Spatial data in the Global South: A case study of alternative land management tools for cities with limited resources

Abstract

Brazil has 5.570 cities politically independent and yet entitled to manage urban land, no matter their technical or financial resources for that. Although informal land tenure is commonly associated to major metropolitan areas in Brazil, recent urbanization processes of cities inward the country's territory has led to informal land occupation of entire central districts. Informality is defined, in this context, as a condition whereby individual households are not legally recognized and tenure itself is frequently disputed, sometimes violently. Land tenure regularization is the also first step to solve the precariousness. In addition to land disputes, informal urban land occupation severely limits access to public services and facilities such as mail or water supply, for example. This article focuses on an innovative technical solution inspired by the “fit for purpose” tool for managing land, suggested by multilateral agencies such as Global Land Tool Network (GLTN). The inexpensive and replicable methodology is based both on intuitive mapping and editing tools and satellite images in a Geographic Information System. It was applied for one in many Brazilian recently and fast growing cities facing informality, yet with limited resources to address it through land regularization: Buritirana The case study was drawn from a nationwide sample of 200 local governments of national program for urban land tenure regularization, called “Papel Passado”, established in 2016, conducted in partnership between Ministry of Cities and the Federal University of ABC and could be easily be extended as a national policy urban development and resolution of land conflicts.