Suburban Village Research Articles

Land-Use Transition of Tourist Villages in the Metropolitan Suburbs and Its Driving Forces: A Case Study of She Village in Nanjing City, China

In the context of the transition from “Native-rural China” to “Urban-rural China”, suburban villages have undergone rapid reconstruction of format, industry, and function. Aiming to reveal the evolution characteristics and driving forces, this study selected She Village, located in suburban areas of Nanjing, to analyze the changes of both dominant and recessive morphology of land use by employing participatory rural appraisal, remote sensing, and geographic information systems. The results showed that She Village witnessed three stages, including industrial development, ecological restoration, and service industry development, from 1980 to 2018, with more diversified management modes, multifunctional land use, and intensified land fragmentation. The drivers included natural resources, population growth, policy of Grain for Green, urban market demand, etc., the intensity of which showed trends of “increase–increase–increase”, “increase–decrease–decrease”, “periodically intermittent”, and “increase–decrease–increase” in turn. The tourist villages undergo three stages of industrial development, agricultural development, and service industry development, with periodical characteristics driven by top-down policies, the endogenous force of the village, and the radiation and diffusion of the city. This research deepens the understanding of the development process of suburban villages and provides a reference for land policy making and planning in other similar villages.

Long-Term Improvement in Precautions for Flood Risk Mitigation: A Case Study in the Low-Lying Area of Central Vietnam

Local actors appear as inseparable components of the integrated flood risk mitigation strategy in Vietnam. Recognizing this fact, this study examined the long-term improvement in precautions taken by commune authorities and households between two major floods in 1999 and 2017 by applying both quantitative and qualitative methods. Two flood-prone villages were selected for a survey; one in a rural area and the other in a suburban area of Thua Thien Hue Province, central Vietnam. The findings indicate that most villagers doubted the structural works’ efficacy and were dissatisfied with the current efforts of local authorities. Households’ self-preparation thus became the decisive factor in mitigating risk. While most households have paid greater attention to flood precautions in 2017, others seem to be lagging. Poverty-related barriers were the root causes restraining households in both rural and suburban villages. The suburban riverine residents were further identified as vulnerable by their limitations in upgrading structural measures, which was ascribed to the inconsistency in the ancient town’s preservation policy. This multidimensional comparison, in terms of vulnerability, emphasized the importance of space-function links in the suburb and the contradictions of different policy initiatives, such as landscape rehabilitation, disaster prevention, and livelihood maintenance.

ОДЕСЬКИЙ РАЙОН ЯК СІЛЬСЬКО-МІСЬКА АГЛОМЕРАЦІЯ

The article defines the composition of Odessa district by demographic characteristics of the communities that are part of it, identified it by essential characteristics as a rural-urban agglomeration. The scientific novelty and practical value of the study is to reveal the features of Odessa district, which are determined by its location, resource potential and nature of economic, industrial, social, cultural, recreational and other relationships and relationships between of urban, settlement and rural communities. It is proved that the inclusion of four other cities of regional significance in the district violated the existing natural-geographical and socio-economic division of the system of territorial organization of society into its rural and urban subsystems, but at the same time provided an opportunity to combine resources of communities to meet the growing needs of urban and rural populations and to solve existing problems that hinder the achievement of a higher standard of living by these communities. The advantages of Odesa district over other districts are determined, which consist in the presence of significant socio-economic, intellectual and cultural potential of its administrative center. The Indicated role of Odessa and other towns that are part of the district in the socio-cultural services of the population of suburban villages, their impact on changes in the settlement network, to planning of rural settlements. The socio-economic expediency of placing branches, workshops of enterprises, subsidiaries in the suburban zone of the administrative center of the district in order to prevent critical urbanization and deconcentration of production within its spatial boundaries. It was found that the predominance of certain functions, types of economic activity within the suburbs largely depends on the degree of remoteness of its communities from Odessa. With this in mind, three echelons of the suburban zone have been identified. The distance of the third echelon from the administrative center of the district varies between 50–60 km, the second – 30–50 km, the first – 30 km. The first echelon is used mainly for residential and industrial construction, unloading, placement of recreation centers, cottages, gardens. Within the second and third echelons, agricultural enterprises and other economic entities operate. Based on the results of the research, conclusions are made and prospects for further research in this area are determined.

