Emerging grassroots resilience and flood responses in informal settlements in Accra,Ghana

In the last five decades, many informal communities in Accra, Ghana have suffered from annual flood hazards. Residents of these communities appear to have successfully resisted evictions by city authorities; survived flood hazards and poor environmental health conditions. These flood affected households continue to survive with increasing housing and population densities in the face of these annual floods. Are they becoming resilient? Have residents built adaptive capacities through learning experiences from previous flood occurrences and evictions attempts? What has produced and continued to shape their responses to flooding? What can be learned from this supposed grassroots resilience to inform flood management in urban Africa? Using case studies of three informal communities of Glefe, Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, this paper explores the gradual and evolving adaptive capacities and social resilience to flood hazards among poor urban dwellers. The paper reveals the depth of understanding and embodied nature of flood experiences among affected slum dwellers and how these are gradually being transformed into adaptive capacities and shaping their responses. In the absence of efficient state flood interventions, there are emerging and enduring flood responses and adaptation practices shaped by residents’ social networks, political alliances and sense of place. These responses translates into continuous re-structuring of housing units, construction of communal drains, creation of local evacuation teams and safe havens. Urban policy contributions that can be learned from these emerging grassroots capacities for flood vulnerability management have been proposed.     

Policy responses to informality in urban Africa: the example of Maputo,Mozambique

In the global South informality constitutes one of the leading issues for urban policy makers. The planning challenges around informality are particularly relevant in urban Africa as most Africans make their livelihoods in the informal economy. This paper examines issues of state policy responses to informality through the lens of street traders. Under scrutiny are policy responses towards street trading in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, a city that has experienced the advance of informalization. It is argued that the dominant approach towards informal trading across urban Africa is of a ‘sanitising’ policy response by the local state which is rooted upon traditions of modernist urban planning in search of ‘ordered development’. The research discloses that in Maputo national and municipal authorities have adopted a more tolerant approach to the informal economy, mainly because it provides a livelihood to so many of the city’s poor and because of potential social unrest likely to be triggered by a repressive approach. In Maputo the core narrative is of an urban informal economy viewed by officials as an important livelihood for the city’s poor, albeit one which is subject both to periodic harassment and encouragement to ‘formalize’. The analysis represents a contribution to the expanding corpus of writings on Africa’s informalising cities and specifically concerning policy responses towards street trading.     

Farming the urban fringes of Barcelona: Competing visions of nature and the contestation of a partial sustainability fix

While the concept of urban agriculture investigates the way in which disused land within the consolidated city is returned to its citizens through a variety of farming practices, many pockets of rural land in peri-urban areas continue to be contested by institutions and communities – including informal farmers, formal farmers, municipal planners, metropolitan agencies, and investors – with contrasting interests. To date however, little scholarly attention has been paid to informal practices within the degraded areas of urban fringes and, more specifically, to the link between the expansion of peri-urban agriculture and the civic appropriation and negotiation of space in neglected peripheral areas. In this paper, we ask how a metropolitan sustainability fix is produced and contested both materially and discursively. We also explore how local residents involved in peri-urban agriculture claim the use of land for agricultural practices and in turn attempt to influence the urban agenda of the neoliberal city. Inquiring how competing visions of nature act as obstacles in this negotiation process, our analysis of the peri-urban Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park in Barcelona reveals that the imposition of official visions about how needs for food and agriculture should be fulfilled, which landscapes are esthetically acceptable, what nature is, and how land should be controlled and developed indicate why apparently “marginal” and informal urban agriculture in the periphery has come to be subordinated to the planning of the neoliberal city and of a metropolitan sustainability fix – a partial sustainability fix that is however progressively being questioned and renegotiated.     

