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CHAPTER TWO

2. TRANSFORMATION OF FRINGE AREAS: A RETROSPECT

(LITERATURE REVIEW)

2.1. Introduction

The study of urbanization and developments associated to it in urban fringes has been the

subject of geographers, urban planners, land economists and sociologists since decades back.

From the mid-20th

century urbanization has become a worldwide phenomenon with the

settlements in both developed and developing countries are rapidly growing with or without the

necessary infrastructures. Urban settlements increased both in size and numbers. The growth of

cities beyond their temporary limits became more common and challenging for planners and

administration. The formation of fringe areas also became a practice than being only a theory.

The notion of fringe zone is one of the points of debate and argument among researchers

since the early foundation of the concept in the 1930 and 1940s. On the other hand, there are also

significant variations regarding the geographic position of urban fringe whether it is located

within or outside the main city limit.

Survey of available literature for this study covers conceptual underpinning of the fringe

and review of empirical literature on the land use dynamics, socio-economic transformations and

environmental challenges revealed in the area due to urban growth and urban sprawl.

Existing literature on the fringe areas also exposes that most of the studies regarding rural

urban fringe appeared during the early 1940s and the study got momentum in the 1960s during

which attention was given to the physical delimitation, identification and defining parameters of

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the fringe (Starchenko, 2005; Zahoor, 2011). In the post 1960s, studies related to urban fringe are

largely concerned with transformations in land use and demographic issues.

2.2. Conceptual Discourses and Theoretical Bases

2.2.1. Geographic Concept of Urban Fringe: Global to Local Observations

Urban development at the dawn of the new millennium is characterized by fading structural

boundaries and the outward shifting of urban gravitational centres incorporating a growing area

of rural landscape; agriculture once the predominant space consuming and economic factor

within rural-urban fringe is largely losing this position and today it mainly functions as reserve

potential for urban expansion (Zsilincsar, 2003). Rural-urban fringe area is now a widely known

phenomenon in almost all countries and it is either a social, economic or environmental problem

area where dynamic activities are taking place.

The rural-urban fringe is an important concept in urban and settlement geography. The

term was first introduced by T.L. Smith in 1937 while studying composition and changes of

Louisiana’s population to describe the built up area just outside the corporate limit of the city

though his definition was more of a general conceptualization of the fringe (demographic

characteristics of the area emphasised).

In the 1940s changes on the fringe of the cities came under increasing attention from

spatial disciplines, notably urban geography, both in the United States and in Western Europe.

An important field of urban studies started focusing on the processes that were shaping the peri-

urban fringe, considered as the place where urban and rural categories met (Adell, 1999).

Substantial amount of literature concerning the physical delimitation and defining features

of rural-urban fringe appeared during the period from mid-1940 to the beginning of 1950s. The

area is characterised by sporadic and scattered representation of the city in some non-farm

residences and estates with commuting patterns to the city (Carter, 1995).

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Several researches so far conducted in different parts of the world on specific issues related

to urbanization, urban growth and sprawl tried to put their own operational and contextual

definitions for the fringe areas .There are diverse literatures from the USA, Canada, Asia -

Pacific, South and South East Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Different nomenclatures

are used by researchers in different parts of the world for the same area or place. But which name

exactly is correct or can we use any of the following terms to represent the same (rural-urban

fringe, peripheries, urban fringe, dynamic edge outskirt, peri-urban, city edge, rural-urban

interface, extended metropolitan region, desakota, metropolitan fringe)? Iaquinta and Drescher

(2000) argued that while the term peri-urban is often used in literature and policy discussions, the

definition employed are situational and case specific and thus providing little basis for a unified

understanding of what constitutes a peri-urban area. Is there any difference in scope between the

previous definitions and the recent ones? In order to understand the various perceptions and

definitions attached to fringe areas a grasp of some selected experiences in a wider regional

perspective is presented below.

a) Urban Fringe Concept in Western World Perspective

Regarding the foundation of the urban fringe concept even before Smith and Wehrwein

some literatures mention Gaplin (1915) studied the process of conversion of ‘rural’ to ‘urban’.

This work in fact laid a solid foundation for the later researches conducted especially in the

western world cities until the 1960s during which the study of fringe areas extended to the rest of

the world. Salter (1940) in his study “the rural-urban fringe” defined the fringe as a mixture of

land uses that are related to farming and urban interest. In survey of literatures conducted on

rural-urban fringe, references are usually made to Wehrwein’s work (1942). He has defined the

fringe as ‘an area of transition between well-recognized urban land uses and the area devoted to

agriculture’. Thus, Wehrwein emphasized more on the land use characteristics. He also called

this place an ‘institutional Desert’ because of the uncontrolled location there of unpleasant and

25

noxious establishments such as slaughter houses, junkyards and wholesale oil storages, and of

utilities such as sewage plants and cemeteries.

Another significant contribution to fringe studies was made by Andrews (1942) who

brought new thought to fringe studies by attempting to differentiate urban fringe from rural

fringe. According to him urban fringe is the active expanding sector of the compact economic

city and the rural-urban fringe lies adjacent to the periphery of urban fringe. In the same year

(1942) Alpake defined the urban fringe as ‘cultural development that takes place outside the

boundaries of central cities and extends to the areas of predominantly agricultural activities’.

There are other significant scholars who defined the fringe areas (Fiery, 1946; Rodehaver, 1947;

Dewey, 1948; Blizzard and Anderson, 1952; Kurtz and Eicher, 1958, and others).

