Irregular Settlements Research Articles

Identificación de asentamientos irregulares y diagnóstico de sus necesidades de infraestructura en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México

Since 2007, more than half of the world popula-tion lives in cities, causing that one of the biggest challenges of this demographic transition, which occurs mainly in developing countries since the 1970s, is providing decent housing to a growing urban population. This phenomenon, coupled with the particularities of land markets, triggers spontaneous settlements that occur in cities in an informal way and with major deficiencies in both the infrastructure and the quality of housing.Approximately one billion people worldwide live in deplorable housing conditions, lack of basic urban services and infrastructure. Most of this population lives in irregular settlements with extreme poverty within the major developing countries. The expansion of this type of settlement is considered as a visual manifestation of poverty itself. In 2000, the UN-HABITAT, organization of the United Nations, issued their ”Millennium Declaration” in which primary goals were adopted by major world leaders to improve the living conditions of the population living in informal settlements.Although irregular land occupation is a frequent occu-rrence in the cities, currently there are no reliable estimation techniques to determine its extent and characteristics reliably and expeditiously. It is from this issue, that there is a need to develop a proposal for analysis to identify and delineate the irregular settlements to an urban scale and make a diagnosis of urban infrastructure needs.This dissertation presents an alternative to identify in a timely, reliable and effective manner irregular settlements, so that different levels of government can provide quick res-ponse to regularization problems, lack of infrastructure and urban services. This research work involves the development of a model of analysis based on the integration of physical attributes, socioeconomic attributes and the spatial organization of the urban environment, using remote sensing techniques, spatial analysis and census data. These physical attributes include terrain conditions, cooperative, flood, and risk zones. Socioeconomic attributes include income levels, sewage and adaptable water coverage, overcrowding level, center- periphery relationship and land value. The attributes of spatial organization and type of building ma-terials were collected from high-resolution satellite imagery and landscape metrics. These three groups of variables were integrated into a multi-criteria model for irregular settlement identification at Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico with a 97.66% of accuracy. The contribution of this research is to present a new reliable method to identify irregular settlements. The achieved results can provide a great asset to help urban development officials in decision making.

Railway track degradation: The contribution of rolling stock

During train operation, geometrical irregularities develop in soil-supported ballasted railway tracks as a function of the carried tonnage. This form of degradation is combatted by periodic tamping using specially equipped trains, in order to guarantee predefined levels of structural performance. The growth of irregular settlements depends on both track properties (such as sleeper spacing, bending stiffness of the rail, and geotechnical properties of the subsoil) and the intensity of variations in the longitudinal stiffness (variations in soil profile, switches and crossings, transitions, etc.). These variations affect both the static and dynamic, frequency-dependent stiffness of the track under the moving wheels. In addition, the nature of the loading exerted by the rolling stock has an important influence. Trains running at a constant speed exert quasi-static loads on the infrastructure due to the constant axle loading. Also, a dynamic loading component may occur as a result of non-perfect wheels, with frequencies that are a function of both the speed and the wheel tread geometry. In general, the design of a railway track can be optimized with respect to its structural performance over the whole lifecycle. However, for existing lines this is difficult, and the only way to limit degradation and associated costs is to influence the condition of the rolling stock. The present study discusses the theoretical background of track degradation in the form of differential settlements. It then shows the results of an analysis of the loading conditions on Dutch railway lines, at network and local levels, based on actual measurements. Conclusions are drawn regarding deterioration and the effects of different loading types. The obtained results show that huge improvements are possible on mixed lines, and in particular, on freight lines, with reductions in geometrical degradation up to 52% of actual values. The main driver of excessive degradation appears to be the low-frequency component of the dynamic axle loading.

