scholarly journals Reclaiming On-Site Upgrading as a Viable Resilience Strategy-Viabilities and Scenarios through the Lens of Disaster-Prone Informal Settlements in Metro Manila

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10600
Author(s):  
Juan Du ◽  
Stefan Greiving

The Philippines is argued as the only Southeast Asian country where informal settlers’ communities have been self-organized and produced discernible impacts on the country’s urban policies. As one of the high risk countries, fifty percent of the country’s informal settlements are located in danger and disaster-prone areas. However, informal settlement upgrading has not reached its significance in disaster mitigation and community resilience building. At the national level, on-site upgrading is not established in disaster risk management or climate change adaptation strategies, which explains the lack of strategic approaches for local implementation. Metro Manila serves as a suitable backdrop in this sense to study informal settlement upgrading under the condition of high risk and rapid urbanization with a high civil society engagement. This study investigates the underlined reasons why upgrading strategically falls short in addressing disaster mitigation and community resilience building. Theoretically, it questions what on-site upgrading is about. Empirically, two hazard-prone informal settlement communities within Metro Manila are examined with their different risk profiles, community development needs and resilience priorities. The core issues of upgrading are, therefore, differentiated at the settlement level with communities’ innate socio-economic and eco-spatial features over time. Meanwhile, the paper heightens the necessity of tackling on-site upgrading at the settlement level and articulating settlements’ spatial correlations with the city development, so as to sustain upgrading outcomes. In addition, this study attempts at setting up a range of scenarios conditioned with COVID pandemic fallout. It endeavors to provide another facet of how to deal with adaptation and resilience. This includes the urgent strategy shift in the housing sector and its financial sustainability, innovative mechanisms to manage uncertainty and risks, lessons for post-COVID planning, etc.

Disasters ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique M. Morin ◽  
Mokbul Morshed Ahmad ◽  
Pennung Warnitchai

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Muller ◽  
Edith Mbanga

This paper describes how the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia developed the capacity to undertake enumerations and mapping of informal settlements and, with support from the national government and a local NGO, developed the Community Land Information Programme. Through this initiative, the federation has profiled and mapped all of the informal settlements in Namibia, covering more than 500,000 people without secure land tenure and setting a significant precedent in terms of the ability of the federation to work at scale. For each settlement, a profile was developed by the residents that stimulated discussions of their priorities and also discussions with government. In the second phase, the residents of informal settlements were supported to undertake more detailed enumerations and mapping to identify development priorities and provide the information needed for development initiatives. The paper describes how this was done in a case study of an informal settlement in Swakopmund municipality and ends with a discussion of what has been learned, especially with regard to keeping the process rooted in the concerns and priorities of the residents of each settlement.


Author(s):  
Maqsood Rezayee ◽  
Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling ◽  
Siti Hajar Misnan

Afghanistan witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades due to the post-war recovery process. When the war ended in 2001 by fall of Taliban regime, most Afghans refugees returned to urban areas of Afghanistan, especially in Kabul city. Moreover, the rapid urbanization, migration from rural areas, and population growth impacted on Kabul city with the manifestation of informal settlement. It is acknowledged that the residents of informal settlements suffer social, spatial, and economic exclusion from the benefit and opportunity of an urban environment. Furthermore, the residents of informal settlements experience disadvantages by geographical marginalization, shortage of basic infrastructure, improper governance framework, vulnerability into the effect of poor environment, and natural disaster. With all the above, the problems of informal settlements are considered challenges for and informal residents. Thus, it is a dire need to tackle and overcome problems of informal settlements. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the most proper approaches to addressing informal settlement problems in District13 of Kabul city. In order to reach this aim, interviews and a questionnaire survey have been conducted with government officials and local inhabitants. And the finding of this paper indicates that through the resident’s preferences, government capacity, and District 13 physical condition there are three approaches which can be implemented and adopted for improvement of informal settlement in District 13 of Kabul city, which is settlement upgrading as the first option, the land readjustment as the second option and urban redevelopment as the last option.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175
Author(s):  
Mario R. Delos Reyes ◽  
Keith Gerard L. Daguio ◽  
Mark Anthony M. Gamboa

