Landscape Change in Peri-Urban Areas: a Comparison of Kenya and Southern Sweden

Abstract

Peri-urban development has in recent years been given increasing attention in different regions all over the world. Peri-urban areas are defined as zones of conflict or competition where new and traditional land uses collide with outer reaches demarcated by daily commuting distances based on common modes of transport into urban cores. In this article an effort to compare peri-urban development in an industrialized and a developing region is made. Based on literature reviews, and questionnaire surveys peri-urban development processes in Scania in Sweden with Nyahururu and Mumias in Kenya are analyzed and compared with a particular emphasis the impacts on agricultural systems. Expansion process similarities included the conversion from an agriculturally-dominant landscape function to multi-functional landscapes with similarities in the process driving forces, namely population growth and economic development. The most important differences included: land holding structure and development, impacts of government planning and the actual rates of change