Entanglements of Periphery and Informality in Mexico City

AbstractMexico City is a well‐known case of urban expansion. Most of the growth has been in its peripheries, occurring during two phases of housing privatization: a predominantly self‐built urbanization by residents establishing irregular settlements (starting in the 1930s); and a relatively recent surge of mass‐produced small‐scale single‐family housing built by state‐sponsored development companies (underway since the year 2000). Informality, we argue, should not be understood as a mode of housing production setting in opposition self‐build practices against industry‐led and/or state‐sponsored processes, but rather as a dialectical urbanization logic shaped by the entanglements of in/formal processes in governance practices, land privatization and regularization, and urban infrastructure and services deficits. We are particularly interested in a dominant narrative whereby the embeddedness of informality is constantly underplayed and irregular settlements are cast as a residual category, a problem to tolerate or in need of intervention, or the inevitable combination of demographic growth and housing shortage, rather than the direct outcome of urban policies and development processes. Conversely, recent housing policy in Mexico is officially narrated as an economic stimulus, a means to control and order (irregular) urban expansion, and an impulse to democratize homeownership. Our discussion of the entanglements of informality in Mexico City is based on an extended literature review of academic articles and official reports (predominantly in English), supplemented by a series of street and neighborhood explorations (in the summers of 2012 and 2013) across the metropolis.

3D Cadaster of Irregular Settlements in Brazil—Case Study of Belo Horizonte City

3D Cadaster of Irregular Settlements in Brazil—Case Study of Belo Horizonte City

Pengaruh Keberadaan Universitas Haluoleo Terhadap Perubahan Tata Guna Lahan Di Kawasan Andonuohu Kota Kendari

