Rural-Urban Migration and the Growth of Informal Settlements: A Socio-Ecological System Conceptualization with Insights Through a “Water Lens”

Venla Niva,Maija Taka,Olli Varis

doi:10.3390/su11123487

Abstract

Informal settlements i.e., slums emerge from the interplay of multidimensional factors related to urbanization and sustainability. While the contribution of urban factors is well understood, the role of external drivers, such as uncontrolled migration to urban areas, is rarely addressed in research or policy-making. This study develops a novel conceptualization of slums by reviewing the pushing and pulling factors of migration and their contribution to informal settlements through 1) a socio-ecological system approach and 2) the concept of adaptive capacity. Further, it advances the discussion around synergistic and coherent policy-making in the urban context by reviewing three urban agendas and further using water as a case with the concept of cross-cutting domains. We show that the emergence of urban challenges can, and should be, linked to the root causes of flows into urban areas. Understanding these linkages through a socio-ecological system framework opens a window for knowledge-based policy development and addressing the question of how to avoid unsustainable urban development. Urbanization is one of the phenomena where the excessive complexity and dimensions of problems should not hamper action but instead, actions should be encouraged and enabled with synergistic and integrative pathways for sustainable urban development.

Highlights

The emergence of informal settlements i.e., slums is among the most apparent challenges in our rapidly urbanizing world
We argue that it is de rigueur to create approaches that systemically conceptualize the emergence of informal settlements as part of a larger system and assist multilevel policy-making in “connecting the dots” between different sectors contributing to urban issues
We review three central initiatives by United Nations (UN) to assess the status quo of urban agendas (New Urban Agenda (NUA), New Urban Policies (NUP), and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)) in terms of systemic and sustainable policy-making

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of informal settlements i.e., slums is among the most apparent challenges in our rapidly urbanizing world. Despite the numerous slum upgrading attempts around the world, informal settlements remain a pervasive negative side-effect of urbanization: currently over half of urban population in lower income countries [1] and a total of 863 million people globally [2] accommodate in informal settlements. By definition, these inhabitants are exposed to numerous hazards and vulnerabilities given the extremely dense population and lack of secured tenure, safe and clean living environment, and access to the most basic services such as clean water, sanitation and health care [3,4].

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Conclusion