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Noise action planning (NAP) requires collaboration among stakeholders, given the harmful health effects of noise and the subjectivity of how individuals perceive noise. Maptables can be used to mediate in such a collaborative spatial planning process. However, open software applications specifically designed for those devices are still limited or mismatched with user needs. This study presents the co-design and development process of an Open Geo-Spatial Interactive Tool (OGITO-noise) intended for maptables users. We explore to what extent such a tool can be usable and useful in supporting collaborative NAP in practice. Our methods combine agile software development and human-centered design (HCD) in a hybrid fashion, namely remote co-design meetings and face-to-face testing, to develop an open application that our intended users found useful. Those methods were utilized during a pandemic but can also be used when dealing with geographic or resource limitations.

Starting from a well defined and demarcated area in space, the Corgo River, in the region of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, this work seeks through Information Technologies (IT), Digital Humanities and online tools and applications (software) to provide digital images of space and water resources, anthropic elements related to water and various natural features. Based on these available resources and a set of historical cartographic documents, we provide a realistic view of the cultural and natural water landscape and how augmented reality can help archaeology interpret this landscape and its historical transformations.

The interlinked nature of today’s societal challenges asks for integrative approaches. The energy transition is an especially impactful challenge and presents a compelling opportunity to pursue integration, as it requires changes to space, landscape, infrastructure and organizations at different scales. While the added value of integrative approaches that address the energy transition alongside other societal challenges is widely acknowledged, it is not the status quo. The aim of this study is to uncover the institutional barriers to integration and suggest possibilities for redesign. The paper sheds light on a hitherto relatively understudied phase of integration, namely implementation. Two illustrative cases for energy transition integration are discussed; (i) sustainable residential heating combined with climate adaptation in the urban context, and (ii) biogas production from livestock manure for rural residential heating and nitrogen reduction in the Netherlands. Inspired by the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD) and networks of action situations (NAS) concept, the study shows that in the context of energy transition integration, action situations are pillarized with incidental interactions happening between sectors and across scales. The rules that govern actor interactions stem from sectoral institutional arrangements and produce sectoral action situations. Factors that especially obstruct integration are financial streams, budgeting and designated task responsibilities of actors that favour sectoral, one-dimensional projects. Actors interact in sectoral action situations and struggle to establish links to plan for more integrative outcomes. As a way forward, the study illustrates how rules can be redesigned to create integrative action situations and what mechanisms may help to achieve this in practice.

Engaging with different literatures in economic geography, postcolonial urbanism, and planetary urbanization, this article seeks to develop a theoretical understanding of remote urban formations taking shape in India’s countryside. The analysis draws on extensive primary data collected at two study sites in Bihar and West Bengal, which rendered an uncommonly rich data set for such remote areas. We observe emergent urban formations that result from densification, expansion, and amalgamation of built-up environments and a massive shift of employment out of the agricultural sector. At the same time, alternative local economic opportunities are scarce, giving way to significant increases in circular labor migration. We introduce the concept of injected urbanism to denote a form of urbanization that is exogenously generated through remittances, in the absence of significant local agglomeration processes. The infusion of remittances drives local economic restructuring and the emergence of a consumption economy. Injected urbanism spurs local development, but its dependence on economic activity elsewhere raises important questions about its sustainability.

Favelas are the most common type of informal settlements found in Brazil. The Housing Secretariat, City Hall, Sao Paulo, has conducted surveys using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the favelas to facilitate the slum upgrading projects and has taken the initiative to create a digital twin of the slum areas. This study illustrates the feasibility of developing a methodological workflow to create a digital twin by automatic 3D building reconstruction in slums from the UAV point cloud and the 2D building footprints with a continuous link for updating the building semantic information. This study focuses on facilitating data integration and updating the semantic information into the 3D model to provide additional information about the individual buildings in the slums. The assessments concluded that the proposed workflow is suitable for creating digital twins for slums based on the UAV and 2D cadastral data. However, the 3D slum model had a few limitations, which are discussed in this paper.

Wildfire affecting urban areas at the wildland urban interface (WUI) is a growing global concern, where management is important for urban residents as well as wildland vegetation. We used a socio-ecological system perspective to investigate the interactions of urban land with a fire-dependent wildland in South Africa’s City of Cape Town (CoCT). We examined changes in population growth, land cover change and related WUI footprint, occurrence of large fires, and related policies over time. We used Landsat data to track changes over the period 1990–2019 in the formal and informal urban and wildland footprint, census data to track changes in population, and difference normalised burn ratio and MODIS burned area product to track large fires. The urban footprint has expanded greatly and through consolidation has led to the reduction of the WUI. Furthermore, evidence points to an increase in fire suppression, even though national policies ask for wildfires to run their course where possible and appropriate. As a result of pressure from urban residents, local managers prefer short term fire suppression to long term risk reduction for urban areas and ecological management of wildland. Framing the problem as a socio-ecological system enabled us to highlight how WUI management is a product of interaction between urban development, wildland type and policies. Our findings emphasise the point that wildland management is driven by urban residents and local municipalities, with national fire and disaster management policies not fully implemented.

Rapid urbanization and multiple deprivation are making cities more prone to numerous disasters. This study examines the relationships between disaster risk perception and multiple deprivation in the Rangpur city Corporation area in Bangladesh. Enhanced understanding of this relationship would bring valuable insights for planning and policies, especially pertinent for vulnerable communities in the Global South. Rangpur city is located in a deprived zone of Bangladesh that is highly prone to earthquake and fire hazards, and the population’s low level of risk perception might exasperate their vulnerability to earthquakes and fire. This study’s research methods include an index of multiple deprivation, earthquake and fire risk perception index, geographic information system (GIS)-based mapping, statistical analysis and questionnaire surveys. The statistical methods are correlation analysis, factor analysis, Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test and cross-table analysis. The results of the study show that there is no statistically significant relationship between disaster risk perception and multiple deprivation; however, cross-table analysis revealed a relationship between risk perception and deprivation. The study identified the hot spots of hazard risks and deprivation in Rangpur city. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to investigate the relationship between disaster risk perception and multiple deprivation.

Redevelopments of Lima’s water infrastructure aim to reduce inequalities in water consumption, connections, and coverage by implementing data technologies and claim to make urban water management more efficient. However, little research has been done on how the city’s hydrosocial geography is shaped by the increasing use of data for the supervision and control of its water infrastructure. This article analyzes the datafication of Lima’s water infrastructure as the interplay between different legibility-making practices to understand how the use of multiple, interoperable and real-time data sources, shapes the hydrosocial geography of the city as well as the relationship between Lima’s main provider of water and sewerage services (SEDAPAL) and urban water consumers across three scales: newly urbanized areas, water sectors, and households. We conclude that, in an already unequal urban landscape, the datafication strategically (re)structures the relationship between SEDAPAL, as a state organization managing the water infrastructure, and Lima’s residents.

