Built Environment
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Mud Plasters and Renders
Mud plasters are used for houses built from mud but can also be used for buildings of stone and fired brick.
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Clay as a Binder
Clays are the main binders of earth and are made up of very small mineral particles leached out during the erosion of rock.
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Dry Stone Causeway
Causeways are a strong, low-cost means of river crossing.
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Fuel for Free?
This book covers the use of wastes in firing clay bricks via case studies in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Peru. With respect to both livelihoods and the environment, energy efficiency in brickmaking is critical. Not only does increasing energy efficiency serve to reduce brickmakers’ fuel costs an...
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Trail Bridge Building in the Himalayas
A co-publication with Helvetas in their Experience and Learning in International Cooperation series, this publication describes the rural infrastructure support work conducted by Swiss development agency Helvetas in Nepal and Bhutan where over 4000 trail bridges have been built in the last 40 years....
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Contested Space
The importance of public space in supporting city economies and in contributing to poverty reduction is rarely recognized. Instead, public space is more often an arena for contest – between municipal governments or other vested interests, and street traders, whose activities are proscribed by restri...
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Bridging the Finance Gap in Housing and Infrastructure
Bridging the Finance Gap in Housing and Infrastructure concentrates on how groups of poor people – coalitions of the poor around the world have been able and been enabled to lead the process of transforming slums into vibrant and stable neighbourhoods. It showcases the strategies and the dedication,...
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Partnerships in Urban Planning
Based on a three-year project in Kenya, this booklet examines the key features in understanding the development of participatory urban planning strategies and approaches that will assist in safeguarding of the position of poor and vulnerable. The book aims to help readers to understand power relatio...
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Confronting the Crisis in Urban Poverty
Lucy Stevens, Stuart Coupe, Diana Mitlin
The challenge of urban poverty is growing every year. It is predicted that over 95% of global population growth between 2000 and 2030 will take place in the cities of the developing world. If current trends continue, the huge majority of those will end up in slums. Tackling urban poverty, however, h...
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Building Bridges with the Grassroots
About one billion people now live in the slums of the towns and cities of the developing world. And their number is set to double by 2030, unless concerted efforts are made to the contrary. Slums provide an unhealthy and dangerous living environment, and improving the living conditions of slum dwell...