Urban flood vulnerability assessments: the case of Dire Dawa city,Ethiopia

Dire Dawa city is identified as one of the most flood-affected cities in Ethiopia. Classifying village-level flood vulnerability using flood indicators is a new approach to Dire Dawa city. Analysis of different flood vulnerability factors underpins sustainable flood risk management and the application of Flood Vulnerability Index (FVI) approach is the hub of this study. Relevant data were collected from 110 households sampled from purposely selected 10 villages found in Dire Dawa city. The flood vulnerability index was used to compare, classify and rank villages in terms of their flood vulnerability levels. For this purpose, 24 sets of indicators which are strongly affecting the levels of flood vulnerability were assessed from social, economic and physical perspectives. The FVI of each village was computed with unequal method of weighting indicators. The findings of the study revealed that Dire Dawa city villages were experiencing varying levels of flood vulnerability. Accordingly, villages 05, 06, 07 and 09 were identified with high flood vulnerability level while villages 03, 04 and 08 and villages 01, 02 and extension village were identified with medium and low level of vulnerability, respectively. Interestingly, the findings of the study confirmed that social factors contributed much for flood vulnerability in Dire Dawa city. Hence, future urban flood risk planning and management endeavors in the city of Dire Dawa must be underpinned by proper utilization of the flood vulnerability map developed addressing social vulnerability component through both structural and non-structural urban flood risk management measures.

     

The council vs the common people: the case of street trading in Johannesburg

Set against the general literature of the ‘informal sector’ and more particularly that of street trading, an historical study of on-going struggles between Johannesburg's communities of street traders and the municipal authorities over the legal conditions of such trading is presented. The study is set against the backdrop of a racially segregated urban environment and of the imposition of increasingly tight regulations on ‘non-White’ South Africans living and working in a nominally ‘white’ city. Two interlinked case studies are reported in order to illuminate the complex pattern of interplay between local authorities and the coffee-cart traders and the flower sellers over some sixty years. The demise of some 2000 coffee-cart traders is reported and linked to the ‘war’ on street traders ‘waged’ by the municipal authorities, a campaign that also resulted in severe restrictions and considerable financial costs for the flower sellers. Particular attention is paid to the manner in which the street traders resisted the local authorities by contesting matters in Courts of Law. The study illustrates the theme of disadvantaged communities fighting a struggle for survival against the will of the local State and poses a cautionary note on the prospects for an about-face in the attitudes of the local authorities.     

Turning hustlers into entrepreneurs,and social needs into market demands: Corporate–community encounters in Nairobi,Kenya

This article contributes an empirically rich account of a social enterprise project embedded in local urban economies of Nairobi, Kenya. The confluence of rapid, unplanned urbanisation and economic liberalisation has led to growing formations of informal settlements and a vibrant informal sector across post-colonial cities. These “slum” neighbourhoods, housing the majority of the urban population on a fraction of the city’s land, are often ignored and marginalized by the state and municipal authorities, particularly with regards to basic service provision. At the same time, slum economies provide entry-points for various enterprise-led development schemes seeking to commercially engage both entrepreneurial individuals and their existing customer base in order to scale access to unmet needs. The discussion is based on an ethnographic study in one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, which focused on the everyday practices of a local micro-franchise called “Community Cleaning Services”. The article illustrates how waste workers and self-proclaimed “hustlers” were turned into micro-franchisee entrepreneurs providing a sanitation service to residential customers, through their engagement with Community Cleaning Services. This ethnographic account raises two potentially contradictory but inter-related debates that are rarely considered alongside one another in the existing literature on corporate involvement in low-income markets. First, it reframes the critiques of enterprise-led initiatives to “poverty alleviation” by focusing on the implications of commercialising “basic” services and on the logistical and cultural challenges of turning social needs into market demands. Second, it emphasises the often-invisible role of grassroots informal economies in enabling access to vital services in the absence of an adequately resourced and responsive municipality. The article concludes with a broader reflection on the effects and limitations of corporate-led development schemes targeting the urban poor and points to the contrasting logics of grassroots entrepreneurial urbanism and corporate—albeit “socially responsible”—parameters of success.     

Assessment of coastal communities’ vulnerability to floods using indicator-based approach: a case study of Greater Accra Metropolitan Area,Ghana

Coastal towns along the coast of Africa are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts such as flooding and sea level rise. Yet, because coastal conditions in many parts of the region are poorly understood, knowledge on which population groups are at the most risk is less known, particularly in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) of Ghana, where the capital city Accra is located. Without adequate information about the risk levels and why, the implementation of locally appropriate adaptation plans may be less effective. This study enriches our understanding of the levels of flood risks along the coast of GAMA and contributes knowledge to improve understanding of place-specific adaptation plans. The study uses data from a 300-household survey, stakeholder meetings, and interviews with local community leaders to construct an integrated vulnerability index. The index includes seven components made up of: dwelling type; house and house environment; household socioeconomic characteristics; experience and perception of flood risk; household and community flood adaptation strategies; house location, and physical characteristics. Our findings show that exposure to floods, particularly from local flash floods is relatively high in all communities. However, significant differences in sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the communities were observed due to differences in location, socioeconomic characteristics, and perception of risks to flooding and sea level rise. The complexity of factors involved in the determination of local-level vulnerability requires that the implementation of adaptation strategies needs to involve cross-sectorial partnerships, involving local communities, in building a comprehensive multi-risk adaptation strategy.     

