The Government of the State of Alagoas started implementing in 2016 the “New Life in the Grotas” Programme in the city of Maceio, aiming to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the city’s “grotas”. Grotas are narrow, steep and sinuous ravines, an important feature of Maceio’s geography.
As the city grew, grotas were progressively occupied by slums and today are home to Maceió’s poorest population, who lack adequate mobility and accessibility alternatives to overcome these territories' challenging geography. Improving the connection of these communities to the rest of the city was deemed an important measure to reduce the city’s segregation and support the dwellers quality of life and livelihoods. Therefore, the “New Life in the Grotas” Programme set out to improve or build mobility and accessibility infrastructure in these communities.
To improve its institutional and technical capacities, the Government of the State of Alagoas sought a partnership with UN-Habitat in 2017 to implement the Quick Participatory Mapping (QPM) in all grotas of Maceio. This methodology of data production and analysis of informal settlements had been developed and implemented in Rio de Janeiro in 2014.The implementation of QPM in Maceio resulted in a set of reports, and tabular and spatial databases on the situation of the grotas that were delivered in 2019.
