Growing urban centres have been attracting ever higher numbers of rural migrants, including small-scale farmers, looking for better opportunities due to the rise of large-scale farming, loss of land and climate change. Consequently, there has been an increase in the number of spontaneous and informal settlements being constructed as cities do not keep up with the planning and infrastructure development for new arrivals. Urban dwellers in informal, unplanned settlements where issues of land tenure and access to services are prevalent have, consequently, been exposed to precarious living conditions with limited access to food and water scarcity. Urban agriculture (UA) strategies have been adopted by those residents to alleviate poverty and food insecurity, and have been seen to perform other functions, such as environmental, social, cultural and developmental. This study explores challenges and opportunities for sustainable urban farming as an integrated environmental management strategy for the upgrading of informal settlements in three case studies in Durban. This paper demonstrates the need for municipalities to support community driven processes to ensure sustainability of UA initiatives and sustained investment for maintenance. Policy makers need to create an enabling environment for academics, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to co-develop water efficient solutions to manage the food-water nexus and capitalise on localised community structures and groups, such as co-operatives and women groups.

Currently, given the rapid growth and implementation of inadequate planning policies in African cities, the gap between formal and informal urbanisation is becoming increasingly evident. Spontaneous and unplanned settlements are home to more than half the urban population in Africa, where lost and forgotten spaces within cities are claimed by the urban poor as their ‘right to the city’. This study proposes an innovative research methodology of spatial mapping to analyse informal settlements, thus giving them a new ‘lived’ identity. The research has two key objectives: understanding how lived space can be effectively captured and interpreted and using spatial mapping as a key methodological approach to reinterpreting and adapting spontaneous settlements to existing challenges, hazards and risks. The proposed hybrid methodology, which combines drone photography and qualitative research methods (e.g. interviews, collaborative mapping), was tested in two pilot studies in the Durban metropolitan area, South Africa, to reveal the real attributes and vulnerabilities of such human settlements and to understand how they can be reorganised and adapted. The outcomes of this study allow for a more accurate (lived four-dimensional) mapping of scenarios affecting cities today.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, 238 million people live in slums or informal settlements. Because of rapid urbanisation and population growth, informal settlements have become a major challenge in the urban landscape, exacerbating issues related to poverty, inadequate infrastructure, housing and poor living conditions. As part of a collaborative interdisciplinary project ISULABANTU, this paper provides an overview of toolkits focused on informal settlement upgrading (ISU) in South Africa and presents the process of an integrated toolkit development for sustainable human settlements in Durban, which was informed by participatory action research and co-production strategies. A toolkit can be a valuable and effective way of engaging communities in the process of ISU and for community members to take full ownership of the process, designing strategies that best respond to their needs. The review of existing toolkits has revealed several critical gaps related to community-led practices, integrated approaches to housing and environmental management, and gender. The integrated ISULABANTU toolkit aims to fill these gaps and complement the existing resources. It provides a framework for action research, active involvement of and partnership building with local communities in upgrading practices required to achieve sustainable human settlements.