Illegal construction

Illegal construction (also known as illegal building or illegal housing) is construction work (or the result of such) without a valid

Even construction works with apparently valid permits can be a result of bribery.^{[citation needed]}

In some cases it can be observed that legal or tolerated settlements are later declared illegal by governmental institutions in order to make room for more lucrative investments or simply for political demonstration purposes (see e.g. Operation Murambatsvina) sometimes under the pretext of beautification.^{[citation needed]}

Notable examples

An infamous example of organized illegal construction can be found in the so-called Sack of Palermo.

Environmental risks

Increased landslide risk has been found to be associated with illegal building in hillside regions of densely populated urban areas in Italy^[2] and Bosnia and Herzegovina,^[3] because of loss of stabilizing vegetation by deforestation, etc.. Due to uncontrolled increase in impervious surface, the role of illegal construction has also been discussed in connection with flash floods (see 2011 European floods#Italy).

Detection

In addition to human observation, large-scale screening for illegal building (activity) can also rely on