<p class="Abstract">Universitas merupakan sarana yang menyediakan jasa pendidikan bagi masyarakat. Keberadaan universitas secara tidak langsung dapat mempengaruhi perkembangan suatu kawasan yang ditandai dengan banyaknya perubahan tata guna lahan. Adanya perubahan tata guna lahan juga dapat disebabkan oleh adanya pemusatan aktivitas masyarakat pada suatu kawasan. Universitas Haluoleo adalah satu-satunya universitas negeri yang berada di kota Kendari tepatnya di kawasan Andonuohu. Dalam RTRW Kota Kendari tahun 2010, kawasan Andonuohu merupakan kawasan yang dijadikan sebagai salah satu pusat pendidikan yaitu dengan adanya Universitas Haluoleo tersebut. Padatnya penduduk di daerah ini disebabkan karena keberadaan universitas ini dapat menarik penduduk luar kota Kendari yang ingin melanjutkan pendidikan di universitas tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh keberadaan universitas terhadap perubahan tata guna lahan di sekitarnya. Dalam penelitian ini akan dilakukan beberapa analisis dimana untuk melakukan analisis menggunakan beberapa variabel yaitu jenis penggunaan lahan, sebaran penggunaan lahan dan besaran lahan yang digunakan. Adapun analisis yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu analisis sistem kegiatan yang muncul, analisis keterkaitan antar sistem kegiatan dan analisis perubahan lahan perubahan lahan yang terjadi akibat munculnya sistem kegiatan. Teknik analisis yang digunakan yaitu deskriptif kualitatif. Keberadaan universitas tersebut menyebabkan banyaknya sistem kegiatan yang mendukung keberadaan universitas tersebut seperti kegiatan privat, ekonomi, sosial maupun rekreasi. Sistem kegiatan tersebut menyebabkan sebagian besar lahan disekitar universitas mengalami perubahan yang berimplikasi pada lahan terbangun. Perubahan tata guna lahan yang terjadi yaitu banyaknya ruang terbuka hijau, tanah terbuka dan tambak yang berubah menjadi lahan permukiman dan perdagangan dan jasa. Akan tetapi perubahan lahan yang terjadi mengakibatkan perubahan fisik kearah yang kurang baik seperti berdirinya beberapa perdagangan dan beberapa pemukiman yang tidak teratur sehingga terkesan semerawut. Sistem kegiatan yang muncul ini mempunyai tujuan utama yaitu untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mahasiswa sehinggan bisa disimpulkan bahwa munculnya berbagai macam kegiatan ini merupakan dampak dari keberadaan Universitas Haluoleo. Munculnya sistem kegiatan yang ada dapat mendatangkan keuntungan yang besar dan secara tidak langsung dapat meningkatkan perekonomian kawasan tersebut. Keberadaan universitas ini membawa dampak terhadap perubahan lahan, dimana perubahan lahan yang terlihat pesat seperti berkembangnya lahan kegiatan perdagangan dan jasa, rekreasi dan penunjang seperti banyaknya lahan pertokoan di sepanjang jalan utama menuju kampus yaitu jalan MT. Haryono, AH.Nasution dan jalan H.M.E Mokodompit yang besarnya sekitar 13,7 Ha. Lahan permukiman juga mengalami peningkatan akibat keberadaan universitas tersebut karena semakin banyak penduduk terutama mahasiswa yang membutuhkan tempat tinggal. Adapun besar lahan permukiman yaitu 135,3 Ha. Jika dibandingkan antara tahun 2006 dengan tahun 2010 luas lahan perdagangan dan jasa pada tahun 2006 yaitu sebesar 5,9 Ha menjadi 13,7 Ha sedangkan untuk lahan permukiman dari 104,3 Ha pada tahun 2006 menjadi 135,3 Ha. Setelah dilakukan analisis dapat disimpulkan bahwa besar lahan dari masing-masing sistem kegiatan dapat dikatakan bahwa lahan permukiman sekitar 15,34% , lahan perdagangan dan jasa sekitar 1,10%, lahan rekreasi sekitar 0,062%, dan lahan penunjang 0,39% dari luas lahan keseluruhan wilayah studi. Sebaran masing-masing sistem kegiatan tersebut menempati 2 kelurahan yaitu Kelurahan Lalolara dan Kelurahan Kambu dimana perkembangan kegiatan mencapai radius kurang lebih 2 km dari Universitas Haluoleo. Adapun yang dapat direkomendasikan melalui penelitian ini yaitu ditujukan untuk masyarakat maupun pemerintah. Rekomendasi untuk masyarakat itu sendiri adalah perlu adanya kesadaran bagi masyarakat terutama bagi para pelaku usaha untuk membangun usaha dengan kondisi yang layak agar terlihat teratur dan tidak semerawut dan adanya antisipatif bagi masyarakat khususnya bagi para pelaku usaha untuk menghadapi segala sesuatu seperti pencurian dan lain-lain. sedangkan untuk pemerintah adalah adanya peraturan dari pemerintah tentang izin mendirikan bangunan sehingga perdagangan dan jasa terlihat lebih teratur dan tidak semerawut dan adanya penataan aktivitas ekonomi khususnya disepanjang jalan H.M.E Mokodompit. Beberapa rekomendasi ini bertujuan untuk mengatasi pengaruh atau dampak yang ditimbulkan akibat perubahan lahan karena perkembangan aktivitas ekonomi yang disebabkan oleh keberadaan Universitas Haluoleo.</p>

Código Florestal Atual (Lei Federal nº 12.651/2012) e suas implicações na prevenção de desastres naturais

Este trabalho analisa a lei 12.651/2012, que altera o Código Florestal de 1965 e apresenta pontos modificados na lei e suas implicações na atuação de órgãos da defesa civil e sociedade em geral. O artigo chama atenção para os casos em que o poder público deve ter maior atenção na definição de áreas de preservação, de forma a reduzir os desastres naturais. A importância de se considerar as áreas de preservação permanente como forma de reduzir os desastres naturais e induzir o processo adequado de ocupação de áreas urbanas, é discutida a partir de trechos da lei e outras normas. A regularização de áreas urbanas e ocupação de novas áreas devem considerar as funções ecossistêmicas desempenhadas pelas áreas verdes nas cidades, indo além da redução de deslizamento e inundações, ou seja, devem ser capazes de promover convívio, educação e qualidade de vida à população.

