Keywords: environment, urbanization, marginalized, capitalism, migration, slum
The ability to construct complex structures in the last few millennia has empowered our species to dominate the planet. This was made into existence because of the ability to believe in stories. Be it stories of religion, capitalism, or currency, negotiating through ‘fiction’ has directed people to migrate, shift territory and encroach on different spheres. This has brought a diaspora shift of marginalised communities and the role they have towards the environment and the city.
The in-situ configuration of the spaces inside the urban ecosystem is disrupted into a categorical organisation by the marginalised in the form of urban slums. Just as the monuments melt in the city, the conditions of the marginalised are blurred when the discussion is about cities. This ripples itself into catastrophic conditions on the environment and ecology.
Humans – a dominant virus?
At the apex of the metaphorical creativity pyramid, human habitats thrive. These domains translate to urban systems which rot the local ecosystem drastically. As per reports [1], cities are 10% rainier, 10% cloudier, and 6% less in average humidity, making it into urban heat islands. One of the characteristics of these footprints that mould the behaviour of cityscapes is the urban slums.
The habitats of the marginalised in the city have disturbed academicians from many fields of academic endeavour – urban planning, architecture, environmental management, and behavioural economics. This is because of the disastrous consequences of man in his environment.
Cities are the most compounded human creation which is at the risk of a wide range of hazards, and their multiple risks. Cities currently take up 2% land surface on earth but are to be account for 60-80% of the energy consumption and 75% of global CO2 emissions [2,3]. This is because of the consequence of urbanisation. The urbanisation with its upset, bring myriads of problems. United Nations [4] quoted that over 1 billion population of the world’s population live in urban slums without access to safe water, sanitation, and tenured housing. Dilapidated structures, abandoned buildings degrade the environment. This makes a skeptical statement for environmental safety in the urban slums. These ghettos become epicentres for armed robbers, drug addicts, and juvenile delinquents.
The push from the countryside and the pull towards the city sets out as an example for hegemony – where capitalists take up the benefits from the newcomers in the city. Slums having low rental charges are characterised by structural and sanity disorders that deteriorate the living conditions of newcomers in search of better wage opportunities. This adds up to the frequent solid waste accumulation, inter-community conflicts, and environmental pollution. However, the neglected issues on the macro level in these ghettos include overpopulation, inadequate housing, environmental decay, and blocked drainage systems.
Inside the fine-grained habitat
The congregation of masses in the urban centres is the major cause of the slum. And this caused environmental consequences that are multi-dimensional. Research has confirmed that there are positive and negative consequences of the slum and their dwellings. Slums and cities coexist, where slums serve the utilitarian purposes of the city. Slum-dwellers are not a homogenous population, but a diverse group of people, which provides a variety of skilled and unskilled labour. Slums are a mark of success in a city – their ephemeral character makes them an integral part of the process of development of the city. However, people in urban slums live under conditions that are so squalid that they defy description.
Being the by-product of haphazard planning and anti-planning, urban slums are the harbour for unsocialised and mentally deranged people. This develops into family breakdown, personal disorganisation, and diseases. In concern with environmental issues, the development of the built environment is directly proportional to the outdoor and indoor quality in urban areas. These domains are filthy, with disturbing animal habitats, clogged drains, inadequate sanitation, poor water facilities, and no openness. This is replaced with impervious concrete and asphalt.
Need for holistic principles
Our geographical location continues to define what place-based attributes we enjoy and the environmental conditions to which we are exposed. Building open spaces in the cluster is important where the adjustments over time evolve into organic shapes that behave like a breathing organ. If we imagine the city as a membrane, it takes up and gets rid of materials, and evolves its shape like an amoeba. This may be devised into different models adhering to the scale of intervention.
- Introspect on how ongoing suburbanisation affects the carbon footprints of cities.
- Explore the city’s metabolism is adaptive with urban environmental amenity dynamics and how to build a coping mechanism to prevent the downsides.
- Understand and research on the benefits of adapting to ‘green’ buildings.
- Adapt and influence commoners through household locational choice model to emphasize the role environmental amenities that play in shaping the households locate within a city.
The urban slums are at the bottlenecks of problems to achieve sustainable development. To resolve this, dialectical and multi-layered thinking is essential to improve living conditions of people for coming times. Additionally, this will not hinder the interest of the future generations as it includes integration with the public, the economy and the environment.