Shelter + Economy, Kowloon Walled City (Sneha)

Snehanjali Sumanth
Nov. 2nd, 2010
Kowloon walled City

The city is an ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is densely populated and the population increased after Japan occupied Hong Kong during World War II. Between the 50's and 70's, it had high rates of of prostitution, gambling and drug use. In 1987, the Walled City contained 33 000 residents within its 6.5 acre borders.

Triad Rule

The triad were a group of newcomers and/or former residents that occupied the Walled City and resister the British from driving them out. Their rule lasted till 1974.

Urban Settlement

During the 1960's and 1970's, the city underwent massive construction. For the water system, eight municipal pipes provided water to the entire structure.

A few of the streets were illuminated by fluorescent lights as sunlight rarely reached the lower levels.

Economy

Although crime rates decreased in later years, the Walled City was known for its high number of unlicensed doctors and dentists. Despite the large amount of criminal activity, many of its residents lived peacefully and numerous small factories and businesses thrived inside the Walled City.

Some residents even formed groups to organize and improve daily life there. Charities, religious societies, and other welfare groups were gradually introduced to the City. While medical clinics and schools went unregulated, the Hong Kong government did provide some services, such as water supply and mail delivery.

Shelter + Economy, Shanghai (Justin)

Justin Lai

Nov. 1st, 2010

Shanghai Economy

• Shanghai is often regarded as the centre of finance and trade in mainland China. Modern development began with the economic reforms in 1992, a decade later than many of the Southern Chinese provinces, but since then Shanghai quickly overtook those provinces and maintained its role as the business centre in mainland China. Shanghai also hosts the largest share market in mainland China.
• According to official statistics from 2005, the non-state sector has grown to generate 42.5 percent of Shanghai's GDP, while the reformed state-sector generates 57.5 percent of GDP.
• Since 2005, Shanghai has ranked first of the world's busiest cargo ports throughout, handling a total of 560 million tons of cargo in 2007.
• Shanghai has strong links to both the Chinese interior and the central government, and a strong base in manufacturing and technology. Shanghai has increased its role in finance, banking, and as a major destination for corporate headquarters, fueling demand for a highly educated and modernised workforce. Shanghai has recorded a double-digit growth for 15 consecutive years since 1992. In 2008, Shanghai's nominal GDP posted a 9.7% growth to 1.37 trillion yuan. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is the world's fastest growing, with the Shanghai Composite Index growing 130% in 2006.
• Industrial zones in Shanghai include Shanghai Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jinqiao Export Economic Processing Zone, Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Shanghai Caohejing High and New Technological Development Zone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai#Economy

Shanghai economy in 2010:

• Shanghai has set a GDP growth rate target for the year of more than 8 percent, almost the same as 2009's economic development rate.
• The city's GDP growth was estimated to be more than 8 percent last year, a little lower than the average national level. Total retail sales of consumer goods rose by about 14 percent and growth of fixed assets investment was around 10 percent in 2009.
• The targeted rate was a suitable development speed for Shanghai, which was hit by the global financial crisis during its economic restructure transition.
• “Regulation and control in the real estate market will be improved to help it develop in a healthy and sustainable way. And 500,000 new jobs will be created to keep the unemployment rate around 4.5 percent.”
• Taking up only 0.06% of the country's land area, Shanghai now generates about 8.3% of China's gross industrial output value, 10% of its ports' cargo-throughput, 25% of the total value of the country's imports and exports and 12.5% of the total revenue of China.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/economy.htm
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90862/6864381.html

Settlement/Real Estate in Shanghai:

• The 2000 census put the population of Shanghai Municipality at 16.738 million, including the migrant population, which made up 3.871 million. Since the 1990 census the total population had increased by 3.396 million, or 25.5%.
• By the end of 2004, Shanghai's population stood at 16.7022 million, according to China Statistics 2005. Of those, 1.469 million (8.8%) were in the age group of 0–14, 12.661 million (75.8%) between 15 and 64 and 2.572 million (15.4%) were older than 65.
• As of 2008, the population of long-term residents reached 18.88 million, including an officially registered permanent population of 13.71 million, and 4.79 million of registered long-term migrants from other provinces, many from Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang Provinces^.
• According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, there were 133,340 foreigners in Shanghai in 2007. Some foreign expatriates are staying in Shanghai as long-term settlers, In addition, there are a large number of people from Taiwan for business (estimates vary from 350,000 to 700,000).
• By 2009, the South Korean communities in Shanghai also increased to more than 70,000. The average life expectancy in 2006 was 80.97 years, 78.67 for men and 82.29 for women. Average annual disposable income of Shanghai residents, based on the first three quarters of 2009, is 21,871 RMB.
• Although total area of newly constructed homes sold doubled last year in Shanghai, supply is vastly inadequate to meet the demands of both investors looking to profit — wealthy Chinese and foreigners descending upon Shanghai — and the 1980s baby boom generation now of marrying age, and who would rather not move in with their parents.
• Over the last five years, Shanghai’s average property prices have doubled to a record RMB14,986 ($2,204) per square meter, according to Shanghai’s Uwin Real Estate Information Services, far outpacing the rise in middle class income.
• The average home in the city's center costs about RMB34,638 ($5,094) per square meter — or the equivalent of $473,216 for a 1,000 square foot condo.
• For about RMB1 million ($150,000), you can afford a yet-to-be-built 90 square meter (970 square feet), two-bedroom condo last June on the edge of Jiading District, the outermost suburb of Shanghai. Su’s parents ran the year-long home search process as well, going out nearly every weekend to see new and recently built condos. When they watched prices jump 20 percent in April alone, they panicked. They called friends and, through a back door connection, jumped the waiting line for a condo in this building.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100302/china-economy-shanghai-real-estate-marriage

Labor, employment/unemployment

Unemployment rate: The percentage of people out of the total labor force who are currently out of work but are seeking work.

• By the end of 2008, Shanghai employed 9.4607 million people.
• Of the total, 1.4073 million, or 14.9%, were hired by the state enterprises and institutions
• 1.8888 million, or 20%, were employed by collectively-owned work units
• 1.3279 million, or 14%, worked in overseas-funded enterprises
• 2.9968 million, or 31.6%, worked at private businesses.
• The registered unemployment rate in the city’s urban areas stood at 4.2% in late 2008.
• Main exports are: Appliances, Building Materials, Cermaics, Chemicals, Garments/Shoes, Leather Products, Mechanical equipment, Pharmaceuticals, Platics, Rubber products, Textiles
• History of unemployment rate for Shanghai: 4.9% - 2003, 4.3% - 2007, 4.3% - 2009

http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node17256/node17432/node17435/userobject22ai19.html
http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node17256/node18151/userobject22ai30095.html

Just some research compiled on the city of Shanghai and it's current economical state, will need to try to look deeper at the employment situation as there wasn't much online on details.

Shelter + Water, Kowloon Walled City (Cynthia)

Cynthia Eng - Nov. 1

Shelter + Water - Kowloon Walled City

Girard, Greg and Ian Lambot. City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. 5^th ed. Watermark Publications (UK) Limited, 2001.

- Water was the most indispensible survival need for people in this self-contained city

- As they did back in the old ancestral village, 77 wells sunk all around the City, with depths of some 300 feet

- “Electric pumps shot water up to great tanks on the roof-tops, from where it descending via an ad hoc forest of narrow pipes to the homes of subscribers” (10)

- City was very dark and damp

- “It was impossible to stand upright because the roof of the alley was lined with a confusion of plastic pipes carrying water, many of them dripping” (12)

- “Government’s longstanding refusal to connect buildings, flats, and factories into the external mains system

- Possible reasons: technical difficulties, disruption, reluctance to further encourage permanent settlement in City

