UN Habitat Research Articles

From sleeping beauty to proven solution: The transformation of land readjustment into an informal settlement upgrading tool

Land readjustment (LR) has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a private-owner-centric mechanism to a proven tool for upgrading low-income, informal settlements. This article traces the efforts by multilateral and bilateral organisations, along with think tanks, to promote LR as both a relevant and implementable tool in the Global South. It delineates three distinct phases in LR's evolution: its initial unsuccessful integration into the UN's Habitat I agenda in 1976, a subsequent phase of recalibration aimed at broadening its applications and outreach in the 2000s, and finally, its endorsement in 2018 as an effective tool for informal settlement upgrading. Focusing on the roles of policy mediators, including bilateral and multilateral organisations, the article sheds light on the practices, politics, and power dynamics at play in the movement and mutation of policy models. It also examines the conditions leading to success and instances where expected policy outcomes and their mobilisation failed to materialise.

Проблемы территориального планирования городских агломераций (на примере Республики Башкортостан)

The aim of the research is to study the current state of territorial planning of urban agglomerations in Russia. The authors have considered the peculiarities of agglomerations in Russia, their boundaries and constituent elements. On the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan the differences in the allocation of urban agglomerations while using modern scientific methods are shown. The peculiarities of Ufa and South Bashkortostan agglomerations from the standpoint of territorial planning are highlighted. Insufficient quantity and quality of the sought data does not allow us to apply some of the scientifically based methods for identifying urban agglomerations both in Russia as a whole and on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan. In particular, due to the lack of information on pendular migration, the use of data from the All-Russian Population Census of 2020 (2021) is possible only in the case of urban agglomerations. (2021) Population census data can be used only in a very general way. The application of the UN Habitat methodology is possible only for international comparisons and is not applicable in the conditions of the Russian reality, taking into account the prevalence of poorly connected and small in terms of population density urban and rural settlements.

Evidential approach to affordable housing programme development: an Ontario case study

Housing affordability is a global crisis. UN Habitat estimated in 2020 that 80% of global cities do not have affordable housing options for the majority of their population; the World Economic Forum estimates a need for an extra two billion homes over the next 75 years (96,000 completions per day). The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights points to a confluence of economic, social and governmental factors created today’s homelessness and affordability issues. In Q3 2022, The Royal Bank of Canada reported that 62.7% of Ontarians' household income goes towards the cost of home ownership, skewed by 85.2% in Toronto. Traditional affordable housing models aren’t working. A 2023 Ontario regional affordable housing feasibility study provided the opportunity for a new approach. Independent analysis of open-source evidence, with risk evaluation and allocation, demonstrated the local applicability of two decades of international lessons of affordable housing projects. It provided an objective approach that serves the health of tenants and the wider community. In challenging preconceptions, it showed that a capability-based infrastructure development planning approach would be most suitable for affordable housing projects. Furthermore, it found that an enterprise-wide, transparent and outcomes-focussed governance structure is essential to successful risk allocation.

The Evaluation of Sustainable Development Projects in Marginal Areas: An A’WOT Approach

The increasing urbanization trend, projected to reach 70% of the global population residing in cities by 2050, underscores the pivotal role of cities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2015) and combating climate change. Nonetheless, the 2023 report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) reveals an alarming gap in achieving SDG 11 “Sustainable cities and communities” by 2030. This gap highlights the urgent need for transformative shifts in urban policies and investments to prevent cities from becoming centers of global disparities, including socio-economic inequalities, digital divide, and spatial fragmentation, particularly in marginal areas. Marginal areas suffer indeed from conditions of sub-optimality in planning capacity, valuable decision-making, and project implementation. The inadequate planning, management, and governance of marginal areas, coupled with suboptimal investments, can severely compromise their socioeconomic condition. Planning efforts frequently fall short in achieving long-term sustainability goals due to localized and short-sighted decision-making processes, particularly evident in marginal areas. It is crucial, though, to support their public administrations in the achievement of the SDG 11 targets and in their responsive participation in the calls for the allocation of public funding. In this paper, we provide a theoretical and methodological approach to evaluate urban regeneration projects in marginal areas. In detail, we develop an A’WOT approach, which combines a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), to rank alternative urban development projects.