Food-system studies often assess dynamics in production, consumption or processing and logistics in a spatially abstract manner. Land-system studies traditionally analyze land-use/land cover change with its environmental and societal drivers as well as impacts and are typically spatially explicit. Primary production is a main node where food and land systems overlap. We used a systematic literature review to determine how existing studies in Europe address the interface of food and land systems. We identified three pathways of studies: economic, footprint and crop modeling studies (pathway 1), and scenario-based land-use/land-cover change and remote sensing studies (pathway 2), and (qualitative) policy studies (pathway 3). The reviewed studies only partially integrate land- and food-system research. Most of these studies are stronger on the land- than on the food-system side and miss processing as well as distribution and sales. In addition, major linkages between land and food systems are implemented deterministically in the reviewed studies (e.g., through static land requirements for diets). Here, the role of actors and dynamic models considering systemic feedbacks could improve the realisms of studies. Therefore, this study develops a framework to reveal the interplay between food- and land-system research. It focusses on urban-rural linkages as both research strands analyze major processes at this interface: the rural-urban exchange of food and urban sprawl. Future research should especially address and quantify governance, which is hardly quantified to date. Urban-rural linkages are weakly considered in the reviewed literature and if considered only from an urban perspective. Thereby, it would be interesting to study to which extent rural population and governance shape urban-rural-linkages, and how a change of focus from rural to urban areas could provide additional insights.

The past decade has seen a gradual but steady increase in the use of games beyond mere entertainment, lending games a new role that has not been embraced with universal assent. Some consider it as domestication, bastardization, and colonization of games and play. Others consider games and a gaming frame of mind an inevitable characteristic of a livable world in the twenty-first century. The games’ struggles in finding their new functional place are often framed as a political or practical matter. The solutions, therefore, are sought in understanding the existing power relations, improving the quality of design, or addressing technological barriers. The epistemic nature of these struggles, however, often remains overlooked. Inspired by the works of Medieval Persian philosophers on the value of art, in this article I aim to unravel the added value of treating these struggles philosophically. The article presents how the narratives around instrumental and intrinsic values of art vis-à-vis science are shaped and evolved in Western and Persian philosophy. It then outlines the limits of the contemporary understanding of the value of art and its consequences on the design and use of communication media. The article concludes by arguing that the solutions to such struggles can be sought in reaching a better understanding of artworks and how they can be legitimized in practice and policies.

A frequent criticism of knowledge-based planning tools is the apparent mismatch between information frameworks used in their spatial models and the information needs of planning actors. Increasingly, these actors are contributing their context-specific knowledge during the development of such tools. Transferring this knowledge from actors to the model remains a challenge. This study establishes a set of design requirements for knowledge elicitation in small group settings and introduces game co-design as a method allowing planning actors and planning support experts to meet halfway between the technology and user domains in the so-called third space. We present an initial case where in three nominal group sessions, actors encountered and critiqued parameterized assumptions of their planning issues in a tangible game environment. Findings indicate that the method can elicit different types of knowledge (divergence) about a spatial system in operationalized terms (formalization). We discuss the potential of tangible game co-design as a modeling as learning exercise and its complementarity to dedicated digital technologies for more holistic planning support.

Esse estudo, cujo objetivo é identificar barreiras e incentivos para o uso da bicicleta na cidade de São Paulo, a partir da consulta a stakeholders e da adaptação de um método de análise multicritério e multiatores (MAMCA), envolveu planejadores e representantes de organizações não governamentais. Os resultados, obtidos por meio de workshops e consultas, mostraram que os atores envolvidos não possuíam leituras da realidade tão distintas entre si, embora o grupo de influenciadores tenha se mostrado mais crítico que o de planejadores. A infraestrutura cicloviária destacou-se como essencial para atrair ciclistas. A ausência de uma cultura da bicicleta também recebeu atenção. Contudo, mais significativo foi o fato de que o grupo de planejadores ignorou a importância da segurança de trânsito para o uso da bicicleta. Finalmente, a avaliação de cenários demonstrou que, para ambos os grupos, as medidas adotadas por São Paulo são pouco efetivas quando comparadas com outros casos.

As more people worldwide are moving to urban areas there is an expansion of urban land that adjoins wildland. This study focuses on an area where fire-dependent and fire-prone vegetation meets an informal urban settlement named Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa. We investigate the reasoning behind why some residents choose to remain in a settlement that experiences both wildfires and settlement-based fires and why others choose to leave. To achieve this we integrate three theories: protection motivation theory, John Turner's theory on settlement patterns and place attachment. We converted Turner's qualitative theory into quantitatively measurable indicators and identified five resident types with varying characteristics in the settlement. In agreement with Turner's theory, employment and friends and family were identified as key reasons for people remaining in a known high-fire-risk settlement. Finally, we combined the protection motivation theory with Turner's theory and place attachment in regression models to determine why people remain in the study area and what factors may make them move. The key determinants for residents remaining are the perceived benefits of the location, place attachment and the individual's perception of fire-threat. Significant determinants for moving away due to perceived fire-threat include how effective the move would be for the fire hazard and their current level of place attachment.

This study investigates the climate emergency declaration (CED) movement in cities and its effects and synergies with local climate planning. Urban areas are experiencing a wide range of climate-induced extreme events, particularly those located in the Mediterranean hotspot. The focus is on Italian cities, which have only recently become key players in climate planning. The method is based on the collection, analysis, and comparison of data on CEDs and local climate plans (LCPs), integrated with information on city membership in climate networks, to extrapolate key performance indicators of the CED movement. The results show that the CED movement can motivate municipalities to become more ambitious in climate action. As of February 2021, the “climate emergency” movement was supported by 105 Italian cities geographically concentrated in the northern regions (66.7%). The motivation behind a CED is often attributable to local populations calling for concrete climate action (91.1% referred to the Fridays for Future movement) but also to a greater perception of the impacts of climate change (85.6% referred to the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C). Networking plays an important role (85 cities in the Covenant of Mayors). Interestingly, 36 cities (34.3%) were not engaged in local climate planning previously, but the CED shows now they see the urgency to act. 24.4% cities aim at carbon neutrality in their CEDs (most with local adaptation aspirations), with a much smaller fraction of cities doing so in LCPs and generally lower ambition in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Earth Observation (EO)-based mapping of cities has great potential to detect patterns beyond the physical ones. However, EO combined with the surge of machine learning techniques to map non-physical, such as socioeconomic, aspects directly, goes to the expense of reproducibility and interpretability, hence scientific validity. In this paper, we suggest shifting the focus from the direct detection of socioeconomic status from raw images through image features, to the mapping of interpretable urban morphology of basic urban elements as an intermediate step, to which socioeconomic patterns can then be related. This shift is profound, in that, rather than abstract image features, it allows to capture the morphology of real urban objects, such as buildings and streets, and use this to then interpret other patterns, including socioeconomic ones. Because socioeconomic patterns are not derived from raw image data, the mapping of these patterns is less data demanding and more replicable. Specifically, we propose a 2-step approach: (1) extraction of fundamental urban elements from satellite imagery, and (2) derivation of meaningful urban morphological patterns from the extracted elements. We refer to this 2-step approach as “EO + Morphometrics”. Technically, EO consists of applying deep learning through a reengineered U-Net shaped convolutional neural network to publicly accessible Google Earth imagery for building extraction. Methods of urban morphometrics are then applied to these buildings to compute semantically explicit and interpretable metrics of urban form. Finally, clustering is applied to these metrics to obtain morphological patterns, or urban types. The “EO + Morphometrics” approach is applied to the city of Nairobi, Kenya, where 15 different urban types are identified. To test whether this outcome meaningfully describes current urbanization patterns, we verified whether selected types matched locally designated informal settlements. We observe that four urban types, characterized by compact and organic urban form, were recurrent in such settlements. The proposed “EO + Morphometrics” approach paves the way for the large-scale identification of interpretable urban form patterns and study of associated dynamics across any region in the world.

