Geoinformation for Sustainable Urbanization: Lessons learnt from UN-HABITAT experiences By Jossy Materu 1 and Remy Sietchiping UN-HABITAT ABSTRACT The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to support countries in their quest for sustainable urbanization and improving the delivery of shelter for all. It is in this respect that UN- HABITAT s knowledge and use of geoinformation for urban planning, and the management of land and housing for sustainable urbanization derives from a number of experiences and tools developed over many years through its programmatic work. The paper will draw from the Agency s experiences, relevant work, research and good practices in the area of geioinformation (including GIS, remote sensing, simulation and modeling techniques) applications for supporting sustainable urbanization. The paper will present a UN-HABITAT framework to analyze these experiences to enhance comparison and extraction of lessons. The framework is issue and technology based, as well as related to the planning and urban management processes in which GIS has been used in situation analysis, information sharing, and decision making. The paper will start by presenting an overview of UN-HABITAT s mandate so as to put in perspective its multisectoral and integrated approach in achieving sustainable urbanization. The paper will then highlight examples of using geoinformation, including GIS in various contexts. Keywords: Slum upgrading and prevention, strategic spatial planning, GIS, shelter, and poverty reduction 1 Corresponding author: Dr Jossy S. Materu, Chief, Urban Design and Planning Services Unit at United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT), P. O. Box 30030, Nairobi 00100; Kenya; Tel: (254) 20 7625092, Fax: (254) 20 7623536, e-mail: jossy.materu@unhabitat.org
Geoinformation for Sustainable urbanization: Lessons learnt from UN-HABITAT experiences 1.0 Setting the Stage: The UNHABITAT Mandate UN-HABITAT is the UN Agency mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. In this regard, it is responsible for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the Istanbul Declaration agreed by Heads of State and Government at the second UN conference on Human Settlements held in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996, which committed them to the goals of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world. In carrying out its mandate, UN-HABITAT bases its activities on four main strategic objectives: 1) Advocacy: Drawing the world s attention to crucial human settlements problems and spurring governments and other organizations into action. UN-HABITAT has been conducting its advocacy through the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure, the Global Campaign on Urban Governance, and the World Habitat Day. The Global Campaign on Urban Governance and the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure has now been replaced by a single Global Campaign for Sustainable Urbanization dubbed the Urban Campaign following the recommendations of the Governing Council of the UN-HABITAT in its 20 th session held in April 2005 2. This campaign was officially launched at the recently held World Urban Forum 5 in Rio de Janeiro in March 2010. 2) Research and Monitoring: Coordinates global efforts that monitor human settlements conditions and progress in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda by identifying innovative solutions and practices. The results are disseminated through two flagship publications namely the Global Report on Human Settlements, and the State of the World s Cities Report, as well as other specialized technical publications. 3) Training and Capacity Building: UN-HABITAT strengthens the capacity to plan, develop and manage human settlements, particularly at local government level. Important tools include training for local leaders as well as development, testing and dissemination of training materials. 4) Technical cooperation: UN-HABITAT provides to national and local governments advisory services and technical support, including assistance with mobilizing financial and human resources to implement sustainable projects. UN- 2 The Global Campaign on Sustainable Urbanization is inextricably linked to the outcomes of the UN- HABITAT s Medium-Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) which has been prepared following recommendations of the Governing Council at the same session, which called on the UN-HABITAT Executive Director to develop a forward looking strategic plan for the Global Campaign on Urban Governance and for the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure.. 2
HABITAT is involved in hundreds of such projects in over 54 countries around the world. 