- “Residents and businesses have had to resort to paying private suppliers, to pump water from wells sunk beneath the City, or local Triad groups from water tapped illegally from nearby mains supplies” (36)

- “Running mains water was supplied to various recognized charities inside the Walled City” (36)

- Authorities allowed installation of a few public freshwater stand-pipes, just eight stand-pipes in place by 1987, to supply up to 35,000 residents and hundreds of factories, only one of these stand-pipes was located within the City

- First stand-pipe installed in 1963

- “Residents were paying $12-15 a month for labourers to carry six kerosene cans of water each day from the stand-pipes to their flats”

- “Business of carrying water for entire households became increasingly difficult the more the City grew skywards, during the boom days of the late 1960s and early ‘70s”

- This expanding demand “drove entrepreneurs underground to tap new sources.

- “The new well diggers were mainly property owners who were able to drill on their own land (37)

- 1987, 67 working wells owned by some 40 suppliers

- 300 ‘scientific wells’ said to have been sunk beneath area though many had dried from overuse

- “Recent drillings had to reach as far as 100 metres since shallow sources had been depleted

- Private drilling firms contracted to carry out work

- Water first pumped up to rudimentary storage tanks on City roofscape

- From there, pipes ran downward again branching into blocks and flats

- Installation of a well-water link could cost as much a several thousand dollars, depending on height above and distance from well

- By late 1980s, monthly charges between $50-$70 per household

- Water problems: because of pressure and pumping difficulties, pumps only turned on at set times, usually noon and midnight, to replenish tanks

- Meant residents still had to store water in baths and buckets

- Well-water mostly undrinkable because impregnated with usual seepage of urban and industrial pollutants, water not even fit to boil

- 1970s, underground sources, especially from shallower wells, contaminated by sewage seepage

- Well-water best used for washing and floor-cleaning

- Drinking and cooking water still had to be carried from stand-pipes, a small workforce engaged in this activity till the end

- Illegal tappings of mains water from outside City, monopolized in the beginning by the Triads

- Triad organizations also responsible for much of the construction in the City, they ensured newer buildings had some rudimentary provision for water supply and waste

- “In time Triads sold off most of their ‘business interest in the City but illegal tapping of mains water remained an important source of drinking water until the end” (38)

Shelter, Kowloon Walled City(Rachel)

Jiyeon (Rachel) Kim
Nov. 1st, 2010

Just a brief research on Kowloon Walled City...

Kowloon Walled City

-dense population(in 1987: 33,000 residents within 6.5 acre)

-largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong

-originally a Chinese military fort; became an enclave in 1898

-dramatic increase in population following Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during WWII

-high rates of prostitution, gambling, drug use(1950s – 1970s)

-demolition of the city(March 1993 – April 1994) by Hong Kong government

-an anti-architectural entity(abnormal density & living condition)

History

-outpost set up to manage salt trade during Song Dynasty(960 – 1279)

-city improvement plan in 1842 to limit British influence : included the defensive wall around the city

-Kowloon city was eventually claimed by Britain. The Protestant church established an old people’s home in the Yamen(city’s social center)

-not much development by the British

-by 1940 only the Yamen, the school and one house remained(after the demolition)

-Japan occupied the city during WWII and demolished the city’s wall to use its stone

Urban Settlement

-after Japan’s surrender, refugees poured in to take advantage of Chinese protection

-British adopted ‘hands-off’ policy

-no government enforcement

-high crime rate

-massive construction during the 1960s and 1970s

-eight municipal pipes provided water to the entire structure

-few streets were provided with fluorescent lights(sunlight rarely reached the lower levels)

-an attempt by the government in 1963 to demolish some shacks in a corner of the city gave rise to an "anti-demolition committee"

Architecture

-the original fort consisted of a 6.5 acre plot(210m by 120m)

