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A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements

Includes bibliography.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Graham, Nicholas
Other Authors: Abbott, John
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Civil Engineering 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Graham, Nicholas
author2 Abbott, John
author_browse Abbott, John
Graham, Nicholas
author_facet Abbott, John
Graham, Nicholas
author_sort Graham, Nicholas
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliography.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13915
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:44.899Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Civil Engineering
publisherStr Department of Civil Engineering
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13915 A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements Graham, Nicholas Abbott, John Civil Engineering Includes bibliography. Informal settlements are rapidly growing around South Africa's urban centres. With the current housing policy unable to cope with the housing backlog, let alone the growth in demand, new solutions need to be found to improve the unpleasant, unhealthy and unsafe conditions in these settlements. Often, the only engineering interventions are 'emergency' services provided as a temporary solution until formal housing can be provided. While in-situ upgrading of informal settlements is becoming more widely practiced, there is still a lack of knowledge and expertise regarding the provision of infrastructure services in these settlements. Those services which are provided are simply a transfer of the same high levels of service used in greenfield low-cost housing projects. This approach ignores that fact that informal settlements are here to stay and that they are, by their nature, entirely different to other settlements and require innovative technical infrastructure solutions . The aim of this thesis is to provide a review of the various options available for upgrading infrastructure in informal settlements and to assess the applicability of each of these in the context of South African informal settlements. A broader objective is to challenge the conventional development paradigm which centres on the provision of a 'package' of linked services according to a Level of Service Matrix. It is argued that this rigid categorisation of services and settlements oversimplifies the complexity of the technical and social choices that have to be made in the context of informal settlements. The hypothesis that is presented is that it is beneficial to treat each of the services independently in order to identify the criteria for selecting particular technologies, to provide sufficient options and flexibility to create real demand for infrastructure, and to challenge the traditional associations between certain services. An analysis of each of the four main infrastructure services - Sanitation, Water Supply, Drainage and Access - has therefore been undertaken in four separate chapters. 2015-09-15T10:02:01Z 2015-09-15T10:02:01Z 2003 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Eng) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13915 eng application/pdf Department of Civil Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Civil Engineering
Graham, Nicholas
A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
title_full A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
title_fullStr A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
title_full_unstemmed A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
title_short A review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of South African informal settlements
title_sort review of infrastructure services for the upgrading of south african informal settlements
topic Civil Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13915
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