Laure Criqui: Expanding essential service networks in informal settlements in Delhi and Lima.

The expansion of electricity, water and sanitation networks in developing cities is, in principle, complicated by the absence or shortcomings of urban planning. The methods used to provide utilities to informal settlements in Delhi and Lima are analysed here as socio-technical mechanisms that reveal the dynamics of urban development. In fact, on a day-to-day basis, companies install poles and pipes in unplanned neighbourhoods. Technical, social and institutional innovations make it possible to extend networks there; the lack of planning is therefore not an obstacle to infrastructure provision.

However, this process is suboptimal: the execution of works is disorganised, unpredictability hinders the development of strategies, and political directives can be contradictory. Such coordination shortcomings create uncertainties that are difficult for service providers to overcome. There are, nevertheless, promising avenues for intervention in unplanned neighbourhoods: alternative transport schemes exist that can be promoted; informal data and plans meet the need for knowledge about the city and would benefit from being utilised; and the design and preservation of the road network prove crucial to enabling coherent, gradual and sustainable urban consolidation.

An analysis of network expansion helps to identify key tools for public policy in developing cities, thereby offering new perspectives for urban planning to redevelop existing urban areas and strategically prepare for future urbanisation.