Cities have always been the predominant centres of political power, economic growth, educational and cultural advancement and technological innovation. However, rapid urbanization and growth of metropolitan cities, especially in developing countries, have resulted to various challenges that national and local governments and institutions fail to address completely. Against this background, small- and medium-sized cities are becoming the new growth nodes of the country. Batangas City in the Philippines is a medium-sized city located in the proximity of the Metro Manila region. This article provides an overview of the urbanization of Batangas City with special reference to its social, economic and urban characteristics along with its pressing challenges. The study highlights the current state of Batangas City with an emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on health, education and urban sustainability. Finally, the article attempts to conclude on whether the city is gearing towards a learning, healthy and sustainable Batangas City.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Jonathan Simbeya Mwamba

Presently, informal settlements exist as part of the urban fabric and a major constituent of the residential geographies of most Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The growth of informal settlements in cities of the global south has been widely discussed in existing literature as a critical concern. Urban development literature in Zambia in particular has focused on the rapid urbanization and poverty growth, but barely explains how this affects settlement sustainability. Studies have focused on measures put in place by government and supporting organisations to help find solutions to the problem. But this has been done without providing specifics as relates to interventions for settlement sustainability and user perceptions of their living environments. The article provides a conceptual analysis of the local dynamics influencing informal settlement development and sustainability. The historical perspective and modern day realities of informal urban settlement settings in Lusaka in Zambia are also reviewed. The case study findings indicate a need to refocus development interventions in informal settlements by considering informal dwellers concerns and requirements when formulating settlements development strategies. The article offers an insight into sustainability challenges that the settlement population faces despite a variety of development interventions by the State and private agencies. The article shows the potential success and sustainability of interventions when informal settlement residents are empowered and take responsibility of their own development agenda. The paper points out the need for collaborative approach to informal settlement improvement where all stakeholders including the local residents, participate in all stages of settlement development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Maqsood Rezayee ◽  
Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling ◽  
Siti Hajar Misnan

Afghanistan witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades due to the post-war recovery process. When the war ended in 2001 with the fall of Taliban regime, most Afghan refugees returned to urban areas of Afghanistan, especially in Kabul. Moreover, the rapid urbanization, migration from rural areas, and population growth impacted Kabul with the manifestation of informal settlement. The residents of informal settlements suffer social and economic exclusion from the benefits and opportunities of an urban environment. Furthermore, the residents of informal settlements experience disadvantages such as geographical marginalization, shortage of basic infrastructure, improper governance framework, vulnerability to the effect of poor environment, and natural disasters. With all the above, the problems of informal settlements are considered enormous challenges for informal residents. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the proper approaches to addressing informal settlement problems in District 13 of Kabul. To reach the aim of the research, the interview and questionnaires survey were used as instrument in data collection. The finding of this paper indicates that through the resident’s preferences, government capacity, and District 13 physical condition, there are three approaches that can be implemented and adopted for improvement of informal settlement in District 13 of Kabul, which is settlement upgrading, the land readjustment, and urban redevelopment.


Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Garrido

Abstract Scholars contend that weak institutions as manifest in corruption and bad governance are driving people towards illiberal forms of democracy. This explanation is underspecified. It does not make clear why people are turning towards authoritarian rule instead of working to strengthen democratic institutions. It cannot explain why we are seeing, specifically, a turn to the politics of discipline in countries like the Philippines. We need a better grasp of how weak institutions are experienced and how this experience shapes people’s attitudes towards democracy. Drawing upon several years of ethnographic research, I depict the experience of democracy of the upper and middle class in Metro Manila. For informants, the problem of democracy is not that institutions are weak but that valued institutions are actively contradicted by disvalued ones. They describe an experience of disorder, identifying four major sources: corruption, rule-bending, clientelism, and informal settlement. A view of democracy as disorder prompts calls for “disciplining” it. These findings lead us to reframe the issue. Whereas a weak institutions’ framework emphasizes the gap between valued rules and regressive norms, I emphasize their contradiction as shaping perceptions of disorder. Contradiction is experienced as a moral dilemma, a conflict between how things are done and how they should be done. This experience is informed by a normative sensibility rooted in upper- and middle-class position. The framework provides a better account of democratic backsliding: socially embedded, broader in scope, and closer to experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4174
Author(s):  
Paul Jones