P245: Descriptive analysis of measles cases in an universitary hospital and its health area

Measles is a leading cause of vaccine-preventable childhood mortality. Despite having a vaccine with a protective efficacy of 95%, outbreaks are possible if vaccination coverage is below 95%. In our area there are irregular settlements where outbreaks can occur. The objetive of this paper is to describe the most relevant data of reported cases in our hospital and compare them with our health area data.

The ‘Graying’ of ‘Green’ Zones: Spatial Governance and Irregular Settlement in Xochimilco, Mexico City

AbstractThis article details the evolving social and spatial dynamics of a planning approach that is now being used to regulate irregular or informal settlements in the conservation zone of Xochimilco in the Federal District of Mexico City. As part of the elaboration of ‘normative’ planning policies and practices, this approach counts, maps and then classifies irregular settlements into different categories with distinct land‐use regularization possibilities. These spatial calculations establish a continuum of ‘gray’ spaces, placing many settlements in a kind of planning limbo on so‐called ‘green’ conservation land. The research suggests that these spatial calculations are now an important part of enacting land‐use planning and presenting a useful ‘technical’ veneer through which the state negotiates competing claims to space. Based on a case study of an irregular settlement, the article examines how the state is implicated in the production and regulation of irregularity as part of a larger strategy of spatial governance. The research explores how planning ‘knowledges’ and ‘techniques’ help to create fragmented but ‘governable’ spaces that force communities to compete for land‐use regularization. The analysis raises questions about the conception of informality as something that, among other things, simply takes place outside of the formal planning system.

Poverty in Peripheral Informal Settlements in Mexico City: The Case of Magdalena Contreras, Federal District

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the difficult economic situation in Mexico over recent years and the increasing disadvantages in irregular settlements that are found on the periphery of the Federal District. The focus is on informal settlements in the Magdalena Contreras Delegation, a peripheral municipality where the research team applied 719 questionnaires to the inhabitants. The results offer an up‐to‐date socio‐economic analysis of the population. We are also in a position to suggest answers to the following questions: to what extent communal lands with a high ecological value act as territorial reserves for irregular settlements?; how do poverty levels in these settlements affect the consolidation process in terms of housing quality and access to public services?; how much heterogeneity is there inside irregular settlements and what is the level of poverty in these settlements and how grave is the situation?

Opportunities and Deprivations in the Urban South: Poverty, Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo by Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques (review)

