THIS BOOK EXAMINES the importance of the environmental dimension in housing issues for rapidly growing cities in Africa, Latin America and Asia and reflects a concern for the complex interactions between people and their environments. The two main issues presented and analyzed in this book are, first, the “...apparent hazardous nature of many urban environments” both natural and nonnatural and, second, the “...inadequate conditions of housing and infrastructure suffered by large numbers of urban residents and the health problems which they create or exacerbate” (page 2). The book comprises an introduction, three main sections and a concluding chapter. In section I (chapters 2-4), natural and human-made disasters are examined with reference to residential conditions; section II (chapters 5-9) examines urban environmental hazards both in terms of potential for disaster and of existing problems; section III (chapters 10-13) examines on-going environmental concerns of urban housing and infrastructure. Following the introductory chapter, chapter two examines vulnerability to earthquake hazard in the Third World, considers the global distribution of the hazard and factors influencing vulnerability to hazard, and the appropriate response strategies. Chapter three examines vulnerability to industrial hazards in Third World cities with case studies on Bhopal in India and Mexico City. It aims to “...assess the extent to which the vulnerability of those affected by the accident contributed to the scale of damage caused, reveal the various dimensions of this vulnerability and trace the factors contributing to its creation” (page 50). There follows an evaluation of appropriate responses focusing on the role of land-use planning. Chapter four presents a case study of Agadir in Morocco which suffered a huge earthquake in February 1960. It traces the history and form of settlement before 1960, analyzes the characteristics of the earthquake itself and the resultant damage, and describes the development of the city since 1960. Chapter five examines the environmental impacts of trans-national corporations along Mexico’s northern borders engaged in the maquila (export oriented in-bond) industry to illustrate the relationship between global economic change and local environmental hazard. Chapter six examines the physical environmental constraints on low-income housing in the industrial and mining region of Witwatersrand in South Africa. It discusses the changes within the mining industry as a context for examining “...the physical environmental constraints imposed on low-income housing by the exigencies of an economy based on mining” (page 108). It then discusses the mechanisms through which poor and powerless urban communities were relegated to medium and high-risk land and finally analyzes the implications for the urban poor of reductions in state intervention and the rise of a new market oriented urban policy. Chapter seven examines the incidence and causes of slope failures in the barrios of Caracas in Venezuela and considers both “...the physical characteristics of the environment as well as man-made changes as a consequence of urban growth” (page 125). Chapter eight discusses the impact of environmental problems on low-income communities in Hong Kong and both institutional and community responses to these.
Chapter nine discusses the residential marginalization of low-income urban communities. It gives a brief survey of what constitutes a marginal urban environment and offers a model of urban residential development which shows how the urban poor are constrained to marginal areas. It then considers some of the aspects of land development and housing markets which have brought about this situation and what can be done. Chapter ten examines urban housing and services in anglophone West Africa, covering tenure, housing density and services, and urban environmental problems such as traffic, air pollution, rubbish and sanitation. Chapter 11 give