Download or read book Slum Upgrading written by Fernanda Magalhães (City planner) and published by . This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book State of the World s Cities 2008 9 written by Un-Habitat and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-04 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities are perhaps one of humanity's most complex creations, never finished, never definitive. They are like a journey that never ends. Their evolution is determined by their ascent into greatness or their descent into decline. They are the past, the present and the future. Cities contain both order and chaos. In them reside beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice. They can bring out the best or the worst in humankind. They are the physical manifestation of history and culture and incubators of innovation, industry, technology, entrepreneurship and creativity. Cities are the materialization of humanity's noblest ideas, ambitions and aspirations but when not planned or governed properly, can be the repository of society's ills. Cities drive national economies by creating wealth, enhancing social development and providing employment but they can also be the breeding grounds for poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation. The 21st Century is the Century of the City. Half of humanity now lives in cities, and within the next two decades, 60 per cent of the world's people will reside in urban areas. How can city planners and policymakers harmonize the various interests, diversity and inherent contradictions within cities? What ingredients are needed to create harmony between the physical, social, environmental and cultural aspects of a city and the human beings that inhabit it? This report adopts the concept of Harmonious Cities as a theoretical framework in order to understand today's urban world, and also as an operational tool to confront the most important challenges facing urban areas and their development processes. It recognizes that tolerance, diversity, social justice and good governance, all of which are inter-related, are as important to sustainable urban development as physical planning. It addresses national concerns by searching for solutions at the city level. For that purpose, it focuses on three key areas: spatial or regional harmony, which examines the main drivers of urban growth in the developing world and explores the spatial nuances of economic and social policies; social harmony, which presents and analyzes new data on urban inequalities worldwide and describes the types of shelter deprivations experienced by slum dwellers in developing world regions; and environmental harmony, which examines the role of cities in the climate change debate, and the impact of global warming on the most vulnerable cities. The report also assesses the various intangible assets within cities that contribute to harmony, such as cultural heritage, sense of place and memory and the complex set of social and symbolic relationships that give cities meaning. It argues that these intangible assets represent the soul of the city and are as important for harmonious urban development as tangible assets. Harmony within cities, argues the report, is both a journey and a destination. Published with UN-HABITAT

Download or read book The Challenge of Slums written by United Nations Human Settlements Programme and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-05-23 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Challenge of Slums presents the first global assessment of slums, emphasizing their problems and prospects. Using a newly formulated operational definition of slums, it presents estimates of the number of urban slum dwellers and examines the factors at all level, from local to global, that underlie the formation of slums as well as their social, spatial and economic characteristics and dynamics. It goes on to evaluate the principal policy responses to the slum challenge of the last few decades. From this assessment, the immensity of the challenges that slums pose is clear. Almost 1 billion people live in slums, the majority in the developing world where over 40 per cent of the urban population are slum dwellers. The number is growing and will continue to increase unless there is serious and concerted action by municipal authorities, governments, civil society and the international community. This report points the way forward and identifies the most promising approaches to achieving the United Nations Millennium Declaration targets for improving the lives of slum dwellers by scaling up participatory slum upgrading and poverty reduction programmes. The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of conditions and trends in the world's cities. Written in clear language and supported by informative graphics, case studies and extensive statistical data, it will be an essential tool and reference for researchers, academics, planners, public authorities and civil society organizations around the world.

Download or read book Streets as Tools for Urban Transformation in Slums written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Climate Change Disaster Risk and the Urban Poor written by Judy L. Baker and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The urban poor living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. This study analyzes key issues affecting their vulnerability, with evidence from a number of cities in the developing world.

Download or read book The Millennium Development Goals and Human Rights written by Malcolm Langford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-16 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have generated tremendous discussion in global policy and academic circles. On the one hand, they have been hailed as the most important initiative ever in international development. On the other hand, they have been described as a great betrayal of human rights and universal values that has contributed to a depoliticization of development. With contributions from scholars from the fields of economics, law, politics, medicine and architecture, this volume sets out to disentangle this debate in both theory and practice. It critically examines the trajectory of the MDGs, the role of human rights in theory and practice, and what criteria might guide the framing of the post-2015 development agenda. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in global agreements on poverty and development.