Identifying communities’ perspectives on their health needs in impoverished villages to guide non-government organizations’ health promotion efforts in Guatemala

Objective: The aim of this mixed-methods study is to capture and understand impoverished Guatemalan community members’ perspectives of their own health needs on a community level in order to guide Hope of Life (HOL) Non-Profit organization’s health promotion interventions in the villages they serve. Methods: This exploratory research deployed a modified health needs assessment survey with 96 participants from four impoverished villages in the department of Zacapa, Guatemala. Survey responses were analyzed for significant differences in 4-item individual, family, and community health scores across demographic variables and significant correlations with reported personal health conditions and children’s health conditions. Five semi-structured interviews were also conducted with community leaders from three of the villages surveyed. Interviews were audio recorded and responses were transcribed verbatim and translated from Spanish to English. Thematic analysis using HyperRESEARCH qualitative analysis software version 4.5.0. was conducted to identify major themes. Results: The mean age of the 96 participants surveyed was 40.4 years and the majority were women, married or in consensual union, and have children. Women reported a significantly lower individual and family health score than men. The most rural village included in the study had significantly lower family health scores than the three sub-urban villages in the study. Among the personal health problems reported by participants, alcohol consumption, dental problems, and malnutrition were significant predictors of lower individual health scores. Themes that emerged from the interview analysis included the greatest community health needs, perceived negative community health behaviors, barriers to health care access, HOL’s impact, and suggestions for community health promotion. Conclusion: The results of this study reveal many unmet health needs and barriers to healthcare that Guatemalan village communities face. Community-based participatory research using a mixed approach voices communities’ perspective on their perceived needs and is an important tool to guide non-profit aid and intervention serving impoverished communities.

The impact of residential suburbanization on changes in the morphology of villages in the suburban area of Wrocław, Poland

Abstract Residential suburbanization is one of the most spontaneous processes occurring in the surroundings of large cities in Central and Eastern Europe. In the case of Wrocław, the first phase of suburbanization began as early as the second half of the 19th century. Its spatial scope changed with the expansion of the administrative borders of the city between 1924-28 and 1950-73, when dozens of suburban villages were incorporated into the city. In addition, during the socialism period, the intensity of suburbanization decreased significantly, which was related to the development of the city within the conditions of planned urbanization and industrialization of the country. The second phase of suburbanization began with the system transformation in the 1990s, and its scale and intensity increased in the 21st century. New construction in the hinterlands of the city has contributed to significant changes in the morphology of suburban villages, especially as the growing share of new buildings is multi-family housing. The aim of this article was to identify the most common trends in the morphological changes that affect villages located in the suburban area of Wrocław under the influence of residential suburbanization. Using the analysis of cartographic materials, field research and graph methods, a typology of morphological transformations of villages located in the suburban area was proposed.

Development of Learning Media for the Elderly to Promote Child Health in the Community.

The purpose of this study was to develop learning media for the elderly to promote child health. The participants consisted of 172 elderly people aged 60 years and older in a suburban village of northern Thailand. This study consisted of a survey questionnaire and focus group discussions and was divided in to two phases: (1) exploring the needs of the elderly in the knowledge of child health and (2) developing learning media, so that the elderly can learn how to promote child health and evaluate its efficiency in the trial process. Results showed that the participants mostly preferred the topic of activities of daily living (ADL) in children. The learning media contributes two major contents: (a) knowledge of child development in five types of ADL performance, brushing, eating, dressing, bathing, and toileting, and (b) methods in teaching ADL skills in children. The digital contents in the learning media were proposed to experts for professional approval. Efficiency of the learning media was evaluated after the trial, when the participants expressed their opinion, and the users perceived that the learning media was effective, motivating, easy to use, and simple in the terms used, as well as appropriate in the sequence of contents and pictures and font, size, and color of the text.

