Drivers and Implications of Urban Expansion, the Case of Sululta Town, Ethiopia
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Date
2022-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Urban areas are the most dynamic regions in the world in both demographic and spatial dimensions with serving as the social, economic and political centers of our modern life. In the last three decades, rapid urbanization has been recorded in Ethiopia at large and Sululta town in particular, thus providing an indication of increasing urban issues and environmental problems in such areas. As its proximity to the capital city, the rapid growth of Addis Ababa poses enormous opportunities and challenges for the development of surrounding towns including the Sululta town. The main objective of this study was to assess and analyze the drivers of the built up land use and land cover changes of Sululta towns and its implication on the settlements. In this study, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System, and intensity analysis with assessment of the driving factors were used together within an integrated framework to analyze the changes and dynamics of Land Use Land Cover in Sululta town. The changes and intensity analysis were evaluated for four classes of land-use (built-up, agriculture, grass land and vegetation) and at three levels: time, category, and transition for the last three decades (1990-2020). The results showed that the land-use land cover changes were significant and found to be accelerated in the last two-time intervals (2000-2010 and 2010-2020) as a result of the land use intensity was higher than the uniform intensity and the recognition of Sululta town as a town administration, while there was a slowdown in the first period (1990-2000). The annual land use change intensity during the first-time interval (1990-2000) was less than from the uniform intensity and greater than for the remaining period. For the category level, the built up class experienced more gain than loss during all time intervals and agricultural land experienced more loss than gain. For the transition level analysis, the agricultural class was more contributed to the built-up area than grass land during all time intervals. Built-up areal coverage increased from 0.56% to 22.64% of the total study area within 30 years interval. The annual land use change intensity also increased from 0.35% to 1.99%. Besides, the increase in population size, rural-urban migration, location of the town and housing preference, resettlement because of political chaos, and informal access to land are the major driving forces for the Sululta town rapid expansion. The land brokers and private investors (speculators) are the key actors who contributed to the dramatic expansion on Sululta town and impacted on proliferation of informal settlements and; imbalance between demand and supply of land for housing. The author recommends having a master plan to be revised in short term periods. If exist, it has to be implemented properly
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Keywords
Urbanization, Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Settlements, Land use intensity