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To a large share of people living in cities of the “Global South”, the lack of access to basic services and infrastructures have turned the urban habitat into a public health hazard. Notably, the lack of basic sanitation infrastructures is a key risk factor to several infectious diseases. For some decades now, slum upgrading projects have been implemented globally as a strategy to enhance living conditions in impoverished settlements, by bringing in basic infrastructures while preserving the human settlement. These interventions have had different levels of success, which certainly depends on the project’s ability to reach out slum dwellers and understand their needs. This study puts forward empirical evidence obtained from 1,721 household surveys in Nairobi (Kenya) and Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) to inform the design and planning of sanitation infrastructures in a way that accounts for safety issues, which seem recurrent in the context of informal settlements. In this sense, toilet location significantly affected the users’ perception of safety and, consequently, the risk of diarrheal diseases. Current slum upgrading frameworks must move away from a purely quantitative perspective of service provision. The sole availability of improved services represents a theoretical improvement; in practice, however, the health benefits of these same improved services may be null if the targeted populations do not feel safe to use them.

This chapter describes the intervention model of the Latin American organization TECHO in vulnerable settlements through experiences in different communities: Altos Del Pino (Colombia), Jardim Gramacho (Brazil), and Malvinas (Brazil). In these diverse socio-spatial contexts, the organization implemented what it calls "Mesa de Trabalho" (litterally, "Work Desk"), an open platform for discussion and participatory planning that aims to stimulate capacity building within the communities around housing and habitat projects. The implementation of the "Work Desk" in different contexts is discussed here, to identify its potentials and limitations as a "social technology".

For some decades already, emerging countries have faced the complex reality of fast growing metropolitan areas, and local governments have showed little success in keeping track of the rapid changes that happen in their own territories. Consequently, all around the World a large number of people is marginalized: failing to appear in the official records, they are virtually non-existent and deprived of their most basic rights, amongst which the right to the city. In order to grant a voice to these excluded citizens, it is critical to include the ‘informal’, au- to-constructed urban areas and its inhabitants into the process of town planning. Such challenge demands a re-evaluation of the very concept of city-making; more precisely, it requires an epistemological revision of spatial representation through the development of more dynamic and inclusive cartographic processes. The authors propose an overview of the experience led by NGO TETO-São Paulo, in Brazil, where socio-economically vulnerable communities are being mapped through a participative system. Based on voluntary work and using open-source software, the NGO is producing unprecedented cartographic material that complements official geo-databases and can be used as support for policy-making and projects aiming to improve living conditions in ‘informal’ settlements.

If environmental factors are important determinants of health, then universal access to adequate housing is key to tackle urban health inequities. Yet, with over one billion urban dwellers having no other choice than living in so-called slums, the provision of sufficient housing units that are both adequate and affordable remains a global challenge. In fact, we argue that the inability to access adequate housing is at the root of inequitable urbanization processes, and constitutes a global health challenge for it is structurally linked to urban health inequities. Despite large public investments, numerous housing programs in the global South have failed to address local socio-spatial dynamics, often ignoring the flexible and incremental nature of the building typologies that shelter the majority of urban dwellers in these regions. Despite several radical housing experiences realized since the 1950’s that explored incremental housing typologies, public housing programs have mostly opted for schemes relying on subsidized credit to access housing as a finished product. Such schemes require constant revenue and savings capacity to ensure mortgage payment – two things that exclude, from the beginning, the urban poor. In order to tackle urban health inequities, housing and land-use policies must be socially inclusive. Based on recent experiences in different countries of the South, we argue that public housing schemes should offer more varied building typologies and tenure conditions. In addition, pro-poor land-use policies are key to ensure universal rights to the city and to health, by securing adequate locations to affordable housing and equalizing spatial development.

Globalization and technological progress have facilitated the progressive implementation of “modern” architectural and urban planning in the countries of the South. These countries aim to replicate Western planning models in African cities. Both at the public and private level, trends are adopted and promoted, without accurate adaptation to socio-cultural and economic realities. Our opinion is that the "modern" typology in the architectural and spatial projects in Africa, in terms of choice of materials and spatiality, does not always correspond to the climatic and social realities and can also, in the long term, pose health problems. Indeed, earth, straw, wood, and community spatial organization in constructions are replaced by concrete, glass, and by contiguous spaces, leading to unbearable thermal conditions and increasing health risks. Agriculture as well, as a traditional activity, is resisted by “modern” urban planning, limiting the asset of healthy and more available crops and foods. On this basis, we will see how the coherence of the choice of materials and spatial typologies is important for the health of the urban dwellers. However, as much as the ability of Western technology allows Southern countries to improve real needs for transactions and data collection, vernacular techniques should be revisited and improved in order to consider the economic and socio-cultural circumstances of these Southern cities. Moreover, considering the incremental logic, in materiality and spatial typology, or more broadly, in strategies transforming built environments, could contribute to the improvement of urban health.