Another turning point in the study of fringe areas which even extended to other part of the

world was during the 1960s. Young (1962) studied the geographic features of the urban fringe;

Morrill (1965) investigated mode of expansion of fringe; Pahl (1965) studied the social character

of London’s fringe; Whiteland (1967) called the fringe as a ‘heterogeneous region’. After the

1960s the study of the fringe areas is widely known to both the developing and developed

regions of the world with the nature or mode of expansion and the magnitude varies from one

region to another. For example, concepts related to fringe areas i.e., different terms and phrases

for the same spatial unit have started to emerge in many countries with growing urbanization

experience.

Urban research for the past few decades has put an emphasis on the transformation of

urban peripheries than merely focusing on the definitions and identifications. But before

proceeding to the review of recent works, it wold be impressive to have a glance at the earlier

works of Bryant, Pryor and other prominent scholars in order to have wider understanding of the

fringe studies and make connections with the recent studies.

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In view of Blizzard and Anderson (1952) the rural-urban fringe is that “area of mixed

urban and rural land use between point where fully the city services ceases to be available and

the point where the villages have distinct urban land uses or where some person, at least, from

the village commute to the city daily for work or other purposes. This is the definition and

identification based on the some variables used to demarcate the fringe areas.

Kurtz and Eicher (1958) have conceptualized the rural-urban fringe as “…beyond the limits

of the legal city, in the ‘agricultural hinterland’, exhibiting characteristics of mixed land use,

with no consistent pattern of farm and non-farm dwellings...”.

Change in the land use pattern occurs when there is competition from different uses for the

limited amount of land from residential, commercial, industrial and recreational activities.

Pryor (1968) , one of the pioneer scholars who contributed much for describing and

demarcating rural-urban fringe ,described the rural - urban fringe as a ‘zone of transition in land

use social and demographic characteristics between the built-up area and the rural hinterland. He

distinguished the rural-urban fringe as two components;

The urban fringe – that subzone of the rural-urban fringe in contact and contiguous relations

with the central city, exhibiting a dense of occupied dwelling higher than the median density

of the total rural-urban fringe a high proportion of residential, commercial, industrial and

vacant as distinct from farmland, and a higher rate of increase in population density, land use

conversion and commuting. The rural fringe – represents the sub-zone of rural-urban fringe

contiguous with the urban fringe, exhibiting a density of occupied dwellings lower than the

median density of the rural-urban fringe, a high proportion of farm as distinct from non-farm

and vacant land, and a lower rate of increase in population density, land use conversion and

commuting (Pryor, 1968).

Carter (1981) defines the rural-urban fringe as it an area with distinctive

characteristics which is only partly assimilated in to the urban complex and which is still

partly rural. Bryant (1982) developed Pryor’s definition and scheme and he came up with

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the division of ‘inner fringe’ and ‘outer fringe’ in which in the inner fringe transition to

urban use is advanced while in the outer fringe the rural landscape dominates. Leeming

and Soussan (1979) explained that in the vast field of rural-urban relationship, a topic of

particular interest and importance is the fringe of the cities- the zones where the cities, in

course of their growth are transforming tracts of rural territory and society into the city

areas. In the third world where city growth is powered by rapid demographic growth as

well as by technical and social innovation, urban fringe has become notorious as well as

important. The authors have thus, identified the fringe as a transitional zone into which

the city is expanding. They have also reflected that sometimes some confusion about the

difference between the rural-urban fringe and the hinterland of a city. In their argument

this reflects the lack of a clear boundary between these zones as much as conceptual

inconsistencies in the literature. The two regions are however fundamentally different

both as a phenomenon and as concept.

In spatial terms, Rakodi (1999) defines the peri-urban area as “……the transition zone

between fully urbanized land in cities and areas in predominantly agricultural use. It is

characterized by mixed land uses and intermediate inner and outer boundaries, and typically is

split between administrative areas”. Redman and Jones (2004) in their study of the

environmental, social and health dimension of urban expansion argue that reclassification of land

from urbanization and record keeping shift that may or may not reflect current reality. The

scholars explain that many cities are rapidly growing at their fringes, engulfing former villages

and farmlands, transforming them in to dense, industrial areas, shanty towns or less dense sub-

urban areas.

An attempt is also made to assess the experience of Germany and France peri-urban areas.

Suburbanization which means the emergence of suburbs has a long history or tradition in the

western world in general. Sources indicate that it began in Europe in the 17/18th

Century in

England and was exported to America (Bahrenberg, 2011). It was the economically successful

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middle class, namely traders and bankers, later also industrial entrepreneurs who turned their

weekend cottage in the rural villages surrounding the cities in to permanent residences commuted

each day in to the city.

This type of development started in Germany and many other countries both in the

developed and developing countries are subject to urban growth and suburbanization

simultaneously than it was the situation in Britain and American cities. In fact there is a negative

migration balance of the city with its rural hinterland which is more of residence oriented

migration to the hinterlands.

According to Steinberg (2011) France knows peri-urbanization or rur-banization for over

thirty years. This represents an increasing important spreading of urbanization, which is not a

continuous “oil patches” but resembles rather a “leopard skin” where the agglomerations are

scattered in a more or less preserved rural territory. Peri-urbanization corresponds either to the

old meaning of suburb, or to a new suburb, or something entirely different. It is in fact a

discontinuous urban growth, generally joined to the old towns and villages on the outer skirt of

the agglomeration.

