Urban Growth In Africa Research Articles

Detecting the Dynamics of Urban Growth in Africa Using DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data

Africa has been experiencing a rapid urbanization process, which may lead to an increase in unsustainable land use and urban poverty. Assessing the spatiotemporal characteristics of urbanization dynamics is especially important and needed for the sustainable development of Africa. Satellite-based nighttime light (NTL) data are widely used to monitor the dynamics of urban growth from global to local scales. In this study, urban growth patterns across Africa were analyzed and discussed using stable nighttime light datasets obtained from DMSP/OLS (the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Line-scan System) spanning from 1992 to 2013. We partitioned the nighttime lighting areas into three types (low, medium, and high) using thresholds derived from the Brightness Gradient (BG) method. Our results indicated that built-up areas in Africa have increased rapidly, particularly those areas with low nighttime lighting types. Countries with higher urbanization levels in Africa, like South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, and Libya, were leading the brightening trend. The distribution of nighttime lighting types was consistent with the characteristics of urban development, with high nighttime lighting types showed up at the urban center, whereas medium and low nighttime lighting types appeared in the urban-rural transition zone and rural areas respectively. The impacts of these findings on the future of African cities will be further proposed.

Sustainable Urban Growth in Africa: Lessons from Lagos's Pentecostal Community

Over the past decade and a half, the Nigerian city of Lagos has been a source of fascination for urban thinkers interested in the way its unrelenting growth in population and size seemed to defy the established conventions of urban development. More recently, the city has attracted external attention for the ways in which the current political administration has developed innovative solutions to seemingly intractable urban problems and sought to counteract the effects of decades of neglect on infrastructure. Yet, the difficult urban conditions that first drew the attention of external observers are still very present. Furthermore, because the solutions introduced by the government rely on a neo-liberal logic, existing social inequities are maintained or exacerbated by these solutions. We can think here of the introduction of the Eko Atlantic land reclamation project which has, in effect, exchanged a public space – the Lagos Bar Beach—for an exclusive real estate development (marketed as “The Best Prime Real Estate in Nigeria”). We can also think of the ways in which private development has focused on the Lagos Island-Lekki axis at the expense of a more equitable distribution of capital and services throughout the city. Alongside the expansion of the city and the latest efforts of political administrations, Pentecostal groups have constructed vast, independently-operated campuses on the periphery of the city that offer an alternative to the goings in Lagos's urban limits. In this paper, I interrogate the ideologies behind the construction of these religious sites. In particular, I will be examining the sites constructed by two groups: the Redeemed Christian Church of God and Living Faith Church Worldwide and inquiring whether the approach taking by these organizations provides city planners with new ways of thinking about the city. The two groups in question subscribe to a Pentecostal Christian ideology that believes in the physical manifestation of the divine. The explosive growth that this form of Christianity experienced in Lagos starting in the 1990s allowed these groups to accumulate immense human and financial capital. As a result, they are able to provide infrastructure and services that serve as alternatives to those provide by the government and most clearly visible in the vast campuses they have constructed on the outskirts of the city. In the presentation ahead, I will explain whether these groups' approach should be considered as an alternative to the model of urban development provided by the government and whether there are lessons to be learned by Lagos's city planners.

Modelling spatial patterns of urban growth in Africa

The population of Africa is predicted to double over the next 40 years, driving exceptionally high urban expansion rates that will induce significant socio-economic, environmental and health changes. In order to prepare for these changes, it is important to better understand urban growth dynamics in Africa and better predict the spatial pattern of rural-urban conversions. Previous work on urban expansion has been carried out at the city level or at the global level with a relatively coarse 5–10 km resolution. The main objective of the present paper was to develop a modelling approach at an intermediate scale in order to identify factors that influence spatial patterns of urban expansion in Africa. Boosted Regression Tree models were developed to predict the spatial pattern of rural-urban conversions in every large African city. Urban change data between circa 1990 and circa 2000 available for 20 large cities across Africa were used as training data. Results showed that the urban land in a 1 km neighbourhood and the accessibility to the city centre were the most influential variables. Results obtained were generally more accurate than results obtained using a distance-based urban expansion model and showed that the spatial pattern of small, compact and fast growing cities were easier to simulate than cities with lower population densities and a lower growth rate. The simulation method developed here will allow the production of spatially detailed urban expansion forecasts for 2020 and 2025 for Africa, data that are increasingly required by global change modellers.

Colonial Township Laws and Urban Governance in Kenya

AbstractRapid population and urban growth in Africa pose severe challenges to development planning and management. This article argues that weak urban governance in Kenya results from the colonial legal order's shaping of urban form. Kenya's colonial laws, drawing from those in other British colonies (especially South Africa) and British statute law on local government, public health, housing and town planning, controlled African labour and movement, and Africans' relation to towns. These laws included ordinances on registration, “master and servant” and vagrancy, while detailed township rules enforced racial segregation and exclusion; the Feetham Commission (1926) led to a hierarchy of local authorities, with no African representation until the 1950s. The dual mandate ideology resulted in different land tenure in the white-settled areas and trust lands; the late introduction of individual land ownership in the trust lands created problems of peri-urban, unplanned development outside the old township boundaries.

Future Urban Growth and Archaeological Heritage Management: Some Implications for Research Activity in Africa

Projected future urban growth in Africa is anticipated to be considerable, although estimates vary as to the overall likely scale of this, its spatial distribution within different countries, and the likely drivers and rates of change. Regardless of these details, urban expansion is likely to pose one of the most significant threats to the archaeological resources of the continent, and appropriate measures are urgently needed to mitigate against wholescale destruction of these without adequate documentation or investigation. This paper reviews the current literature concerning anticipated future growth, rates of change, and most likely spatial location of urban expansion up to c. 2050. The aim in doing so is to highlight the potential scale of this threat to Africa's archaeological and heritage resources managers, and thereby encourage better monitoring of development in urban and peri-urban areas than has been the case hitherto. The paper concludes with some suggested strategies that, if adopted, would help mitigate some of the likely threats to long-term preservation of sites and monuments in urban and peri-urban areas.

Urbanization and Urban Growth in Africa

AbstractDuring the past three decades, there has been rapid urbanization in Africa due primarily to development strategies that emphasized urban growth at the expense of agricultural and rural development. This paper discusses and analyzes current trends in African urbanization, the factors that have contributed to urbanization and urban growth, and the resultant consequences of such rapid urbanization and urban growth in Africa.

Urbanization and Urban Growth in Africa

During the past three decades, there has been rapid urbanization in Africa due primarily to development strategies that emphasized urban growth at the expense of agricultural and rural development. This paper discusses and analyzes current trends in African urbanization, the factors that have contributed to urbanization and urban growth, and the resultant consequences of such rapid urbanization and urban growth in Africa.

Reviews

Unfree Labour and its Persistence into the Capitalist Era: A Critical Review of Recent Books by Robert Miles and Robin Cohen reviewed by Bob Currie The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labourby Robin Cohen; Capitalism and Unfree Labour: Anomaly or Neccessity?by Robert Miles. War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africaby Jacklyn Cock & Laurie Nathan (Eds); David Phillip, Cape Town, 1989 Coping with Rapid Urban Growth in Africa: An Annotated Bibliography in English and French on Policy and Management of Urban Affairs in the 1980sby Richard Stren with Claire Letemendia, translated by Claude Stren. Bibliography Series no.12, Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Montreal, 1986

Coping with Rapid Urban Growth in Africa: An Annotated Bibliography

Coping with Rapid Urban Growth in Africa: An Annotated Bibliography