Improving Wetslums Livability with Floating Services
This book investigates the potential of water spaces to address the challenges faced in projects aimed at improving living conditions in wetslums by implementing floating services. Wetslum being defined as informal settlements located in proximity to water for which the availability of services is negatively influenced by the threat or effects of floods.
Services’ provision – and more broadly upgrading projects – in wetslums face numerous obstacles such as flood risks, resource and space constraints, the perception of these settlements as temporary and illegal (thus exposed to eviction), and the disregard of their heterogenous nature.
At the same time, these projects often overlook locational and environmental factors, leaving slum dwellers vulnerable to worsening flood risks and rising sea levels due to climate change. Vulnerability which is further exacerbated by the expansion of slums into flood-prone areas, driven by population growth in developing cities.
Author: Dr. Koen Olthuis
