Rural-Urban Migration and the Growth of Informal Settlements: A Socio-Ecological System Conceptualization with Insights Through a “Water Lens”

Abstract

Informal settlements i.e., slums emerge from the interplay of multidimensional factors related to urbanization and sustainability. While the contribution of urban factors is well understood, the role of external drivers, such as uncontrolled migration to urban areas, is rarely addressed in research or policy-making. This study develops a novel conceptualization of slums by reviewing the pushing and pulling factors of migration and their contribution to informal settlements through 1) a socio-ecological system approach and 2) the concept of adaptive capacity. Further, it advances the discussion around synergistic and coherent policy-making in the urban context by reviewing three urban agendas and further using water as a case with the concept of cross-cutting domains. We show that the emergence of urban challenges can, and should be, linked to the root causes of flows into urban areas. Understanding these linkages through a socio-ecological system framework opens a window for knowledge-based policy development and addressing the question of how to avoid unsustainable urban development. Urbanization is one of the phenomena where the excessive complexity and dimensions of problems should not hamper action but instead, actions should be encouraged and enabled with synergistic and integrative pathways for sustainable urban development.

Spatial Transformation of a New City in 2006–2020: Perspectives on the Spatial Dynamics, Environmental Quality Degradation, and Socio—Economic Sustainability of Local Communities in Makassar City, Indonesia

“…The existence of this function is driving the influx of migrants into the new city area of Metro Tanjung Bunga to transform the uniform social formation of the local community into a dual social formation. Urbanization is phenomena where the excessive complexity and dimensions of problems should not hamper action; instead, actions should be encouraged and facilitated with synergistic and integrative pathways for sustainable urban development [57].…”

Are Well Owners Unique Environmentalists? An Exploration of Rural Water Supply Infrastructure, Conservation Routines, and Moderation

“…. inclusive cities" [55,56]. These findings indicate that only analyzing non-well owners-omitting the influence of rural water supplies-offers an incomplete story of water conservation efforts and other PEBs.…”

Toward a research agenda on climate‐related migration

“…Several scholars have employed a socio‐ecological lens for studying general migration, rural depopulation, urban integration, and environmentally induced migration (Niva, Taka, & Varis, 2019; Ostrum, 2009; Rechkemner et al., 2016), showing that there are multiple levels of relevant phenomena that span the social and the environmental. Recent extensions of this model to include infrastructure systems are particularly relevant to industrial ecology (McPhearson et al., 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2012).…”