The synergistic combination of deep learning (DL) models and Earth observation (EO) promises significant advances to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). New developments and a plethora of applications are already changing the way humanity will face the challenges of our planet. This article reviews current DL approaches for EO data, along with their applications toward monitoring and achieving the SDGs most impacted by the rapid development of DL in EO. We systematically review case studies to achieve zero hunger, create sustainable cities, deliver tenure security, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and preserve biodiversity. Important societal, economic, and environmental implications are covered. Exciting times are coming when algorithms and Earth data can help in our endeavor to address the climate crisis and support more sustainable development.

The past decade has seen a gradual but steady increase in the planning scholars’ interest in outlining a functional place for games in planning. A wide range of games for and about urban planning is developed and tested, from data-driven games that rely on extensive modelling techniques and aim to reduce the cost and risk of real-world scenario testing, to those that seek to educate their players about the complex nature of political and social issues. Despite the increasing interest in strengthening communications between planning and game studies, the current state is an amalgam of confusion and optimism about games’ role and added value. To shed light on why such confusions emerge, the article reflects on the nature and outcomes of communications between urban planning and games studies and explores games’ historical and current conceptions in planning. By adopting concepts from the work of Holbrook on interdisciplinary communications, the article explores how game studies’ concepts are rendered useful in planning and how planning theory has dealt with untranslatability and incommensurability of concepts in the processes of establishing and sustaining communications with game studies.

Globally, the damage caused by floods is increasing because of rising urbanisation and climate change. In developing world cities, the impacts of these floods are wide-reaching because of high levels of vulnerability, unplanned development (usually in environmentally sensitive areas), and the weak enforcement of existing by-laws and planning standards by some local authorities. This is exacerbated by high poverty levels, with a big part of the population living on less than a dollar per day. The economy is also highly reliant on informal activities in which micro small and medium enterprises contribute a big percentage of employment, yet they operate in the open and lack access to lines of credit which are critical for resilience building By and large, the problem of flooding has been tackled using city-wide engineering solutions, which have proved to be inadequate, and burdensome to local authorities, especially in the developing world cities. Local-level protective measures by households, businesses, and communities, have become integral in augmenting city-wide efforts. In supporting local level self-protective efforts, it is key to understand their motivations for doing it and vice versa. While scholars have done much in this direction, very little effort has been applied in Africa. Cities in the developing world are also facing governance problems that militate against revenue generation and implementation of planning standards. Governance models promoted by international development agencies are proving to be problematic and more innovative and pragmatic governance models and evaluative frameworks are needed. Moreover, rapid innovative ways of researching resilience-building efforts in the developing world cities are needed to close the data gap between the developing world and the developed world. I addressed these problems by carrying out a case study of three neighbourhoods in Kampala - a city which faces recurrent flash floods and has in the past 6 years undergone governance reform. In chapter 2, I examined the influence of governance rearrangements from a decentralised system to a hybrid system, on the performance of the city administration on flood risk mitigation. I adapted a Water Governance Assessment Framework to measure the anticipated changes. A positive change was established in flood mitigation because of improved revenue generation and intensity in the implementation of planning standards In Chapter 3, I provided a research fieldwork management technique (Extended Briefing and Debriefing Technique) which can help carry out rapid surveys with multi-lingual research assistants in cross-language/national settings. Researchers can apply this technique to counter financial barriers to more studies of this nature in other developing world cities. Chapters four and five document the influencing factors of threat and coping appraisal respectively, among households. Flood mitigation efforts by the government, coupled with the transient nature of informal settlements, negatively influence threat appraisal. Regarding coping appraisal by households, first, income negatively influences perceptions of self-efficacy for lower-cost structural measures because, in informal economies, those with lower incomes tend to do manual jobs themselves. Second, our findings from the affluent neighbourhood confirm what past studies report – that higher education is associated with lower perceptions of self-efficacy for structural measures by contrast with what was found in the slum areas. Here too, we expect that income is playing a role since it is correlated with education level. Third, social capital does not necessarily lead to perceptions of a lower cost of implementing non-structural measures, which may signal weak social networks. Fourth, instead of past flood damage motivating households to do more to protect themselves in the future, we see evidence that such events incapacitate them and undermine their sense of resilience. This suggests that low severity but high-frequency floods, such as those in Kampala, can have significant impacts on the resilience of affected communities which should not be underestimated in flood risk reduction strategies and programs Business perceptions about flood risk and coping, and motivations to self-protect, are presented in Chapter 6. micro-enterprises were found to be more likely to implement mitigation measures compared to small enterprises contradicting two past studies in the United Kingdom in two states of the USA. A probable reason found behind such relations is that more than half of the small businesses had mitigation measures already in place at the time of the study. This highlights the importance of time in such studies and perhaps indicates why there are mixed results in the literature. The businesses that rent their premises were more likely to implement mitigation measures compared to those that own. In Kampala, business tenants may be more self-reliant in this respect; they may have little confidence that the property owner will invest in such measures given their low incomes and the lack of legal instruments that require owners to invest to protect their tenants. Having experienced flooding did not motivate businesses to implement flood mitigation measures. The financial impacts were significant enough to show a change in mitigation behaviour unlike property damage and health issues, but it is important to note that most of the financial impacts include costs incurred due to hospital bills and property/goods damages. Also, while floods may be frequent in our three study areas they are, mostly not extreme so major property damage and health impacts may be quite rare. The businesses that are more willing to spend on mitigation measures are more likely to implement such measures. The influence of coping appraisal elements was not consistent across the nine mitigation measures analysed in this research, and not all were significant contributors to the models predicting the mitigation behaviour. Government actions, like the expansion of the primary drainage channel in Bwaise III which was completed in 2013, increased the confidence among local businesses about the measure ‘clearing drainage’ relative to Natete where such action has not yet been undertaken, despite the approval of a Drainage Master Plan in 2002. Such capital investments in drainage infrastructure are important elements of the flood reduction strategy of Kampala, though the shortage of funding often means long lead times for implementation, and the lack of attention and funds for drainage maintenance may compromise the effectiveness of the measure for long-term flood protection, even in Bwaise III.

As urbanisation accelerates, the urban landscape reshapes at a fast pace. Consequently, the urban built environment continuously evolves horizontally as well as vertically. However, more attention in the field of spatial analysis is given to horizontal dynamics, despite the importance of geoinformation in the vertical dimension. 3D modelling methods have gained popularity due to their powerful capability of capturing and analysing geoinformation in the vertical dimension and visualising objects lifelike in the urban built environment. Various urban applications with diverse 3D modelling methods at different research scales and purposes have emerged. However, there is no systematic overview of these different modelling methods. Therefore, it is imperative to provide an up-to-date review of these advances. In this paper, we aim to review urban 3D modelling methods widely used in the prior 5-year period (2015–2020). Our analysis focuses on five attributes, i.e., basic characteristics, data requirements, technical requirements, users requirements and ethical considerations. The discussion presents the current status of 3D modelling methods – a wide range of applications yet with substantial development potential. This paper closes with insights for future work regarding the necessities of 3D data structure support as well as interdisciplinary research, specifically for big data management and integration.

This paper presents our contribution to the development of a standardized 3D input data model for solar photovoltaic potential estimation. Presently, different input data and processing steps influence the calculation for estimating the potential of solar energy in the Netherlands. The variety in characteristics of input data and issues with temporal accuracy extracted from the national registers and databases makes it challenging to obtain a consistent and reliable result. To address this issue, we created a point cloud dataset that integrated from LiDAR point cloud and dense image matching which is complete, recent and positionally accurate. Furthermore, we made a 3D building model from the integrated point cloud and identified the effect of finer resolution in the photovoltaic potential analysis.