Reviewed by: Opportunities and Deprivations in the Urban South: Poverty, Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo by Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques Brian J. Godfrey Opportunities and Deprivations in the Urban South: Poverty, Segregation and Social Networks in São Paulo. Eduardo Cesar Leão Marques. Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2012. Xii and 186 pp., figures, graph, maps, tables, photographs, and index (ISBN 978-1-4094-4270-7) (US$99.95). While the megacities of Latin America have long served as centers of political power, social privilege, and capital accumulation, they have also attracted legions of impoverished migrants and generated zones of concentrated socioeconomic deprivation. The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty has endowed the burgeoning cities of Brazil with particularly high rates of inequality. [End Page 267] In this innovative study of metropolitan São Paulo, Eduardo Marques examines how social networks and residential patterns influence people’s reproduction or, alternatively, reduction of poverty. Situating his research midway between the micro-level study of individual attributes and behaviors (such as “culture of poverty” and underclass debates) and the macro-level of broad economic dynamics (such as neoliberal labor markets, unemployment, and informality), the author focuses on the intermediate-scale intersections of urban space, sociability, and poverty in Brazil’s largest city-region. In the book’s introduction, Marques presents his central argument “that societal midlevel elements associated with the relational pattern within which individuals are embedded have great importance in the understanding of poverty” (p. 2). Chapter 1 proceeds to elaborate on the relevant theoretical approaches to poverty, social capital and social networks, and urban segregation on which the study rests. Chapter 2 explains the project’s research design, socio-spatial context, and site selection. The research team surveyed 209 individuals in poverty, along with 30 middle-class people for comparative purposes. Among those in situations of poverty, approximately 30 open-ended questionnaires in each of seven locales explored the effects of urban segregation on social networks. Chosen in a spatial gradient from the metropolitan center to periphery, the study sites encompassed a variety of populations and housing types, ranging from central-city slums, informal communities of self-constructed favelas, public housing projects, and irregular housing subdivisions. The second chapter’s historical, geographical, and social profiles provide a sense of place for the tenements of downtown São Paulo; the favela of Vila Nova Jaguaré, located in the city’s expanded center; the large southwestern favela of Paraisópolis, located adjacent to the wealthy Morumbi district; the small favela of Vila Nova Esperança on the western metropolitan periphery; a complex of housing projects in Cidade Tiradentes on the east side; Jardim Angela, a mixed area of peripheral favelas and irregular settlements on the southern peri-urban fringe; and finally the favela of Guinle, located in the eastern industrial district of Guarulhos, near the International Airport. Chapters 3 through 7 interpret the survey results. The third chapter reviews the attributes of individuals in poverty and their social networks. Among those interviewed, the poor were overwhelmingly migrants to the city and suffered from a precarious participation in labor markets. Relative to their middle-class counterparts, those in situations of poverty had more localized, smaller, and less cohesive networks with more restricted sociability. These traits become increasingly pronounced among those living in more isolated locates. As explained in Chapter 4, despite significant variations, types of networks depend largely on the size, structure, locations, and sociability patterns of residential areas. The fifth chapter investigates how networks influence access to goods, services, and employment. While income correlates with schooling and the number of people residing at home, it also reflects “… individuals’ relational patterns, the size of their networks (for those with stable income sources), as well as the variability of their sociability (for those resident in segregated areas)” (p. 118). Chapter 6 shows how relational networks can mitigate social deprivation through personal exchanges not subject to market forces, thereby helping to provide care for children and the elderly; small loans, food, tools and appliances; and emotional support. The seventh chapter addresses how variations in social networks influence the ability of individuals to cope with everyday problems [End Page 268] related to housing...

Asentamientos and Cantegriles: New Poverty and the Moral Dangers of Proximity in Uruguayan Squatter Settlements

This article analyzes forms of distinction and inequality generated within Uruguayan squatter settlements as a result of neoliberal policies, class polarization, and the downward mobility of previously integrated populations that have migrated to the informal urban periphery. Based on ethnographic research in Montevideo, this article shows how newly impoverished Uruguayans have dealt with their spatial proxim- ity and ever-increasing socioeconomic proximity to chronic poverty through the mainte- nance of symbolic boundaries between themselves and the chronic poor. This boundary work is dependent on the reproduction of a series of moral oppositions, highly reminis- cent of hegemonic discourses on the culture of which cast the chronic poor as dirty, lacking in values, apathetic, disorganized, and responsible for their own poverty. In October 2004, I began conducting ethnographic fi eldwork in La Chacha, an asentamiento (squatter settlement) located on the urban periphery of Montevideo, Uruguay. 1 My main objective was to explore the stories and everyday experiences of downwardly mobile Uruguayans who had migrated to peri-urban squatter settlements after suffering unemployment and consequent impoverishment. Re- ferred to in the literature as new poverty, this process of downward mobility in Uruguay has its origin in the implementation of neoliberal reforms that have played a key role in transforming the structure and composition of the social classes in Uruguay and their location in urban space (Kaztman et al. 2004). One of my informants, fi fty-six-year-old Marta, is an example of a newly impoverished squatter. After having spent most of her adult life renting homes in neighborhoods close to Montevideo's city center, raising two children, and helping her husband run their family business (a small grocery store), Marta fell on hard times when the business went bankrupt in 2001. Her family was forced to build a precari- ous home in La Chacha, one of Montevideo's many rapidly expanding squatter settlements on the urban periphery. According to Marta, the fi rst two years were the most diffi cult as she became accustomed to living with previously unknown hardships such as a clandestine electricity connection and lack of services and in- frastructure. Most of all, Marta lamented her everyday contact with los pobres de verdad (the real poor) and her daily exposure to the miseria she had once been relatively shielded from due to her central urban residence. 1. The word asentamiento is a shortened and more popular version of the offi cial term asentamiento ir- regular (irregular settlement), the latter which is commonly used in academic and social policy literature. La Chacha is a pseudonym. The names of my informants used in this article are also pseudonyms.

