Abstract

Despite an estimated one billion people around the world living in slums, most surveys of health and well-being do not distinguish between slum and non-slum urban residents. Identifying people who live in slums is important for research purposes and also to enable policymakers, programme managers, donors and non-governmental organisations to better target investments and services to areas of greatest deprivation. However, there is no consensus on what a slum is let alone how slums can be distinguished from non-slum urban precincts. Nor has attention been given to a more fine-grained classification of urban spaces that might go beyond a simple slum/non-slum dichotomy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework to help tackle the related issues of slum definition and classification of the urban landscape. We discuss:

• The concept of space as an epidemiological variable that results in ‘neighbourhood effects’.

• The problems of slum area definition when there is no ‘gold standard’.

• A long-list of variables from which a selection must be made in defining or classifying urban slum spaces.

• Methods to combine any set of identified variables in an operational slum area definition.

• Two basic approaches to spatial slum area definitions—top-down (starting with a predefined area which is then classified according to features present in that area) and bottom-up (defining the areal unit based on its features).

• Different requirements of a slum area definition according to its intended use.

• Implications for research and future development.