An Overview of Informal Settlement Upgrading Strategies in Kabul City and the Need for an Integrated Multi-Sector Upgrading Model

Bibliographic Data

ID19569834
AuthorsBashir Ahmad Amiri (Kobe Institute Of Computing), Nsenda Lukumwena (Kobe Institute Of Computing)
Year2018
Volume06
Issue03
Pages348-365
Publication date2018-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Urban Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2328-4900 • E-ISSN: 2328-4919
PublisherScientific Research Publishing, Inc. (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4236/cus.2018.63019
OpenAlexW2891112716
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited2

The developing economies are experiencing an unprecedented rate of urbanization, mainly in the poor urban areas as shown through the sprawling of slums and informal settlements of several cities in the world. This is also the case of Kabul, the capital and primate city of Afghanistan where around 82% of the people live in what is considered to be informal. Various interventions, from physical upgrading to urban renewal have been undertaken by the government and international organizations but none of them has succeeded to solve the rapid growth of informal settlements. Given the above, the magnitude of the urbanization and the complexity of informal settlements, this paper suggests the use of an integrated multi-sector upgrading as a reactive and proactive upgrading strategy. The paper analyzes the informal settlements formation and the conventional upgrading strategies used in Kabul city. This will help to identify dominant practices and finally rationalize them. For this purpose, Hothkhel has been selected as the case study. As a result, it has been found that the areas occupied by informal settlements have not been built to their respective full capacity. This implies that there is still room for additional buildable volume likely to lead to the preservation of available agricultural land. The result also indicates that the integrated multi-sector upgrading has the scale-up potential to increase the reach of beneficiaries and to ensure an inclusive and efficient urbanization

Business · Civil engineering · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Human settlement · Informal sector · Informal settlements · Natural resource economics · Urban planning · Urbanization · Engineering · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance · Finance