Key Words: Informal Urban Settlements, Formal Mapping Tools, Implementation, African

Cities

ABSTRACT OF PAPER
SUBTHEME 1 AFRICAN URBANITY: FORMAL AND INFORMAL - AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES CONFERENCE
ANDERS ESE PhD CANDIDATE anders.ese@aho.no - TEL:+4799162035
INSTITUTE OF URBANISM AND LANDSCAPE OSLO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
April 2011

ABSTRACT:
The insufficiencies of mapping tools for physical upgrade projects
in urban poor settlements

In this paper I will argue that for the purpose of physical upgrade projects in urban poor
settlements, current professional mapping tools are insufficient. When mapping urban informal
settlements, professionals will use the same mapping tools as used in formal spaces of the city.
I will ask in this paper whether conventional mapping tools are designed to be able to pick up
on other important information in informal settings areas that not necessarily lend themselves
to 'conventionality`? I will argue that conventional maps will leave out a plethora of attributes
particular to urban informal settlements, attributes that set them apart from the formal city. For
instance; who lives on a plot as opposed to who owns a plot; what really takes place in a
building as opposed to what a building is zoned for; or how people travel as opposed to how
major through-fares are situated. In a worst-case scenario whole upgrade or building projects
can start off with a faulty set of premises and data sets, due to the erroneous nature of mapping
tools.

This paper seeks to problematize how mapping tools historically connected to conquest and
social control of physical environments represent the multiplicity, the other`, and
marginalised peoples` realities. For the purposes of this paper mapping tools are viewed as

Key Words: Urban Poverty, Mapping, Planning, Implementation, African Cities


ABSTRACT - PAPER FOR SUBTHEME 1 AFRICAN URBANITY: FORMAL AND INFORMAL
BY ANDERS ESE - INSTITUTE OF LANDSCAPE AND URBANISM - AHO
FOR AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES CONFERENCE
April 2011, p 2 of 2
strategic tools of spatial abstraction designed to simplify and to look at particular aspects of our
surroundings, by focussing on and highlighting specific attributes such as major roads, plot
outlines, street names, parks, housing outlines, and so forth. These would include e.g.: maps,
diagrams, spreadsheets, plans, sections, satellite/aerial imagery, photographic/video material,
interviews, and sketches. These methods and tools relate to a range of practices, but in this
paper will be analysed based on a planner`s and architect`s perspective.

The paper will look closely at certain claims concerning the current condition of urban poor
settlements: how planning projects implemented in urban poor communities in the South utilise
mapping and observation and what their tools for analysing spatial conditions, and compare
these to claims made in academic literature on mapping tools and spatial representation. The
areas of study are predominately in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. By cataloguing and analysing
the observations and the mapping techniques implemented by NGOs and government agencies
in aid projects, aimed at the betterment of spatial conditions in urban poor settlements in the
South, it is this paper`s aim to show which techniques fall short and which seem to work, and
more importantly, to conclude on why certain tools work, and under which conditions they
work.
Word Count: 4J6