Download or read book S o Paulo written by and published by UN-HABITAT. This book was released on 2010 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Data prepared by the Sao Paulo-based Fundacao Sistema Estadual de Analise de Dados (SEADE) in collaboration with UN-HABITAT"--T.p. verso.

Download or read book Eco2 Cities written by Hiroaki Suzuki and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-05-07 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a point of departure for cities that would like to reap the many benefits of ecological and economic sustainability. It provides an analytical and operational framework that offers strategic guidance to cities on sustainable and integrated urban development.

Download or read book Planet of Cities written by Shlomo Angel and published by Lincoln Inst of Land Policy. This book was released on 2012 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 4,000 cities on our planet today have populations of 100,000 people or more. We know their names, locations, and approximate populations from maps and other data sources, but there is little comparable knowledge about all these cities, and none that can be described as rigorously scientific. The Planet of Cities together with its companion volume, the Atlas of Urban Expansion, contributes to developing a science of cities based on studying all these cities together—not in the abstract, but with a view to preparing them for their coming expansion. The book puts into question the main tenets of the familiar Containment Paradigm, also known as smart growth, urban growth management, or compact city, that is designed to contain boundless urban expansion, typically decried as sprawl. It examines this paradigm in a broader global perspective and shows it to be deficient and practically useless in addressing the central questions now facing expanding cities outside the United States and Europe. In its place Shlomo Angel proposes to revive an alternative Making Room Paradigm that seeks to come to terms with the expected expansion of cities, particularly in the rapidly urbanizing countries in Asia and Africa, and to make the minimally necessary preparations for such expansion instead of seeking to contain it. This paradigm is predicated on four propositions:1. The expansion of cities that urban population growth entails cannot be contained. Instead we must make adequate room to accommodate it.2. City densities must remain within a sustainable range. If density is too low, it must be allowed to increase, and if it is too high, it must be allowed to decline.3. Strict containment of urban expansion destroys the homes of the poor and puts new housing out of reach for most people. Decent housing for all can be ensured only if urban land is in ample supply.4. As cities expand, the necessary land for public streets, public infrastructure networks, and public open spaces must be secured in advance of development.The first part of the book explores planetary urbanization in a historical and geographical perspective, to establish a global perspective for the study of cities. It confirms that we are in the midst of an urbanization project that started in earnest at the beginning of the nineteenth century, has now reached its peak with half the world population residing in urban areas, and will come to a close, possibly by the end of this century, when most people who want to live in cities will have moved there. This realization lends urgency to the call for preparing for urban expansion now, when the urbanization project is still in full swing, rather than later, when it would be too late to make a difference.The second part of the book seeks to deepen our understanding and thus lessen our fear of urban expansion by providing detailed quantitative answers to seven sets of questions regarding the dimensions and attributes of urban expansion:1. What are the extents of urban areas everywhere and how fast are they expanding over time?2. How dense are these urban areas and how are urban densities changing over time?3. How centralized are the residences and workplaces in cities and do they tend to disperse to the periphery over time? 4. How fragmented are the built-up areas of cities and how are levels of fragmentation changing over time?5. How compact are the shapes of urban footprints and how are their levels of compactness changing over time?6. How much land would urban areas require in future decades?7. How much cultivated land will be consumed by expanding urban areas?By answering these questions and exploring their implications for action, this book provides the conceptual framework, basic empirical data, and practical agenda necessary for the minimal yet meaningful management of the urban expansion process.The companion volume, Atlas of Urban Expansion, was also authored by Lincoln Institute visiting fellow Shlomo “