Integrated methodology for flood risk assessment and application in urban communities of Pakistan

Flood disasters and its consequent damages are on the rise globally. Pakistan has been experiencing an increase in flood frequency and severity along with resultant damages in the past. In addition to the regular practices of loss and damage estimation, current focus is on risk assessment of hazard-prone communities. Risk measurement is complex as scholars engaged in disaster science and management use different quantitative models with diverse interpretations. This study tries to provide clarity in conceptualizing disaster risk and proposes a risk assessment methodology with constituent components such as hazard, vulnerability (exposure and sensitivity) and coping/adaptive capacity. Three communities from different urban centers in Pakistan have been selected based on high flood frequency and intensity. A primary survey was conducted in selected urban communities to capture data on a number of variables relating to flood hazard, vulnerability and capacity to compute flood risk index. Households were categorized into different risk levels, such as can manage risk, can survive and cope, and cannot cope. It was found that risk levels varied significantly across the households of the three communities. Metropolitan city was found to be highly vulnerable as compared to smaller cities due to weak capacity. Households living in medium town had devised coping mechanisms to manage risk. The proposed methodology is tested and found operational for risk assessment of flood-prone areas and communities irrespective of locations and countries.     

Use of LSPIV in assessing urban flash flood vulnerability

The probability of the occurrence of urban flash floods has increased appreciably in recent years. Scientists have published various articles related to the estimation of the vulnerability of people and vehicles in urban areas resulting from flash floods. However, most published works are based on research performed using numerical models and laboratory experiments. This paper presents a novel approach that combines the implementation of image velocimetry technique (large-scale particle image velocimetry—LSPIV) using a flash flood video recorded by the public locally and the estimation of the vulnerability of people and vehicles to high water velocities in urban areas. A numerical one‐dimensional hydrodynamic model has also been used in this approach for water velocity characterization. The results presented in this paper correspond to a flash flood resulting on November 29, 2012, in the city of Asunción in Paraguay. During this flash flood, people and vehicles were observed being carried away because of high water velocities. Various sequences of the recorded flash flood video were characterized using LSPIV. The results obtained in this work validate the existing vulnerability criterion based on the effect of the flash flood and resulting high water velocities on people and vehicles.     

Housing strategies in low income urban communities in Accra,Ghana

As the rent-free compound housing system in Ghana gradually became unpopular, there was the need for state intervention in housing provision. Housing became an important part of the country’s developmental policies through state interventions prior to the late 1970s. The economic crises in 1979 forced the country to opt for Structural Adjustment Programme, compelling the state to relax on its efforts to provide housing for the public. The paper uses the mode of economic integration framework to discuss the various housing forms in the country. It argues, housing provision led by the private sector creates remarked differences between housing for the higher and lower income groups. The study uses two low income communities in Accra to explain different ways by which the urban poor in Ghana accommodate themselves amidst the country’s housing problems. The study concludes there is an alternative to the housing crises in the country which could be found in the public-private investments in the rental form of the compound housing system.     

‘Ageing in place’: experiences of older adults in Amsterdam and Portland

This article addresses the importance and meanings of formal and informal social support relationships and neighbourhood ties for older adults ‘ageing in place’ in urban neighbourhoods in two different welfare state settings: Portland (Oregon, the United States) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands). The rising number of people growing old(er) in urban environments raises new demands and pressing challenges for urban development. The majority of older adults are and will be ageing in their homes and communities, as opposed to institutionalized care facilities and settings. At the same time, the provision of formal and public care is being increasingly challenged by government cutbacks. On top of this, the formerly strong welfare states in many European countries have weakened. In-depth interviews with 40 older adults and key informants in two neighbourhoods in each city provide the empirical basis for this study. In Portland, there are widespread local civic initiatives related to care provision for older adults. The city has a long tradition both of individual responsibility and community culture, which has emerged from and appears to compensate for the overall lack of state services and support. Amsterdam has a long tradition of state provision, but is experiencing a policy shift towards a stronger reliance on private market-led services, and an emphasis on family and community as providers of support. Although a few emerging local initiatives for elderly care in Amsterdam were identified, it is unclear whether this form of community support can compensate for decreasing state provision in Amsterdam. This study raises concerns about the future of care provision for older adults living in unsupportive urban neighbourhoods, without financial resources or nearby relatives.     