Informal Economy in Shanghai’s Suburban Villages: Local Society and the Dilemma of Governance

Abstract The rise of the informal economy has profoundly changed the social structure of rural society in Shanghai’s suburbs, leading to the phenomenon of the “defamiliarization” of the “society of the familiar.” As a result, local governments have lost the conventional resources and means to govern the risks posed by migrants working in the informal economy and, what is more, the model of minimalist governance itself has failed. In order to deal effectively with the risks to governance posed by the informal economy, local governments have tried persistently to strengthen their control over rural society through the expansion of administrative power and village organizations under their high-pressure system of governance. The goal of governance has been to compress and transform the production space of the informal economy, and integrate the large number of informal workers into the formal administrative management system. However, informal workers, who cannot be formalized because of the inherently informal nature of their work, face the prospect of eventually losing their livelihood space. Their lives have become more precarious and unstable since informal economic activity has continued to shrink.

Housing Wealth Status and Informal Accumulation of Rural Villages at the Rural-Urban Fringe in Shanghai, China

Housing wealth among urban residents has been a hotspot issue, but there is a dearth of literature focusing on rural housing wealth. Using housing registration data in Shanghai, this study examines the status and accumulation of rural housing wealth at the rural-urban fringe. Results show that rural housing wealth at the rural-urban fringe is characterized by high stock and frequent extension and reconstruction dominated by auxiliary houses. Rural housing wealth is still relatively equitable, but compared to their initial housing wealth distribution, disparities in urban villages or suburban villages are obviously higher than in the outer suburbs. These disparities are mainly driven by the expansion and reconstruction of rural auxiliary houses, typically the horizontal expansion of auxiliary homes. We suggest that defining explicit construction rules for rural auxiliary will help to avoid the disorder increase in illegal housing and, subsequently, rural housing wealth disparity.

Spatial and Landscape Changes in the Housing Development of Gdańsk Suburban Villages

Abstract In the article the specificity of development of Gdańsk suburban villages is considered. The data from recent years concerning demographic changes in communes will be analysed. The analysis of four selected villages will show the settlement changes and contemporary non-rural types of buildings. Spatial processes, which in terms of an extensive rural economy have already led to the change and depreciation of qualities of their current order and landscape, will be described.

Nitrate sources and biogeochemical processes in karst underground rivers impacted by different anthropogenic input characteristics

Nitrate is one of the most common pollution sources in groundwater, particularly in highly vulnerable karst aquifers. The potential for nitrification and denitrification within karst aquifers varies in different settings depending on the extent of anthropogenic inputs, so that accurate identification of nitrate sources can be difficult. Geochemical data and dual nitrate isotopes were measured in this study, incorporating a Bayesian isotopic mixing model, and used to identify nitrate sources, nitrification and denitrification, and quantitatively determine nitrate sources under different extents of anthropogenic inputs in three karst catchments within Chongqing Municipality, SW China: Laolongdong (an urbanized area), Qingmuguan (a suburban village), and Shuifang Spring (a protected natural area). At the Laolongdong catchment, the groundwater was in a reducing condition and enriched in δ15NNO3 (averaging 18.9 ± 6.9‰) and δ18ONO3 (averaging 8.5 ± 4.6‰). Manure and sewage waste were the main contributing nitrate sources. A slope of 1.8: 1 of the dual isotopes suggested a denitrification process occurring in anaerobic conduit flow. Within the Qingmuguan catchment, groundwater had average δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 values of 9.7 ± 3.5‰, and 1.9 ± 3.4‰, respectively. The data showed evidence for nitrification, and the contribution of soil organic nitrogen was 52.1%, followed by a contribution of 44.8% from manure and wastewater. At the Shuifang Spring catchment, the mean δ15NNO3 and δ18ONO3 values in groundwater were 8.8 ± 2.9‰, 2.3 ± 4.6‰, respectively. Nitrification was the dominant process and most of the nitrate was derived from soil organic nitrogen. This study suggests that karst underground rivers overlain by urban land use undergo denitrification, while the suburban and relatively pristine karst aquifers are dominated by nitrification, allowing development of a conceptual model for nitrate sources and transformations in karst aquifers from the categories of land use (i.e., urban, suburban, and pristine areas). Main findingAnthropogenic activities can change biogeochemical nitrogen dynamics of vulnerable karst aquifers, such that the groundwater overlain by an urban settlement has undergone denitrification, while suburban and pristine areas have been dominated by nitrification.