Friedberger (2000) in his paper on “rural-urban fringe in the late 20th

century America”

defined the rural-urban fringe as land extending from 10 – 15 miles outside the city centre of the

nation’s major city. He described it as an area in transition, where land as well as occupational

and social structures awaits transformation into suburbia. In this area expected development

potential than agricultural value determines land value. It is therefore, possible to characterize the

location and nature of urban fringe from this definition that it has resemblance with the other

definitions given above though it is difficult to conclude that the nature of urbanization and

fringe development in America is same with the developing countries experience.

Fringe regions of cities are dynamic areas and the focus of significant non-metropolitan

growth, both in Australia and internationally (Buxton M. et al, 2006). Fringe areas, commonly

29

known in Australia as peri-urban areas have no universally accepted definitions, but these areas

share the characteristics of change and growth relative to the core being located closer to the

metropolitan region. Peri-urban regions have been defined spatially by their physical structure

and form, functionally or by a combination of spatial and spatial factor and still they can be

defined in relation to a nearby metropolitan area on their inner boundaries. Therefore, in

Australian perspective a peri-urban area can be defined simply as land adjacent to the edge of an

urban area, that area of land extending from the built up edge to the city to the truly rural land

(Buxton et al, 2006).

According to Clark (1999) the twin themes of ‘urban influence on the countryside’ and ‘the

transition from rural to urban’ which are known as the processes, have inspired much research at

the urban fringe by geographers. Peri-urban areas are those areas within the sphere of influence

of adjacent urban centres, whose location may be inside or outside metropolitan statistical area.

There are significant variations in the nature and characteristics of urban fringe areas even

among the western world of USA and Europe. Most European cities retain strong cores, and as in

most other cities outside the USA, Australia and Canada, the urban and rural zones are separated

with a ‘hard’ rather than a ‘graduated’ edge. Rapid population growth is perhaps the most

common characteristics of peri-urban regions. Growing populations may be characterised as

‘forced relocator’ or ‘free agents’.

Literature on urban fringe in Canada shows that fringe studies has been there since urban

civilization first emerged and settlements gradually began to expand at the expense of the

surrounding rural lands (Thomas, 1974 as quoted in Starchenko, 2005). Like it was mentioned by

many scholars on the emergence of the urban fringe, Starchenko also notes that the rural-urban

fringe became the focus of more intense attention in the urban planning, sociological and

geographic research during the 1940s and 1970s, especially in the North America where the most

outstanding attempts at defining fringe areas were made during this period. Starchenko points out

that one of the prominent works done on fringe studies in the 1970s was by Johnson whose

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contribution is in fact less known compared to Wehrwein, Pryor, Bryant and others. This scholar

provided interesting insights into the concept of rural-urban fringe. He was one of the first

researchers who accelerated the important relationships between fringe areas and the central city

for the definition of rural-urban fringe.

The urban fringe is defined by Statistics of Canada as urbanized nodes within the

metropolitan area that are not contiguous to the urban core. The remainder of the area that is

neither a part of the urban core nor of the urban fringe is classified as the rural fringe. There is

always much confusion between the conceptual understanding of rural-urban fringe and sub-

urbs. Evenden, Walker (1993) explains that the two concepts are distinct while Johnson (1974)

on his part argued they are related concepts. In fact, the two concepts have interchangeably been

used in literature, but what is their basic difference?

Geographically, both are located around a city and there are adequate literatures identifying

their relationships and characteristics [for example, Wehrwein in (1942) identified speculations

of residential developments as one of the characteristics of rural-urban fringe; Johnson in 1974

explicitly located the suburban development within the rural-urban fringe; and Linteau (1987)

asserted that suburban development is a result of an extension of urbanized land in to the

surrounding countryside, in or outside the administrative boundaries of the city].

According to Vizzari (2011) urban fringe represents very much complex landscapes

because of its proximity and mutual dependence with the cities and rural areas. An uncontrolled

development of urban sprawl and land use changes in the urban fringes may determine negative

impacts on all natural, economic and social components. Vizzari explains that the fringe

landscapes may be considered as transition entities characterized by fuzzy boundaries. He also

further noted that the concept of urban fringe is subject to numerous interpretations by planners

who are unable to provide clear criteria for the identification and territorial delimitation of this

space.

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After all, the rural-urban fringe could most generally be defined as the city’s countryside,

according to Bryant et al 1982, meaning an area around a city, any kind of development could be

part of the urban fringe. Hence one can consider suburbs as nodes of urban uses within the rural-

urban fringe. But care should be taken in that suburb is not only residential but also it is a

location of different activities.

