The sustainability guidelines for slums upgrading projects

Transcription

1 The sustainability guidelines for slums upgrading projects MSc Patricia Aulicino, EP-USP, Brasil, Professor Alex Abiko, EP-USP, Brasil, Mateus Humberto Andrade EP-USP, Brasil, Summary In developing countries many environmental issues are related to the social and economical conditions of the population. The social inequalities, the rapid urbanization of the cities have been responsible for the emergence of the informal settlements. Informal settlements are a typical phenomenon from developing countries where its inhabitants live in precarious conditions, without the basic infrastructure needed to satisfy the basic human needs. Many of these settlements have no water supply or sewerage, throwing the domestic garbage into water, contaminating the rivers, and soil, compromising the drainage as well as generating other environmental impacts. In recent years the Brazilian housing policy has changed its attitude towards informal settlements. Unlike previous policies that tried to eradicate slums through its destruction, municipal governments, state and national government have been adopting a process known as slum upgrading. This new way of looking at the informal settlement aims to improve the slums in order to provide to the inhabitants basic urban infrastructure - running water, drainage, sewerage and electricity. The context of upgraded slums is quite different from a corporate building but in cities of developing countries both can share the same neighborhood and both have the right to be sustainable. This paper aims to discuss some issues related to the concept of sustainability applied to slums upgrading. The authors have researched urban, sustainable and environmental indicators that are already a feature of national and international practice and conclude by outlining a scheme incorporating the most suitable guidelines that could well provide a sustainable basis for the slums upgrading Keywords: slum upgrading, sustainable, environmental indicators, habitation in developing countries

2 1. Introduction Cities have for long been viewed as problematic areas from the environmental point of view, given that they continue to attract increasingly large numbers of inhabitants, thus generating negative impacts on the natural environment. This negative situation can basically be traced to the following: (a) an increase in land occupation resulting from the phenomenon of urban sprawl; (b) the use of natural materials to build cities, such as sand, stone, timber, concrete and steel; (c) the consumption of energy and materials to sustain the operation of the cities; and (d) the production of wastes such as greenhouse gases, garbage and sewage. In developing countries the above are compounded by rapid city growth and by the shortage of resources needed to properly manage this situation. Informal settlements have tended to mushroom as a result, frequently as a direct outcome of urban planning deficiencies. Areas that are undervalued and rejected by the real estate market or those that are unsuitable for building, such as areas at risk from flooding and landslides, end up by being occupied by low-income segments of the population with insufficient funds to rent or purchase a minimally habitable property.[1] Cities have thus become the scenarios for two very different co-existing realities: on the one hand, the formal city conforming to legal guidelines and enjoying standard urban infrastructure and services, and on the other, the informal city built by the residents themselves in precarious areas with no access to infrastructure, services or shops, and which is often not even acknowledged as being part of the city proper. 2. A different approach to informal settlements For many years public policies focused on efforts to eradicate slums and transfer their populations to social housing complexes. Given the need to render social housing financially viable the units were often located in low-cost areas increasingly remote from the city centres and where services, shopping facilities and transport were in short supply. These policies were doomed to failure since many of the relocated residents in such buildings were dissatisfied and in many cases abandoned their new homes to move back to slum areas closer to the city centre. A further disadvantage of the outlying social housing estates was that the public authorities were forced to employ their scarce resources to supply infrastructure and a range of services - including transport to ensure access to such places. In view of the failure of these relocation policies local governments gradually came to accept that the most effective solution for resolving the housing shortage problem, as well as the negative environmental impacts caused by informal settlements, would be to upgrade these settlements. [2] The term "slum upgrading" is open to broad interpretation. It can be applied to any intervention in an urban settlement that results in the improved quality of life of its inhabitants. Slum upgrading can range from the installation of basic infrastructure and improvements to streets, access-ways and upgrading dwelling units, to providing basic services such as garbage collection, health and education amenities. In recent years new items have been incorporated into the slum upgrading programs such as environmental education, land tenure regularization, income generation and suppressing crime and lawlessness.[3] 3. The slum upgrading process in Brazil Most big cities in Brazil, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and many others, have presented a strong and continuous growth in the population living in informal settlements. In São Paulo, for instance, while the growth rate of the city is under 1%, in the surroundings and suburbs of the metropolitan area the growth is of nearly 4%. [4]