2.0 The Global Urban Transition A predominantly urban world characterized by growing poverty The global urban transition witnessed over the past three on so decades has been phenomenon and unprecedented. For the first time in the history of mankind the year 2007 witnessed half of humanity already living in urban areas and with projections showing that by 2050 the urban population will have risen to 70 percent. So mankind has changed from being homo sapiens to become homo urbanus 3. The bulk of this urban population growth is taking in developing countries. Currently three-quarters of global population growth is occurring in the urban areas of developing countries. The average annual population increase in the cities of developing countries is estimated at 64 million or 175,000 persons per day. 4 Unlike the urbanization pattern of the developed countries that followed the industrial revolution in Europe, urbanization processes in the developing countries are taking place in a context of far higher absolute population growth, lower incomes, less institutional and financial capacity to accommodate the growth, and fewer opportunities to expand into new frontiers, foreign or domestic. This has brought in, in the South, the notions of urbanization of poverty and feminisation of poverty implying that urbanization is associated with growing poverty by the majority of urban dwellers, most of whom are women. Increasing poverty has been noted to be one of the main factors leading to growing insecurity and crime rates in the cities of the developing countries. Rapid urbanization in the cities of the developing countries has also led to rapid physical and social change that is increasingly sweeping away their historical and cultural heritage. As the world urbanizes, the bulk of the urban growth is taking place in slums. Of the 3 billion people who live in cities today, one out of three or one billion people are slum dwellers. Slums are the emerging human settlements of the 21 st century. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of slums in the world as 71.8 percent of its urban population live in slums whose population almost doubled from 101 million to 199 million between 1990 and 2005. The slum growth rate and the urban growth rate in this region are almost at per at 4.53 and 4.58 respectively. Southern and Eastern Asia experience slightly lower growth rates of slums at 2.2 percent and 2.71 percent, but these rates are almost the same as their urban growth rates of 2.89 per cent and 2.96 per cent respectively. In other regions of the World, Eastern Asia, South-Eastern Asia and Latin America and Caribbean slum growth rates have not kept pace with urban population growth but these regions continue to have large numbers of their urban population living 3 Anna Tibaijuka in a statement made at a conference on Urbanisation in low-income countries Some critical issues which was held in at the Norwegian University of Technology in Trondheim, Norway on 22 October 2007 4 UN-HABITAT: Cities in a Globalizing World. Global report on Human Settlements 2001 3
in slums. North Africa is the only region where slum growth rates have been declining because of determined government policies to deal with the problem and the relative wealth of this region. So globally, urban growth is almost synonymous with slum growth. 3.0 Geoinformation for Sustainable Urbanization: Lessons of Experience from UNHABITAT The Global urban transition with the majority of human settlements in slum conditions has compelled UNHABITAT to use various geoinformation tools in order to plan for and monitor human settlements development around the world. In this context UNHABITAT has assisted governments in setting up local and national urban observatories, and in establishing land information systems for application in a variety of urban land management tasks such as Land administration (security of tenure, land/property taxation); Spatial planning (Regional and Urban planning, Slum upgrading, and Settlement regularization); and Environmental Planning and Management). The experiences presented here are drawn from two main sources: 1) The study on Sustainable Land Information for Urban Land Management that was conducted for the UNHABITAT Global Land Tool Network 2) The work on Strategic Spatial Planning that UNHABITAT has been supporting in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania 3.1 The Study on Sustainable Land Information for Urban Land Management: 23 Case Studies 5 Table 1 shows 23 Case Studies that were looked into by a UNHABITAT Study on Sustainable Land information for Urban Land Management. The study was based on the assumption that despite the enormous progress in spatial and communication technologies (GIS, internet,) and in data collection and access to data (e.g satellite images, web-based data sources, and national/local data collection efforts) the impact on urban land management in developing countries is limited. The link between data and its use is not obvious and not straightforward and includes many non-technical aspects which are often overlooked. 5 See Sustainable Land information for Urban Land Management: Learning from emerging practices. Study prepared by Jan Turkstra for the Global Land Tool Network, Shelter and Sustainable Human Settlements Division, UNHABITAT, January 2010 4
Table 1 Main Theme Number Country City Land Information Theme Land 1 Somali Region/ Hargesia Property taxation Administration Somaliland 2 Afghanistan Kandahar Settlement Regularization, Security of Tenure 3 Indonesia Acceh Housing 4 Philippines (National) Land administration 5 Kosovo (National) Cadastre Other studies: Botwana and Ghana Maldives (Land Policy and Land Administration) National Land Administration Spatial Planning 6 Colombia Paipa Ordenamiento Territorial 7 Libya (National) Spatial Planning Liberia Monrovia Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for sustainability (RUSPS) 8 Burkina Faso Ouagadougou Inner city Up-grading Kenya Mombasa Slum-upgrading 9 Malawi Blantyre Master Planning Environmental Planning Other Studies Sudan, Juba (Guided land subdivisions) Greece (Informal development) Egypt, Cairo (Greater Cairo Strategic Urban Development Plan and GIS) China, Wuhan (Urban Planning) Tanzania, Dar es Salaam (Slum Mapping) 11 Zambia Lusaka Urban Environmental Management Information Systems Other Studies Sri Lanka, Batticaloa (Sustainable city Programme) Cuba, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara (Agenda 21 and Environmental Management Information System) Peru, Trujillo (Environmental Atlas) Source: UNHABITAT (2010) Sustainable Land Information for Urban Land Management. Report version 22 prepared by Jan Turkstra 5
