sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Forms of Informal Settlement: Upgrading, Morphology and Morphogenesis

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 12609

Special Issue Editor

School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3WA, UK
Interests: urban design; informality; informal settlement; street vending; informal trading; informal transport; urban morphology; urban form; morphogenesis; slum upgrading; informal urbanism; typology; street life; public space; urban village; place; urban life; global south
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the challenge of informal settlements. Drawing on multiple case studies across the cities of the global South, this Special Issue aims to explore the ways in which the built environment professions can most effectively engage with processes of upgrading as well as the transformation of negative place identities. Cities have become centres of jobs and opportunities, attracting flows of rural-to-urban migrants, for many of whom informality works as a resource to move beyond the regulatory order in terms of development, design, construction, and urban codes. While informal settlements accommodate about one billion people and counting, these settlements have remained largely undocumented and invisible on official maps. Nonetheless, they are here to stay as the challenge of informal settlements cannot be simply addressed through practices of forced eviction and demolition. With a few exceptions, most informal settlements can be upgraded incrementally and on the same site. The intention, therefore, is to better understand the ways in which forms of informal settlements work in order to provide an effective knowledge base for slum upgrading practices.

The key questions are as follows: What are the morphologies of informal settlements? What are the increments of change? How do processes of morphogenesis work in informal settlements? How can the built environment professions most effectively engage with incremental and in-situ processes of upgrading? In what ways can urban mapping be used to unravel how informal settlements work in terms of urban morphologies and adaptive processes? How can the relations between informal and formal be mapped across different scales? How does functional mix emerge through processes of self-organisation in informal settlements? What are the lessons for generative processes of self-organisation in urban design and planning? What are the ‘informal’ urban codes? What are the dynamics of population, building, and open space densities in informal settlements? How do access networks emerge and consolidate over time? What are the relations between density, mix, access, and public/private urban interfaces? How does public space work in informal settlements? What are the relations between private and public territories? How does the spatial visibility of informal settlements work in relation to the dynamics of place identity? In what ways can the productive capacities of informality be harnessed in slum upgrading practices? How can the emergence of ‘slum conditions’ be prevented in informal settlements? How can the functionality and openness of the public realm be protected in upgrading processes? What are the capacities and limitations of design interventions? What are the synergies and contradictions between formal and informal processes of upgrading?

Dr. Hesam Kamalipour
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Informal urbanism;
  • Informal settlements;
  • Upgrading;
  • Urban mapping;
  • Typology;
  • Urban intensity;
  • Urban morphology;
  • Morphogenesis;
  • Urban design;
  • Informality.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

28 pages, 11049 KiB  
Article
Integrated Approach to Explore Multidimensional Urban Morphology of Informal Settlements: The Case Studies of Lahore, Pakistan
by Muhammad Mashhood Arif, Muhammad Ahsan, Oswald Devisch and Yves Schoonjans
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7788; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137788 - 26 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3242
Abstract
The understanding of urban morphology as a means of exploring the materiality of urban areas has been an emerging practice amongst academics, but the reach of the methods in urban-design research has been limited. This research presents the integration of GIS application and [...] Read more.
The understanding of urban morphology as a means of exploring the materiality of urban areas has been an emerging practice amongst academics, but the reach of the methods in urban-design research has been limited. This research presents the integration of GIS application and fieldwork analysis as the main methods to support the interpretation of urban morphology as methodical, exploratory, and multidimensional. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, commonly known as the KS test, is also conducted to illustrate a contrast among the settlements. The study focuses on various dimensions of informal settlements by drawing on three case studies of informal settlements in Lahore, Pakistan. The results show heterogeneity in the urban form in terms of land-use diversity, building density, connectivity, open-space ratio, and infrastructural quality within the case-study areas. The analysis displays the context sensitivity and diversity within these settlements that provide a better understanding of how informal settlement works in relation to urban morphology. This research has the characteristics to contribute to other urban-form studies through the coherent application of the procedures to various sites. The output of mixed-use techniques exercised in this study lends itself to integration with other systematic processes related to urban areas’ design, research, and planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forms of Informal Settlement: Upgrading, Morphology and Morphogenesis)
Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 9612 KiB  
Article
The Paradox of Informal Settlements Revealed in an ATLAS of Informality: Findings from Mapping Growth in the Most Common Yet Unmapped Forms of Urbanization
by Jota Samper, Jennifer A. Shelby and Dean Behary
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9510; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229510 - 15 Nov 2020
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 7568
Abstract
Informal settlements are the most common form of urbanization on the planet, accounting for one-third of the total urban form. It is expected that by the mid twenty-first century, up to three billion people will live in informal urban environments. However, we lack [...] Read more.
Informal settlements are the most common form of urbanization on the planet, accounting for one-third of the total urban form. It is expected that by the mid twenty-first century, up to three billion people will live in informal urban environments. However, we lack a consistent mapping method to pinpoint where that informality is located or how it expands. This paper presents the findings from a collection of standardized measurements of 260 informal settlements across the world. The main research goal is to identify a standard global sample of informal neighborhoods. It then focuses on mapping urban growth with remote sensing and direct mapping tools. The third stage classifies settlements based on how adjacency features such as development, topography, or bodies of water relate to their growth. The survey of growth corroborates the idea of informality as expanding geography, although at different rates than previously cited in the literature. We found peri-urban location to be a suitable estimator of informal settlement growth. This finding validates the comparison of multiple settlements to understand rates of change of urban informality worldwide. The findings here are vital to resolve important questions about the role of informal urban development in the context of accelerated global population growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forms of Informal Settlement: Upgrading, Morphology and Morphogenesis)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop