Understanding Households’ Residential Location Choice in Kumasi’s Peri-Urban Settlements and the Implications for Sustainable Urban Growth

This study was conducted against the backdrop of the rapid physical expansion of Kumasi and the concomitant growth of peri-urban settlements of mainly residential land use around the city’s main built-up area. Adopting the case study approach and selecting Abrepo and Esreso as study areas, it sought to understand the factors that inform households’ decisions to live in Kumasi’s peri-urban settlements. Based on households’ likelihood of change of residence in the future and their stated residential location preferences, the implications for sustainable urban growth were examined. The study found that family relations, relatively low land price and house rents as well as work-place proximity were the most significant reasons underpinning households’ choice of the urban periphery. In view of the aggregate cost reducing advantages associated with the urban periphery therefore, the study concludes that rapid expansion of the city into peripheral areas due mainly to residential development will continue to occur. It therefore suggests that urban development policies that aim at securing liveable conditions and promoting mixed-use development in the dominantly commercial central areas of the city will be crucial to managing growth and averting unsustainable urban expansion. Key words: location choice, peri-urban, sustainable urban growth, urban plannin

The family housing sector in urban Ghana: exploring the dynamics of tenure arrangements and the nature of family support networks

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Liverpool University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2016.17.In urban West Africa, living rent-free in family-owned houses is common among the low-income population. Drawing on research from Kumasi, Ghana, this paper explores the dynamics of this non-market tenure, in terms of the nature of family support networks/reciprocity and how collective ownership and multiple-occupancy arrangements affect dwelling conditions and the rights derived by tenants. The practice of extending support among members of the kinsfolk, underpinned by traditional values of reciprocity, were found to be stable within the present-day family house. However, the younger generation of residents expressed the view that to support members of the kinsfolk was over-burdensome given the prevailing economic hardship and their limited resource capacity. While tenure security across generations was not guaranteed for access-by-privilege residents, shared-ownership meant that for the majority of residents, the family house could not serve as a productive asset from which wealth could be released in response to economic shocks. Most households crowded in single rooms, shared strained housing facilities and lacked privacy. These dynamics could potentially turn preferences away from rent-free family housing in the near future, and thus generate the need for rental housing in the city. Affordable rental housing development would be required to adequately meet the emerging need

Quantifying the spatio-temporal patterns of settlement growth in a metropolitan region of Ghana

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10708-016-9719-xRetrospective understanding of the magnitude and pace of urban expansion is necessary for effective growth management in metropolitan regions. The objective of this paper is to quantify the spatial– temporal patterns of urban expansion in the Greater Kumasi Sub-Region (GKSR)—a functional region comprising eight administrative districts in Ghana, West Africa. The analysis is based on Landsat remote sensing images from 1986, 2001 and 2014 which were classified using supervised maximum likelihood algorithm in ERDAS IMAGINE. We computed three complementary growth indexes namely; Average Annual Urban Expansion Rate, Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII) and Urban Expansion Differentiation Index to estimate the amount and intensity of expansion over the 28-year period. Overall, urban expansion in the GKSR has been occurring at an average annual rate of 5.6 %. Consequently, the sub-region’s built-up land increased by 313 km^2 from 88 km^2 in 1986 to 400 km^2 in 2014. The analysis further show that about 72 % of the total built-up land increase occurred in the last 13 years alone, with UEII value of 0.605 indicating a moderate intensity of urban expansion. Moreover, the metropolitan-core of the sub-region, being the focal point of urban development and the historical origins of expansion, accounted for more than half of the total built-up land increase over the 28-year period. Over the last decade and half however, urban expansion has spilled into the neighbouring peripheral districts, with the highest intensity and fastest rate of expansion occurring in districts located north and north east of the sub-regional core. We recommend a comprehensive regional growth management strategy grounded in effective strategic partnerships among the respective administrative districts to curb unsustainable urban expansion