Over one billion people live in the world’s 200,000 slums and informal settlements. We used data generated from mobile phones to better understand one of the largest slums, Kibera located in Nairobi, Kenya. Using call logs from June 2008 June 2009 and theories from human geography, economics, sociology, journalists, and anthropologists as a basis, we tested the validity of a few prominent theor...

The research project “Grassroots GIS” focuses on the development of low-cost mapping and publishing methods for slums and slum-upgrading projects in Manila. In this project smartphones, collaborative mapping and 3D visualization applications are systematically employed to support landscape architectural analysis and design work in the context of urban poverty and urban informal settlements. In ...

Sound exerts wide-ranging influence on humans. The quality of that depends the sound source and context in which it is perceived, but nature sounds are generally preferred by people associated with health well-being benefits. In many environments, highly mixed giving rise to a multi-source ‘soundscape’ may vary through days or seasons. complex dynamic soundscapes makes them challenging quantify...

The Covid-19 pandemic’s health impacts on low-income urban communities have not been insignificant, but the results of state responses and shutdowns implemented without adequate consideration poverty consequences very serious. In this context, vaccination is one way – among many varied actions needed in which people can reduce risk further exclusion. This article summarises early findings from ...