“A Patrimony for the Children”: Low-Income Homeownership and Housing (Im)Mobility in Latin American Cities

Data are presented from a 2007 restudy of some 300 low-income self-builder owner households across eight settlements in Bogotá and Mexico City originally interviewed in the early and late 1970s, published in the mid-1980s (Gilbert and Ward 1985). Framed within a longitudinal perspective, the article analyzes the level of turnover of household owners living in irregular settlements over a period of thirty years; the current (2007) housing arrangements of households in dwellings and on plots; and the expectancies of ownership and inheritance of (now) adult children and grandchildren. The findings from the resurvey show minimal land-use changes and that more than 80 percent of the original families remain living on the lot. Densities have increased significantly, as has the average number of households sharing the lot. In Mexico City, sharing a lot is almost exclusively done with close kin (adult children), whereas in Bogotá it is both kin as well as renters. Self-estimated property values and tax office assessments show that house values in these consolidated settlements are often so high as to make it very difficult to sell, thereby reducing residential mobility. Also, the use value, and the inheritance expectations for second- and third-generation households living on the lots, gives little incentive (or option) to sell up and exit the settlement. Some of the social, judicial (tenure and inheritance), and housing policy implications and challenges are discussed.

Water quality and risk assessment of dug wells: a case study for a poor community in the city of São Paulo, Brazil

Sparsely populated areas, or peripheral communities commonly lack access to a public water supply and sewerage systems. The inhabitants of these areas must make use of excavated wells to provide their water needs, and cesspits for domestic wastewater disposal. These on-site sanitation systems can release pathogens and nutrients into shallow groundwater. These poor communities urgently require cheap and efficient techniques for the detection of sanitary conditions, in order to prevent contamination of the water resources supplied by dug wells. The sanitary risk assessment methodology, applied in an irregular settlement south of the city of Sao Paulo, was based on a questionnaire with yes/no questions (risk factors), which allowed the identification of problems related to the well construction and operation, and the presence of potential contamination sources in its vicinity. These risk factors were compared against nitrate and bacterial analysis using the clustering statistical method, to verify the relationship between contamination and certain aspects surveyed in the questionnaire. Questions that were more related to contaminated wells were those concerning the presence of cover and its integrity; gaps between mouth and cover; the surrounding pavement and presence of ground irregularities; infiltration in the well casing; water-suspended materials; and proximity to contamination sources. Contamination models based on variograms allowed to observe that bacterial contamination presented a strong localized component, which was associated frequently with the way residents handled the wells, whereas nitrate contamination was related more to a regional (spatial) component; that is, the distance between wells and cesspits.

