MODELLING FAVELAS Heuristic Agent Based Models for Squatter Settlements Growth and Consolidation

In the present paper, we argue that the relative location of peripheral spontaneous settlements is dynamic and changes with the growth of the city. The periphery is a place under constant mutation, always reproducing new extensions of land while the old peripheries are gradually incorporated to the city and occupied by new inhabitants. It focuses on the process of consolidation within the urban growth dynamics of third world cities. Our aim is to study, in a heuristic basis, how the global process of urban growth contributes to both the formation of spontaneous settlements and its morphological transformation in time. We argue that the process of consolidation is a feature of the process of spatial growth and, therefore, there is a two way growth process: the urban growth determines the consolidation of spontaneous settlements and this consolidation changes the course of urban growth process, contributing to a fragmented and discontinuous urban form. This issue is explored through ‘Favelas’, an agent-based model (built in StarLogo for PC) that focuses on the process of consolidation of inner-city squatter settlements within a decentralised process. Preliminary results suggest that favelas are the result of a growth and consolidation process in which resistance is the cause, consolidation is the process and fragmentation is the result.