Aligning Housing Laws with UN Habitat's Mission: A Sustainable Development Goal Perspective

Aligning housing laws with the mission of UN-Habitat and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is essential for achieving sustainable urban development and enhancing global living standards. This paper examines how housing policies can be integrated with UN Habitat's goals and the SDGs, focusing on creating equitable, resilient, and sustainable urban environments. It addresses current challenges, including affordability, climate resilience, and social inclusion, and proposes solutions such as strengthening policy frameworks, improving financial mechanisms, promoting community engagement, and advancing environmental sustainability. The study identifies common barriers to effective policy alignment, such as financial constraints and outdated regulations, and offers actionable recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders. By aligning housing laws with global sustainability goals, the paper argues, we can better target SDGs related to sustainable cities, poverty reduction, and inequality, contributing to long-term sustainable development.

Challenges and Opportunities Resulting from Mau Forest Evictions of Ogiek Community, Kenya

This paper presents the results and discussions of the objective of the study, which assessed the challenges and opportunities resulting from the evictions of the Ogiek people from the Mau Forest Complex. The study looked at the challenges faced by the Ogiek and the government following the evictions. Secondly, it examined the opportunities that the Ogiek community and the government experienced after the evictions. Public interest and human needs theories underpinned the study. The study used a descriptive research design. The study sampled 465 respondents, who included 384 household heads, 1 county commissioner, 2 deputy county commissioners, 7 chiefs, 14 village elders, 1 county police commander, 2 sub-county police commanders, 5 conservationist organizations, 5 environmentalist groups, 1 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) officer, 1 UN Habitat officer, 1 officer from the ministry of environment, 10 officers from Kenya Forest Service (KFS), 10 officers from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), 5 officers from NGOs, 1 officer from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and 15 heads of NGOs and CBOs. The study applied simple random, purposive, and census sampling techniques. Interviews, questionnaires, focus group discussions (FGD), and observation made up the data collection instruments. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze quantitative data and was presented in tables, graphs, and charts. The study examined the challenges and opportunities of Mau forest evictions, where poaching, animal attacks, hunger, malnutrition, mental illnesses, and poor health plagued the Ogiek community. The study recommends clear and transparent guidelines regarding the eviction process and any form of compensation set and discussed with the affected households so as to avoid unnecessary impoverishment and protect livelihoods. This information is useful as it will better inform forest managers, policymakers, and other actors in their efforts to fairly and responsibly manage and balance ecological and social development. The study suggests that the government of Kenya adopts a more humane and sustainable relocation policy and involves the Ogiek community in decision-making and investment in alternative livelihoods.

Effects of Mau Forest Evictions on Human Security of the Ogiek Community, Kenya

Forest communities have had to globally endure evictions, sometimes forceful, due to the need for governments to conserve the environment by protecting forests from negative human actions. The Ogiek are hunters and gatherers and rely mainly on wild fruits, beekeeping, and game hunting as a source of livelihood. Animals, e.g., hyrax, were hunted. The Ogiek's lives and sources of livelihood are highly dependent on the forest. The Ogiek community of Mau Forest, Kenya, is a forest community that has faced a similar fate since the colonial period. This study sought to establish the effects of Mau Forest evictions on the human security of the Ogiek community in Kenya. The study used a descriptive research design. The study sampled 465 respondents, who included 384 household heads, 1 county commissioner, 2 deputy county commissioners, 7 chiefs, 14 village elders, 1 county police commander, 2 sub-county police commanders, 5 conservationist organisations, 5 environmentalist groups, 1 UNEP officer, 1 UN Habitat officer, 1 officer from the ministry of environment, 10 officers from Kenya Forest Service (KFS), 10 officers from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), 5 officers from NGOs, 1 officer from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and 15 heads of NGOs and CBOs. The study applied simple random, purposive, and census sampling techniques. Interviews, questionnaires, FGDs, and observation made up the data collection instruments. SPSS version 26 was used to analyse quantitative data. The data revealed that the Mau forest evictions had negative effects on Ogiek human security, including deaths (86%), injuries (97%), destruction of homes (98%), farms (80%), livestock (52%), illness (95%), lack of sanitation (92%), gender-based violence (69%), disruption of schooling (100%), loss of culture (94%), separation from family (88%), loss of livelihoods (98%), and increased human-wildlife conflicts (78%). 100% of respondents feared for their safety. The study revealed that the evictions had negative effects on the Ogiek community on virtually all seven elements of human security, namely economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. The study contributes to the literature on indigenous land rights and human security, informs policymakers, and assists policy implementers in carrying out government directives without violating people's rights. It is also essential for civil society leaders. The study recommends that clear and transparent guidelines regarding the eviction process and any form of compensation be set and discussed with the affected households so as to avoid unnecessary impoverishment and protect livelihoods. The study further reckons that the government should adopt a more humane and sustainable relocation policy and provide alternative ways of livelihood to the victims.

