Abstract
Currently, circa 30% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa resides in cities, and this figure is expected to double in 2040. The recent literature describes the urban expansion processes of African cities in much detail. However, the urbanization wave in Africa also leads to important intra-urban land use dynamics, which have important consequences on the quality of life within existing cities, which has received less attention. This study aims to contribute to these information gaps by (1) analyzing the extent of the urban land use conversion in contrasting urban locations using satellite images for physical criteria-based classifications and (2) assessing the potential consequences of these intra-urban conversions on the quality of life. Intra-urban land use changes were documented based on satellite imagery for the period 2002–2020. Based on some representative attributes, Addis Ababa city was selected for the case study. Urban land use dynamics and population density changes were examined based on the selected case study neighborhoods and randomly identified land parcels in the city, respectively. Urban development strategies and programs that emerged over recent decades had caused intra-urban land use dynamics, which brought significant population density changes. Moreover, these changes have caused an unbalanced distribution of socio-economic amenities across the city.
Highlights
Urbanization is a prominent trend and an important issue in the world’s development discourse [1]
Sub-Saharan African cities’ recent trends of urbanization that are focused on the redevelopment of slum neighborhoods with an aim of city image change and legitimating governments’ political power through an urban development-based economy were found to be the key drivers of slum demolitions in the urban centers [57]
This study has revealed that through the application of lowcost and remotely workable methodologies to document urban land use dynamics, their consequences on population density changes and access to urban socio-economic amenities are possible to estimate through proxy variables
Summary
Urbanization is a prominent trend and an important issue in the world’s development discourse [1]. At present, more than half of the world population lives in urban areas, and this figure is expected to increase to 75% by 2050 [2]. The Global South countries are the hotspots of the expected urban growth. The sub-Saharan countries are the least urbanized, but have the highest growth rate, which is 4.1% per year (World Bank, 2018). The major driver of urban growth in sub-Saharan African cities is rural-to-urban migration [3]. The author of [4] found that in 2014, approximately 60% of the inhabitants of African cities lived in slums that lack at least one of the following amenities: (1) durable housing; (2) sufficient living area; (3) access to improved water and electricity; (4) access to improved sanitation facilities; and (5) secure tenure [5]
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