-stone wall(4m tall, 4.6m thick) surrounding the city had four entrances

-due to the Kai Tak Airport near the city, buildings did not exceed 14 stories

-alleyways were only 1-2m wide with poor lighting and drainage

-construction went unregulated

-maximized spaces by adding: wider upper floors, caged balconies, rooftop additions

Population

-10,004 in 1971

-14,617 in 1981

-33,000 in 1987 = population density of 1,255,000/km²

-the rest of Hong Kong had a population density of about 6,700/km²

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City>

< http://www.archidose.org/KWC/>

Shelter + Economy, Bogotá (Kyle)

John Kyle Paisley
Oct. 31st, 2010


The Economy of Shelter: Bogota (Kyle Paisley)

-Bogotá is the capital city of Colombia, as well as the most populous city in the country, with an estimated 7,304,384 inhabitants as of 2009 (Wikipidia)

-Bogota has Bogotá over 1400 informal settlements occupying 24% of its area and housing 22% of its population."(World Bank 2008)

- Many Colombians come to the city to escape rural violence, particularly the guerrilla violence of the FARC. Too poor to afford housing rents, they have to find alternative solutions, such as building their own houses.

Ciudad Bolivar
-The largest informal settlement of Bogota comprising 10% of the population

-the main economic activities are carried out by trade, hotels, restaurants, transportation and warehousing

-Between 1993 and 2002, the population of Ciudad Bolivar grew by 50%, more than twice as much as the city as a whole. (5 Proyecto Bogot. Como Vamos, La Pobreza en Bogota, Bogota D.C. Agosto de 2003, p. 2)
-The population grew from 35,000 residents in 1973 to a projected 713,000 in 2005. This data is probably a huge underestimation of the population of Ciudad Bolivar. By other accounts the population was somewhere between 1,2 millionand 2 million. (Ciudad Bolivar, Mas Cerca de las Estrellas, La Expresion, Bogot Colombia, http://www.laexpresion.com)



Economy of Shelter
-Most of the 400,000 houses of Ciudad Bolivar were built with very basic means, without plan or permits by the residents or by slumlords.
-A house in Ciudad Bolivar costs between $700,000 and 1 million pesos (USD $270 - $380).
- Unlike in developed countries, houses have limited potential as a financial asset in Ciudad Bolivar since the market is generally stagnant. This is due to the minimal means of Incomers, while the middle-class is not interested in living in the area.
- rather than upgrade to a larger house, lower income families generally add floors to their houses, which causes all kinds of safety issues and increases density.
(http://www.urbanology.org/Bogota/)

Unemployment / Underemployment

- The labour force is defined as the number of people employed plus the number unemployed but seeking work.

-The underemployed are those who work below their potential, either in skill level or pay/hours; Divided into subjective underemployed, those who, despite their dissatisfaction, do not for a variety of reasons make an efforts to find another job, and the objective underemployed who make an effort to find another job.

-Unemployment stopped growing, but the phenomenon of underemployment continues to rise. In July 2009, the number of underemployed came to 7.34 million in Columbia

-underemployment often supplemented by work in the informal sector, particularly in the slums

- The unemployment rate in Colombia was last reported at 12.80 percent in June of 2010, slightly higher than the year before at 12.6 percent,

-According to the National Bureau of Statistics (DANE), the subjective underemployment reached 34.2 percent in July 2010, up from 30.2 percent in the same month of 2009 (http://avilacmg.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/portafolio-one-million-people-are-underemployed-according-to-dane-unemployment-stood-at-12-6/)

Country	Interest Rate	Growth Rate	Inflation Rate	Jobless Rate	Current Account	Exchange Rate
Colombia	3.00%	1.00%	2.24%	12.80%	-1396	1811.5000

http://www.bogotalab.com/articles/bogota_edge.html

Attempts to change: Public Infrastructure

- Typically, the government legalizes established settlements in Ciudad Bolivar rather than evicting residents or resettling.

- It is very costly to provide illegal settlements with water systems, electricity and telephone lines.