From public neighbourhoods to multi-tier private neighbourhoods: the evolving ecology of neighbourhood privatization in Calgary

The privatization of urban space, as represented in the trend towards a wide variety of common interest developments and increasing prevalence of gated communities, is an international phenomenon. Recent research has not systematically explored the ways in which these types of developments are collectively re-shaping the public and private realms of the city at large. This empirical study of community areas in a Canadian city describes a number of historical private neighbourhood development trends and their convergence in space and time. Based on the empirical generalizations, a conceptual model is developed to illustrate how the trends may have combined to produce a new geography or ecology of space privatization within the city, one in which the older public city is being circumscribed and bounded by new territories of multi-tiered privatization.     

The struggles for survival of street traders in Umtata,Transkei, 1980–89

Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the subordination of the informal sector to capital, the paper investigates the struggles between communities of street traders and the municipal authorities of Umtata, capital city of Transkei. The study spans the period 1980–89. Themes of concern in the paper are objections to street traders and the adoption of repressive policies towards them, the resistance of street traders and the changing attitudes of the Transkei government and Umtata local authorities towards the operations of hawkers.     

Is better to be a kayayei than to be unemployed: reflecting on the role of head portering in ghana’s informal economy

The implementation of neoliberal economic reforms with its resultant effects on rural agricultural economies has facilitated the migration of young girls from northern to southern Ghana to seek for alternative livelihoods in the urban informal economy as head porters (Kayayei). Using semi-structured questionnaires and interviews with 45 Kayayei in Makola and Agbogbloshie Markets, Accra, this study examines how migration as a livelihood strategy contributes to an improvement in the living conditions of young girls and their families. The paper also looks more closely into the pathways through which the livelihoods of these young female migrants may contribute to local economic development. The study highlights that Kayayei contribute to local economic development through market exchange and revenue generation, also there is significant perceived positive impact of head portering on standard of living of these young girls through improved access to income, health care and asset accumulation while their families benefit from remittances. The study concludes by advocating for the need to provide access to credit and skills training in enhancing the livelihood of Kayayei.     

Climate (in)justice,vulnerability and livelihoods in the Caribbean: The case of the indigenous Caribs in northeastern St. Vincent

This paper examines climate justice from the perspective of three remote indigenous Carib communities located in northeastern St. Vincent, amidst their vulnerability to climatic hazards. The study contributes to the growing body of literature that explores the impacts climate-induced changes are having on Indigenous peoples through its explicit focus on this distinctive social group. The paper entails a detail case study of the particular ways the recent onset of two consecutive extreme weather events have impacted livelihood activities in these traditional farming villages. Primary data were collected in the aftermath of a severe drought that was followed by Hurricane Tomas in 2010, using a mixed method approach involving a questionnaire survey of 311 households, 70 unstructured interviews and 2 focus group sessions held in each of the three communities. The combined impact of these extreme weather events not only brought to light how exposed and sensitive these communities are to climatic hazards, but also illustrated some of the underlying issues driving vulnerability at the local scale that must be dealt with if climate justice is to be achieved. We argue that the factors driving vulnerability within these communities are partly a function of centuries of economic neglect and political marginalization and are also strongly related to the communities’ characteristically lower-socio economic status, geographic location, heavy reliance on land-based resources, coupled with a range of cognitive barriers that affect residents’ capacity to adapt to a changing and variable regional climate regime.     