In Europe, there is a huge project underway on the management of peri-urban areas or

fringe areas. PLUREL (Peri-urban Land Use Relationships - Strategies and Sustainability

Assessment Tools for Urban-Rural Linkages) is a European integrated research project within the

European Commission’s sixth framework program. This project quantifies the trends, risks, and

potentials for the peri-urban regions and provides recommendations for targeted policies and new

concepts of urban-rural linkages. According to this project peri-urban is the area between urban

settlement and their rural hinterlands. Such areas are often fast changing, with complex patterns

of land uses and landscape, fragmented between local or regional boundaries. Peri-urban areas

are defined by PLUREL as ‘discontinuous built development containing settlements of less than

20,000 with average density of 40 persons per square kilometres’. Rural-urban regions (‘RUR’)

are the overall territorial unit for the PLUREL project as this area contain both the zone of daily

commuting and the rural surrounding rural hinterland. The peri-urban areas suffer from urban

pressures, but such areas also gain from proximity to urban areas, markets and culture. The direct

impact of uncontrolled expansion of the built development are focused on urban sprawl- defined

by European Environment Agency as unplanned incremental urban development characterized

by a low density mix of land uses on the urban fringe.

b) Rural-urban fringe in the context of South Asia and Asia – Pacific Region

In east and parts of south Asia, a new form of Extended Metropolitan Region (EMR) is

emerging as a process called by McGee, (1991; Ginsburg, 1991) desakota (city-village) which

reflects phenomenal economic buoyancy of the Pacific Asian region and the rise of newly

industrialized countries.

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Among the scholars who have been conducting research in different countries with

different names for the same part of the cities, the outskirts of the city dominantly in India and

other south east Asian countries are (rural hinterland of the city by Kundu, 1991; peri-urban

fringe by Swindell, 1988; Rural-urban fringe by Nangia,1976; peri-urban area by Dupont, 1997;

urban fringe by Schenk 1997; Kabra, 1980; Hill, 1986; Kumar 1988; desakota regions by McGee

1991; metropolitan region by Saini, 1989 and Rao 1991; rural-urban interface by Venkatesh,

2012). The land surrounding a town (city) but not considered as part of it whose use is influenced

directly by the city is defined as an urban fringe (Lewis Keeble, 1964; Richard R. Meyers and J.

Allen Beegle, 1947; Richard B. Andrews (1942 as cited in Gopi, 1957).

Caravantes (2011) citing (McGregor et al 2006;Tacoli, 2006; Brook and Davila, 2000) in

his study of the geographies of peri-urban area in Mexico indicated that peri-urban regions resist

easy definitions but it refers to the immediate zone that surrounds a city’s existing boundaries.

He also mentions that since each peri-urban has properties unique to its context, this definition

alone does not satisfy all.

Bhardwaj and Kumar (2012) focusing on the study of urban expansion and land use change

analysis of Karnal city in Haryana, India, noted the importance of GIS and RS in assessing the

pattern of urban sprawl and they argue that during the last some decades India has witnessed

rapid and uncontrolled urban expansion due to progress in industries, trade and population

increase stressing on the fact that anticipation of services and opportunities in cities fuels the

growth in outer part of the city.

According to Lal (1987) an important development in the urban settlement during the past

few decades has been the rapid growth of population and expansion of built up areas in to the

unincorporated suburbs and to the areas surrounding larger towns and cities. Gradually the

addition of population and related developments generates a zone of transition between the main

urban settlement and the deep rural landscape. This phenomenon may take place both in the

urban territory and outside it within easy reach of the urbanization influence. This zone which

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enjoys continuous change due to the centrifugal forces from the city proper and in - migration

from other places to the area is usually an amorphous territory around the larger cities.

Aguistin and Kabota (2012) defined the rural-urban fringe as the landscape located just

outside of established cities and towns where the countryside begins. The urban fringe according

to them is that sub-zone of the rural-urban fringe in contact and contiguous with the central city.

This study also reveals that there has been an agricultural conflict because of the different

commitment of the farmers in the rural-urban fringe: the inner fringe farmers wanting to abandon

agriculture and the outer fringe farmers still want to maintain agriculture.

Dikshit (2011) notes that the urban fringe is a space segment lying between the urban

complexes on the one hand, and the vast rural countryside, on the other hand. According to this

scholar the fringe represents the peripheral zone of the cities and is occasionally called the peri-

urban fringe.

The process of urbanization involves the spatial expansion of cities due to the phenomenon

of natural growth of human population. The demand for land starts from the core of the city and

moves over a period of time towards the periphery or fringe areas due to saturation (Parkhi,

2011).

Verma (2006) defines the rural-urban fringe as a marginal area both of the town and as well

as countryside and better identified in terms of land uses or modification of land uses than in any

other way. From the above concepts and definitions given for the same area of the city it is

possible to deduce that the term ‘urban fringe’ is subject to a number of conceptual

understandings and of course varying names attached to it. But the location of this spatial unit of

the city is indicated in all cases that it is found at the outer ring of the cities.

Singh (1966) has made a significant contribution to the study of fringe of cities by adopting

different techniques to delineate the fringe of five towns in one of the present states of India. He

delimited the fringe of ‘Kaval’ towns in Uttar Pradesh by overlaying several maps depicting

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desirable geographical factors including changes in land use, changes in the built-up area,

occupational characteristics, limits of essential services, distribution of educational institutions

and many others.

R.B Singh (1967) has described fringe as “the rural land with urban phenomenon”. He also

argued that the rural-urban fringe is really an extension of the city itself, actually and potentially.

Gopi (1967) has been the first scholar to make an exclusive fringe study examining the

phenomenon of the transformation of the fringe of Hyderabad city in the light of structural

changes in its economy (Das, 1997). He noted that the fringe is a distinct stage in the natural

process of suburbanization and its evolution, under normal condition is gradual change. From the

transformation of Uppal village he identified that there is a gradual transformation from

agriculture to the situation where agriculture is no more important economic activity in the

village. Socially, he asserted that there is a transition from culturally homogeneous structure to

heterogeneous urban society.