-In an effort to cut the cost of retrofitting informal settlements, the City created an agency called Metrovivienda. It acquires land at the edge of the city, puts in place the necessary infrastructure and then sells the lots to developers who build for sale affordable housing units.

-The principal weakness of this program is that it leaves out families too poor to buy a house.

-Efforts have been made to connect Ciudad Bolivar to the rest of the city through public transportation networks.

(Haslam et. al. 2009) Introduction to International Development

USEFUL PAPER ON BOGOTA: http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu23me/uu23me0u.htm

Shelter, Shanghai (Maryia)

Posted by Maryia Sakharevich

10/31/10

Settlement patterns

United Nations Human Settlements Programme, The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements, 2003 (Earthscan Publications Ltd, 2003), accessed October 27, 2010, http://books.google.ca/books?id=q4B4YvnUS7cC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Slum", at its simplest, is a "heavily populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and squalor". This definition encapsulates the essential characteristics of slums: high densities and low standards of housing (structure and services) and "squalor". The first two criteria are physical and spatial, while the third is social and behavioural. pg.8

Substantial centres in the developing world during the past 50 years: their business centres were not a historic centre (like in older European cities for example) so they have been purpose built, with access to airports and residential zones of more affluent. The shape of the city has been determined by minibuses and private cars. -pg22

City forms of the developing world can be divided into several types: (pg.22)

-colonial-style cities: well-built formal core, surrounded by large areas of informal settlements; many cities in Africa and South Asia follow this form; inner city area was protected by colonial powers from encroachment; resembles feudal European design of a walled city with poor beyond the walls.

-planned ethnic separation: extreme example of urban social segregation; system is similar for Palestinians working in Israel.

-Saucer: norm for some cities in Eastern Europe; a low-rise centre is surrounded by public housing apartment buildings, which become progressively higher towards the rim, linked to the centre with rapid transit.

-Multi-centres: many South Asian and Latin American cities follow this system; multi-centred and amorphous because have been built from the beginning around motorized transport and walking; high income areas surround the concrete canyons of business districts; large tracts of poor-quality low-income housing in older inner areas, in squatter zones on the fringe of fragile land; in some Asian cities there are no identifiable slum areas of more than a few blocks.

Slums can be broken into two major categories with 2 subcategories in each: (pg.80)

-declining areas ("old" city centre slums and "new" slum estates)

-progressive settlements (squatter settlements and semi-legal subdivisions)

Inner-city Slums: (pg.80) gave birth to the concept of slums: whereby central, prosperous residential areas of cities undergo deterioration as their original owners move out to newer and more fashionable residential areas. Since originally built for middle/high-income groups, areas are well serviced but over time dwellings are increasingly subdivided and level of overcrowding grows, strain on those services can reach breaking point.

Slum Estates: (pg.81) structures are relatively new and not in private ownership; ex. include public housing estates and housing built by industry or to house industrial workers. Also embrace tied workers' housing that was built by employers for use of their work force during the period of their employment; suffer greatly b/c of lack of any occupant involvement in maintenance thus leading to rapid deterioration.

Squatter settlements: (pg.83) one of the most important components of slum housing stock; squatters: people who occupy land without the explicit permission of the owner; thus these settlements are established by illegally building houses on a piece of land; includes houses on pavements and rooftops; called self-built or spontaneous settlements. Generally found in developing countries.

Illegal settlements and subdivisions: (pg.83)widespread on fringes of cities; this is where land has been subdivided, resold, rented by its legal owner to people to build their houses upon it. Illegal owing to several factors such as lack of building permits and planning, low standard of services/infrastructure, etc.