Violent morphologies: Landscape, border and scale in Ahmedabad conflict

Conflicts produce violence through death, confinement, torture, and control of spaces of everyday life. This paper investigates how spatial morphologies, like landscapes, borders and scales, are re-ordered and re-imagined to materialize violence. A Hindu–Muslim conflict in the globalizing city of Ahmedabad, India in 2002 is used as a case study. The conflict unfolded in a dying industrial city, now being re-envisioned through neoliberal urban entrepreneurialism into a ‘global city’. During and after the riots, the majority Hindu community, and the local Hindu fundamentalist government, annihilated the life spaces of the minority Muslim community. Through a combination of Hindu rioting and urban renewal, landscapes were destroyed, new spaces produced, borders re-imagined, and new ones imprinted on the landscape, to segregate previously co-existing communities. Local government and Hindu ideologues creatively juxtaposed neoliberal economic polices, global discourses of Islamophobia, local ethnocentrism to alter the spatial morphologies of Ahmedabad. Justice entails the democratization of space by altering the violent morphologies of Ahmedabad.     

What is responsible for increasing flood risks? The case of Gangwon Province,Korea

We examined the anthropogenic and natural causes of flood risks in six representative cities in the Gangwon Province of Korea. Flood damage per capita is mostly explained by cumulative upper 5% summer precipitation amount and the year. The increasing flood damage is also associated with deforestation in upstream areas and intensive land use in lowlands. Human encroachment on floodplains made these urban communities more vulnerable to floods. Without changes in the current flood management systems of these cities, their vulnerability to flood risks will remain and may even increase under changing climate conditions.     

Urban locations and Black Metropolis resilience in the Great Depression

Motivated by theoretical arguments about ethnicity and economics and by historical research on urban black communities in the United States, this paper investigates the resilience of the early twentieth-century Black Metropolis. The study tests hypotheses about changes during the Great Depression (1930–1940) in the advantages of various cities as locations of black communities’ ethnic economies, analyzing Census data on blacks’ representation in occupations reflecting the Black Metropolis’s professional, entrepreneurial, and cultural media pursuits. There is mixed support for the hypothesis that the nationally dominant urban centers of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had the most resilient Black Metropolises, a finding that casts doubt on claims that black communities in such key places enjoyed exceptionally favorable locational advantages. Yet, the results support the hypothesis that northern cities were, overall, more resilient locations than southern cities, particularly for black professionals and entrepreneurs, affirming the argument that the urban North’s Black Metropolises were vital economic opportunity centers for these black communities’ upper- and middle-classes.     

城市山洪灾害易损性的RS和GIS分析

以受山洪灾害影响突出的云南文山城区为研究区,从承灾体属性特征和社会承灾能力二个方面探讨了城市山洪灾害易损性分析的方法;利用高分辨率遥感卫星影像为数据源完成城市土地覆盖类型解译,在此基础上应用GIS定量分析城市山洪灾害易损性。对承灾体属性特征定量分析结果表明,文山城区50年一遇山洪淹没范围内的承灾体中城市房屋建筑的易损性最大。对易损性要素中的社会承灾能力分析认为,由于文山城区段防洪河道行洪能力低,蓄滞洪能力弱。山洪灾害的易损性仍然较高,山洪对文山城威胁形势严峻。     

Flood risk assessment for informal settlements

The urban informal settlements are particularly vulnerable to flooding events, due to both their generally poor quality of construction and high population density. An integrated approach to the analysis of flooding risk of informal settlements should take into account, and propagate, the many sources of uncertainty affecting the problem, ranging from the characterization of rainfall curve and flooding hazard to the characterization of the vulnerability of the portfolio of buildings. This paper proposes a probabilistic and modular approach for calculating the flooding risk in terms of the mean annual frequency of exceeding a specific limit state for each building within the informal settlement and the expected number of people affected (if the area is not evacuated). The flooding risk in this approach is calculated by the convolution of flooding hazard and flooding fragility for a specified limit state for each structure within the portfolio of buildings. This is achieved by employing the flooding height as an intermediate variable bridging over the fragility and hazard calculations. The focus of this paper is on an ultimate limit state where the life of slum dwellers is endangered by flooding. The fragility is calculated by using a logic tree procedure where several possible combinations of building features/construction details, and their eventual outcome in terms of the necessity to perform structural analysis or the application of nominal threshold flood heights, are taken into account. The logic tree branch probabilities are characterized based on both the orthophoto recognition and the sample in situ building survey. The application of the methodology is presented for Suna, a sub-ward of Dar es Salaam City (Tanzania) in the Msimbazi River basin having a high concentration of informal settlements.