Several scholars have, over the years, written about their experiences of the pathway of PhD by publication (PBP). However, little is known about why African doctoral students pursue PBP and their experiences . In this article, we adopt collaborative autoethnography to document our experiences and motivation for choosing the PBP pathway. Based on our experiences, the choice of PBP is primarily influenced by the candidate's previous research experience and the requirements/practices of the university. The common motivation among African doctoral students is the quest to acquire the requisite research skills and training in journal article publishing and the determination to catch-up in the knowledge economy through the production of high-quality scientific publication. Everyday experiences of PBP are shaped by university expectations, scholarly writing skills, institutional, supervisory and external support systems, research training and resilience. This study concludes by highlighting the positive implications of PBP for educational and socio-economic development in Africa and the world, more generally. It is recommended that journals develop scholar development programs to enable their editors to provide individualized support to PhD students, especially those pursuing PBP.

Old immigration hubs and new ones worldwide have experienced rapid and increasing movements of people from more varied national, ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds. These movements have emerged along with a diversification of migration channels and legal statuses. In concurrent but differing ways, these migration-driven trends profoundly transform societies in complex ways spanning social, demographic, cultural, economic, and political structures. Across a range of disciplines and literatures, such complex transformation processes and patterns are summarized by the concept of superdiversity. In the Oxford Handbook of Superdiversity, we collate bespoke contributions that summarize and expand on research work done in light of superdiversity. The book offers unique insights into the ongoing debates about diversity and how to make sense of it considering complex social transformations. The collection is unique in providing accessible texts that highlight different disciplinary standpoints and developments and the methodological innovation superdiversity entails. The book also brings together chapters that emphasize interdisciplinary case studies and examples of the social implications of superdiversity in different cities and contexts around the globe.

Participatory mapping for landscape planning is gaining in popularity. With a participatory geographic information system, the local spatial knowledge of the affected public can be collected and included in planning decisions. For its proponents, participatory mapping is deemed useful not only for rendering planning more inclusive but also for facilitating consensus in planning. Here, we present a case study of wind energy planning in a region in Switzerland in which we applied a participatory mapping approach that resulted in providing spatial data not for consensus-making but for creating counter-maps. Using a critical cartography approach, we identified from our sample data the distinct wind energy discourses of supporters, opponents, and people who were indifferent; these revealed three different representations of the same place, which leaves little room for reaching a consensus. Drawing on the agonistic planning theory of radical democracy, however, we could demonstrate why this outcome is not necessarily problematic but rather bears potential for more democracy and pluralism in controversial landscape planning. This case study builds the foundation for discussions about how to implement energy transition in the face of the climate crisis and touches on other cutting-edge issues, including the handling of dissensus, conflict, and polarization in planning.

Contains fulltext : 219456.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Although historical developments have differently shaped urban growth trajectories of Indian and South African cities, informal settlements continue to present urgent concerns for city governments in both countries. This research explores urban governance and political bargaining of households residing in informal settlements of Chennai, India and eThekwini, South Africa across institutional and geographic scales. The article analyses two relations in a comparative framework of Chennai and eThekwini- 1) between city governments and informal settlements; and 2) livelihoods building strategy of households in relations to the informal settlements. City and settlement relations are explored by discussing the dominant planning discourses, as illustrated in policy-related documents produced by the two city governments. The article reveals that political bargaining utilising different methods forms a crucial strategy to build livelihoods. The multi-scalar analysis of households within their situated contexts reveals how their distinct trajectories of development are closely associated with the urban and settlement histories of which they are a part. The different mandates within which the settlements exist are influential in allowing households to build up their livelihoods over one or two generations. 8 p.

This paper details the development and design of the Observatorio Metropolitano de Agua para Lima-Callao (the metropolitan water observatory for Lima-Callao, MWO). The MWO is a digital, collaboratively developed observatory that aims to collect and share data about water access and infrastructuring practices within the metropolitan city of Lima-Callao, Peru. The purpose of developing the MWO has been to contribute to a fairer distribution of water resources amongst urban residents by creating an ‘espacio de concertación’ and collect and diffuse data on access to and quantity and quality of water for human consumption. By combining collaborative design approaches with the theory-informed data justice principles, we have been able to develop a prototype of the MWO. In general, this teaches us how to design digital platforms according to the principles of data justice in practice.

This chapter analyzes homeowners’ and residents’ coping appraisal factors related to flood mitigation measures in three neighborhoods of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Using survey data from 612 households, we correlated flood risk and social vulnerability variables with coping appraisal elements and ran 72 measure-specific ordinal regression coping appraisal models. We conclude that vulnerability, flood severity, flood-related damage, and financial loss negatively influence perceptions of self-efficacy for structural measures. Homeowners and households with more effective measures already implemented have higher perceptions of self-efficacy to implement structural measures compared to tenants and those with less effective measures in place, respectively. Flood information and risk aversion have mixed influences on coping appraisal, perharps because the information sources for many are not reliable. Therefore, good risk communication by the municipality and other development actors can promote positive self-protective interventions.

This chapter presents a case study of research conducted with 39 children from an ethnic minority background in the city of Enschede, The Netherlands, where we focus on understanding participants’ experiences and perceptions regarding their local neighbourhoods through an experimental digital methodology using Google MapsTM. The findings showcase detailed geolocated observations that can be incorpo- rated into the planning process and hold the possibility of better addressing minority children’s needs in their living environments and realizing social justice. Through our discussion of the research process and outcomes, we reflect on facilitation processes and meaningful participation of children while navigating fieldwork material limi- tations. The chapter starts with a brief discussion on childhood agency and partici- pation, followed by a brief contextual description of the city of Enschede where our study takes place. Next, we highlight the recruitment process followed by a discus- sion of the digital methodological approach we employed to engage the participants in mapping and producing a visual archive of their positive and negative experiences in their residential neighbourhoods. Finally, we reflect on our study alongside larger debates on children’s agency and participation in urban planning processes.

This study explores the formation of economic complexity within a city from the Global South, during 2011–2019. It proposes an expanded interpretation of the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) to be applied at the intra-urban context of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, focusing on three different spatial levels of analysis (i.e., local, neighbourhood, and community levels). By applying the index to these three levels, instead of regional or national administrative boundaries commonly used in literature, this study contributes to approximating the observation of economic complexity to the actual geographical scales at which economic interactions take place, allowing for intra-urban comparisons. The proposed ECI includes the service economy, amenities, and retail, in addition to commonly observed manufacturing industry. Methodologically, this case study introduces the Urban Economy Space network diagram to the expanded ECI as an effort to holistically consider all economic sectors happening in a city. The main findings are twofold. First, the city services classified as more complex by the ECI are aligned with the theory of post-industrial economic activities: financial, telecommunications, scientific and technical services, etc. Second, government-led institutions such as healthcare facilities, higher education institutions, etc., appear on the top tier of economic complexity, indicating that local and national governments can contribute to complexifying local economies.

