An official register of the quantity, value, and ownership of land properties. Used by municipal authorities in apportioning taxes based on land value, and in maintaining clear legal title records to facilitate sale and utility as collateral.

(Compare to Street Addressing.)

Circulation Length/Area Served Ratio:
An index for determining relative costs of linear utility infrastructure. Total length (not area) of circulation (streets, paths, etc.) divided by total area that circulation services. By convention, lengths are in meters and areas are in hectares - this results in 3-digit indices.
Community facilities/services:
Facilities/services used in common by a number of people, including schools, health, recreation, police, fire, public transportation, community center, etc (U.S.D.P.)
Contingent Valuation Method (CVM):
A method to estimate demand of urban services through consultation with users, using field observation, household surveys and 'bidding' for services which is intended to determine how much a user would be willing to pay for a specific level of service.
Costs of Urbanization:
Expenses for installation of basic utilities. They customarily include the following:
Capital: cost of land and infrastructure;
Operating: recurring cost of administration, maintenance, etc.;
and may be grouped into:
Direct: include capital and operating costs;
Indirect: include environmental and personal effects.
Demand-Responsive Approaches (DRA), Demand-Oriented Programs:
Demand for a service that the user wants and is willing to pay for it. Programs are increasingly shifting to more open-ended and flexible approaches where the users select the specific components. See also: Affordability, Willingness-to-pay.
A measure of the intensity of occupation or use. Measured in units per area. (u/area) Units are customarily plots, dwellings, rooms or people per area. In terms of land, there are two forms:
  • Gross density - considering the total overall area of all land public and private land.
  • Net density - considering only a selected portion, generally only the private residential land. Units are customarily plots, dwellings, rooms or people per area.
Three types are considered:
  • Popular sector - Also known as informal. The word derives from ‘of the people’. The marginal sector with limited or no access to the formal financial, administrative, legal, technical institutions involved in the provision of housing.
  • Public sector - The government or non profit organizations involved in the provision of housing. Usually for subsidized developments for the low income.
  • Private sector - The individuals, groups, or societies who have access to the formal financial, administrative, legal, technical institutions involved in the provision of housing. This sector is profit oriented.
Dwelling Type:
The physical arrangement of the dwelling unit:
  • Detached - individual units, separated from others.
  • Semidetached - two units sharing a common wall; also ‘duplex’.
  • Row/grouped - units grouped together linearly or in clusters.
  • Walk-up - units grouped in 2-5 stories with access through stairs; sometimes ‘tenements’ or ‘flats’ applied to this type.
  • High-rise - units grouped in five or more stories with lifts for vertical access.
Assessment of a project or program's impact AFTER the
implementation is complete.

(Contrast with Monitoring)

Floor Area Ratio:
The ratio of the dwelling area to the land area.
A socio-economic unit which often coincides with the basic kinship unit of a society. Usually several related persons living together in a form of shelter and sharing food and other basic resources.
Housing Area Ratio:
An index for comparing accommodation within a housing area. It is the ratio of the total floor area within the house to the total land within a housing area.

See also: Floor Area Ratio.

The underlying foundation or basic framework  (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary). Further differentiated as service infrastructure or utility infrastructure.
Land Pooling/Land Readjustment/Land Reconstitution:
Land development techniques where a group of separate land parcels are assembled for unified planning, servicing and subdivision as a single estate, with the sale of some of the new building plots to recover the costs and the redistribution of the other plots back to the landowners.

    Land Pooling is differentiated as where land is legally consolidated (‘pooled’) by the transfer of ownership of the separate parcels of land to the agency handling the transaction and redesign, with the later transfer of ownership of the new building plots to the landowners as shown on a replotting plan.

    Land readjustment is where the land parcels are only notionally consolidated with the agency having the right to design services and subdivide the land on a unified basis, and then the landowners exchange their rural land parcels for their building plots as shown in the replotting plan.