A commentary on the New Urban Agenda

The New Urban Agenda (NUA) was adopted at Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which was held in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. This paper is informed in large measure by the resulting documentation on the so-called ‘Quito Declaration’ and accompanying ‘Implementation Plan’ set out in the official NUA publications prepared by UN Habitat, as well as drawing on various supporting documents prepared by other UN agencies in the wake of the Declaration. The Implementation Plan lists 175 commitments and principles that respond to the vision and ambitions in the Declaration in which the building of more resilient urban settlements and supporting infrastructure is implicitly seen as the pathway to sustainability, and the adoption of more climate-friendly urban planning and development protocols is therefore a priority. While such ambition is clearly laudable, the paper questions the efficacy of the Agenda’s key principles and associated development guidelines, and asks if these are sufficiently detailed to inform policy makers in pursuit of its aspirations, as well as questioning their flexibility as implementation tools to accommodate geographically specific contextual differences in disparate urban settings. It is not therefore a research paper in the normally accepted academic sense, but is simply an essay-cum-commentary on the Agenda’s progress as it seeks to promote good practice in urban planning, and whether this is likely to deliver on more sustainable development that is also responsive to climate change imperatives.

Augmented reality as a participation tool for youth in urban planning processes: Case study in Oslo, Norway

Augmented reality (AR) allows objects to be digitally simulated in the real world through smartphones, tablets, and headsets. While there are interesting AR technology case studies in participatory urban planning, this type of research has yet to be conducted within a real-life municipal planning scenario. Following the UN Habitat recommendation that further studies in AR as a participatory tool seek to integrate planning with real citizens, we studied the use of AR for the Oslo Trees plan in Norway. The case study consists of field work with AR between 2020 and 2021 over five weeks, with five different groups of youth participants from eight different districts of Oslo, who were tasked with planning a portion of Oslo’s 100,000 new trees. We document how these youths used AR in films, images, drawings, interviews, screen recordings, and recorded presentations. We find that AR is a highly intuitive tool for these youth user groups in design and planning and how the AR schemes impacted the final design of the plan. The use of AR aided users’ ability to generate their own planning proposals on site at scale; nearly all participants increased their understanding of participation, urban planning, architecture, and design in the workshops. In addition, the youths experienced an increased sense of confidence in displaying their design intentions and appreciated being given control of the planning process. However, we also found that location tracking and positioning in AR is imprecise and often “buggy” in the current state of the technology, causing irritation among users. Furthermore, despite the high degree of control afforded to users through AR, experts were still needed to verify which tree proposals were viable, offering important insights into how AR could be designed in the future. We conclude with a discussion on opportunities and barriers for the implementation of AR in participatory urban planning, pointing to the need for a more coordinated and holistic approach to both AR technology development and planning policy if the technology is to be developed further for participatory urban planning.

Housing Security: Placing Brazil’s Social Housing Program in a Violent Context

Latin America’s ‘housing crisis’ affects 28 million lower-income households. In many Latin American countries, governments have developed housing policies to provide access to basic standard dwelling and to offer a route towards legal tenure at an affordable cost. Yet, they have failed to address violence and crime that beneficiaries are often exposed to. I argue that housing policies must take stronger efforts in accounting for urban security. To sustain that argument, I will trace Brazil’s attempts to provide a ‘secure future for beneficiaries by providing equal access for all to physical and social infrastructure and basic services, as well as adequate and affordable housing’ (UN Habitat 2017: 7). I refer to such policy directive as an incentive for national governments to pursue housing security. I primarily draw from academic literature on housing policies in Latin America, evaluations of Brazil’s contemporary housing program, and media outlets, and use parts of my own interviews with public administrators and beneficiaries of the housing program. Designing routes towards housing security, first and foremost by reinforcing the constitutionally granted right to housing along with guaranteeing the social function of property, must be central concerns of Brazil’s next federal government.

도시 국제화와 지속가능한 미래: 부산 세계도시포럼(WUF) 추진 사례*

Internationalization of cities has been reportedly discussed to be important for sustainable urban development. World Urban Forum (WUF) has been held in every two years to discuss such contemporary urban agendas as local communities, economy, environment and culture by UN Habitat. This article aims to review the validity and necessity of Busan’s hosting plans for 13th WUF and propose desirable strategies and action plans. In doing so, it investigates agendas of the first to 11th WUF meeting and analyzes urban policy tasks, which global cities confront, from the perspective of the sustainable development goals, with methods of qualitative content analysis, focused-group interview, and word cloud analysis. From the analyses, this study demonstrates desirable and rational strategies to host and hold 13th WUF, particularly in connection with 2030 Busan World Expo, and more importantly announce internationalization strategies of cities towrad sustainable urban future.