Despite the significant and explicit focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), much of the world’s land rights remain unrecorded and outside formal government systems. Blame is often placed on land administration processes that are considered slow, expensive, and expertise-dependent. Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) has been suggested as an alternative, time and cost-effective approach. Likewise, the UN endorsed Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA) demands attention to worldwide tenure insecurity by directly linking it to responsible land administration. Implementation of FFPLA and FELA is country-context dependent, and there are now many lessons of execution from various jurisdictions. Undertaken in 2022, this study synthesizes a review of experiences to provide a further update on the best global FFPLA implementation practices and inform approaches for future FFPLA projects. A systematic review is adopted as the research methodology, and contemporary articles from the internationally recognized land administration discourse are examined. The studies focus on FFPLA implementation practices and innovative approaches for delivering land tenure security. A checklist is developed, based on the FELA strategic pathways and the FFPLA fundamental framework principles and characteristic elements, to identify best implementation practices. Success stories across the globe show that the FFPLA characteristic elements and the FELA pathway goals are achieved through effective execution of the FFPLA framework key principles. As a result, the study identified successful FFPLA implementation practices in Asia and Africa, which can be synthesized and extended to realize tenure security in rapidly urbanizing areas. However, further study is necessary to determine the efficacy, practicability, innovativeness, and transferability of the best practices to other land administration scenarios.

Digital twins (DTs) have been found useful in manufacturing, construction, and maintenance. Adapting DTs to serve cities, the question arises of what an urban digital twin should contain and how it should be orchestrated to serve a city’s dynamical ecosystem, along with how to enhance the efficiency of the city. We are aligning with the commonplace idea that the main advantage of using DTs is economical as, for example, DTs can improve the planning of activities thus saving money and time. But how can they be useful for a city? Instead of looking at the DTs as solutions in search of problems to be solved, we start from city needs. Our approach is two-fold. We start by briefly reviewing existing possibilities for meeting some specific needs, but keep the focus on identifying and attempting to close the gap between the needs arising from everyday city functions and the latest DT techniques useful for meeting those needs. DTs are technically different and serve different applications, yet they share a common identity and name, as well as several technical similarities. Adopting computer science terminology, we see a back-end city DT as the container of all information, while any single front-end, visualized or used either by humans or robots, offers a limited but meaningful representation of the DT for a specific application. Alas, there are multiple open questions regarding the realization and benefits of such back-end DT. Nevertheless, we discuss how the back-end DT (or any specific DT) could be updated autonomously from sensor data using artificial intelligence techniques, and how the front-ends could be used for large benefits to the entire city ecosystem.

With the trends of increasing flood risk due to climate change and rapid urbanisation in many parts of the world, property level mitigation efforts have become more relevant in flood risk management. However, the flood mitigation behaviour of business owners is an understudied aspect of risk reduction. This article employs the Protection Motivation Theory framework to identify critical factors that determine the flood damage mitigation behaviour of micro, small and medium enterprises in three neighbourhoods of Kampala, Uganda. We conducted a sample survey of micro to medium-sized business owners in two informal areas and one formal area in Kampala. Our analysis established that businesses of all sizes adopted structural measures and that micro-enterprises (0–4 employees) were more likely to implement non-structural measures than small businesses. Financial losses, risk aversion, and perceptions of flood likelihood all showed positive relationships with flood damage mitigation actions. Many businesses indicated that relocation is an inefficient and costly measure, though one that is easily self-implementable. Information-seeking behaviour and receiving flood-related information stimulated businesses to mitigate, though few businesses have regular access to helpful information regarding flood mitigation measures, especially concerning non-structural measures. These insights provide a basis for crafting business resilience-building policy and strategies considering increasing climate change-induced flash-flood risk in Kampala and other similar contexts.

Constraints and limits to adaptation are critical to understanding the extent to which human and natural systems can successfully adapt to climate change. We conduct a systematic review of 1,682 academic studies on human adaptation responses to identify patterns in constraints and limits to adaptation for different regions, sectors, hazards, adaptation response types, and actors. Using definitions of constraints and limits provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we find that most literature identifies constraints to adaptation but that there is limited literature focused on limits to adaptation. Central and South America and Small Islands generally report greater constraints and both hard and soft limits to adaptation. Technological, infrastructural, and ecosystem-based adaptation suggest more evidence of constraints and hard limits than other types of responses. Individuals and households face economic and socio-cultural constraints which also inhibit behavioral adaptation responses and may lead to limits. Finance, governance, institutional, and policy constraints are most prevalent globally. These findings provide early signposts for boundaries of human adaptation and are of high relevance for guiding proactive adaptation financing and governance from local to global scales.

With rapid urbanization leading to the proliferation of deprived urban areas (often referred to as “slums”) in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a growing number of city dwellers living in inadequate housing conditions and being exposed to multiple hazards. In this context, Earth Observation has the potential for filling gaps in spatial data availability and thereby support evidence-based policy making. We assess the potential of free open-source software, open dual-pol SAR and optical imagery (Sentinel-l and Sentinel-2), and open global datasets for producing accurate city-scale maps of areas having morphological characteristics of deprivation. Implementing a grid-based machine learning approach, we evaluate different combinations of spectral and spatial Sentinel features, and features from global data. The results show that a high accuracy can be reached with the best combinations. Since publishing maps with hard labels (e.g., deprived vs. non-deprived areas) could raise ethical concerns or even lead to misuses, the output is provided as gridded morphological deprivation probability maps.

Human settlements – the places where people live and work – are rapidly evolving. Some of the processes driving the physical changes in human settlements are population and economic growth, rural-u...

UAVs-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles- also known as drones, are an emerging geospatial technology that can facilitate data acquisition at various temporal and spatial scales. Notwithstanding, the wide application of UAVs globally, its wider application is found to be growing in Nepal as well. For instance, precision agriculture, forestry, topographical surveying, etc. It seems that there is a correlation between efficient use of UAVs in these sectors and the legal frameworks that regulate the use of UAVs. Therefore, it seems necessary to obtain holistic national view of UAVs regulations. Aligning with this necessity, this paper provides insight on existing legal provisions for UAVs in Nepal by highlighting the importance, impact, and limitations of UAV regulations. The criteria used in the framework to capture the present holistic legal dimension from literature in the web of science database are a) applicability b) technical requirements c) operational requirements/ limitations d) administration procedure e) human resource requirements and f) implementation of ethical constraints. The adopted methodological approach consists of exploratory case studies, systematic reviews of the concerned literature on UAVs regulations and the workshop on “Flight 4 Purpose” in which various UAVs application were discussed. The results show that the existing legal framework has both strengths and weaknesses for its use to capture the spatial data. The way forward is to harmonize the soft and hard regulations so that such geospatial technology can be applied for overall development and ultimately for the societal benefits.

This paper uses an actor-oriented political ecology approach, and procedural and distributional lenses to explore whether large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) exhibit the characteristics of land grabs. We apply these perspectives in two LSLAs in Ghana (oil palm, jatropha) that reflect different drivers/processes of land acquisition, crops and modes of production. For the procedural analysis, we track how LSLAs unfolded on the ground using (a) legal perspectives, (b) narratives of the local communities and other key players (e.g. chiefs, investor, government institutions), and (c) formal documentary evidence. For the distributional analysis, we examine some of the key socioeconomic and environmental impacts of these LSLAs through household surveys in the affected communities affected. Through the triangulation of this information, we conclude that even though these LSLAs have some characteristics of land grabs, it is problematic to concretely label them as such. This is because they followed the appropriate legal provisions, even though some of the consultation and compensation processes were questionable. These processes were largely mediated through the unconstructive involvement of chiefs (and their manipulation of customary procedures), rather than unethical practices from the side of investors. These questionable processes have affected transparency and accountability, and have had negative distributional outcomes. This indicates ‘benefit grabbing' by traditional authorities at the expense of local communities, rather than actual land grabbing by investors. It is therefore imperative to consider chiefs’ involvement in LSLAs and further formalise LSLA processes (especially in terms of consultations and compensation) to avoid instances of land and/or benefit grabbing in Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa.

