Accessibility of public recreational parks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A GIS based analysis at sub-city level

Abstract

Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly growing and transforming. This leads to increased demand for accessible urban green spaces (UGSs). Various efforts have been made in order to address these issues. However, despite the abundant scientific literature available on the accessibility of UGSs in many parts of the world, only a few studies have been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in Ethiopia. The aim of this study is to fill this research gap with an empirical investigation of the accessibility of 23 existing public recreational parks (classified hierarchically in City, Sub-city and Woreda Parks) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by using a GIS based network analysis method at the sub-city level. The study is particularly relevant and urgent as the Addis Ababa City Council is currently planning to establish 2730 ha of new recreational park area until 2027. The results show that the public recreational parks in Addis Ababa are relatively few in numbers, small in size and cover large service areas. Moreover they are unevenly distributed throughout the city. Six out of ten sub-cities - in which more than 70 % of the inhabitants of Addis Ababa live - have relatively few parks. A wide variation in the accessibility exists for the three park types. Low accessibility was particularly recorded for City and Woreda Parks, and for the outskirts of the city. The proposed plan by the Addis Ababa City Council has the potential to reduce this gap, but its concept to dedicate 89.2 % of the newly established park area as City Parks and only 2% as Woreda Parks does not match with the actual accessibility problems. It is therefore recommended to establish many small size Woreda Parks, which often provide important day-to-day benefits to the nearby residents, instead of few large City Parks. The plan should focus on sub-cities in the South and East of Addis Ababa which are park-deficient, and there especially on areas with ‘poorer’ communities. These sub-cities have less built-up areas, so more space for new parks, but a high current and future demand, mainly due to rapid population growth promoted through mass housing development projects.