3 This continuous growth has increased the housing deficit. According to du Plessis [5] this is a typical phenomenon of developing countries: Self-construction in peripheral areas or high-risk areas such as steep slopes or flood plains has seen the creation of the illegal city. These informal, self-constructed settlements are the main source of housing production in Brazil. The government has realized that it is not possible to build all the units necessary to attend the housing deficit and that it is useless effort to try to eradicate self-production by demolishing houses in degraded areas and sending the population to housing schemes in the periphery of cities, regions that are far from most employment places. Since then, the approach to the problem of informal settlements is currently undergoing change: governments now realize that the settlements need to be incorporated as an integral part of the cities and that the regularization of informal settlements is a way of helping to resolve the overall housing deficit [6] The slum upgrading process in Brazil has grown and evolved as governments and technical staffs have succeeded in accumulating experience of upgrading informal yet highly complex settlements. Four programs have been developed in the main Metropolitan Regions of Brazil as follows:. In the case of the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, the Guarapiranga program aimed principally to recover and improve the quality of water supplied from the various springs around the city... This water was contaminated by the enormous amount of sewage flowing into the reservoir from the slum areas built on its banks. In order to undertake the environmental recovery of the water catchment area it was necessary to develop a multidisciplinary approach to deal with the various problems caused by water contamination and sewage disposal, by constructing adequate infrastructure for the existing slum areas around the reservoir. O.. As for urban rehabilitation, the main objective was to upgrade around 139 slums in the São Paulo municipal area and a further 29 in three neighbouring municipalities. [7] In Salvador, the Ribeira Azul program was also targeted principally at improving the environmental and sanitary quality of the water of the Baía de Todos os Santos, which is the recipient of a vast number of rogue drainage and sewage systems, many of which originate in the slums located around the bay. The program embraces a number of different actions including infrastructure and environmental recovery works, the construction of new houses, human development projects, etc. In Rio de Janeiro, in the initial phase of the Favela-Bairro program in the 1990s, it was estimated that around 1200 informal settlements occupied approximately 10%of the built-up ara of the city andwas home to roughly 1.4 million people. The majority of these settlements were located in risk areas, either on steep slopes or in areas subject to frequent flooding. The urban situation was even more precarious given that only between 25% and 30% of the informal settlements benefited from normal urban infrastructure services such as sewerage networks, drinking water, public lighting or regular garbage collection. The Favel-Bairro program aimed to transform the slums into conventional city neighbourhoods by installing sanitary and drainage infrastructure and ensuring that the access routes and streets of the informal settlements were connected to ordinary neighbouring áreas, with a view to ending the relative isolation of the slum settlements and integrating them properly into the conventional urban fabric of the city. D Communities were chosen with between 500 and 2,500 housing units where some type of work had already been undertaken and where the level of intervention would not, as a result, be too complex. [8] In Belo Horizonte, the program aimed to construct housing units and improve existing ones. The priority in that city was to deal with truly precarious and insalubrious risk areas occupied by families with the very lowest incomes.

4 4. The sustainability in slum upgrading guidelines A number of initiatives and practices have nevertheless been developed aimed at improving the quality of life as well as remedying and avoiding further environmental damage in large cities. Some indicators have been developed to measure the effectiveness of the upgrading work and the local government created some programmes to improve the condition of informal settlements: Favela Bairro in Rio de Janeiro and Lote Legal in São Paulo are some examples of this. As stated above, developing countries present a range of complex problems related to the natural and built environment, mainly due to the rapid urbanization process proceeding with no proper planning by governments. In the city of São Paulo, informal settlements occupy large numbers of preservation areas (eg: around the Guarapiranga reservoir which provides drinking water for the city) and a myriad of risk areas such as housing erected on dangerously steep slopes. Abiko & Almeida [9] proposed an indicator designed to measure the health and sanitation conditions endured by informal squatter colonies. This evolved into the ESI/S, based on the 14 indicators of public health and sanitation, socioeconomic and water resource developed by the Sanitation Council of São Paulo. These indicators include: water and electricity supply, sewerage, drainage, streets and traffic, public lighting, street sweeping and garbage collection, public spaces (parks, squares etc), geological safety, demographic density, land regularization, income generation and education. The main aim of ESI/S was to analyze squatter conditions before and after settlement upgrading, particularly with regard to intervention effectiveness. The slum upgrading programs, in addition to providing minimum living conditions, also conform to a set of guidelines which inter-alia include many of the urban sustainability guidelines publicised by movements such as New Urbanism, Smart Growth etc. These guidelines aim to address some of the following: 1 2 International Indicators Proximity of site to public transportation Proximity to public recreation areas and facilities 3 Redevelopment Site 4 Vulnerability of landslide 5 6 Contaminated Brownfield s Redevelopment Availability of potable water treatment system 7 Ecological Value of Site 8 Wetland & Water Body Protection Slum Upgrading Guidelines Integrate the settlement s transport system with the existing system and with local or nearby links/streets/ sidewalks Promote the landscape potential near to the project for recreation and leisure Effect remedial work on site contamination so that the responsible public authority can approve the protective measures and/or clean-up as effective, safe and appropriate for future use and control the water quality of reservoirs and water courses over the long-term Eliminate risk areas with slope stabilization and drainage structures Recuperate the reservoir water Provide a new water and sewer infrastructure and ensure that both are connected to the public network. Design an environmental preservation system to conserve or recuperate wetlands through reforestation with native species Conserve water bodies and wetlands by planting with native species to avoid new informal settlements