Rozrost terytorialny dużych miast w Polsce = Territorial development of large cities in Poland

The primary aim of the study was to identify the process of territorial expansion and spatial development in large cities of Poland: Wrocław, Warsaw and Cracow. This denoted the gathering of information on changes in administrative boundaries as well as population in the cities referred to – from the 13th century all the way through to modern times. The research hypothesis adopted was that cities expand their territories gradually, with each extension of administrative boundaries following a specific pattern and reflecting social and economic growth. The territorial development of a city (territorial change) thus relates to growth (change) in the administrative area, often in the form of expansion in relation to a widening of administrative boundaries, but with narrowing also possible. The spatial development of the city in turn follows the development of urbanised areas both within the boundaries and in the immediate vicinity of the given city. The study was inspired by observations on the specific nature of territorial growth in Wrocław and other large cities in Poland, for which analysis revealed some regularities to the settlement processes during different historical periods. Firstly, changes in the administrative boundaries of large cities followed a pulsatile pattern, with consecutive modifications alternating with periods of stability of variable length. Secondly, the territorial expansion of a city usually came after a period of dynamic social and economic growth both within existing boundaries and in the surrounding zone connected closely with the city and transformed under its influence. In turn, most longer periods in which boundaries were stable corresponded to periods of social and economic stagnation in the given city. Thirdly, the boundaries of cities changed when a certain climax point of population density was exceeded, and the city could no longer grow within its existing boundaries. Each extension contributed to an increase in the administered area and to population growth, albeit with populati n density decreasing considerably – in statistical terms – given the incorporation of new, less-urbanised areas offering free (potential) land for further urban growth. Fourthly, the sequence of development processes and their specific repeatability are cyclical in nature, and consecutive cycles are seen to end successive stages involving the extension of cities’ administrative boundaries. A single cycle of changes in the administrative boundaries of the city consists of five basic phases. Phase I is the initial phase, which takes place at the moment of foundation of a city, or in the case of subsequent cycles – when there is extension of the city limits. During phase II the number of residents and population density within the city borders increase as a result of socio-economic growth. During phase III population density within the city boundaries continues to increase, and after reaching the limit of its growth potential the city sprawls to the nearest neighbourhood. During phase IV the impact of the city n its neighbourhood stimulates further development of the suburbs. This process may also often encompass suburban villages or smaller towns strongly connected with the city. During phase V the functional link between the city and its neighbourhood (suburbs) is so strong that the administrative boundaries are extended to include suburban areas that represent a natural extension of the city. This contributes to an increase in area and population growth, as well as to a major decrease in population density within the new boundaries. This phase is at the same time the initial phase for the next cycle of a city’s spatial and territorial development. The above described cyclical pattern of territorial growth concerns a specific group of cities – monocentric regional centres developing as a result of the influence of centripetal forces in the physicalism and functional approach.