    Plot reconstitution - another variation - is a regulatory arrangement imposed on landowners that is designed to facilitate the development of land but which requires the owners to contribute land and cash. Land remains in separate ownership and partial cost recovery is achieved through betterment tax.

Lot coverage:
The ratio of building area to the total area of the lot (or plot). Used as comparative index.
See 'Plots'
Assessment of a project or program DURING implementation.

(Contrast with Evaluation)

Moral Hazard:
The expectation of a subsidy is believed to encourage people to behave irresponsibly. This term is used in economics, generally with regard to loans. Bail-out packages could reduce a government's incentive to reform by relieving the pain of financial failure. Some argue that the IMF's proclivity to bail out the profligate creates a danger of "moral hazard".
See 'Plots'
A combination of the words peripherally and urban. Generally related to the urban areas that lie on the outer edges of the city. The characteristics tend to be part urban and part rural, and often the areas where squatters tend to settle.
Also 'lots' and 'parcels' commonly used. A measured piece of land having fixed boundaries and access to public circulation.
Service Infrastructure:
The non-linear facilities used in common by a community, including community centers, schools, health, police, fire, and public transportation. Sometimes service infrastructure used interchangeably with utility infrastructure.

(Contrast with Utility Infrastructure.)

Slums and Squatter settlements:
Usage tends to vary according to country and region. The following differentiation is commonly accepted:
(Adapted from Survey of Slum and Squatter Settlements, UNCHS-habitat, 1982, Dublin: Tycooly International Publishing Limited, and Upgrading of Slums and Squatter Settlements, UNCHS-Habitat, 1981, Nairobi.)
Building Stock Occupants Public
Mostly tenants (non ownership) on rental basis
Larger buildings, often houses converted into multi-units; not unusual in deteriorated historical city centers, common in center cities Second or third generation families, often of particular village or region.
A reception area for ‘bridgeheaders’
(See: How fits into urban structure)
Often less stigma because they are more established and perceived as more integrated into urban area
Mostly with some form of perceived secure tenure, whether legal or de facto One-two story dwellings and up. Incrementally built, generally through self-contracting, on a pay-as-go basis Younger population and higher proportion of young people than regional population. An area for “consolidators”
(See: How fits into urban structure)
More stigma because newer and considered illegal. Erroneously perceived as harboring criminals, draining the urban economy, possessing significant health and safety hazards and being politically volatile.

Relation to Family Trajectory Flows into slums of largely temporary residents who stay with close relative or friend until they can establish themselves economically and socially. These newcomers or ‘bridgeheaders’ subsequently move, seeking their own home, frequently into new or expanding squatter settlements where they have personal contacts. Ties between slums and squatters are often active, and the particular ethnic, regional or religious composition of areas can sometimes be traced to specific rural areas.
Site and Services Projects:
The act, right, manner or term of holding property, either land or dwelling. It may be legal: having formal status derived by law, or extralegal: not regulated or sanctioned by law.
Four basic legal types are commonly considered:
  1. Rental - the users pay a fee (daily, weekly, or monthly) for the use of a dwelling unit and/or lot.
  2. Lease - the users pay a fee for long-term use (generally for a year or more) for a dwelling unit and/or lot from the owner (individual, public agency, or private organization).
  3. Ownership - the users hold in ‘freehold’ the dwelling unit and/or lot which the unit occupies.
  4. Employer-provided - the users are provided a dwelling unit by an employer in exchange for services, for example, domestic servants.
Total Living Space:
The total area of the dwelling as well as the area outside of the dwelling which is used daily for important activities; for example, cooking, resting and at night sleeping. This can be expressed in total dwelling space, or as dwelling space per person (total living space divided by total inhabitants).

See also: Floor Area Ratio.

Utility Infrastructure:
The basic physical networks, including water supply, sewage disposal, electricity, circulation, street lighting, storm drainage, and telephone. Generally considered to be the domain of public agencies, but increasing small-scale entrepreneurs have been recognized as key providers. Sometimes utility infrastructure used interchangeably with service infrastructure.

(Contrast with Service Infrastructure.)

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