Re-Thinking the global cosmopolis: an analysis of the un-habitat “city we need” policies in Helsinki And Sydney

This paper contributes to the sustainability debates concerning the UN Habitat III agenda for 2030 of “leaving no one behind.” I mainly focus on how the ideas of the classical cosmopolis are manifested in contemporary urban policies and strategies. I seek to discuss the similarities between the ancient Greek Cynics’ and Stoics’ concept of cosmopolis and the one more or less explicitly expressed in the UN-Habitat manifesto The City We Need 2.0: Towards a New Urban Paradigm, for explaining/showing/understanding. I do so by examining specific case examples based on the UN-Habitat manifesto: the City of Sydney (A City for All: Towards a Socially Just and Resilient Sydney) and the City of Helsinki. Finally, by using the close reading method, I analyze how these local level goals are related to the broader Habitat III goals and, on the other hand, to the classical definitions of cosmopolitan political practices.

Global experts for historic towns: Leonardo Benevolo and Giorgio Lombardi’s contributions to UNDP/UNESCO Andean region programme

ABSTRACT Italy’s policies for the protection of historical cities in the 1960s and early 1970s met with great praise from European countries and institutions at the time of their implementation. In the following decades, they became a model for architects and planners worldwide and particularly for large international organizations. This article focuses on the international dissemination of Leonardo Benevolo's work during the 1970s, identifying three defining moments: the 1976 UN Habitat Conference, the meetings organized in the framework of the 1975 European Year of Architectural Heritage, and, notably, the consulting work for UNDP/UNESCO carried out in Latin America by Benevolo and his younger colleague, Giorgio Lombardi. In this context, one specific facet of Benevolo's approach emerges: the idea that preserving historic districts constitutes an integral component of the modern city development. The article provides insights into how Benevolo’s approach to the preservation of historical centres was received, manipulated, and used by international agencies, local experts, and institutions in Latin America.

On the Edge - future adaptation challenges: The role of futurology, scenario planning methodology and off grid design in architectural and urban teaching

Abstract The article describes the role of thinking about the future and its importance in architectural and urban education. The first part deals with the scientific discipline of futurology and the possibilities of its use in architectural and urban practice. It covers topics that futurology makes available to architecture and their influence on the urbanized environment. It relates the creation of strategic visions for urban development with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Habitat III initiative. The second part is dedicated to introducing the futurological method of scenario planning, and its origin and use. It mentions so-called megatrends as the driving forces of future scenarios, effecting future challenges and threats that cities will have to deal with. Further, it provides insight into how this method can benefit architectural and urban work and represents the way it was used during architectural teaching. It reflects on the advantages of creating visions in the educational process. In the last part, it shows the off-grid design as a suitable simulator of structural and system thinking, leading to a better understanding of how complex architectural and urban systems function. It highlights the contribution of space architecture projects as a source of innovative thinking. It anticipates that working on space projects where self-sufficiency is a necessity can also benefit thinking about ecology, self-sufficiency, and the sustainability of settlements on Earth.

News from the Modern Front: Constantinos A. Doxiadis’s Ekistics, the United Nations, and the post-war discourse on housing, building and planning

ABSTRACT The Monthly Bulletin of Tropical Housing & Planning was founded by Constantinos A. Doxiadis and Jaqueline Tyrwhitt in October 1955. Originally meant to collect professionally useful information on the so-called ‘developing countries’, the publication soon changed its name and scope, becoming an internationally distributed, widely read and highly influential journal dedicated to the science of Ekistics and human settlements. Using previously unpublished archival material, the paper investigates the origin and early years of Ekistics: The Problems and Science of Human Settlements highlighting the strategic role of the journal for Doxiadis’s global agenda. Second, it is used as a case study to follow the evolution of the discourse on housing, building and planning during the UN Development decades and until the organization in 1976 of UN Habitat, the first international conference entirely dedicated to human settlements. Finally, by focusing on the journal and its meaning, this paper also explores the role that experts and international cooperation missions have played in the spread of modernity and on Doxiadis’s legacy in this field.

