City Apps: Improving Wetslum Livability with Floating Services

Services’ provision - and more broadly upgrading projects - in slums located near water bodies are hindered by various obstacles such as flood risks, a lack of resources and space, the fact that slums are often seen by local authorities as temporary and illegal settlements (thus exposed to eviction risk) as well as the disregard of the highly heterogeneous nature of slums. At the same time, these projects often failed to consider locational and environmental aspects while slum dwellers' living conditions and exposure to floods are expected to worsen due to climate change effects and rising sea-level. Indeed, slums are sprawling on flood-prone areas due to cities’ population growth in developing countries.
This research is focused on investigating the opportunities that floating services implemented on water spaces can bring to answer part of the constraints faced in slum upgrading projects dedicated to living conditions’ improvement in slums located close to or on water bodies. To do so, research by design approach is conducted. This approach addresses three elements: (1) analyzing upgrading projects and investigating slums located in flood-prone areas, (2) developing and testing, through an iterative process, a design proposition for services based on floating technology to improve living conditions in these locations, (3) understanding the governance and how to implement these propositions in these locations.