There is an urgent need to develop strategic spatial planning methods adapted to the conditions of countries with weak planning systems facing rapid urbanization. These methods should allow evaluating the territorial qualities of the system of cities and to meaningfully guiding the implementation of national urban policies or strategies. In this context, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) has developed the Spatial Development Framework (SDF) method, which is presented here for the first time, after having been tested in different countries. The SDF method helps to develop an understanding of the roles and inter-linkages of various urban settlements in the territory and to frame the territorial structure in a context of fluidity and uncertainty typical of countries facing uncontrolled urbanization. The method is then discussed and conclusions for the way forward are drawn.

Rwanda has developed a National Urbanization Policy (NUP) that identifies six secondary citieswhere efforts to promote urbanization and economic growth should focus. To implement it, a Spatial Development Framework (SDF) was developed, that makes use of Planning Support Systems (PSS) to communicate the goals to the local level. PSS present opportunities for stakeholders to understand and translate national policies to their local planning contexts. This paper questions how the SDF’s PSS tools can be used in the NUP’s transfer and translation to the local level. It focuses on potential users of the SDF. Results suggest that SDF’s PSS tools and outcomes can promote better spatial understanding, and communicate planning needs, strengthening regional competition andeconomic development among the secondary cities and in line with NUP. We conclude that the national government can use vertical transfer and horizontal translation to transfer the SDF’S PSS tools and outcomes to secondary cities.

Residential fragmentation undermines integration by physically excluding some urban dwellers through walling, fencing and use of barriers limiting interactions. Research has shown that many cities in the Global South are experiencing spatial fragmentation issues associated with increasing inequalities, social exclusion and proliferation of gated communities. This results in distinct residential fragments with limited interactions and unequal quality of life (QoL) conditions of the residents of the fragments. The aim of this paper is to describe the association between residential fragmentation and QoL based on three residential fragments in the city of Nairobi (Kenia). A mixed method approach was applied to understand fragmentation in the city and analyse integration and QoL satisfaction in the fragments. Household surveys and key informant interviews were main data collection methods. Data analysis methods used included descriptive statistics, spatial and content analysis. The results show, as expected, slum residents felt the least integrated symbolically compared to the planned non-gated and gated community residents. Similarly, gated community residents have higher QoL satisfaction compared to other types of fragments. There is a strong positive correlation between symbolic integration and QoL domains related to housing and safety in the slum, indicating that people who are satisfied with housing also have a sense of belonging to their neighbourhood. In contrast, community integration has a negative correlation with safety in the gated community implying that when the residents are satisfied with safety, they tend to have low social networks. Based on the empirical evidence, fragmentation is related to specific domains of QoL as it is associated with spatial exclusion through barriers and gating and marginalization of the poor making it harder for them to feel integrated. The residential fragments reflect the intense divides in Global South cities in terms of QoL conditions and access to services.

This paper is an exploration into whether public space users performing different activities describe their auditory environments in noticeably different ways. Building on soundscape and psycholinguistic literature, a questionnaire study was conducted in a large park in Amsterdam (NL), where 92 park users described, in writing, their activities and auditory environments. Users' self-reported activities were categorized based on their level of social interaction (solitary vs. socially interactive), and using open coding, generating categories of activities grouped by semantic range. The written corpus on auditory environment descriptions was analysed through a proposed classificatory framework, coding descriptions at three semantic and one syntactic level. We preliminarily tested whether there are associations between various categories of activities and of auditory environment descriptions, categorized at different levels. Our results suggest that, while for detailed levels of activity categorization there were no non-distinct patterns, the level of social interaction of users' activities has an observable effect over users' descriptions of their auditory environments. This holds particularly in relation to types of sounds listed, as well as for differences in descriptions at a syntactic level. These findings point towards subtly diff erent auditory experiences in the same public space for users performing solitary or socially interactive activities.

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing massive socio-spatial transformations. Many old inner-city neighbourhoods are being demolished to give way to modern commercial and residential developments, and generally, to a more modern living environment. These ambitions often lead to manifold displacement and resettlement projects that affect the livelihoods of millions of people, including many from informal settlements. Given the novelty of urban space transformations in Sub-Saharan African countries, empirical research on the impacts on affected urban households is rare. Based on research conducted in Kigali, Rwanda, this paper discusses livelihood impacts, of urban redevelopment and disaster risk mitigation induced resettlement projects, on affected informal settlement households. This contribution draws on interviews and focus group discussions undertaken with both households to be displaced and resettled households, as well as interviews with key informants during fieldwork. The findings highlight that, irrespective of potential opportunities of resettlement projects to deliver improved housing to poor informal households, most displaced informal households in Kigali endure several adverse impacts on their physical, financial, social, and human livelihood assets. While previous studies narrowed displacement impacts to post-relocation impacts, this research shows that affected informal households also endure significant adverse livelihood impacts in the pre-relocation stage. Uncertainties during the pre-relocation phase are significant causes of impoverishment risks among the households likely to be displaced. Accurate and detailed information of the resettlement projects need to be communicated in the early stage of the process to avoid the unnecessary impoverishment risks of affected households. Clear transparent guidelines on entitlements and compensation for each displacement type need to be disclosed and discussed with affected communities. We conclude that an understanding of livelihood impacts in both the pre- and post-relocation stages offers a holistic conceptualisation, which is required to mitigate impoverishment risks and to protect and improve the livelihoods of affected households throughout the entire relocation process.

Institutions shape people’s behavior and perception. This help reduce uncertainty. Institutions play an important role in shaping socio-economic outcomes. For this to happen institutions must be effective and functional. Institutional effectiveness depends, to a large extent, on factors such as the existence of an enabling environment, which includes complementary institutions. Over the years, several developing countries introduced land formalization. The change in institutional arrangements, in many cases, was made in anticipation of a better land tenure security provision. However, it is not clear yet if the change in land institutions produces the intended result, for instance, in the absence of dependable complementary institutions such as politico-legal institutions. By doing a review of the literature and using data from Property Rights Alliance (IPRI 2018) and Freedom House this study analyzed 10 countries to find a correlation between land institutions’ credibility and the quality of politico-legal institutions. This is to assess to what extent the success of land reform depends on the quality of the existing politico-legal institutions. The result of the study reveals that there is a strong correlation between the quality of politico-legal institutions and the quality of land institutions of a given country. This shows that land institutions and politico-legal institutions are highly interdependent. This underscores that in the absence of a strong or effective politico-legal institutions land reform might fail to fulfill its objectives, which undermines its credibility. To establish a credible land institution, it is imperative to put effective politico-legal institutions in place.