Recent slums are newer and unconsolidated; expressed in poorer, less permanent materials (ex. used corrugated metal sheets, straightened oil drums, plastic sheets, cardboard cartons, etc) esp. where residents are unsure of how long they'll be able/allowed to stay. (pg.84)

Land Tenure

Alain Durand-Lasserve and Lauren Royston, Holding Their Ground: Secure Land Tenure for the Urban Poor in Developing Countries (Earthscan Publications Ltd, 2002), accessed October 27, 2010, http://books.google.ca/books?id=DcrLxppydcQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Populations living in irregular urban settlements are all confronted with the same set of interrelated problems: they have limited access to basic services and they have no security of tenure. Some forms of residential tenure arrangement can guarantee a reasonably good level of security. Recognition by the community itself and by the neighbourhood is often more important than recognition by public authorities for ensuring secure tenure. (pg 6)

Squatter settlements are more exposed to forced evictions, esp. those located on private land in prime urban areas that are therefore subject to high market pressures, and those that occupy hazardous or dangerous sites; the poorest communities are esp. vulnerable to external pressures. (pg.6)

Four main factors contribute to protection of household from forced eviction: (pg.7)

-length of occupation (older settlements have better level of legitimacy)

-size of settlement (small are more vulnerable)

-level of cohesion of community organization

-support from third sector organizations

There is a "diversity to rights to land and the existence of a wide range of options, from full ownership to less exclusive forms of possession and use. There is a possible coexistence in one place of forms of tenure that give access to different rights and a continuum between forms of tenure." (pg.8)

"Security of tenure describes an agreement between an individual or group to land and residential property which is governed and regulated by administrative framework. ...The tenure can be affected in a variety of ways, depending on constitutional and legal framework, social norms, cultural values and... individual preference. ... A person can be said to have secure tenure when they are protected from involuntary removal from their land or residence... " (pg 8)

Shanghai and Lilong Housing

Qian Guan, Lilong Housing, A Traditional Settlement Form (M.Arch Thesis, School of Architecture McGill University, 1996).

Street networks in Shanghai: (chapter 2)

-streets 6.6-8m wide, 35-45m intervals

-doesn't follow traditional Chinese pattern (streets running S, N, E, W); has streets facing these directions but they are never straight and thus street pattern is crooked

-no grid system; organic street pattern resulted in blocks varying in sized and shapes

Lilong Housing (chapter 2)

- during the open trade period (1852-1949) Shanghai's population increasing rate reached 902%

-most people were engaged in commercial or business activities, thus prosperity was expressed by vast array of shops and recreation, thus street facade became reserved for commercial activities

-in order to accommodate for growing population and the need for a living environment, lilong housing was created (temporary wooden shacks; later after many years became brick or brick-concrete mixed structures). Was integrated into urban street blocks in which shops occupied the street frontage and the housing took the enclosed space

-thus two types of urban spaces were created: outer belt-shaped space (commercial streets, traffic circulation; open and dynamic) and the inner block-type space (rows of low-rise housing; separated from the first, enclosed and safe)

Shelter + Water, Bogota (Janice)

Posted  by Janice Woo
Oct. 31st, 2010

Hey guys,

Here are some excerpts from the resources I’ve found.

BOGOTA WATER FUND

Borrowing strategies from the realm of high finance, the Conservancy has created a conservation trust fund to protect rivers and watersheds in Colombia — and help provide clean drinking water to Bogotá, the country's capital.

The fund will attract voluntary contributions from Bogotá's water treatment facilities to subsidize conservation projects — from strengthening protected areas to creating incentives for ecologically sustainable cattle ranching — that will keep sedimentation and runoff out of the region's rivers.

Without such projects, the facilities have to spend millions to remove those pollutants in order to provide clean drinking water for Bogotá's 8 million residents.

The fund — based on a pilot program in Ecuador — is projected to raise $60 million for conservation projects over the next 10 years. And the Conservancy plans to implement six more such funds in South American countries in the next two years.

“The best part of this initiative is that it is voluntary and will not raise water costs for residents,” explains Samuel Moreno Rojas, mayor of Bogotá. “It will help the city save on treatment costs.”