Phadke and Sita (1981) have analysed the spatial pattern of urban impact in Bombay

Metropolitan region based on the analysis of data for 925 settlements for which four indicators of

impact have been chosen by them (population density, sex ratio, growth rate of population and

percentage of non-agricultural work force).

Das (1997) explains that the turn of 1970s had some very definite and concrete definitions

and objective methodology on the rural-urban fringe studies. He mentioned a number of Indian

geographers who published articles and supplemental dissertations on the topic of the urban

fringe. From the studies conducted by Indian geographers he concluded that the villages

adjoining the major cities are affected in two ways. On the one hand, the proximal villages

provide for the permanent migrants or the temporary commuting labour force to cater to the

needs of the city, on the other hand, the ideas and innovations flowing from the city are imprinted

on the residents of the these central zones.

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Lal (1972) has examined the gradient of urban influences on rural settlements with the

distance from the centre of the city of Bareilly. These urban influences include density of houses,

population, and proportion of built-up area and the nature of settlements which together are

expressed as dwelling gradients in relation to gradient from the city. Lal also contributed much to

the urban fringe literature in India in his book ‘the city and urban fringe with a case study of

Bareilly’ in 1987. In this particular contribution he focused on the determinants of urban fringe

delimitation in which he considered the spatial determinants, occupational determinants, and

demographic determinants among others.

One of the most commonly referred works on rural-urban fringe in India is the descriptive

definition provided by Ramachandran;

The rural – urban fringe is an area of mixed rural and urban population and land use which

begins at a point where agricultural land uses appear near the city and extends up to a point

where villages have distinct urban land uses or where some persons, at least, from the

village community commute to the city daily for work or other purposes. The area beyond

the city limits but contiguous to it, having other municipal towns, Census towns or fully

urbanized villages, constitute so-called urban fringe, which is the part of the rural urban

fringe zone (Ramachandran, 1989).

This definition is widely accepted among scholars and used as precise basis to build up on.

But here the point at which agricultural land use appears and the point at which distinct urban

land use appears seems still arbitrary and difficult to clearly identify it.

Camur (2009) in his article on rural-urban transformation through urban sprawl in Turkey

revealed that an increase in population, the fast growth of cities in order to provide the

requirements of increasing population and the effects of expansion of cities on the fringe areas

,are still common problems of several countries in the 21st century. Transformation has caused

the integration of rural areas with metropolitan cities and change of rural settlements in to urban

like districts or in some cases into municipalities of the metropolitan area. He also argued that

decentralization has triggered the growth at the peripheries.

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For Tewari (2011), the urban fringe, also called the rural-urban fringe, the city edge, the

city periphery, the city’s outskirt, the city outlying area, etc., is the area that lies immediately

outside the designated limits of a city or town. The fringe essentially consists of the spill over

urban land uses and activities that could not be accommodated in the city itself due to various

cost and other constraints, in to the surrounding areas. According to Tewari the urban activities

advancing to the fringe area of cities are normally seeking relatively inexpensive land close to the

city to make advantage of its markets and other infrastructure facilities. Land values, taxes and

service charges are relatively higher in the city than in the fringe areas and therefore industrial

activities get located in the fringe. Tewari further noted that village settlements, new residential

layouts carved out from the agricultural land, commercial and industrial activities, vegetables and

flower cultivation and so forth are intermingled in the haphazard manner giving rise to an

unplanned development and mixed land use patterns in the fringe.

Zahoor (2011) explains that as the fringe is a bridge between the rural areas on the one side

and the urban centre on the other, all the characteristics of urbanity and rurality are medium in

the fringe area. But the main challenge in the fringe area is related to land use where the land use

in the area is dynamic and changes from rural land use to urban land use over a short period of

time and distance.

Buxton, Goodman and Tieman (2006), defined peri-urban area as interface areas, neither

rural nor urban transitional zone, in state of rapid change from rural to urban, usually irreversible.

In Australian peri-urban experience the peri-urban area is located within the sphere of influence

of adjacent urban areas. These authors mention that peri-urban areas are among the fastest

growing regions in many countries, too and hold high strategic spatial, economic and

environmental significance. It is common to find in literatures that peri-urban areas can be

explained through structural and functional analysis in Australia.

Datta (2004) studied territorial integration of urbanizing villages around Delhi

Metropolitan Area and mentioned that the rural-urban interface is the most dynamic spatial

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feature of any mega –city. This area is a territory in transition spatially located in the urban

periphery.

P. Srinivas (2011) in his study of urban analysis of Siddipet town argued that urban fringe

is an extension of urban growth into the rural areas and due to contiguous or proximal locations

to the city, one of the manifestations of impact of urbanization is visible in the form of land

transformation.

Latin American megacities are known for their hyper-urbanization and peri-urbanization.

Latin America is one of the world regions where there is high degree of Rural-urban influx

without the parallel growth of infrastructure. Webster and Muller have put the issue of peri-

urbanization in the Latin America as;

Suburbanization, including the relocation of slum communities, and to a lesser

extent, step-wise migration from smaller towns and cities has become the

principal drivers of residential peri-urbanization (Webster and Muller, 2002).

