Abstract
This chapter reviews the processes and findings from the alternative infrastructure work stream within the larger international, trans-disciplinary workshop Transforming Johannesburg: Reshaping Socio-ecological Landscapes Through Collaborative Practices (12–25 September 2015). The five parallel work streams making up the workshop (rethinking infrastructure, eco-incremental housing, place making, alternative economics and governance for collaborating upgrading) aimed at producing a master plan for the in situ upgrading of Kya Sands informal settlement in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Rethinking Infrastructure work stream focused on service provision through cross-examining the connections between different scales and different systems: the local and the regional scales, and the human and natural systems. After initial site visits, the group chose to concentrate on the concerns of water (drinking, waste, storm and river) and waste management. Inputs from data collection, Kya Sands Residents, City officials and external experts, were explored through the lens of dialogue and debate and distilled into three pragmatic regenerative strategies towards settlement upgrading. The chapter is constructed as both an account of and a reflection on the specific results and experiences of this work stream.
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Notes
- 1.
Globally large cities develop most often in areas with an abundant nearby water source, instead the discovery of vast gold reserves in the nineteenth century brought settlers to the high veld landscape that is now Johannesburg. Regionally, at 1753 m (5751 ft) elevation, it is a highpoint; as a result, the City has no local water source (Floodmap.net 2014) and so all water used is either collected through surface water catchment systems (rain run-off) or comes from the Vaal Dam (with a hydrographic catchment area of 38,505 km2) fed by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project—the largest water project in Africa (Rand Water Foundation n.d.). Consequently, the value of the local stream/river systems making up the drainage basin cannot be overlooked, thus making the focus on the Kya Sand Spruit (or North Riding Stream), what may seem a relatively unimportant tributary in other environments, fundamental to our work.
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Frigerio, A., Kornienko, K. (2018). Engaging the Informal and Formal in an Expanded Notion of Urban Infrastructure: How Healing Human and Ecological Networks Could Lead to a More Equitable City. In: Petrillo, A., Bellaviti, P. (eds) Sustainable Urban Development and Globalization. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61988-0_33
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