The pedagogy of urban planning education should include an understanding of the growth and complexity of city development issues, especially the best ways to respond to dealing with current and future challenges. At the same time, the nature of the city that urban planners engage with continues to change, with one major challenge being the increasing growth of informal settlements. This paper asserts that an essential component of contemporary urban planning pedagogy is the inclusion of international planning studios and, importantly, studios which focus on major urban social and civic planning issues, such as informal settlements. The latter have been acknowledged as a major sustainable development challenge and are incorporated into the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To support this assertion, the paper outlines the case for international planning studios, reviews the literature on studios—including planning and international studios—and discusses the benefits and challenges of organizing an international studio grounded on embracing global development issues and learning objectives. This paper uses a case study of an international postgraduate Master’s degree planning studio, set within an informal settlement (kampung) in Indonesia, held annually since 2015 to illustrate the above. The latter studio is in collaboration between the University of Sydney and the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) University, Indonesia. The paper concludes with a summation for the case for international studios in contemporary urban planning pedagogy, including a set of principles that can be used by planning programs when designing an international planning studio.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christianne France Collantes

Purpose This paper aims to offer Sitio San Roque, an informal settlement in the Philippines as a case study to explore long-term "forgetful" urban development planning in the Philippines, and the renewed visibility of the urban poor under COVID-19 lockdown. It connects scholarship on informality to issues of housing and political rights in Metro Manila to further investigate how vulnerable communities in the Global South are faring in the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This is an exploration of Sitio San Roque, an informal settler community in Metropolitan "Metro" Manila, Philippines. This paper refers to recent journalistic reports pertaining to the community's ongoing evictions and arrests while under Metro Manila's "enhanced community quarantine." Furthermore, it converses with literature from disciplines including health-care policy, urban studies and recent studies on COVID-19 and vulnerable communities to critically discuss the plight of the urban poor in the pandemic-stricken Metro Manila. Findings The urban poor and members of informal communities such as Sitio San Roque are especially vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because of precarious livelihoods and housing instability. The creation of informality in Metro Manila can be traced to political tensions, economic agendas and development planning since the time of Marcos' administration and also to global restructuring during the 1990s. However, also important to note is that under Metro Manila's lockdown, informal settlers are further disenfranchised and stigmatized via ongoing demolitions and evictions, as well as by processes of policing and criminalization by the state. The use of military and police personnel as a way to enforce lockdown in the metropolis further impedes on the rights of informal settlers and the urban poor. Originality/value Recent scholarship and reports discuss the challenges for informal communities and the urban poor in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to their housing conditions and loss of economic stability. This paper contributes to a critical understanding of these issues by adding the dimensions of political and housing rights. It refers to the case study of members of Sitio San Roque, who have experienced continuous threats of demolitions and arrests by state police for protesting the lack of government aid under lockdown. Both military approaches of governance and housing informality work in tandem to expose the vulnerabilities of the urban poor in Metro Manila's pandemic. Finally, this paper extends on urban studies scholar Gavin Shatkin's concept of “forgetful planning” (2004) by applying his discussions to the current context. Informal settlers have long been “forgotten” by the state's development plans, but are now remembered and deemed more visible in Metro Manila's ECQ.


Author(s):  
Maqsood Rezayee ◽  
Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling ◽  
Siti Hajar Misnan

Abstract: Afghanistan witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades due to the post-war recovery process. When the war ended in 2001 by fall of Taliban regime, most Afghans refugees returned to urban areas of Afghanistan, especially in Kabul city. Moreover, the rapid urbanization, migration from rural areas, and population growth impacted on Kabul city with the manifestation of informal settlement. The residents of informal settlements suffer social and economic exclusion from the benefit and opportunity of an urban environment. Furthermore, the residents of informal settlements experience disadvantages by geographical marginalization, shortage of basic infrastructure, improper governance framework, vulnerability into the effect of poor environment, and natural disasters. With all the above, the problems of informal settlements are considered enormous challenges for informal residents. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the proper approaches to addressing informal settlement problems in District 13 of Kabul city. To reach the aim of the research, the interview and questionnaires survey used as an instrument in data collection. Consequently, the finding of this paper indicates that through the resident’s preferences, government capacity, and District 13 physical condition there are three approaches which can be implemented and adopted for improvement of informal settlement in District 13 of Kabul city, which is settlement upgrading as the first option, the land readjustment as the second option and urban redevelopment as the last option.


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