Out of the 23 Case Studies 11 Case studies in which UNHABITAT was involved were selected for in-depth study. In selecting the 11 Case Studies consideration was made on the need to have examples from a variety of developing countries and with different land information themes, or applications. The experience of the case studies demonstrated that: Politics plays a role in especially the use of land information. Poor but also good land information can negatively effect women, marginalized groups and the poor if special attention s not paid to these groups The development of land information through stand alone projects can gradually be expanded into a more institutionalized process. On this basis, 5 criteria were established for evaluating the cases studies in order to draw up lessons of experience. Criteria 1: Level of governance is analyzed If governance is weak or ineffective as a result of corruption, weak institutions, lack of horizontal and vertical coordination among government agencies, limitations of the credit market, low efficiency of land administrations systems, urban development processes can only have a limited impact. The conclusion from the case studies is that the level of governance, although an abstract concept influences how much progress in a certain period of time can be realized with the improvement of land administration. In a situation of weak governance stand alone projects with limited scope might be the only option and can be seen as a small contribution in improving the level of governance. Criteria 2: Essential components of Land information system are addressed All the essential components of Land information system (technology, data, people and management) have to be in place and developed to the same level if LIS as a geodatabase is to be useful in supporting urban land management. These components, five in number, include: Data and data models; technology (hardware, software, and networks); people; management; and funding. The conclusion from the analysis of the case studies show that the over emphasis given to technology (hardware and software) at the expense of attention paid to the other components is a major drawback in the development of LIS. A LIS chain is as good as its weakest link. Technology and funding are in most cases not the bottlenecks while people and especially management are critical. Criteria 3: Engagement of stakeholders Land information is not a means in itself but it is developed to support urban land management. So the information collected has to address the follwing three questions; What kind of land information for what 6
Who are the main stakeholders? How to organize engagement of stakeholders Information collected and not used is as good as useless. The conclusion from an analysis of the case studies show that before initiating a land information it is necessary to establish a list of stakeholders and a strategy how these stakeholders can participate in a meaningful way in the development and use of land information. Many land information projects are dependent on outside financial and technical support and hence the driving forces are from outside and reduce the full engagement of local stakeholders. However the analysis of the case studies was not conclusive on the influence which some stakeholders had, and whether women, the poor and other marginalized groups had any role or decision-making power. Criteria 4: Access and use of land information Land information exists in one form or another such old maps, and paper records, but increasingly land information is recorded in digital form. Digital information is however no guarantee for access and use of land information. Without clear data structure, data modes and standards, and knowledge on where to find what kind of information, digital files might be even less accessible compared to well structured analog land information. The conclusion from the case study analysis shows that land data is used but not all as in the case of Cairo. The analytical functionaries of a well structured land data with GIS software was not observed in any of the case studies, and land information was only used for operational and/or descriptive purposes. Specific attention to use land information to improve the situation of women could not be found in any of the case studies but the living environment of the poor was addressed in Blantyre and Cairo. In case of access to land information, the conclusion was that access to land information ranges from personal contacts (ad-hoc non structured and informal networks, structured transfer of specific files, clearing house to improve where to find what, portals to have direct access to land information and service oriented architecture, with more focus on processes and business support and less focusing on land information only. Only in the case of Kosovo is reaching a certain mature level of access to land information. Access to land information is almost