Martinez (2007) studied poverty situation in peri-urban areas of Mexico City. She defined

the peri-urban areas as areas located in the periphery of large cities which exhibit a mix of rural

and urban characteristics in a process of transformation to becoming predominantly urban. This

study also demonstrated that the households living in peri-urban areas are also in rapid transition

be it passively or negatively.

c) Fringe Area Concept and Studies in Africa

Simon et al (2001) assert that before 1980s the term ‘peri-urban’ or ‘urban fringe’ did not

appear in any literature of African cities. However, since the 1980s the importance of peri-urban

areas as a source of urban food supply was underlined by the growing body of research on urban

agriculture. Even though it is difficult to exactly know the extent of the peri-urban zone, Simon

and colleagues indicated that 30-50 kilometres beyond the urban edge is a reasonable

38

generalization for larger cities. But for the bigger metropolis of the South East Asian cities it

even extends for more than 150 kilometres.

Briggs and Mwamfupe (1991) on the other hand, elucidate that research on the peri-urban

zone in Africa cities since the mid-1980s has focused around three main themes, namely, peri-

urban agriculture as survival strategy, debates about relative efficiency of urban agriculture in the

peri-urban areas and the question of production priorities. Before the 1990s interest in the peri-

urban area was minimal.

The authors stressed that the combination of structural adjustment measures and eased

economic crisis in Tanzania has changed conditions, the result of which has been the increasing

commodification of land in the peri - urban zone during the 1990s.This has turned the peri-urban

zone more in to a zone of investment and economic opportunities rather than a zone of survival

for the vast majority of the poorer urban groups who are being increasingly been excluded.

The development and importance of rural-urban fringe is indicated by limited scholars in

Africa (Briggs and Mwamfupe, 1991; Simon et al 2001; Huchzermeyer and Mbiba, 2002; Simon

et al., 2006; Thuo, 2010). These studies underscore that the fringe area is important in many

regards, especially in rapidly urbanizing African cities, the area is still understudied owing to a

number of reasons but one among the others is the fact that the conceptual and operational

separation of urban and rural areas in the planning theory and practice. The majority of the

studies on urban Africa are inclined to urban sprawl and its processes rather than further looking

into the impact of sprawl on the fringe areas.

Simon et al (2001) indicated that there is no neat divide line between what is perceived to

be ‘urban’ and ‘rural’. The team also asserted that cities of the global South are rapidly growing

to the surrounding rural agricultural lands but the pattern may vary from one city to another. The

pace and pattern of urbanization especially in the rural-urban interface is changing but there is no

uniform pattern among all countries. It depends on the size and structure of the existing city, the

39

composition of the urban and migrant populations, in terms of age, sex, family and household

structure, cultural and religious diversity, educational and income levels, urban experience and so

forth; physical terrain and environmental barriers beyond the existing built-up area; the

orientation, accessibility and affordability of transport networks; land tenure systems, land values

and land uses surrounding the city. One of the major consequences associated with rapid

urbanisation and particularly movements of people from within cities to peri- urban areas; has

been the socio-economic transformations it has brought to livelihoods of both migrants and local

communities. Studies on peri-urban interface in Tanzania and elsewhere indicate that migrations

to peri-urban areas have created a varied opportunities and threats among members of various

social classes within the peri-urban interface (Briggs and Mwamfupe, 2000; Mbiba and

Huchzermeyer, 2002).

In fact, one of the positive sides in peri-urban interactions has been flow of resources from

urban to peri- urban areas, where the resources have been a major catalyst in construction of

livelihoods (Chembo, 2011). It is thought that a flow of resources has positive impact in creation

of non-farm activities (Kamete, 1998 quoted in Chembo, 2011).

Thuo (2010) in studying the rural-urban fringe of Nairobi indicated that land conversion in

the city’s rural-urban fringe is eating into agricultural land and thus leading to the reduction in

the quantity and quality of land for farming.

A study conducted by Mandere et al (2010) on one of the peri-urban areas of Kenya, the

Nyahururu, has shown that peri-urban development has attracted increased attention in recent

years particularly due to conflict/competition between the new(urban) and traditional (rural) land

uses as a result of peri-urban expansion. In the same study it was found that owing to the

expansion of the city to the lands of the households in the study area, there is a significant change

in the livelihood and household income. But, this study has only addressed the physical

expansion of the city over times and its impact on the change of livelihood than including what

type of land uses are changing from one to the other. In such situations in order to have clear

40

understanding and have appropriate intervention, the rate of land use change and the nature of

land use dynamics of the areas found in the outer urban fringe of the city and the areas outside

the urban boundary immediately found beyond the rural-urban interface must be studied together.

Kombe (2003) examines recent trends in land use transformation taking place in the peri-

urban areas of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He found out that urbanization in poverty is the key

factor underpinning and catalysing changes in land use, land transactions, increased rural–urban

immigration and the overall transformation of land use in the peri-urban areas. Unregulated peri-

urban land development has given rise to complex organic urban structures which predominantly

expanding horizontally. The emerging land use pattern, by and large, indicates a mismatch with

the widely cherished planning norms and standards and land value theories which, underpin

urban land use planning instruments such as zoning and density distribution and principles like

equitable provision of basic services and complementarity in urban land development.

Olujimi and Gbadamosi (2007) in their study of urbanization of settlements in Nigeria, they

have referred to peri-urban zones as city’s immediate surrounding rural hinterland (after the

boundary of urban settlement showing an overlap of the rural and urban land use).