Zmiany granic administracyjnych miast w Polsce w latach 1990–2017 i ich wpływ na wielkość zaludnienia

Głównym celem autora artykułu jest określenie wpływu odrodzenia się samorządności lokalnej w Polsce na zmiany granic administracyjnych miast po 1990 r. Badaniami objęto miasta funkcjonujące w latach 1945–2018 (1041 jednostek), a ich istotą było zebranie informacji na temat wszystkich zmian granic administracyjnych miast w okresie powojennym. Uwzględniono jedynie zmiany związane z wcieleniem lub wyłączeniem z granic miast innych miejscowości, pomijając tym samym zmiany granic miast związane ze zmianą przynależności administracyjnej terenów niezurbanizowanych. W efekcie stwierdzono, że po 1989 r. intensywność zmian granic administracyjnych miast w Polsce znacząco zmniejszyła się w stosunku do okresu poprzedzającego (lata 1945–1989). Wyróżniono trzy zasadnicze tendencje współczesnych zmian administracyjnych miast: rozpad miast-zlepieńców, rozpad zlepieńców miejsko-wiejskich i wcielanie w granice miast podmiejskich wsi.

Relacje społeczne między mieszkańcami wsi i ludnością napływową z miasta w strefie podmiejskiej Krakowa – przestrzeń konfliktu czy współpracy?

Badania strefy podmiejskiej w Polsce mają długą tradycję i prowadzone były w wielu ośrodkach naukowych. Równie poważny dorobek powstał w zakresie badań społecznych tej strefy. Studia te jednak są prawie wyłącznie prowadzone z pozycji mieszkańca miasta zasiedlającego strefę podmiejską, motywów jego migracji i postrzegania stosunków społecznych w nowym miejscu zamieszkania. W polskiej literaturze przedmiotu brak jest natomiast badań na temat postaw mieszkańców wsi podmiejskich wobec ludności napływającej z miasta centralnego. Tę lukę w literaturze przedmiotu starali się wypełnić autorzy niniejszego opracowania. Poddali bowiem badaniu pod tym kątem mieszkańców trzech gmin podmiejskich, położonych w strefie oddziaływań Krakowa.

Accurate Building Extraction from Fused DSM and UAV Images Using a Chain Fully Convolutional Neural Network

Accurate extraction of buildings using high spatial resolution imagery is essential to a wide range of urban applications. However, it is difficult to extract semantic features from a variety of complex scenes (e.g., suburban, urban and urban village areas) because various complex man-made objects usually appear heterogeneous with large intra-class and low inter-class variations. The automatic extraction of buildings is thus extremely challenging. The fully convolutional neural networks (FCNs) developed in recent years have performed well in the extraction of urban man-made objects due to their ability to learn state-of-the-art features and to label pixels end-to-end. One of the most successful FCNs used in building extraction is U-net. However, the commonly used skip connection and feature fusion refinement modules in U-net often ignore the problem of feature selection, and the ability to extract smaller buildings and refine building boundaries needs to be improved. In this paper, we propose a trainable chain fully convolutional neural network (CFCN), which fuses high spatial resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images and the digital surface model (DSM) for building extraction. Multilevel features are obtained from the fusion data, and an improved U-net is used for the coarse extraction of the building. To solve the problem of incomplete extraction of building boundaries, a U-net network is introduced by chain, which is used for the introduction of a coarse building boundary constraint, hole filling, and "speckle" removal. Typical areas such as suburban, urban, and urban villages were selected for building extraction experiments. The results show that the CFCN achieved recall of 98.67%, 98.62%, and 99.52% and intersection over union (IoU) of 96.23%, 96.43%, and 95.76% in suburban, urban, and urban village areas, respectively. Considering the IoU in conjunction with the CFCN and U-net resulted in improvements of 6.61%, 5.31%, and 6.45% in suburban, urban, and urban village areas, respectively. The proposed method can extract buildings with higher accuracy and with clearer and more complete boundaries.

