science. 3D city models are being researched extensively for a variety of purposes and in various domains, including urban design, disaster management, education and computer gaming. These models typically depict urban business districts (downtown) or suburban residential areas. Despite informal settlements being a prevailing feature of many cities in developing countries, 3D models of informal settlements are virtually non-existent. 3D models of informal settlements could be useful in various ways, e.g. to gather information about the current environment in the informal settlements, to design upgrades, to communicate these and to educate inhabitants about environmental challenges. In this article, we described the development of a 3D model of the Slovo Park informal settlement in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa. Instead of using time-consuming traditional manual methods, we followed the procedural modelling technique. Visualisation characteristics of 3D models of informal settlements were described and the importance of each characteristic in urban design activities for informal settlement upgrades was assessed. Next, the visualisation characteristics of the Slovo Park model were evaluated. The results of the evaluation showed that the 3D model produced by the procedural modelling technique is suitable for urban design activities in informal settlements. The visualisation characteristics and their assessment are also useful as guidelines for developing 3D models of informal settlements. In future, we plan to empirically test the use of such 3D models in urban design projects in informal settlements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 7-30
Author(s):  
Puteri Shireen Jahn Kassim ◽  
Kamariah Kamaruddin ◽  
Illyani Ibrahim ◽  
Nor Zalina Harun

Author(s):  
V. Rautenbach ◽  
S. Coetzee ◽  
A. Çöltekin

Informal settlements are a common occurrence in South Africa, and to improve in-situ circumstances of communities living in informal settlements, upgrades and urban design processes are necessary. Spatial data and maps are essential throughout these processes to understand the current environment, plan new developments, and communicate the planned developments. All stakeholders need to understand maps to actively participate in the process. However, previous research demonstrated that map literacy was relatively low for many planning professionals in South Africa, which might hinder effective planning. Because 3D visualizations resemble the real environment more than traditional maps, many researchers posited that they would be easier to interpret. Thus, our goal is to investigate the effectiveness of 3D geovisualizations for urban design in informal settlement upgrading in South Africa. We consider all involved processes: 3D modelling, visualization design, and cognitive processes during map reading. We found that procedural modelling is a feasible alternative to time-consuming manual modelling, and can produce high quality models. When investigating the visualization design, the visual characteristics of 3D models and relevance of a subset of visual variables for urban design activities of informal settlement upgrades were qualitatively assessed. The results of three qualitative user experiments contributed to understanding the impact of various levels of complexity in 3D city models and map literacy of future geoinformatics and planning professionals when using 2D maps and 3D models. The research results can assist planners in designing suitable 3D models that can be used throughout all phases of the process.


Author(s):  
Takanori Sohda ◽  
Hiroshi Saito ◽  
Goro Asano ◽  
Katsunari Fukushi ◽  
Katsuya Suzuki ◽  
...  

Recently, the functional aspect as well as morphological aspect of the reserve cells in the cervix uteri drew much attention in view of the carcinogenesis in squamocolumunar junction. In this communication, the authors elucidate the ultrastructural features of the reserve cells in patients of various age groups visiting our university hospital and affiliated hospital.From conventional light microscopic point of view, the reserve cells tend to be pronounced in various pathological conditions, such as the persisting inflammation, proliferative disorders and irritation of hormones. The morphological patterns of the reserve cells from various stage and degree of irritation were observed.


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