Peri-urban interfaces - the zones where urban and rural areas meet - suffer from the greatest

problems to humans caused by rapid urbanization, including intense pressures on resources, slum

formation, lack of adequate services such as water and sanitation, poor planning and degradation

of farmland (Duncan, Simon and Thompson, 2005).

One of the most important contributions to fringe studies in Africa is made by Charles Yaw

Oduro (2010) who studied the effect of urban expansion on the livelihood of peri-urban areas of

Accra, Ghana. He defined peri-urban as a ‘zone’ and a transitional belt between the city and the

countryside, a zone undergoing various kinds of transformations, where urban and rural attributes

exist side by side. Explaining that rapid urbanization in the Third World as one of the major

developmental issues that have attracted the attention of policy makers at international, national

41

and sub-national levels, Oduro has revealed in his study that several changes in the livelihood

assets residents in the peri-urban areas of Accra. In his study he found out that an increase in the

range of uses and value of land and other forms of natural capital, extension of urban

infrastructure like roads, electricity, schools and others to peri-urban areas. Urban expansion

came up with both positive and negative effects. To encourage the positive effects and decrease

the negative effects concerned policy makers should incorporate peri-urban livelihood issues into

urban policy making planning.

In reviewing literature on urbanization of the fringe zone, commonly known as peri-

urbanization, in Africa and the other developing countries of Asia and the Pacific region, there

are some terminologies used to describe various kinds of transformations at the fringe of cities

and compared with the most popular concept of peri-urbanization. The first one is the concept of

Extended Metropolitan Region (EMR). The concept of EMR has often been used to describe a

complex system of cities, towns and semi-urban or rural settlements in Asia pacific .It represents

a fusion of urban and regional development in which the distinction between urban and rural has

become blurred as cities expand along corridor of communications (Smith, 2001).

The Asia Pacific’s EMR, some of which consist of extensive urban agglomerations

spanning national boundaries, are part of emerging national and international growth corridors

that integrate the region into the global economic systems (McGee1991; Smith, 2000; Drakakis-

Smith, 2000). According to McGee, three major economic forces have combined effect to create

the EMR. These are transactional revolution (improvements in transportations and

communication infrastructures and technologies), globalization (penetration of global capital and

market forces and the importance of the region in the global economy), and structural change

(transformations of the structure of national economies from agricultural to industrial and service

based activities). Therefore, one of the features of Asia-Pacific EMR that differentiated it from

the peri-urbanization in Africa is the fact that Asia pacific urban system is very complex.it

involves network of cities and rural areas over a larger area. Peri-urbanization in Africa usually

42

describes the changing interface between a single dominant urban centre and the rural and semi-

rural areas that surround it (Oduro, 2010).

Another distinction between the two forms of urban transition is related to the driving

forces behind them. In Asia-Pacific the cities are really engines of growth whereas in Africa,

where economic development is in general is low, peri-urbanization has been driven by natural

population growth and internal (rural-urban and urban-urban) migrations.

The second area of confusion is related to Peri-urbanization and suburbanization. The term

suburbanization describes the movement of residents and business from inner city to the sub-

urban ring, i.e., the spatial dispersal or deconcentration of population and economic activities in a

metropolitan area, particularly in the USA and Canada. There are some authors in Africa who

attempted to associate the increased car ownership and commuting movements with

suburbanization. However there is fundamental difference between the concepts of

suburbanization in Africa. The so called ‘suburbanization’ in Africa is related to the situations in

which in some metropolitan areas, relocation from the central city outskirts which involves both

the rich and poor.

The other very similar development compared with peri-urbanization is urban sprawl.

Urban sprawl usually has a negative connotation due to its consumption of huge land with a low

density, inefficient land use in the urban peripheries. Sprawl is a common phenomenon in both

the developing and developed countries. Sprawl development causes the formation of peri-urban

(urban fringe) areas.

There are two major attributes of urban sprawl which have negative connotations related to

the pattern of land use in the fringe of cities. Low-density development is one of the major

characteristics of urban sprawl in which the number of people or dwelling units per a given area

of land is drastically smaller than the central city. Leapfrog development is another attribute of

sprawl where the tendency for development skips tracts of land, leaving scattered empty space

43

between the existing built-up area and new developments. Leapfrog refers to the occurrence of

urban settlement in places separated from denser areas by open space and land under agricultural

production and this development is characterized by ‘jumped’ land.

d) Towards Ethiopian Experience and Working Definition for this study

Ethiopia is the second largely populated country in African with an estimated population of

84.7 million inhabitants in 2011 next to Nigeria. However, with its 17% of urban population

living in cities, is one of the least urbanized African countries only before Burundi (10.9%),

Malawi (15.7) and Uganda (15.6%) (UN, 2012). Ethiopia is now estimated to have about 15

million urban dwellers. Much of the history of urbanization in Ethiopia was and is covered by the

capital, Finfine (Addis Ababa) and thus the few studies so far conducted in the country are from

this city and exceptionally two to three studies from other secondary cities (Adama, Bahir Dar,

Mekele and Hawasa).