Cities and Sovereignty: Identity Politics in Urban Spaces

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: Cities and Sovereignty: Identity Conflicts in the Urban Realm / Diane E. Davis and Nora Libertun de Duren Part 1. Modes of Sovereignty, Urban Governance, and the City 1. Jerusalem at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Spatial Continuity and Social Fragmentation / Nora Libertun de Duren 2. Imperial Nationhood and Its Impact on Colonial Cities: Issues of Intergroup Peace and Conflict in Pondicherry and Vietnam / Anne Raffin 3. Confessionalism and Public Space in Ottoman and Colonial Jerusalem / Salim Tamari Part 2. Scales of Sovereignty and the Remaking of Urban and National Space 4. Sovereignty, Nationalism, and Globalization in Bilbao and the Basque Country / Gerardo del Cerro Santamaria 5. Contesting the Legitimacy of Urban Restructuring and Highways in Beirut's Irregular Settlements / Agnes Deboulet and Mona Fawaz 6. Urban Locational Policies and the Geographies of Post-Keynesian Statehood in Western Europe / Neil Brenner Part 3. Sovereignty, Representation, and the Urban Built Environment 7. Iconic Architecture and Urban, National, and Global Identities / Leslie Sklair 8. The Temptations of Nationalism in Modern Capital Cities / Lawrence J. Vale 9. Hurvat haMidrash--The Ruin of the Oracle: Louis Kahn's Influence on the Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem / Eric Orozco Conclusion: Theoretical and Empirical Reflections on Cities, Sovereignty, Identity, and Conflict / Diane E. Davis List of Contributors Index

Outdoor thermal environment in irregular and high density settlements in the warm humid tropic of Indonesia

Outdoor thermal environment in irregular and high density settlements in the warm humid tropic of Indonesia

Outcomes of Asthma Education and Healthy Homes Curriculum Provided Through Community Health Workers in South Texas Colonias

Background. Childhood asthma rates are highest among minorities and among those who reside in low-income communities. This is especially true of children who reside in colonias, which are defined as substandard housing communities in irregular rural settlements located along the US-Mexico border. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge acquired by participants before and after an educational intervention was provided. Methods. This study used the healthy homes training approach, including integrated pest management, identification of asthma triggers, and asthma case management, to increase asthma management awareness and control. This dual training approach combined a healthy homes module with asthma education and was implemented by certified promotoras (community health workers) in South Texas colonias. Promotoras are generally trusted and respected individuals who live in or around the communities in which they work. The promotoras identified and trained 108 parents of children aged between 5 and 12 years in households in Hidalgo County with lifetime asthma diagnosed by his/her physician and of children who may not have been diagnosed by a health professional with asthma but suffer from symptoms of asthma. Results. Asthma management and healthy homes knowledge, including attitudes and practices, significantly improved among parents after the implementation of the dual training program. Of the 108 participants, 78% had never received asthma education, 78% had a child with lifetime asthma diagnosed by his/her physician, and 32% reported having medical insurance. Pretest and posttest comparison results based on 9 out of 14 questions related to asthma triggers and healthy home principles showed a significant improvement in knowledge gained among the participants. Regardless of the study limitations (self-report instrument for the pretest and the posttest), the results showed that families in colonias living with asthma benefit from an integrated training approach.

Land Administration in a Micro-State: The Role of Land Use Planning

Land policy in micro-states and the land administration that underpins it is often devised within a legacy framework inherited from a colonial past. Independence has allowed self-determination of the future political direction yet the range, legal framework, institutional structure and administration systems tend to mirror those of ex-colonial powers. Do land policies, administration systems and processes developed to serve large heavily populated countries scale down to serve the requirements of micro-states? The evidence suggests not: many land administration systems in the Caribbean face difficulties due to poor records, unclear title, exploitation of state lands, incomplete or ongoing land reform programmes, irregular or illegal settlement and non-enforced planning regulations. Land matters are typically the responsibility of several government departments and agencies responsible for land titling and registration, cadastral surveying of property interests, physical planning, taxation and financial regulation. Although planning is regarded as a land administration function, organisational responsibility usually rests with local rather than central government in large countries, but in microstates local government may be politically weak, under-resourced or even non-existent. Using a case study approach this paper explores how planning functions are organised in the Caribbean state of St Vincent & the Grenadines in relation to land administration as a whole and compares the arrangement with other independent micro-states in the region.

