The coastal cities of Angola where urban populations have been growing since the displacement provoked by the civil war are experiencing negative impacts of climate change and rising land prices. This region experiences lower rainfall than inland areas but is subject to sudden storms and increasing high annual variation. In urban coastal areas poorer communities of formerly war displaced have purchased and settled on land that is often at risk from flooding and erosion because these are the only affordable locations near to economic opportunities. There is a lack of urban land-use and disaster planning capacity to deal with these issues. Angola’s uncontrolled land markets have direct effects on the urban environment and the quality of life of the city. The capital, Luanda suffers from land market distortions caused by poor land development and management policies, including the slow provision of infrastructure and services, poor land information systems, cumbersome and slow land transaction procedures. For poor families, their housing, and the land they occupy, often represents their accumulated savings and assets, acquired over a lifetime or often over several generations. There is a complex overlap between increasing environmental risks, poverty and access to land.

1. Climate Change & Land Markets
in Coastal Cities of Angola
the case of Luanda
Development Workshop Angola
World Bank Land & Poverty Conference
Washington DC 23 - 27 March 2015

2. • Urban economic activity often increase the environmental
pressures that lead to flooding, low-income settlements.
• Approximately two-thirds of the population of Angola now
lives in the low-lying coastal zone.
• Luanda is the fastest growing city in Africa. Its present
population is more than 6.5 million and it could be a
mega-city of over 10 million at the end of the decade.
• Research by Development Workshop, supported by
IDRC’s Urban Poverty, Environment and Climate Change
programmes, demonstrates that in Luanda poorer families
tend to have settled the more environmentally risky parts
of the city.
Urban Climate change Research

3. • Climate change is change over time whether due to
increased natural variability or as a result of human
activity.
• In coastal zones tend to be the most vulnerable to
climate change.
• The metrology limited data available in Angola suggests
that the coast of Angola has shown an increase in
climate variability (mostly rain) from one year to another
• The large coastal cities like Luanda are located near the
mouths of the river basins that put these settlements at
particularly high risk of local climatic changes.
Increased Angolan climate variability

4. • The coastal areas of Angola where urban populations
are growing most rapidly experience are the most
influenced by the affects of climate change resulting in
increasing annual variation
• Coastal cities have lower rainfall than inland areas but
are subject to sudden, often catastrophic storms.
• In urban coastal areas poorer communities of formerly
war displaced have purchased and settled on land that
is often at risk from flooding and erosion because these
are the only affordable locations near to economic
opportunities.
• Research by Development Workshop, supported by
IDRC demonstrated that in Luanda poorer families tend
to have settled the more environmentally risky parts of
the city.
Climate change impact on Angolan Cities

5. Rapid Urbanization
Source: UNHabitat
• Angola during this period was the most rapidly
urbanizing country in the Southern African region.
• The city of Luanda, with an average growth of 7% is the
fastest growing city in Africa.
Liberation War -------- Civil War ------------------| |------| -------|

6. Human Settlements and Housing
• Four decades of war
caused a major
demographic shift
• Populations of rural
areas of conflict fled
to the safety of
urban settlements
on the coast
• Resulting in rapid
urbanization of the
country.

7. Digital terrain model (GIS)
ParticipatoryParticipatory
mapping and riskmapping and risk
of damage wasof damage was
based on thisbased on this
data setdata set
Remote
sensing

8. Settlement Information Systems
• DW has used Geographic Information System (GIS) as a
tool to support social mobilization to monitor the operation
of the service and plan interventions.
• GIS is a powerful tool for
Assessing the impact of
environmental factors, urban
services. settlement patterns
and land markets.
• DW uses GPS-mobile-
enabled android tablets to
facilitate local community
organizations to participate
in the collection of data.

9. • Uma.
Assentamentos em risco
Areas whereAreas where
rainwater retentionrainwater retention
is visible.is visible. (Photos(Photos
taken on a flight over thetaken on a flight over the
city)city)
The survey of damage and risks

10. SISTEMA DE INFORMAÇÃO TERRITORIAL
Luanda’s Population Density

11. • Diarrheal diseases like cholera have been endemic in
Luanda and some other coastal cities that lead to periodic
outbreaks, such as that in 2006, over thirty thousand
cases and several hundred deaths.
• A succession of devastating floods in recent years in
cities up and down the coast, including Luanda, Benguela
and Namibe? Can be attributed to a combination of
factors,
– including increasing climate variability and
– environmental changes induced settlement in
vulnerable areas and
– removal of natural vegetation on adjacent watersheds.
Angola’s Settlements and climate
variability

12. Settlements at Risk

13. Structural damage of
buildings: due to
landslides.
Environmental damage

14. Mapping of
environmentally
related diseases

15. Increased
temperatures
and frequent
floods can have
an impact on
human health
through a
modification of
the geographical
distribution of
diseases such as
malaria
Distribution of disease and Settlements

16. Áreas e tipos de inundação
Declives
Buracos
Desabamento
Lago
Desabamento/lagoa
Lagoa
Ravinas e inundação
Águas estagnadas
<15m
15 – 30m
30 -45m
45 – 60m
>60m
Mapping of types of environmental risk

17. Chronic urban environmental problems
• The environmental situation in the peripheral areas of the
cities of Angola has been gradually deteriorating over many
decades of armed conflict.
• Can be considered as in chronic crisis of public health and
environmental sanitation.
• The growth and maintenance of sanitation systems has not
kept pace with population growth.
• Most vulnerable populations are located at sites of
environmental hazards such as along rivers or drainage
lines, susceptible to severe erosion.
• The large coastal cities like Luanda are located near the
mouths of the river basins that put these settlements at
particularly high risk of local climatic changes.

18. Land Markets

19. Access to Land Markets by the Poor
• The majority of Angolan slum residents (67%) bought
their land on the informal market and can demonstrate
purchase contracts or sales declarations. But only 7%
have titles.
• Luanda land prices decline rapidly as one moves away
from the core of the city where the formal economy is
concentrated.
• Due to rapidly raising property values the poor have
relocated into areas of higher environmental risk.
• This may be due to forcible removal or voluntarily
relocation, though often out of economic necessity.
• These areas tend to be low coastal zones, river basins
susceptible to flooding or along steep ravines with high
erosion risks.

20. Proof of the right of occupancy
Purchase/sales
declaration
49.1%
No proof
14.4%
Location sketch
7.3%
Precarious
occupation title
5.6%
Property registry
0.5%
Surface right
0.5%
Temporary
upgradable license
0.2%
Witnessed by a
Government Technician
6.8%
Others
0.0% Residents card
0.7%
Agreement made in
public
1.5%
Receipt from Utility bills
1.0%
Contract of sale
12.2%

21. Map of land values in Luanda​​

23. • Urban environmental risk areas are already
disproportionately located in low-lying areas of the coast.
Climate change will increase the risk of rising sea levels,
the risk of flooding and strong tropical storms
• Disaster preparedness and management plans are vital
components of an adaptation strategy.
• Urban planning needs to reflect formal hypotheses about
climate change, taking into account new information on
possible variations
• The communities themselves through micro-planning
efforts in the collective organization can develop plans
and infrastructure required to reduce their vulnerability to
natural disasters.
Conclusions

24. Obrigado