The Conservancy led the development of the first such water fund in Quito, Ecuador, in 2000. From a modest $10,000 start-up investment, that fund has already reached $6 million in capital and will disperse $900,000 this year for conservation in watersheds that supply drinking water for Quito’s 2 million residents.

Conservancy donors in the United States provided the seed money that enabled in-country staff to launch both of these funds.

“The Nature Conservancy in Maine believed in us, and that ultimately made this project possible,” says Aurelio Ramos, director of the Conservancy's NTA program and architect of the Bogotá Water Fund.

In 2007, donors in Maine contributed $50,000 in seed money to the NTA Program, enabling Ramos to put a grand vision into action.

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/southamerica/colombia/work/art24802.html

WATER IN BOGOTA

In Colombia, nearly 91% of the domestic and commercial wastewater is discharged directly, without previous treatment, into the receiving watercourses (Camacho et al., 2006). For these reasons, integrated urban drainage modelling is needed to understand the effects of pressures exerted within a catchment, to establish reference conditions, to design monitoring programmes, to perform operational planning as an instrument for cost-effective implementation of measures, and to assess impacts to produce management plans (Solvi, 2006).

www.hydrology.org.uk/Publications/exeter/59.pdf

SLUM SHELTER IN BOGOTA

As in most cities around the world that host slums areas, the slums of Bogotá are largely the result of rapid population increase without the housing and services provision that such growth demands. During the past few decades, Bogotá has seen sustained, rapid demographic growth through waves of rural-to-urban migration in the wake of general impoverishment and violence. The Bogotá urban perimeter expanded rapidly through illegal subdivisions, occupation and the development of marginal areas by immigrants. Bogotá’s inner-city slums, on the other hand, are mostly the result of urban transformation processes, whereby certain downtown areas underwent progressive social and physical deterioration and, increasingly, accommodated lower hierarchy social strata and economic activities.

The slums of Bogotá can be classified as the outcome of:

·       Unplanned and informal urbanization through subdivisions in peripheral and marginal areas, largely characterized by an initial lack of physical and social infrastructure, but which are often – within a few years – improved by the city administration or through self-help (or combinations thereof);

·       Squatter settlements with generally more dire physical and social circumstances (although this category historically has had a relatively low importance);

·       Inner-city urban deterioration zones that came about through the progressive move of 19th-century industrial, military and other functions adjacent to the traditional urban centre to more appropriate locations, and the social, economic and physical deterioration that followed in the wake of this urban abandonment.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/cities/bogota.htm

EFFECT OF WATER ON HOUSING IN BOGOTA

In the rapidly expanding city many new housing developments lie close to farmlands. An- other example of groundwater-engineering geology problems is a development in NW Bogotá. It has an area of 211,400 mP, with three-story homes, built in 1994. During the past eight years the constructors have been monitoring the subsidence of part of this development which lies close to another flower plantation, […]

The houses were built on gently sloping ground of the Sabana Fm 20 to 105 m thick (clay, silt, peat, sand and gravel); beneath and outcropping to the west is the Guaduas Fm, 450 m thick (claystones, sandstones, coal beds) […]

Four factors acting simultaneously cause differential settlements beneath the houses: very compressible beds with a high pore ratio; fluctuation of the water table responding to the rainfall cycles and causing contractions, fissuration and subsidence of the surface soils; the drop of the potentiometric level of the aquifers with the increase of the effective stress, accelerating the consolidation; and abundance of organic clays and peat in the western part of the lot. Micropiles have been constructed up to the thick gravels beneath the houses to solve the problem.

www.rmz-mg.com/letniki/rmz50/rmz50_0193-0196.pdf

 

Shelter, Bogota (Jen)

Jennifer Yong
October 31st, 2010 (happy halloween)
I posted links to a couple of sites that might help research for other people doing case studies on Bogota