impossible in the cases of Cairo and Blantyre, but this is also true in the cases of Kandahar, Hargesia, and Libya. It is easier and more of technical operation to develop access to land information than to increase the level of use of land data. Criteria 5: Land information is a sustainable, scalable, continuous, incremental process imbedded into stable land institutions The development of land information is not an objective in itself but a condition for achieving wider goals such as increase tenure security, settlement up-grading, spatial planning etc. However, in many cases the design of Land Information system is overambitious, technical driven, based on technical capabilities rather than needs, underestimating the time and effort it takes to develop the system and ignoring the specific context and cultural society sensitivity and complex institutional arrangements. There are two main approaches in the development of Land Information. 7
1) The Project Approach The Project approach is mostly ad-hoc, stand alone, and is therefore limited to the life span of the project. From a technical point of view this approach is not sustainable and it is unsuited to post conflict and developing countries. Many maps and other data sets are developed in the course of preparing a city Master plan, but such data is not maintained in such a way that it can be used in future needs such as in the process of preparing a settlement upgrading, infrastructure plans etc. 2) The Institutional or process approach This is the preferred approach in the development of Land Information System. In this approach Land Information is developed and maintained on a continuous basis to reflect the changes in the built environment. In order that the information is kept upto date different land agencies (mapping, cadastre, utility companies, environmental, and planning agencies, and other spatial data producers) need to have staff, procedures, data models, and there should be inter-institutional cooperation to agree on data standards, and procedures to exchange and use land information. The main conclusion from the case studies is that there is no best approach fitting all situations but that the objectives and ambitions of developing a land information system should be based on assessment of the existing situation regarding: political support, legal framework, institutional capacity (technical and management), funding and development policies. Preferable outside support should encourage local people to buy into the process, what is in for them, why there is clear benefit to invest in land data and land institutions. 3.2 Strategic Spatial Planning in the Lake Victoria region: Experience with Geographical Information systems (GIS) The UN-HABITAT Strategic Spatial Planning Initiative in the Lake Victoria region was born out of the need to provide appropriate spatial frameworks to physical interventions being implemented by the UN-HABITAT in a number of secondary towns in the Lake Victoria region, in a bid to promote environmental sustainability and reduce poverty. The secondary towns in the Lake Victoria region are growing rapidly at a rate of 3-7 per cent per annum and are the main source of pollution loads entering Lake Victoria due to lack of capacity by their respective local authorities to manage all their solid and liquid waste. As a result, the livelihood of an estimated 25 million people who depend on the Lake resources could be in danger. UN-HABITAT initiatives in the Lake Victoria region, most of which have a spatial dimension include: the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation, City Development Strategies, Cities without slums, Sustainable Urban mobility, Regional Urban Sector Profile, the Lake Victoria Local Economic Development, Pilot Banana Drinks Preservation and Packing Facilities in the Lake Victoria Region of Uganda and Tanzania, Development of 8
Toolkits and Training packages that have potential to be applied in the Lake Victoria region, and the Jinja Municipality Housing Programme. The Strategic Spatial Planning initiative is the latest to be added to the list of UN- HABITAT supported initiatives in the Lake Victoria region. It is a cross-cutting and complementary initiative that is expected to deliver Strategic Urban Developments plans for selected secondary towns through a participatory and consensus building processes by their key stakeholders. These plans are to be coupled with priority Action Plans and Investment Plans thereby linking them with budgeting processes of the respective local authorities and of relevant central government ministries. The process of developing Strategic Urban Development Plans in the Lake Victoria region has five distinct stages: Development of Base, Thematic, and Issue maps of the existing situation through satellite imagery, field surveys, and GIS techniques Development of a profile of the town covering socio-economic, environmental, and structural aspects Organization of a consultation workshop of key stakeholders of the town to develop Shared and Agreed vision of the future development of the town, and a definition of the main strategic development lines for realization of the vision Development of functional Layouts of the proposed land use, infrastructure and services pattern as well as the development of projects, action plans, and investment plans for delivering the Shared and Agreed vision of the town s future. Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation GIS in Strategic Spatial Planning in the Lake Victoria Region GIS has been used in stage one and two of the plan preparation process. GIS is a computer-based data collection, storage, and analysis tool that combines previously unrelated information into easily understood maps. But GIS is much more than maps. A GIS can perform complicated analytical functions and then present the results visually as maps, tables or graphs, allowing decision-makers to virtually see the issues before them and then select the best course of action. GIS is used to display and analyze spatial data which are tied to databases. This connection is what gives GIS its power: maps can be drawn from the database and data can be referenced from the maps. When a database is updated, the associated map can be updated as well. GIS databases include a wide variety of information including: geographic, social, political, environmental, and demographic. Having established the weaknesses in mapping and urban planning in most of the local authorities in the project towns, and the need to have up to date information on the existing situation with regard to land use, it was decided that GIS mapping should be an intrinsic part of the planning exercise. The ability to combine various available information resources like satellite imagery, existing land use plans and mobile mapping 9
(GPS), GIS would offer the planning stakeholders a clear picture of the development dynamics within an urban area. GIS mapping in the Lake Victoria region was used to collect and display information on existing situation of the planning area. The project sourced QuickBird satellite images for the towns to be planned and data of the existing facilities was collected by use of GPS ground survey. The existing property and topographic maps were used as basemaps. This information was overlaid in a GIS and digitized to vector datasets to produce maps of the existing situation in terms of land use, public facilities, infrastructure (roads, rail, and water), topography, and this made it possible to develop a geodatabase. Maps developed from the datasets were made available for the city consultation forums where various stakeholders would discuss the spatial situation as informed by the maps with a view to developing an agreed future vision of the development of the towns. This vision is what would be translated into spatial frameworks (Strategic Urban Development Plans) for the towns. The experience with the application of GIS in the Lake Victoria region is that this technology has made it possible to produce digital spatial data sets that can be updated with ease and which can be used by the respective local authorities in other decision making processes. However it also became clear that GIS as a tool for planning and monitoring has not found its way in many cities in the Lake Victoria region. It is for this reason therefore that UNHABITAT is providing a complementary assistance on capacity building for urban planning in the Lake Victoria region, and which includes GIS training, equipment and software. Conclusion Based on various UN-HABITAT s experiences in supporting the establishment of Land information and particularly the Lake Victoria Strategic Spatial Planning initiative using GIS, there are three main areas for lessons learning. First, geoinformation and GIS as a tool for urban planning and monitoring has not yet found its way in planning practice in many developing countries. Second, the role of partnerships in developing and sharing geoinformation, and the role of training and research institutions in providing geoinformation capacity in rapidly urbanizing countries has not been exploited to the full. Third, the effective use of geoinformation for sustainable urbanization is highly dependent on overcoming data availability and access, resources and capacity constraints in planning, and remote sensing. References Anna Tibaijuka (2007): Statement made at a conference on Urbanisation in low-income countries Some critical issues which was held at the Norwegian University of Technology, Trondheim, Norway on 22 October 2007 10
UN-HABITAT (2002): The Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. UN- HABITAT, Nairobi UN-HABITAT (2001): Cities in a Globalizing World. Global Report on Human Settlements 2001. UN-HABITAT, Nairobi UN-HABITAT (2006): The State of the World s Cities 2006/7. UN-Habitat, Nairobi UN-HABITAT (2001): Cities in a Globalizing World. Global Report on Human Settlements 2001. UN-HABITAT, Nairobi UNHABITAT (2010): Sustainable Land information for Urban Land Management: Learning from emerging practices. Study prepared by Jan Turkstra for the Global Land Tool Network, Shelter and Sustainable Human Settlements Division, UNHABITAT, January 2010 UNHABITAT (2010): UNHABITAT s Approach to Participatory Slum Upgrading: Lessons of Experience from the Case Study of Kagabiro/Muleba, Tanzania. Urban Design and Planning Services Unit, Global Division, UNHABITAT, Nairobi UNHABITAT (2010): Urban Planning and Pro-poor water and Sanitation Governance in the Lake Victoria Region: Lessons of Experience with comparative Case Studies from Asia and the Pacific, Rest of Africa and Latin America. Urban Design and Planning Services Unit, Global Division, UNHABITAT, Nairobi UNHABITAT (2010): Strategic Urban Development Plans for Bukoba, Homa Bay, Kisii, Masaka and Kyotera. Urban Design and Planning Services Unit, Global Division, UNHABITAT, Nairobi 11