Spatializing inequality across residential built-up types: A relational geography of urban density in São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract

Overcrowding in informal housing is a core problem in international development debates, whereby slum upgrading is viewed as a dominant policy to integrate formal and informal areas. Conceptually, challenges to socio-spatial integration are associated with unbalanced development processes of urban de- and re-densification beyond the housing level. However, a lack of empirical understanding of these processes limits the case for redistributive land use policies to complement slum upgrading. To address this gap, our study adopts an exploratory approach, applying GIS-based techniques to population census and open data on land use in São Paulo, Brazil, in order to analyze the distribution of population densities across residential built-up types in informal and informal areas, although there are constrains related to small-scale spatial data sources on urban density. This shows that informal settlements are indeed the densest residential built-up type in the city while revealing the underlying spatial inequality between informal settlements and low-rise, high-standard residential areas. We suggest that more emphasis be placed on the design and implementation of redistributive policies to avoid spatialized forms of inequality associated with uneven urban development. This will ensure the spatial and social integration of urban areas.