Imagining urban transformation in Kenya

This paper examines the diverse ways in which science and technology are implicated in collective imaginations of urban futures in Kenya. Despite calls for a ‘deep reimagining’ of African urbanisation (UN Habitat 2014), globalised narratives of urban ‘smartness’ are intersecting with pan-African tendencies toward top-down Master Planning to constrain spaces for collective imagining of urban futures. Using the conceptual lens of sociotechnical imaginaries and the methodological approach of Q method, we hope to open up and navigate the space of tension between the violence of narratives of failure and crisis in African cities, and the sometimes ‘blinding power’ of certain hyper-modernist visions of urban futures. We argue that powerful global hegemonic forces around urban transformation can sometimes be most effectively balanced, not by reproducing the same assertive idiom of stylised monothetic categories and set-piece contrasts but by illuminating diversity in the implicated imaginations. Our research describes three distinguishable overlapping imaginaries of Kenya urban futures, which we call: ‘Working towards equitable, culturally-vibrant urban habitats for all’; ‘Transforming our cities and ourselves to become ‘smarter’ and thrive sustainability in a digital future’, and ‘Pragmatically harnessing technology for more inclusive, equitable, liveable cities’. Our findings highlight salient dimensions of difference between the imaginaries including: diverse understandings of technology and culture in urban areas; diverse imaginaries of the urban dwellers of the future; and diverse imagined processes of change. Through detailed analysis of the distinctiveness and similarities/overlap between these imaginaries, we draw out implications for urban governance in Kenya.

Impact of Covid 19 Outbreak on Urban cities in India

According to the UN habitat report 2020, the next decade is considerable to see a rise in urbanization which may range to 60.4 % by 2030 as compared to 56.2% in 2020. Hence the current article intends to unravel the impact of Covid 19 on cities globally. The world cities report 2020 and Covid 19 Response plan 2020 by UN Habitat will be reviewed to get a better understanding of the overall condition of cities globally. Furthermore, the article also focuses on studying the major challenges in urban areas as mentioned in the UN habitat report like high risk for transmission, impact on economic activities, urban inequalities and coping mechanisms, by considering major cities in India. Lastly, it deals with the suggestions on how to enhance urban growth by tackling the prevailing issues so that sustainable cities can be developed which will accommodate the influx of people in the upcoming years as estimated by the UN habitat report 2020.

Reflections of the World Urban Forum in the Balkans

The World Urban Forum held eleven sessions of the global urban forum from 2002 to 2022. Modelled after the global urban forum, other urban forums take place before the global forum. Two urban forums were held in the Balkan countries in line with recommendations of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN Habitat in order to improve communication among diverse stakeholders in the area of urban development and prepare them for participation in the global urban forum. Experiences of Marmara region in Turkey and Serbia are shared in this paper to explain how the interaction between the global and other urban forums can open the way to improvement of urban development activities. The results could become more evident in the future since there could be more urban forums organized to take place in the Balkans.

SHAHARSOZLIK SOHASIDA EKOLOGIK TALABLARGA RIOYA ETISHNING HUQUQIY MASALALARI

The issues of compliance with environmental requirements in the field of urban planning are also the subject of study of legal sciences, and the main purpose of setting such requirements and standards is to provide comfortable living conditions for citizens. Issues of legal protection of urban environment were discussed at the UN Stockholm Conference on Human Environment (1972), the UN Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (October 17-20, 2016, Kyoto, Ecuador). A new urban development program was adopted as part of the Habitat III conference. Today, the main environmental problems in cities around the world are considered in connection with the implementation of construction work. At the same time, special attention is paid in the system of legal sciences to the study of organizational and legal measures and the scientific and theoretical basis of the construction work. This article examines the issues of zoning, greening the construction process, the benefits of developing a “green” economy, the introduction of waste-free technologies, as well as the construction of energy-efficient buildings and housing. In addition, the scientific and theoretical basis for the introduction of environmentally friendly innovative technologies in achieving strategic goals in the field of environmental protection, prevention and reduction of negative impact on the environment, ensuring the growth of environmentally oriented economy, application of “green” standards in construction.

Vertical residential on Transit Oriented Development principles : Jakarta case study

Vertical residential havnot integrated with public transportation modes, so that dwellers use their private vehicles as daily transportation, which is has a negative impact to the level of traffic congestion and air pollution. According to UN Habitat related to Sustainable Transportation and Communication Systems, the transportation sector is major consumer of nonrenewable energy of land and is a major contributor pollution, congestion and accident. The application of the concept of Transit Oriented Development is needed to cotrol the level of congestion and air pollution.