Shelter (slums) - UN-HABITAT (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) categorizes slums according to their formation and spatial type: inner city slums (original residents move to better area, common during expansion of a city), slum estates (low-income public housing, overcrowded, bad conditions), squatter settlements (illegally occupying land without permission of owner on ground or rooftops), illegal settlements (legally subdivided land is illegal because of inadequate standards of infrastructure/service, breaches in zoning, etc)
(http://books.google.ca/books?id=q4B4YvnUS7cC&lpg=PA95&ots=onsbXsqBVF&dq=slum%20shelter%20bogota&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q=bogota&f=false)

Bogota - Colombia's capital and most populated city. Over 6.8 billion people in its capital district. Urban poverty affects 38%, 10% living in extreme poverty
(http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=4879&catid=145&typeid=13&subMenuId=0)




Ciudad Bolivar (district of Bogota) - Good site for case study of Ciudad Bolivar, Bogota's largest informal settlement (has info on shelter, water, and economy): http://www.urbanology.org/Bogota/
http://www.bogotalab.com/articles/bogota_edge.html (same author)

Bogota has over 1400 informal settlements occupying 24% of its area and housing 22% of its population. (Israel Fainboim, World Bank Report, Colombia Urban Services Projects, Washington DC, February 2004, p.3)

The development of informal settlements directly results from the influx of rural immigrants (to escape rural violence). Too poor to afford housing rents, they have to find alternative solutions, such as building their own houses.


"despite the numerous interventions realized in the locality by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and public institutions, Ciudad Bolivar keeps presenting a deficit of access to public services characterized by a low number of telephone lines, connection failures with of the aqueduct and sewage system, and the insufficient coverage of the cleaning services, which are due principally to the existence of illegal settlements and slums."(El Gobierno Distrital, Las Localidades, Ciudad Bolivar, Localidad 19, Bogota 2004, http://www.idct.gov.co)

Shelter + Water, Shanghai (Hannah)

Here is what I have come up with so far. I have had most luck finding examples of how urban settlement and houses have influenced water quality in Shanghai, but I am going to keep looking. There are so many aspects of how water and shelter are related in this city, but I figured that water quality and pollution is a good place to start.

Background information on Shanghai, water quality information

When investigating water quality in Shanghai, is it important to consider a variety of contributing factors to the situation. There is evidence that suggests a strong association between land use, population density, and water quality (Yin 2005). The municipality in Shanghai occupies an area of about 6400 km² and it is located on the Yangtze River Delta. This region is a major industrial center in China, producing approximately 4.9% of the nation’s industrial output and 4.2% of gross national product (Bureau 2002). This figure is much higher that to be expected, as the city accounts for 1.2% of the total population of China. Because of the prominence of industry in Shanghai, was quality has often been compromised. Between the mid 1880s and 1949 a few wastewater treatment plants a relatively small area of the city, leaving a large portion of the municipality lacking sewage collection and water delivery systems.

Urban setting and buildings influence on water quality

To understand the relationship between spatial patterns of urbanization and water quality in the city of Shanghai, a study was conducted my Zin-Yong Yin using water quality data of 1995 (Yin 2005). This study was conducted in anticipation that it would help future planning of the city in ways to alleviate water quality problems. In this study, Yin concluded that the intensity of urbanization (represented by the proportion of built up surface in an area) can be related to water quality parameters. As populations increase in the city, and built up surface increases, more runoff occurs, carrying pollutants into the river. Increases in population density also increases the demand for water, and the demand for water treatment. When cities are unable to keep up with these demands in a sustainable manner, water becomes polluted. Point sources in the central city of Shanghai are largely responsible for the pollution of the water in this region.

Sources:

Yin, Zin-Yong et al. (2005). An Analysis of the Relationship Between Spatial Patterns of Water Quality and Urban Development in Shanghai, China. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 29, 197-221

Shanghai Statistical Bureau (2002). The 2001 Year Book, online edition. Available: http://www.statssh.-

gov.cn/shtj/tjnj/2001/tjnj2001.htm.