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- Sustainability in peri-urban informal settlements: a reviewPublication . Carrilho, João; Trindade, JorgeThe study of peri-urbanization attracted attention in the final quarter of the 20th century, due to the pace it acquired worldwide and the implication that urbanization and overall settlement patterns have on social sustainability and development. Theoretical and conceptual achievements are remarkable. Multi-country collaboration has produced a growing body of research on sustainability and peri-urban settlements. There is a lack, however, of a review of the practices of peri-urban informal settlements, the predominant mode of urban expansion, mainly in developing and rapidly urbanizing regions of the world. The purpose is, then, to systematize, from recent literature, the knowledge of the context, challenges, and practices, as well as their impacts and potential courses of action, to ensure sustainability in human–natural complex of the territory beyond urban cores, suburbs, or slums. A systematic review approach was adopted, for articles published in reputable journals, with support of previous reviews, books, and reports. A pragmatist combination of content analysis and critical review identified core topics and highlighted contrasting views. An analytical framework is proposed. Four categories—drivers, challenges and practices, impact, and future trends—are proposed as an adequate approach to systematizing the literature. The review finds that the practices focus on service and resource provision, on regulations to approximate informal to formal institutions, and on an economy founded on the resource base and service provision. This review provides insights on future trends and research topics.
- Sustainable land use: policy implications of systematic land regularization in MozambiquePublication . Carrilho, João; Dgedge, Gustavo; Santos, Pedro Pinto; Trindade, JorgeSecurity of land tenure is key to achieve the sustainable development goal of eradicating poverty and can be improved through the regularization of rights to land, property, and natural resources. Making cities and human settlements sustainable, requires participatory and integrated land use planning, accounting for the land’s potential and constraints, with a view to medium and long-term use. The government of Mozambique is actively promoting a process of massive regularization, under common terms of reference for service providers. The terms of reference also intend to achieve a linkage between regularization and community land use plans. The aim of this research is to assess the robustness of such plans to detect and overcome potential conflicts between the given and the potential land use, as well as constraints, weaknesses and threats. This research uses a mixed documental analysis to undertake an ex-ante assessment of 15 participatory community land use plans. Five categories are assumed as a reference of good practices in land use planning suggested by universal and African literature. It was found that the common terms of reference and guidelines promote participatory capacity and provides general directions of community development. However, good practices of land use planning such as effective participation in all phases, alternative scenarios for future land use, regional integration, and disasters risk management are less promoted. It is suggested that the guidelines go beyond the immediate needs of land register, to consider that such interventions in rural areas shape the culture of land use, which, in turn, will influence sustainability in higher level settlements.
- Fast growing informal peri-urbanization in Africa: the role of local practices in assessing sustainability and planningPublication . Carrilho, João; Balas, Marisa; Dgedge, Gustavo; Trindade, JorgePeri-urbanization occurs differently across world regions, through urban sprawl, local development, and rural exodus. The latter is typical in primarily rural, fast urbanizing underdeveloped regions in an African context. In those regions, semi-urban settlements develop informally from local practices. For their large numbers, undertaking formal assessments and land use planning to any significant extent is impractical. The study applied a flexible framework to assess the role of local practices on sustainability in rapidly expanding settlements in peri-urban areas and how technical resources and narratives can influence and take advantage of such practices. The work reports a mixed-methods case study conducted in settlements North of Maputo, Mozambique using territorial and social cohesion as proxies for sustainability and as a guide for planning interventions priorities. The study used publicly available and participatory geographic information, limited expert opinion surveys, focus group discussions, and individual satisfaction surveys. We show that, while facing limitations, informal practices are conscious of the local suitability of risks in settlements land use planning and favor social cohesion. The framework supports existing theories and reveals that local microscale traditional physical planning brings marginal gains. The research suggests priority to interventions with a higher impact on territorial and social cohesion, such as narrative-based local institutional innovations, enhancing knowledge exchange on standards and risk management solutions, enforcing regulations, and improving regional networking infrastructure and practices, in face of limited resources and city and regional planners. Research is needed to improve the frameworks' replicability as a new tool to assist in peri-urbanization governance.