The sustainability guidelines for slums upgrading MSc Patricia Aulicino, EP-USP, Brasil, patricia.aulicino@usp.br Professor Alex Abiko, EP-USP, Brasil, alex.abiko@poli.usp.br Cities have for long been viewed as problematic areas from the environmental point of view, given that they continue to attract increasingly large numbers of inhabitants, thus generating negative impacts on the natural environment. This negative situation can basically be traced to the following: (a) an increase in land occupation resulting from the phenomenon of urban sprawl; (b) the use of natural materials to build cities, such as sand, stone, timber, concrete and steel; (c) the consumption of energy and materials to sustain the operation of the cities; and (d) the production of wastes such as greenhouse gases, garbage and sewage. In developing countries the above are compounded by rapid city growth and by the shortage of resources needed to properly manage this situation. Informal settlements have tended to mushroom as a result, frequently as a direct outcome of urban planning deficiencies. Areas that are undervalued and rejected by the real estate market or those that are unsuitable for building, such as areas at risk from flooding and landslides, end up by being occupied by low-income segments of the population with insufficient funds to rent or purchase a minimally habitable property. Cities have thus become the scenarios for two very different co-existing realities: on the one hand, the ‘formal’ city conforming to legal guidelines and enjoying standard urban infrastructure and services, and on the other, the ‘informal’ city built by the residents themselves in precarious areas with no access to infrastructure, services or shops, and which is often not even acknowledged as being part of the city proper. For many years public policies focused on efforts to eradicate slums and transfer their populations to social housing complexes. Given the need to render social housing financially viable the units were often located in low-cost areas increasingly remote from the city centres and where services, shopping facilities and transport were in short supply. These policies were doomed to failure since many of the relocated residents in such buildings were dissatisfied and in many cases abandoned their new homes to move back to slum areas closer to the city centre. A further disadvantage of the outlying social housing estates was that the public authorities were forced to employ their scarce resources to supply infrastructure and a range of services - including transport to ensure access to such places. In view of the failure of these relocation policies local governments gradually came to accept that the most effective solution for resolving the housing shortage problem, as well as the negative environmental impacts caused by informal settlements, would be to upgrade these settlements. The term "slum upgrading" is open to broad interpretation. It can be applied to any intervention in an urban settlement that results in the improved quality of life of its inhabitants. Slum upgrading can range from the installation of basic infrastructure and improvements to streets, access-ways and upgrading dwelling units, to providing basic services such as garbage collection, health and education amenities. In recent years new items have been incorporated into the slum upgrading