Finding Space for Water in Informal Settlements in Dharavi and Dili

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Informal settlements are characterised by inadequate infrastructure and overcrowding. Making up a major portion of the urban fabric of Asia, they are the result of ineffective policies, unsuitable regulations and a lack of political will. Informal settlements are vulnerable to climate hazards, burdened with land tenure insecurity and dependence on the informal economy for livelihoods. As they expand, coastal informal settlements occupy environmentally vulnerable spaces, such as low-lying marshy swamps alongside water. The most frequent risk is flooding, which is made worse by sea-level rise and excessive precipitation brought on by climate change. In the absence of adequate institutional interventions and exacerbated by the impact of climate change, inhabitants are forced to develop local parsimonious coping strategies to forge a harmonious coexistence with water. The objective of the article is to find space for water, that is, identifying physical space that serves for flood adaptation within informal settlements. This involves spatial assessment of embedded shared space in informal settlements. Spatial analysis based on the occupation of space and its relation with water is carried out through drawings, direct observations and interpretation from the cases of Dharavi in Mumbai, India, and Dili in Timor-Leste. The findings reveal the intricate relation between water and informal settlements, laying the groundwork for a proposition of typologies for water-related public spaces that could be of significant use for formulating flood adaptation strategies.