The global land community has increasingly recognized the need to work towards practical, coordinated integration and scalable implementation of alternative approaches to land administration, ones that better serve the interests of the majority of groups in society. The pro-poor land recordation tool (PPLRT) contains a set of design elements developed to improve protection and access to land for the poor, particularly women, youth and vulnerable groups, especially in areas with (rapidly) changing land use. Building on earlier PPLRT work, this article positions the PPLRT relative to other responsible land administration approaches (especially Fit-For-Purpose). It further develops the PPLRT design elements and system based on incorporating increased foci on institutional and political economy aspects and a more complex notion of community, stemming from four documented cases of records keeping, and expert feedback. The paper recommends refinement of all but one of the design elements, addition of a new design element, and modification of the PPLRT’s graphical depiction. Recommended strategic areas for further research are: assessing the impacts of pro-poor land recordation on achievement of the SDGs (particularly land related indicator 1.4.2) and New Urban Agenda (particularly paragraph 35); identifying the necessary conditions for improved, coordinated, and scaled PPLRT implementation in various contexts; and articulation of the circumstances for effective future alignment, conversion and integration of land data collected by local communities with those of existing land administration agencies.

Most earth observation (EO) approaches only yield a binary delineation of deprived/non-deprived areas – an oversimplified characterisation with little information inferred regarding the diversity of intra-urban deprivation. In this study, we attempt to explore the potential of using VHR EO-based data to predict the degrees of intra-urban deprivation in Nairobi, Kenya. This involves a two-step workflow of characterising and predicting a continuous index of deprivation degrees. First, a principal component analysis (PCA) is conducted to characterise the multi-dimensionality of deprivation using open geospatial datasets as a set of continuous indices. Next, a convolution neural network (CNN) based regression model is trained to directly predict the deprivation indices using SPOT-7 images. The best prediction of the proposed CNN regression model is obtained in the morphology-based domain, with an R2 of 0.6543. We demonstrate the potential of an EO-based method to directly capture the degrees of morphological deprivation with relatively high accuracy, while also acknowledging its limitations in predicting the complexity of deprivation.

Urbanization processes are manifested by the change in the physical morphology of cities. Gaining knowledge about cities through their morphology is naturally linked to the capability of remote sensing (RS) that can monitor city forms with a synoptic view. Yet, our knowledge of the urban form does not linearly increase with the increase of image data. Thus, the role, challenges and potentials of RS in deriving knowledge about urban morphology are worth investigating. We argue that ongoing efforts of mapping urban elements in RS are only marginally contributing to the understanding of cities in terms of urban morphology. We further reason that magnifying the role of RS depends on a suggested workflow involving steps that are external to RS, mainly including characterizing urban morphology through meaningful measurements of mapped elements, and interpreting the measured physical forms as proxies of the socioeconomic status. To exemplify the major steps, we focus on urban poverty (deprivation), and examine its manifestation through the morphology of buildings. Our findings show that challenges appear as soon as the collection of building information from RS images starts. This is mainly caused by inconsistent, incomplete and inaccurate GIS based representation of buildings on images, as well as low quality predictions, hidden from accuracy metrics. Although the potential of deriving meaningful urban morphological patterns from building maps for explaining socioeconomic patterns still holds, several uncertainties remain unsolved, such as the way urban processes are manifested morphologically and how the morphology is captured with the influence of building map quality. Our main conclusion is that as RS image-based morphological information propagates and fluctuates along the process of knowledge derivation, causing difficulties in quantifying the exact amount of urban knowledge derived. Nonetheless, useful knowledge could already be obtained even with suboptimal data sources and model performances, which opens the opportunity to facilitate transferable and reproducible urban morphology studies by using widely accessible data despite their suboptimal quality.

Many cities in low- and medium-income countries (LMICs) are facing rapid unplanned growth of built-up areas, while detailed information on these deprived urban areas (DUAs) is lacking. There exist visible differences in housing conditions and urban spaces, and these differences are linked to urban deprivation. However, the appropriate geospatial information for unravelling urban deprivation is typically not available for DUAs in LMICs, constituting an urgent knowledge gap. The objective of this study is to apply deep learning techniques and morphological analysis to identify degrees of deprivation in DUAs. To this end, we first generate a reference dataset of building footprints using a participatory community-based crowd-sourcing approach. Secondly, we adapt a deep learning model based on the U-Net architecture for the semantic segmentation of satellite imagery (WorldView 3) to generate building footprints. Lastly, we compute multi-level morphological features from building footprints for identifying the deprivation variation within DUAs. Our results show that deep learning techniques perform satisfactorily for predicting building footprints in DUAs, yielding an accuracy of F1 score = 0.84 and Jaccard Index = 0.73. The resulting building footprints (predicted buildings) are useful for the computation of morphology metrics at the grid cell level, as, in high-density areas, buildings cannot be detected individually but in clumps. Morphological features capture physical differences of deprivation within DUAs. Four indicators are used to define the morphology in DUAs, i.e., two related to building form (building size and inner irregularity) and two covering the form of open spaces (proximity and directionality). The degree of deprivation can be evaluated from the analysis of morphological features extracted from the predicted buildings, resulting in three categories: high, medium, and low deprivation. The outcome of this study contributes to the advancement of methods for producing up-to-date and disaggregated morphological spatial data on urban DUAs (often referred to as ‘slums’) which are essential for understanding the physical dimensions of deprivation, and hence planning targeted interventions accordingly.

Our global livelihoods are intrinsically tied to mining. The technologies we use, as currently designed, are not possible without the minerals and metals that are an essential part of several of their components. As a result, HCI research and applications are tightly dependent on mining, including the negative environmental and social impacts resulting from it. This paper aims to describe and reflect on this problematic entanglement as a "wicked cycle." We present a dilemma faced by communities living near mining sites bin the Amazon, which are affected by the ecological impacts of mining and rely on digital technologies made with such mines’ products, including telecommunication technologies, to effectively and successfully advocate for and realise their own local visions of development. We promote a discussion built on concepts from decolonial thinking and critical sustainability. With this paper, we want to create space and necessity to acknowledge our complicity as HCI researchers in this dilemma and propose a series of questions to reflect on our part in these specific, and other, wicked cycles.

Land rights in Ghana emanate from the customary land tenure system. Secure land rights encourage access to and maintenance of large farm sizes and their productive use among others. This tenure security provides some confidence for farmers to increase farm investments and an assurance that they will benefit from those investments. This consequently increases farm produce thereby promoting food security due to food availability. Meanwhile, external pressure from population growth, urbanisation and general economic development can overwhelm the internal structures of the customary land tenure and service arrangements for safeguarding people’s land rights. These arrangements are usually non-monetary ‘homages’ in the form of gifts or labour, which non-member landholders are required to seasonally render to landowners to acknowledge the landowners’ ownership rights and renew such landholders’ secondary rights and secure the land tenure. Governments’ efforts in the past to promote food security by strengthening land rights and securing land tenure have largely been based on ‘imported’ policies of formalisation, registration or documentation processes. These efforts took little or no consideration of local customary views, practices or land tenure dynamics. As a result, the expected benefits of these efforts were either non-existent or barely minimal, not encouraging thus making them unsuccessful. Therefore, this thesis suggests a more pragmatic approach - to work with local people to co-create (or co-design) a responsible and fit-for-purpose customary land rights/tenure and food security model. This involves local people first assessing their own local land laws and practices. Then, they learn from successful models from external environments and co-create a new model by blending the strengths of both so that it fits their local needs and environment. The first objective of this thesis assessed the changing customary land rights and tenure security inequalities and their implications for food security of subsistence farmers in northwest Ghana. Using the social structure theory, the study was carried out through in-depth interviews of identified categories of smallholder farmers – disabled, women, men and middle-aged and youth. The specific land rights and tenure security of each group were identified and examined. Thereafter, the implications were also examined of the different groups. The outcome was that there are indeed marked inequalities where male landowners possess the strongest land rights with the highest land tenure security. Then, females from the landowning group who are placed higher on the communities’ social structure possess similarly weak land rights and low land tenure security just like their female settler counterparts. Paradoxically, even though male settlers are lower on the social structure, they were found to possess stronger land rights and higher land tenure security than females from the landowning group. Implying that masculinity and femininity determine the nature of people’s land rights and tenure security in the study area more than any other factor. For instance, disability does not significantly affect people’s land rights as much as their sex/gender does. Therefore, there exists more food insecurity challenges in terms of availability and accessibility among all females and male settlers possessing weaker land rights than male landowners whose land rights are stronger. Of course, females from the group benefit marginally for their membership among landowners than their counterparts who are females and at the same time settlers. The study concluded that there is the need to put strategies towards narrowing land rights and tenure security inequality gaps. This will stimulate increased investments from all categories of farmers to acquire, possess and maintain sizeable lands, increase investment on those lands more productively for increased farm produce. This may result in food availability among the people which can stimulate their food accessibility and thereby promoting nutrition and food stability as well. The second objective ascertained how the challenges of the changing customary tenure and service arrangements of subsistence farmers can be tackled to strengthen land rights, improve tenure security and consequently, food security. In this objective, the study examined the influences of community land rights and tenure security intervention processes on food security in Northwest Ghana. The local land tenure model and its inherent challenges hindering the realisation of their human aspirations of secure land tenure and food security were examined. The challenges basically were about the absence of an overarching legislation, more robust information flow system, low media involvement in terms of communication and lack of intervention opportunities for members to address land rights challenges thereby also affecting their farming, food availability and consequently food security. By working with local communities, its members’ suggested strategies (both local and external) that need to be put in place to address these challenges. The strategies include maintaining the local land rights model and blending it with some aspects suggested in literature. The first is an overarching legislation to give legal effect to processes in the local land rights model. This was initially absent. Second is to encourage information flow and regular communication about land rights issues with media empowerment and active involvement of local, mainstream as well as social media to quickly draw attention and call for prompt action by the responsible institutions. Then legal intervention by legal advocates and paralegals is needed to facilitate poor farmers’ access to the formal court system for justice whenever the customary approach is unable to provide them with satisfactory resolution to their land rights and land tenure challenges. Sub-objective three was to co-create the design of a new model for improving tenure security and food security of subsistence and smallholder farmers in customary areas in the region. Therefore, based on the outcome from objectives one and two, the third objective was to ascertain how challenges of customary tenure and service arrangements of subsistence farmers can be resolved towards improving tenure security and food security. The study at this stage worked with the local people and co-created a land tenure model referred to as responsible and fit-for-purpose (FFP) because it emanates from the people and took local practices, customs and ideas in the design of the model. By the nature of this new model, all customary land rights and land tenure issues are encapsulated in and guided by the overarching legislation. What this means is that every aspect of local tenure will now be legally enforceable when the new overarching legislation is implemented after passing a test implementation stage in sub-objective four to confirm its potential feasibility on the ground. Sub-objective four was to test the implementation of the new responsible and FFP model towards increasing tenure security for all categories of subsistence and smallholder farmers to enhance farming, possibly increase farm produce, food availability and consequently improve food security. In testing the model, various representatives of the studied communities mock-acted in various role-play sessions. During this exercise, land rights issues, challenges and disagreements were presented. Some of the local people acted as institutions and individuals responsible for addressing the issues. In the process, some matters were quickly resolved while others were referred to the next level of authority as contained in the model until it was resolved. All aspects of the model – court, legal advocates, media etc. were tested and passed as implementable and potentially effective for strengthening land rights and for securing customary land tenure. The almost unanimous acceptance and success rating were captured in a Likert scale with four and two communities agreeing and strongly agreeing respectively. In conclusion therefore, strong customary land rights and secure customary land tenure are important prerequisites for subsistence and smallholder farmers to invest their time, money and effort in farming with a high possibility of increasing food produced from their farms and therefore promoting food security. Of course, other conditions like favourable rainfall, absence of pests, fertile soil and fertilizer application to mention a few must not be overlooked in the process of achieving food security through strong land rights and secure land tenure. This thesis contributes to knowledge and literature with the addition of empirical evidence about subsistence and smallholder farmers’ land rights, land tenure and food security issues in the context of northwest Ghana. In the area of policy – medium-to-long-term, the results show the need for specific land legislations by local and central governments to narrow the customary land rights and land tenure insecurity gap between the vulnerable and privileged groups in local communities. Policies and legislations to empower local institutions, various media and professional legal advocates are equally emphasised. Also, the results show the need for a strong land policy and food policy, particularly food availability. The result show that food availability in this context is capable of facilitating food accessibility, enhancing food nutrition and promoting food stability. Other potentials of this thesis are social harmony, cohesion and peaceful co-existence with less tendency for conflicts. This consequently promotes an enabling socio-political, economic and legal environment at both local and national levels for overall general development and progress of society. These aspects may form the basis of in-depth research of this nature in future.

Land is an important resource globally and its administration and management are crucial in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for example goal 15 and targets 1.4, 2.3, and 5.a. Most land information, more so in the developing countries, are paper based and manually managed. Several countries are working on digital migration for land processes and administration. This is done by first developing a data model for both land parcel and attribute information. International Standards Organization (ISO) Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) was developed in 2012 as a universally accepted model for managing land information. Since then, several countries have developed their country profiles, while others are in the process of developing their regional or country profiles based on their unique requirements. In Kenya, work on a country profile is underway. Several factors need to be considered while developing or extending a LADM country profile. These include a defined scope and stakeholder involvement. Sound methodology is required to deliver a country model. Reviewing the existing legal framework and processes is key. Consequently, the needs of the users and reviewing the earlier proposed models is important. This research, has in addition, interviewed stakeholders and experts on land administration in Kenya and validated these through Focus Group Discussions. To meet requirements related to gender rights and recordation, community land rights, pastoralists seasonal occupation of land and informal occupation required special attention in the process of developing the model for Kenya. The required attributes, Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRR) and relationship between the classes were also identified. This paper provides a comprehensive set of requirements for developing an extended country profile for Kenya based on the ISO LADM.

The 3D cadastre, one of the most fundamental components of the 3D LAS (Land Administration System), aims to provide an integrated 3D view of legal (Right, Restrictions, and Responsibilities–RRR) and physical boundaries in multi-storey properties; therefore, to extend the flexible and modular basis of LADM, which best represents legal boundaries and RRRs, some integrated models using technical standards (e.g., CityGML, IFC, InfraGML) are developed to represent the full 3D cadastre. However, since most of the developed 3D integrated data models are designed at the conceptual level, there is a knowledge gap in logical data model relationships, which is the next processing step in the fully integrated 3D data model stage. The main argument of this study is an innovative ADE 4D Cadastral Data Model to represent 3D cadastral objects registration with time attributes using LADM and CityGML. The data management and organization are done in an open-source database for the Turkish cadastral system. This research will discuss two main topics. The first is how to implement a suitable way of realising LADM-based 3D cadastral object registration by focusing on developing the presentation of those cadastral objects to 4D (3D + t), with time attributes in alignment with the jurisdictional framework in Turkey. The second is how the data is managed in an open-source PostgreSQL database. In addition, the usage type of cadastral objects is shown in a CesiumJS, a visualisation platform. Moreover, this study will contribute to eliminating the knowledge gap between the conceptual and logical models.