5 9 Erosion & Sedimentation Control 10 Reduction of Surface Runoff 11 Development density Avoid urban sprawl 12 Community Outreach and Involvement 13 Encouragement of walking Applying Regional Precedents in Urbanism and Architecture Access for physically handicapped persons 16 Infrastructure Energy Efficiency 17 Support for local economy 18 Construction waste management Treat watercourses and design a sediment and erosion control plan. Avoid land movement Design a sediment and erosion control plan specific to the entire project and complying with local erosion and sedimentation control standards and norms. Provide services and equipments close to the project in order to satisfy local demand for services Maintain stormwater volume and water pollution rates. Provide adequate drainage for developed areas in order to minimize pollution outcomes of watercourses Make efforts to secure input to the proposed project during the pre-conceptual design stage. Host an open community meeting during the conceptual design phase to request input to the proposed project. Work directly with community associations and/or other social community networks. Advertise public meetings aimed at generating public comment on project design. Maximum walking distance between home and street not to exceed 70m Analysis undertaken of local and regional historical patterns of neighborhood development and building design. Attention paid to drainage systems, transport facilities, water and sewer infrastructure and availability of natural sunlight. NBR Brazilian regulation to accessibility All dwellings to be supplied with energy to comply with local energy supplier requirements Promote economic activities among the local population compatible with environmental preservation Recycle and/or salvage construction, demolition and other waste generated by land clearance, infrastructure development and construction of public or common buildings 19 Collection and recycling of solid waste in the community or project Recycle and/or salvage construction, demolition and land clearing waste generated through infrastructure development and construction of public or common amenities Some of the slum upgrading guidelines are specific to Brazilian reality, like the social assistance, and the kind of urban design. Although more will have to be done to reach high levels of performance, the fact that a local program has correspondence to some international indicators from sustainable areas is, nevertheless, an encouraging start. In the four Slum Upgrading Programs it was possible to detect improvements in the quality of life both of the people living in the intervention area is as well as in the city as a whole, mainly in the cases of São Paulo and Salvador, where a significant environmental component was involved. 5. Final considerations In the case of developing countries there is a completely different reality, dominated by contradictions and a high level of inequity, on the one hand there is a wealthy elite that has the consumption patterns of the elite of developed countries and on the other hand, the majority of the population lives in poverty [5] Hence, there is a great gap between informal settlements and sustainable guidelines. While sustainable assessment methods try to improve the environmental performance of built

6 environments, informal settlements do not have even their basic needs fulfilled, such as water or sewage. It can be affirmed that slum upgrading has contributed to making Brazil s cities more sustainable. However, much work remains to be done. Regardless of the immediate improvements flowing from the various programs what is needed is a policy designed to underpin and maintain the various interventions so that the systems, materials and solutions that have been deployed are absorbed by the resident populations of the intervened areas, so that local people are able to provide continuity to the programs without depending totally on the public authorities. In tandem with the engineering work, what is needed is to press ahead with social and community work aimed at enhancing the awareness of the beneficiaries of the interventions in their new capacity as members of the conventional, formal city. 6. References [1] LUTHI et al. Community-based approaches for addressing the urban sanitation challenges', International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 1: 1, 49 63, 2010 [2] BUENO L. M. M. Projeto e favela: metodologia para projetos de urbanização. LabHab, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, p. [3] ABBOTT, J. A method-based planning framework for informal settlement upgrading. Habitat International, v.26, p [4] Government of the State of São Paulo, 2003 Governo do Estado de São Paulo Secretaria de Economia e Planejamento Região Metropolitana de São Paulo [5] Du Plessis, C Agenda 21 for sustainable construction in developing countries a discussion document (CIB & UNEP-IETC Pretoria). [6] ABIKO, A.K. et al. Basic Costs in Slum Upgrading in Brazil. In: Land and Urban Policies for Poverty Reduction (Proceedings of the Third International Urban Research Symposium / Brasília / April 2005). Washington: World Bank and IPEA, Vol. 1. p [7] LABHAB FAUUSP, Parâmetros técnicos para a Urbanização de favelas: relatório final, pt. 2, vol. 2, FAUUSP, 1999, p. 73 [8] RILEY, E. et al., Favela Bairro and a new generation of housing programmes for the poor. In Geoforum 32, [9] ABIKO, A.K. & ALMEIDA, M.A.P. Environmental Sanitation Indicators for Upgraded Slums: the case of Jardim Floresta Slum (FAVELA) in the City of São Paulo, in Human Settlement Development, edited by Saskia Sassen, in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK, 2004.