Heavy metals pollution in the soil of an irregular urban settlement built on a former dumpsite in the city of Tijuana, Mexico

The aim of this study was to evaluate soil pollution by heavy metals in an irregular settlement built on a dumpsite. The soil samples were analyzed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Ni. None of the concentrations found for the heavy metals analyzed were higher than the established Mexican official standards for contaminated soils. The mean concentrations found for the analyzed metals were as follows: 1.4 mg kg−1 for Cd, 4.7 in mg kg−1 for Cr, 304 mg kg−1 for Cu, 74 mg kg−1 for Pb and 6 mg kg−1 for Ni. The results of the geoacummulation index values show that the site was very polluted with Cu and Pb (class 7), polluted to strongly polluted with Ni (class 4); moderately polluted to polluted with Cd (class 3), and moderately polluted with Cr (class 1). The correlation analysis shows a high correlation between Pb and Cu (r2 = 0.98), which would be explained if the main source of the polluting heavy metals was the result of electrical wire burning to recover Copper. Principal component analysis shows three principal components. The first main component (PC1) encompasses Cr, Cd, Pb and Cu. These heavy metals most likely have their origins from the open burning of municipal solid waste, tires and wire. The other two components are encompassed by Cr (PC2) and Ni (PC3). The sources of these pollutants are more likely related to the corrosion of junk metal objects and automobile use.

Modelo de intervención social y ambiente: el caso de algunos barrios antiguos de Xochimilco / Social and Environmental Intervention Model: The Case of Certain Old Neighborhoods in Xochimilco

En este artículo se examina el concepto de modelo de intervención social y su aplicación en la solución a problemas socioambientales a partir de las encuestas de opinión que se realizaron durante 2007 y 2008 en dos barrios de Xochimilco sobre la ejecución del programa “A no generar basura”, dirigido a evitar la contaminación de los canales del lago; se concluye que los resultados fueron limitados dadas la persistencia de la contaminación por basura y aguas negras en los canales y la presencia de asentamientos irregulares en la zona chinampera. La hipótesis de trabajo, corroborada con instrumentos analíticos, plantea que una alternativa a esta deficiente instrumentación es el establecimiento de un proceso de intervención social basado en la educación ambiental, cuyo principal eje sea considerar que el problema es contrario a una buena calidad de vida del grupo social afectado. Con ello se activaría su participación para alcanzar una solución efectiva a dicha problemática socioambiental.AbstractThis article examines the concept of the model of social intervention and its use in the solution of socio-environmental problems on the basis of the opinion surveys conducted in 2007 and 2008 in two neighborhoods in Xochimilco on the implementation of the “No More Garbage” program, designed to prevent the pollution of the lake channels. It concludes that the results were limited due to the persistence of pollution from rubbish and sewage in the canals and the presence of irregular settlements in the chinampa zone. The working hypothesis, corroborated by analytical instruments, posits that the alternative to this inefficient implementation is the establishment of a process of social intervention based on environmental education, whose main axis involves considering that the problem is not conducive to a good quality of life for the social group affected. This would activate their participation in order to achieve an effective solution to this socio-environmental problem.

Self-help housing policies for second generation inheritance and succession of “The House that Mum & Dad Built”

This paper explores how 30 years after their formation as squatter and irregular settlements self-built consolidated dwellings in Latin America are being passed from the original first generation low income home builders to their children and grandchildren. Today these original peripheral settlements are located in the intermediate ring of cities and these self-built homes have significant exchange values often in excess of $30,000, but they also continue to have use value for second generation adult children, many of whom continue to live on the lots with their parents. Always in part conceived as an eventual “patrimony for the children”, these homes are now being inherited by the children and grandchildren as the original owner-parents die. Therefore national and local processes of inheritance and succession become central to the transfer of title and property across generations. However, few people have wills and most die intestate, creating new forms of irregularity and “clouded” land titles. Drawing primarily upon Mexican inheritance and succession law examples, this paper evaluates housing policies that will expedite inheritance and title transfers at low cost thereby providing title security to second and third generation households. This is essential for ongoing housing improvements and housing rehab in what have often evolved into high density and heavily deteriorated settlements.