Abstract
Slum upgrading comprehensive plans and urban regularization plans are two planning tools used to promote integrated interventions in Brazilian slums and illegal settlements. Aiming at urban improvements as well as land regularization and community development, these plans have been, however, criticized for being too technical, time consuming, expensive, and top-down oriented, lacking sufficient participation to achieve community consensus on priorities, under severe budget restrictions in complex and fast changing realities. This chapter discusses the results of recent experiences in Belo Horizonte, Brazil using Geodesign framework and geovisualization strategies for collaborative planning in two illegal settlements: Maria Tereza (2016) and the Dandara (2018). A methodology for regularization plans was developed, and improvements to the Geodesign interface were tested with the use of open source Web Maps. Both experiences brought evidence on how the use of the proposed framework may enhance citizens' participation and improve planning methods based on social and community values.
TopIntroduction
According to the 2010 Brazilian latest demographic census, around 11.4 million people live in the 6.329 slums identified in 323 of the 5.567 existing municipalities in Brazil1. This is how over 6% of the country’s urban population has historically found a place in the city in face of the insufficient social housing provision for those unable to access the formal real estate market and also not eligible for government housing programs (IBGE, 2010). Being almost totally oriented to housing ownership through subsidized credit, a massive housing deficit that is concentrated below poverty levels has never been seriously tackled by national public policies, which have benefited mostly middle class segments. This way, favelas and illegal settlements cannot be considered just a planning problem but a matter of shelter provision, an expression of the right to the city, a housing solution for many. Not to mention the fact that many of them are very old and consolidated settlements, being very well located within the urban structure, with good access to services and job opportunities.
However, the recognition of a slum (favela) as a solution to be upgraded and not as an unsolvable problem to be removed and replaced by social housing projects in the far away outskirts of the city is somehow recent. The first efforts to protect these communities as part of the urban fabric and to keep them where they are date from the late eighties (mostly from the nighties) when a specific zoning category was created to somehow reduce real estate pressures over them and to assign upgrading and regularization governmental programs and projects to those settlements. These initiatives began through local planning policies and experimental housing programs in municipalities under progressive administrations such as Recife, Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte, but only in 2001 became a national directive under The City Statute (Federal Law 10.257, 2001). Among other obligations to municipal master plans, it established the definition of Special Social Interest Zones, and the development of urban improvements and land regularization policies for slums (favelas) and illegal subdivisions corresponding to these zones.
Consequently, specific planning tools have been designed for each of these two kinds of informal settlements, which can be defined as the following. A favela is characterized by an illegal occupation of someone else’s vacant land (public or private), lacking, at the beginning, public essential services such as sewers, waste management, and public facilities. They usually show an organic morphology and dense built environment with little open space and green areas, being settled on improper sites, steep slopes, flood prone areas or even environmental protected areas where formal real estate markets cannot legally be present.
Illegal settlements may have very similar urban infrastructure and housing conditions compared to slums, only they occupy land, which has been previously divided into parcels (lots resulting from a given design), which have been sold in the informal market. This means families who occupy that land paid for it and feel they are owners, even though they don’t have legal ownership documents. Being implemented without going through regular planning permit procedures, they do not follow official design criteria (minimum lot area, minimum street width, maximum slope and so on), do not obey environmental constraints (steep slopes, forested areas, springs and water bodies, flood hazard areas, etc.), nor have the basic urban infrastructure that, according to Brazilian urban legislation, is due to real estate developers to implement.
Differences between these two typologies of illegal settlements are summarized by the following chart (Table 1) and can be clearly perceived by the compared images in Figure 1, which shows the urban morphology, the density patterns and the insertion of each of these settlements in the city context.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Land Regularization: With regards to urban illegal settlements, land regularization refers to public policies meant to recognize land rights and provide land tenure to dwellers living in informal communities. It is desirable that these actions be part of urban upgrading programs, in order to provide the informal areas with access to municipal services and better living conditions.
Collaborative Planning: Is a participatory approach to design. From governance systems to architectural drafts, collaborative planning seeks to include as many stakeholders as possible in the decision-making process on choosing alternative solutions, defining priorities, and evaluating outcomes. Numerous facilitation techniques are used to encourage consensus and cooperation.
Geovisualization: A short for geographic visualization, also known as cartographic visualization. It refers to a set of tools and techniques supporting the analysis of georeferenced data using interactivity and collaboration. Traditional maps have a limited exploratory capability: they are statical, the graphical representations are exclusive linked to the geographical information beneath, and the interpretation depends on a previous cartographic knowledge. Geovisualization allow for more interactive maps; including the ability to show off different layers of the map, to zoom in or out, and to change the symbology, usually on a computer, cellphone, or tablet display.
Slum Upgrading: Public policies designed to provide or improve urban infrastructure and housing conditions as well as recognize land rights and promote land tenure safety in informal settlements such as favelas and illegal developments. Slum upgrading programs and projects are usually preceded by planning guidelines and actions. It is important to create a collaborative environment where slum dwellers and the government officials and planners can engage in a dialogue about their community needs and possibilities.
Favelas: Are how slums or shantytowns are called in Brazil. They are informal settlements usually located within or on the outskirts of the country's large cities, occupying steep slopes, flood hazard areas and other inadequate land for urban development. A favela typically comes into being when squatters occupy vacant land and self-construct shanties of salvaged materials. However, they soon become overcrowded and consolidated communities with severe infrastructure and sanitation gaps, poor public services and housing conditions, as well as and economic social problems.
Geodesign: A methodological framework comprising a set of concepts and methods used to involve different stakeholders and professionals in collaboratively designing and achieving consensus on the optimal solution for spatial challenges in the built and natural environments, utilizing all available techniques and data in an integrated process. It includes project conceptualization, analysis, design specification, stakeholder participation and collaboration, design creation, simulation, and evaluation (among other stages). Geodesign builds greatly on a long history of work and research in geographic information science, computer-aided design, landscape architecture, and other environmental design fields. See for instance, the work of Ian McHarg and Carl Steinitz.
Illegal Settlements: Areas resulted from an irregular land division. Differently of the favela situation, there are lots and streets defined, and land are sold in the informal market. This means families who occupy that land paid for it and feel they are owners, even though they don’t have legal ownership documents. Because the implementations of this settlements are irregular, they do not follow official design criteria (minimum lot area, minimum street width, maximum slope and so on), do not obey environmental constraints (steep slopes, forested areas, springs and water bodies, flood hazard areas, etc.), nor have the basic urban infrastructure that, according to Brazilian urban legislation, is due to real estate developers to implement.