Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Technical notes
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ing water sources or delivery points (listed below). Improved
drinking water technologies are more likely to provide safe
drinking water than those characterized as unimproved.
Improved drinking water sources: Piped water into dwelling,
plot or yard; Public tap/standpipe; Tubewell/borehole;
Protected dug well; Protected spring; Rainwater collection.
Unimproved drinking water sources: Unprotected dug well;
Unprotected spring; Cart with small tank/drum; Bottled
water 8 ; Tanker-truck; Surface water (river, dam, lake, pond,
stream, canal, irrigation channels)
Improved sanitation coverage: This is an indicator
expressed as the percentage of people using improved
sanitation facilities (listed below). Improved sanitation facilities
are more likely to prevent human contact with human
excreta than unimproved facilities. Improved sanitation facilities:
Flush or pour–flush to: piped sewer system, septic
tank, pit latrine; Ventilated improved pit latrine; Pit latrine
with slab; Composting toilet. Unimproved sanitation facilities:
Flush or pour–flush to elsewhere 9 ; Pit latrine without
slab or open pit; Bucket; Hanging toilet or hanging latrine;
No facilities or bush or field.
Intentional homicide: Death deliberately inflicted on a
person by another person, including infanticide.
Land inequality: This measures the extent to which the
distribution of land among individuals or households within
an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.
Level of urbanization: Percentage of the population residing
in places classified as urban. Urban and rural settlements
are defined in the national context and vary among countries
(the definitions of urban are generally national definitions
incorporated within the latest census).
Life expectancy at birth: Number of years a newborn
infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the
time of birth were to stay the same throughout the child’s
life.
Motor vehicles: Include cars, buses and freight vehicles but
not two-wheelers. Roads refer to motorways, highways, main
or national roads, and secondary or regional roads. A motorway
is a road specially designed and built for motor traffic
that separates the traffic flowing in opposite directions.
Natural Disaster: A serious disruption triggered by a
natural hazard causing human, material, economic or
environmental losses, which exceed the ability of those
affected to cope.
Natural Hazard: Natural processes or phenomena occurring
in the biosphere that may constitute a damaging event.
Hazardous events vary in magnitude, frequency, duration,
area of extent, speed of onset, spatial dispersion and temporal
spacing. In tables, natural hazards refer exclusively to
earthquake, tropical cyclone, flood and drought.
Non-intentional homicide: Death not deliberately inflicted
on a person by another person. This includes the crime of
manslaughter but excludes traffic accidents that result in the
death of persons.
Persons in housing units: Number of persons resident in
housing units.
Persons prosecuted: Alleged offenders prosecuted by
means of an official charge, initiated by the public prosecutor
or the law enforcement agency responsible for
prosecution.
Police staff: Police personnel or law enforcement personnel
in public agencies whose principal functions are the prevention,
detection and investigation of crime and the
apprehension of alleged offenders. Data concerning support
staff (secretaries, clerks etc.) are not excluded.
Political stability and absence of violence: Perceptions of
the likelihood that the government will be destabilized or
overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means, including
domestic violence and terrorism.
Poor households: Percentage of women and men-headed
households situated below the locally defined poverty line.
The poverty line is usually an ‘absolute’ poverty line, taken as
the income necessary to afford a minimum nutritionally
adequate diet, plus essential non-food requirements, for a
household of a given size.
Population, total: Mid-year population estimates for the
world, region, countries or areas. The Population Division of
the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs updates, every two years, population estimates and
projections by incorporating new data, new estimates and
new analyses of data on population, fertility, mortality and
international migration. Data from new population censuses
and/or demographic surveys are used to verify and update
old estimates of population or demographic indicators, or to
make new ones and to check the validity of the assumptions
made in the projections. Total population refers to the
estimates and projections (medium variant) of the total
population for each country region and major area. Annual
growth rate, calculated by UN-Habitat, refers to the average
annual percentage change of population during the indicated
period for each country, major regions and global totals. The
formula used throughout the Annex is as follows: r = [(1/t) x
ln(A2/A1)] x 100, where ‘A1’ is a value at any given year; ‘A2’
is a value at any given year later than the year of ‘Al’; ‘t’ is the
year interval between ‘Al’ and ‘A2’; and ‘ln’ is the natural
logarithm function.
Population affected by conflicts: This refers to percentage
of total population affected by armed conflicts. Armed
conflict: A contested incompatibility that concerns government
and/or territory where the use of armed force between
two parties, of which at least one is the government of a
state, results in at least 25 battle related deaths.