Download or read book Slums written by Alan Mayne and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and a billion of these urban dwellers reside in neighborhoods of entrenched disadvantage—neighborhoods that are characterized as slums. Slums are often seen as a debilitating and even subversive presence within society. In reality, though, it is public policies that are often at fault, not the people who live in these neighborhoods. In this comprehensive global history, Alan Mayne explores the evolution and meaning of the word “slum,” from its origins in London in the early nineteenth century to its use as a slur against the favela communities in the lead-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Mayne shows how the word slum has been extensively used for two hundred years to condemn and disparage poor communities, with the result that these agendas are now indivisible from the word’s essence. He probes beyond the stereotypes of deviance, social disorganization, inertia, and degraded environments to explore the spatial coherence, collective sense of community, and effective social organization of poor and marginalized neighborhoods over the last two centuries. In mounting a case for the word’s elimination from the language of progressive urban social reform, Slums is a must-read book for all those interested in social history and the importance of the world’s vibrant and vital neighborhoods.

Download or read book A Home in the City written by UN Millennium Project and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2005 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Download or read book Urban Environmental Planning written by Gert de Roo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1997, Urban Environmental Planning provides a groundbreaking overview of innovative methods and techniques for measuring and managing the environmental effects of urban land uses on other urban activities. Fully revised and updated, this second edition brings together a team of leading environmental planners and policy makers from the US, UK, Europe and SE Asia to address the central questions confronting sustainable urban development. Typical questions include: How can you measure and manage the negative environmental effects of intrusive urban activities such as manufacturing and transport on sensitive land uses including residential and recreational areas? Can a balance be found between reducing these effects through means such as separating conflicting land uses? While other sources identify the need for effective programmes to improve urban environmental quality, this volume describes and assesses analytical methods and implementing programmes practised by leading communities around the world.

Download or read book Shadow Cities written by Robert Neuwirth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In almost every country of the developing world, the most active builders are squatters, creating complex local economies with high rises, shopping strips, banks, and self-government. As they invent new social structures, Neuwirth argues, squatters are at the forefront of the worldwide movement to develop new visions of what constitutes property and community. Visit Robert Neuwirth's blog at: http://squatterci ty.blogspot.com

Download or read book State of the World s Cities 2010 2011 written by and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One billion people worldwide live in slums and that figure is predicted to reach 2 billion by 2030. This new volume from UN-HABITAT unpacks the complex social and economic issues using the novel conceptual framework of the urban divide.

Download or read book Cry of the Urban Poor written by Grigg, Viv and published by Authentic and World Vision. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The urban poor now constitute an unreached people group that is the third largest in the world—one that is doubling every decade and among the most responsive to the gospel. The most strategic and needed actions to reach this growing population with the gospel relate to breaking the bonds of injustice—sin, oppression, and poverty—and modeling Jesus' approach for social change by establishing movements of disciples among the poor. This revised edition of Cry of the Urban Poor reports the findings by Viv Grigg and his co-workers after years of living and working in the slums of some of the largest cities in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. It describes their efforts to discover universal principles for church-planting among the poor. This combination of anthropological and sociological reflections, integrated with principles drawn from practical experience, will challenge the missing emphasis on mission in the world's great city slums.

Download or read book Megacity Slums written by Marie-Caroline Saglio-Yatzimirsky and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at slums and social exclusion in the four major megacities of India and Brazil, and analyzes the interrelationships between urban policies and housing and environmental issues. The challenges posed in Delhi, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Suo Paulo have spurred public reformers into action through housing, rehabilitation and conservation programs. Civil society and the inhabitants of these cities have also begun to get involved. On the other hand, one must wonder whether these challenges were partly created by the deficiencies of these very reformers and civil society, be it their lack of intervention (as advocates of government intervention would argue), or the flaws and inadequacies of their actions (as supporters of the free market would suggest). Are policies alleviating or aggravating social exclusion This book explores these questions and more.

Download or read book Unlawful Occupation written by Marie Huchzermeyer and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past few years the issue of land invasion and government reposnses to landlessness in the Southern African region has been at the forefront of international attention. By confronting the the questions of exclusion and unlawful occupation this book examines the appropriateness of the informal settlement response in South Africa through a comparison with Brazil. This detailed comparison sets forth the difference in the approaches of both countries, with South Africa employing the individualised, standardised intervention and Brazil a more responsive one.