Papers by Michaela Prescott
Agenda Publishing eBooks, Apr 23, 2024
World Development, Jan 31, 2024
Social Science Research Network, 2023
Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Oct 15, 2022
PLOS Water
Globally, more than one billion people live in urban informal settlements and experience suboptim... more Globally, more than one billion people live in urban informal settlements and experience suboptimal access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Participatory approaches are increasingly being promoted in WASH interventions, but the key elements of these approaches are not well-defined. The Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program launched in 2017 uses a participatory approach to co-design water-sensitive infrastructure with residents of 24 urban informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia and Suva, Fiji. Our objective was to identify key mechanisms of a gender and socially inclusive participatory approach for engaging diverse people in RISE. We conducted and analysed semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) with 49 RISE program staff; IDIs with 29 residents from RISE settlements in Indonesia and Fiji; and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) with RISE residents in Fiji in 2020–2021, after participatory design activities were complete. Resident p...
River Cities in Asia
River Cities in Asia uncovers the intimate relationship between rivers and cities in Asia from a ... more River Cities in Asia uncovers the intimate relationship between rivers and cities in Asia from a multi-disciplinary perspective in the humanities and the social sciences. As rivers have shaped human settlement patterns, economies, culture and rituals, so too have humans impacted the flow and health of rivers. In Asia, the sheer scale of urbanization increases the urgency of addressing challenges facing urban rivers, leading to the importance of historically, socially, and culturally relevant solutions. However, cities are also uneven landscapes of power, affecting chances to achieve holistic ecological approaches. The central premise of River Cities in Asia is that a “river city” is one where proximity between a river and a city exists across time and space, natural and social dimensions. Recognition of these deep connections can help to better contextualize policy solutions aimed at rivers and their ecologies, including human life.
Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2022
Although the poor condition of rivers in Indonesian cities is significant, there is limited docum... more Although the poor condition of rivers in Indonesian cities is significant, there is limited documentation and comparison of river improvement projects specific to socio-spatial factors. Furthermore, there is a need for practical examples of projects to support policy-making, design, and implementation. This chapter describes a comparative analysis of qualitative aspects of river improvement in Indonesia, based upon fieldwork documenting material evidence of the reconfiguration of the edges of four urbanized rivers. This evidence was classified based on aspects of the physical environment influencing the river-edge relationship. The findings illustrated the potential of neighborhood-centered projects to have positive environmental impacts. The chapter concludes with a series of forward-looking recommendations for the design of river-city relationships.
Amsterdam University Press eBooks, Oct 15, 2022
Sustainability, 2021
In the developing economies of the Global South, a fundamental challenge in the transition of set... more In the developing economies of the Global South, a fundamental challenge in the transition of settlements from rural or periurban to urban is increased environmental contamination as a result of poor sanitation and sanitation management. With governments’ limited ability to connect all neighbourhoods to a city’s existing municipal water, sewerage and other services, decentralised approaches using green infrastructure offer potential to address this challenge. In addition, green infrastructure might facilitate a move towards a holistic response to manage the full water cycle. This paper presents a narrative review of green infrastructure projects, involving constructed wetlands or their variants for wastewater treatment, within vulnerable communities in the Global South. It describes the scale and scope of each project, identifies the challenges of implementation, and reflects on their outcomes for different stakeholder groups. The review demonstrates that decentralised sanitation pr...
BMJ Open, 2021
IntroductionIncreasing urban populations have led to the growth of informal settlements, with con... more IntroductionIncreasing urban populations have led to the growth of informal settlements, with contaminated environments linked to poor human health through a range of interlinked pathways. Here, we describe the design and methods for the Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) study, a transdisciplinary randomised trial evaluating impacts of an intervention to upgrade urban informal settlements in two Asia-Pacific countries.Methods and analysisRISE is a cluster randomised controlled trial among 12 settlements in Makassar, Indonesia, and 12 in Suva, Fiji. Six settlements in each country have been randomised to receive the intervention at the outset; the remainder will serve as controls and be offered intervention delivery after trial completion. The intervention involves a water-sensitive approach, delivering site-specific, modular, decentralised infrastructure primarily aimed at improving health by decreasing exposure to environmental faecal contamination. Co...
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2020
The PhD at the End of the World, 2020
This chapter explores strategies for operationalising PhD studies in the context of a large resea... more This chapter explores strategies for operationalising PhD studies in the context of a large research project addressing the unrelenting problem of ill-health in the growing population of informal settlements in the Global South. We advocate that PhD training presents an opportunity to contribute to these contexts by both training a new kind of action-oriented scholar, but also by strategically deploying the enormous energies and original work generated through PhD candidates towards this critical mission. Driven by the desire to give agency and utility to PhD researchers in a much-needed domain of transdisciplinary research, the chapter chronicles the trials of a group of four PhD candidates embedded in a large health study using innovative approaches to the revitalisation of 24 informal settlement communities in the Asia-Pacific. Through a discussion between the candidates and supervisory team, the chapter uncovers three types of embedded PhD’s. It articulates the challenges and op...
Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically ... more Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically focused design 3 Engaging with life: the developmental practice of regenerative development and design 4 Designing for living environments using regenerative development: a case study of The Paddock 5 The paradox of metrics: setting goals for regenerative design and development Contents 6 Ecological design as the biointegration of a set of 'infrastructures': the 'quatrobrid' constructed ecosystem 7 Creating and restoring urban ecologies: case studies in China 8 Towards wildlife-supportive green space design in metropolitan areas: lessons from an experimental study 9 The new design with nature 10 Biomimicry: an opportunity for buildings to relate to place 11 The emergence of biophilic design and planning: re-envisioning cities and city life PART 2 Documenting social ecologies 12 Introduction: how to document urban/landscape assemblages 13 City boids: diagramming molecular urbanism 14 Why would we spend time drawing with people doing their washing in a Chinese village? 15 Object-led interview: documenting geographical ideas 16 Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for Contents ix 18 A landscape anthropology of green in Bahrain 19 Valparaiso Publico: a graphic inventory of urban spaces in a Chilean city 20 Being with Hellersdorf: performative counter-mapping as a 21 The happy city: an actor-network-theory manifesto 22 The aesthetics of documenting urban and landscape assemblages PART 3 Ecologies design practices 23 Introduction: on the need for and potentials of ecological design practice 24 Indigenous ecological design 26 Design in relationship with an ecological entity 27 On the rise: a coastal planning strategy for adaptation in response to climate change
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Papers by Michaela Prescott