Little is known about the impacts of morphological indicators that can be derived from the physical environment on the risk of diarrhoeal diseases. Given Africa’s recent explosive urbanisation rates and rapid changes in landscape, coupled with a high burden inflicted by diarrhoeal diseases, urban planners and public health officials in that region can benefit from a deeper understanding of the relation between urban morphology and diarrhoeal diseases. This work presents a large-scale ecological analysis based on open-access data to readily identify risk factors related to diarrhoeal diseases originating from the physical environment. Designed as a proof-of-concept study, this work is a cross-sectional analysis that focuses on Ivorian urban centres. Differently from previous spatial epidemiology studies on diarrhoea, we advance a set of morphological indicators based on landscape metrics and infrastructures as key variables of exposure, exploring their relationship with prevalence and mortality rates attributed to diarrhoea. This ecological analysis aims simultaneously to (i) build an analytical framework based strictly on free, open-access data and open-source software to investigate diarrhoea risk factors originating from the physical environment; and (ii) understand whether different urban patterns, defined by land-use and distribution of basic infrastructures, are related to different prevalence rates of diarrhoeal diseases.

Peut-on parler de gentrification dans le centre de Sao Paulo (Brésil) ? Ou, plutôt, de coprésence de différentes classes sociales ? En partant d’une brève analyse du contexte latino-américain et de la situation des centres urbains dans cette région, nous avons observé les changements récents dans les dynamiques socio-spatiales de la ville de São Paulo. Afin d’évaluer la possibilité de processus de gentrification dans son centre historique, nous proposons une analyse spatiale de l’évolution du tissu social et du marché immobilier dans cette zone, où apparemment se met en place un processus de réinvestissement économique et social.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought to light the social inequalities and exposed frailties in the access to certain fundamental human rights, such as access to health and mobility. The type of housing, sanitation level, mobility, and urban structures play an essential role in people’s individual and collective health. The right to the city, the right to an efficient mobility structure, planned urbanization, and urban equipment improve a population’s quality of life and health. How can architects and urban planners tackle the global challenges of developing necessary infrastructure and services, especially in more impoverished regions of the world? Which practices can be implemented to improve citizens’ lives? How can technology, innovation, and local communities contribute?

Peut-on parler de gentrification dans le centre de Sao Paulo (Brésil)? Ou devons-nous plutôt observer une situation de coprésence durable de différentes populations? Sur la base d'une analyse du contexte latino-américain et de la situation des centres métropolitains de cette région, nous allons aborder les changements récents des dynamiques socio-spatiales dans la ville de São Paulo. Afin d'évaluer la présence de processus de gentrification dans son centre historique, où apparemment se met en place un processus de réinvestissement économique et social, nous comptons effectuer une analyse quantitative – à l'aide de systèmes d'information géographique – de l'évolution du tissu social et des opérations immobilières dans cette zone. Notre étude proposera ainsi une analyse empirique de ce que Fernando Carrión appelle «introspection cosmopolite», qui vise à augmenter la compétitivité de la ville au travers de la restructuration du tissu urbain existant, permettant d'y installer de nouvelles activités liées à l'économie mondialisée. À São Paulo, ce processus semble marqué par des spécificités politiques et sociales qui découlent de l'importante présence de populations précarisées dans son centre historique – que nous appellerons ici le «Centre». Ces populations bénéficient de l'appui de mouvements sociaux qui opèrent en contrepoint aux projets de restructuration urbaine, de manière que deux agendas plutôt divergents se superposent dans un même espace: d'un côté, les mouvements sociaux fortement politisés qui, dès les années 1990, ont déplacé la lutte pour le logement populaire digne de la périphérie au Centre; de l'autre, les promoteurs de la «revitalisation urbaine» soutenus par les narratives de la «ville globale» et du «city marketing», qui voient dans la permanence de populations précarisées un obstacle à la revalorisation de ces quartiers. Cette compétition pour l'espace dans le Centre suscite depuis des années un débat controversé sur la possibilité de processus de gentrification dans cette zone, opposant des mécanismes locaux opérant comme des leviers ou des obstacles à ce processus. En même temps, ce débat s'insère dans une question plus large : celle de l'application d'une notion anglo-saxonne dans des contextes très différents de son lieu d'origine. Le Centre de São Paulo devient alors un cas d'étude intéressant et pertinent dans le débat actuel, qui permet de développer un regard nuancé sur la gentrification, tout en ouvrant des nouvelles clefs de lecture pour le développement des centres latino-américains. Enfin, ce débat aborde directement les complexités liées à la négociation d'intérêts d'ordre économique et social autour de la configuration de l'espace urbain.

The present paper focuses on the work conducted by the NGO Teto in São Paulo (Brazil), where a series of datasets providing geographic information on slums is being elaborated thanks to recent geospatial technologies well suited for a non-specialist, volunteered workforce. The objective here is to contribute to the present debate over potential uses and limitations of geographic data collected and elaborated by engaged citizens who are not specialists in the field, focusing on the possible social outcomes of such methods. Two case studies are presented to illustrate how new technologies facilitate citizen mapping, and how the latter may support humanitarian action in precarious settlements by providing relevant spatial information. Ultimately, this study argues for citizen-driven initiatives and participative processes as useful tools to complement authoritative data, specially in the Global South where an informational gap distinguishes the formal from the informal sectors of the cities.