Suburban Villages: Conceptualizing Urban Fringes in a Global Context. The Case of Wangzhai

Early settlements, or “Suburban Villages,” are organized along the Wenruitang water network, a millenary old canal system which structured the territory around Wenzhou. The extension of the urban boundaries from the late 1980’s onward included the rural villages along the Wenruitang in a form of diffused urbanism. Those villages became linked to create an Urban Archipelago, defining an indigenous kind of suburbs. At present, the sevillages are threatened by the constant mutating character of this suburb: the agricultural land preservation policy will preserve the diffuse urban form but puts the burden on the already built areas, i.e. the suburban villages, as the only place of redevelopment, and real estate speculation. Ourresearchprojectaimstodefinethismutatingterritoryandfocusparticularlyonthe relation between the Wenruitang water system and the settlements, within this new suburban situation. Our goal is to show the patterns of its architecture and urbanism in order to propose either a preservation and rehabilitation plan. OurfirstcasestudyisthevillageofWangzhaiinWenzhouinZhejiangProvince.Located on one branch of the Wenruitang water network, Wangzhai village is both typical and specific. As part of these Suburban Villages network, it is typical with its relation to the river, its spontaneous urban development, and its modern vernacular architecture heritage. However it is located within the boundaries of the Sino-American Wenzhou-Kean University, and is part of the planned Kean Town. The objective of our research is to examine the condition of the village in order to propose conceptual tools that might be used for design strategies.

Clinical presentation of epilepsy in six villages in an onchocerciasis endemic area in Mahenge, Tanzania.

To describe the clinical manifestations of epilepsy and access to antiseizure treatment in Mahenge in Central Tanzania, an onchocerciasis endemic area with a high prevalence of epilepsy. A door-to-door epilepsy prevalence survey was conducted in four rural and two sub-urban villages. Trained community workers used five screening questions to identify persons suspected to have epilepsy. Such individuals were interviewed and examined by a neurologist or a medical doctor with additional training in epilepsy, and were tested for Onchocerca volvulus antibodies. A total of 221 out of 8,062 (2.74%) surveyed individuals were confirmed to have epilepsy. The median age at seizure onset was 12 years (interquartile range: 7-16). Seventy-nine persons with epilepsy (PWE) (36.1%) had a family member with epilepsy, which was a sibling in 52.1%. Tonic-clonic seizures (142 individuals; 64.2%) were the most common seizure type. Nodding seizures were reported in 12.7% of PWE; the majority of them living in rural villages. Persons with nodding seizures reported more frequent seizures, presented with more psychiatric symptoms, and more often had onchocerciasis antibodies than those with other seizure types. The high rate of individuals with a seizure onset at between seven and 16 years is characteristic of onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE). Of the PWE, 77.9% met the criteria for the clinical case definition of OAE. Eighty-three PWE (37.6%) were not taking any antiepileptic medication. Phenobarbital was the antiepileptic drug most commonly prescribed in 76.1% of treated PWE. The high prevalence of epilepsy in rural villages in Mahenge most likely is related to the high prevalence of OAE. To prevent children developing OAE, strengthening the onchocerciasis elimination programme in Mahenge is urgently needed. Moreover, a decentralised epilepsy treatment programme is also needed to provide uninterrupted access to affordable antiepileptic drugs for the many PWE living in rural villages in the Mahenge area.

Quantifying human presence in a heterogeneous urban landscape

AbstractHumans are a keystone species in urban ecosystems. Although the impact of human activities is increasingly reported in behavioral and evolutionary ecology, little is known about the effects of physical human presence per se. Of particular relevance is the extent to which human presence (sometimes referred to as human disturbance), is repeatable across the urban mosaic over time. We quantified human presence at fixed locations—here in a 15-m radius of great tit nestboxes—within six urban and suburban study sites. While overall human presence did not differ between urban sites, it was significantly higher than in the suburban village. Moreover, considerable variance between fixed locations was observed within each site. We reported overall high repeatability of human presence for all sites (0.57 < R < 0.88, mean: 0.76, median: 0.77). We further simulated datasets of human presence made of an increasing number of counts, and demonstrated that 10 counts of human presence (each 30 s long) made at each fixed location can generate a highly reliable indicator of human presence (R ≥ 0.6) for any urban site. We thus confirm that human presence is repeatable across the urban mosaic, thereby offering consistent cues to urban wildlife of human presence or absence in space and time. Importantly, our approach of human presence quantification allows for an effort-efficient approach to understand the effects of physical human presence at designated temporal timeframes, thereby allowing to reliably test the effects of human presence on the behavior and ecology of urban wildlife.

Research on the construction of village classification evaluation index system under the background of rural revitalization

The Rural Revitalization Strategic Plan (2018-2022) clearly divides the villages into agglomeration and upgrading villages, characteristic protection villages, evacuation and relocation villages and suburban fusion villages. However, the current classification of villages is subjective and lacks scientific and rational quantitative evaluation. This paper attempts to construct the villages classification evaluation index system from six aspects, namely transportation location, population scale, land resources, economic development status, infrastructure and historical context by using AHP. Through an empirical research of 12 villages in Mayangshan township, Longhui county, it was found that there were 2 agglomeration and upgrading villages, 4 characteristic protection villages and 6 evacuation and relocation villages in Matangshan township. In the background of rural revitalization, the construction of village classification evaluation index system to scientifically determine the type of village is a useful exploration for improving the theory and practice of rural planning, which can provide reference for village layout planning.

The Reasons Why Young People Avoid Engaging in Sports and Athletic Activities / Razlozi zbog kojih mladi izbjegavaju da se bave sportom i sportskim aktivnostima

This paper mainly refers to attitudes about the reasons for the avoidance of sports and sports activities of young people who have never been involved in these activities. In this survey involving 226 university and high school students, 110 stated that they had never been involved in sport or any sporting activities. They are surely the most reputed to answer these questions. Of the offered reasons (causes) that are responsible for avoiding and non-participation in sports and sports activities, in the first place is the lack of interest which is stated by about 90% of the respondents. Secondly, the reason why respondents do not deal with sports and sports activities are the obligations at school and at the faculty, and this was confirmed by 85% of respondents. Laziness follows, about this they were very self-critical and sincere, confirming in a percentage of 84.5% that this was one of the reasons for their abstinence from sports and sports activities. Immediately behind laziness are television, there are computers and cell phones with about 80%, and so on. The results showed that male and female, then smokers and non-smokers, do not differ significantly in attitudes about these reasons. It is the same with those who consume, occasionally consume and do not consume alcohol. There is a partial difference between high school students and university students in attitudes to some causes, as well as between those who live in the city, suburban village and village.

Assessing the Impacts of Urban Sprawl on Suburban Villages in the Bamenda Metropolitan Periphery, North West Cameroon

Man has been and remains mobile, conquering and impacting every space he occupies. Man’s impact on space has been more accentuated since the 20th century than erstwhile in history, owing to demographic explosion and more advanced technological innovations. Urban space and adjoining lands are impacted most compared to the rural milieu. This study examines the ramifications of rapid and disordered urbanisation on peripheral villages to the city of Bamenda. This is crucial in understanding the threats and consequences of the phenomenon of unending urbanisation on contiguous agricultural land. The trend of urbanisation and resultant impacts were ascertained by analysing data drawn from national census figures, LANDSAT satellite images and suitable field surveys. Analyses revealed that a growth of 14.6% of the population between 1973 and 2018 produced a corresponding sprawl of 97.54% of the spatial extent of Bamenda metropolis, which presently covers 40.96 times the spatial area it occupied in 1973. This has grave repercussions for contiguous agricultural land and urban food security. The paper posits that a scrupulous compliance with existing urban master plans and implementation of carefully designed policies to protect agricultural land are inevitable in checking urban growth and its induced effects; and guaranteeing urban food security.