Urban fringe or commonly known as peri-urban study is limited in Ethiopian cities may be

because of two reasons. In the first place urbanization in Ethiopia is at its early stage regardless

of the fact that it has cities and towns of long history. These cities, except the capital city Finfine

(Addis Ababa), did not exert much pressure on the formation of fringe areas through population

growth and economic expansion. It is from recent times that only few researchers started to

appear regarding the growing impact of Finfine (Addis Ababa) on the agricultural lands in the

outskirt of the city. The second reason is related to the fact that for the last couple of years the

government gave much focus and attention to the inner city renewal program amidst the pressing

problem of housing in the city of Finfine (Addis Ababa). There are a number of projects running

with this assignment. Scholars and researchers in the field focused only on the aspect of slum

upgrading and inner city renewal programs in the city than how the formal and informal housing

44

and land market conditions are putting pressure on the sustainability of agricultural land

surrounding the city.

Urban fringe in this study refers to a zone located adjoining the boundary of Finfine (Addis

Ababa) city and in transition as urban and rural uses are mixing and most often clash due to two

contesting activities: urban use expansion and agricultural activities the result of which is land

dispossession from farmers and land conversion from the agricultural to non-agricultural

activities.

Urban Fringe Studies in Ethiopia

The concept of ‘peri-urban’ or simply ‘urban fringe’ is not new to researchers in the urban

field and those working on the urban agriculture and dairy farming in Ethiopia. But some studies

use the term to describe any peripheral settlements located out of the inner city and others simply

adopted the term from other studies abroad. In fact, there is no definition for such geographic

unit in the census of Ethiopia, too. Therefore, the very limited researches so far conducted related

to urban studies and dairy farming in the outskirt of the city of Finfine (Addis Ababa) used this

terminology in a common sense. But for growing cities of magnificent impact on the surrounding

rural areas, it urges for identification and detail analysis of the developments encouraging the

formation of this spatial unit and the transformations happening in the area.

Attempts made so far by limited number of researchers in Ethiopia shows that urban

settlement expansion is responsible for the dynamics of land use and transformation of livelihood

of the community living in the outskirts of cities, especially the case of Addis Ababa city and few

other regional cities. Whereas the fringe concept or the peri-urban areas extend much further than

the boundary of the main city, the studies conducted in the outskirt of Addis Ababa city are

limited to assessment of impact of expansion of the city on the agricultural community. The

definition they used to denote this particular place is more or less related to any peripheral

45

settlement found outside the inner city area but within the boundary limit of the city; and this

perception lacks careful analysis of geographical position of pei-urban or urban fringe areas.

Regardless of lack of the limitations mentioned in the preceding paragraph below are some

of the few studies conducted on the expansion of the city of Finfine (Addis Ababa) and its

impacts on the agricultural or farm lands and livelihood of the community in the periphery of the

city.

Feleke (1999) conducted a graduate research on the impact of urban development on a

peasant community in Ethiopia with a case of Yeka Tafo peasant community which is located in

the periphery of Finfine (Addis Ababa).He examined the consequences of displacement and the

risk of impoverishment that are being caused by the Ayat real estate development project on the

lives of the people who have been evicted from or dispossessed off their lands and homes. The

study has shown that urban expansion program of the city government which gave chance to the

real estate market has negatively affected the livelihood of the rural community in the Yaka Tafo

Peasant Association. This peasant association was one of the most productive agricultural lands.

Continuous expansion pressure of the city has put enormous pressure on the conversion of

agricultural land far beyond this peasant community. The then agricultural land area is now

completely invaded by construction of residential.

Chalachew (2005) examined the impact of settlement expansion and population growth on

the livelihood of residents in one of the peripheral sub-cities of the city government of Addis

Ababa .In his study he revealed that continuous and rapid settlement expansion to the outskirt of

Bole sub-city with a specific site of kebele 15, is affecting agricultural community through

agricultural land conversion and forced change of livelihood.

Feyera (2005) in the same manner has done a research on the impact of urban expansion

program of the city government of Finfine (Addis Ababa) on the livelihood of farming

community in the peri-urban areas of the city taking cases from Bole, Nefas-Silk Lafto and Kolfe

46

Keraniyo sub-cities of Finfine (Addis Ababa) city. In his study he found out that in the name of

urban development, the government is directly affecting the livelihood of the farm community in

the periphery of the city. Such problems arise mainly because the government is not carefully

studying the situation of the farmers before displacing hem from their livelihood in the absence

of any other arrangements made for them. Tadesse (2009) indicated that urban coverage of Addis

Ababa is always increasing with is significant expansion in all directions. The urban centre has

been growing at an average of 3.5% per year and the expansion of Addis Ababa to the

surrounding environment had an impact on the decrement of agricultural, pastoral, forest,

grassland and herbaceous fields.

Dandana (1995), arguing there is a major controversy between the proposal of 1986 master

plan of Addis Ababa and the development realities after, explained that road infrastructure has

the most important contribution to the sprawled development of Addis Ababa. He also indicated

that with still great potential for the urban growth to continue along the major outlet from the

city, there is pressure on agricultural activities due to excessive land consumption. He further

added that the general structure of the city is loose which gave the city a sense of over expansion

and sprawl.

Leulseged and colleagues (2011) in their study ‘impact of urbanization of Addis Ababa city

on peri-urban environment and livelihood’ assessed the spatio - temporal expansion of Addis

Ababa to the peripheries (peri-urban areas). The result of their study portrays that there is

horizontal physical expansion of the city boundary which affected the per-urban farm community

of Summit, Beshalle, Endode and Jarso settlements which are found in the outskirt of the city.

A study conducted by one independent source in 2010 on the effect of land grabbing policy

of Ethiopian government on the indigenous farmers in the Special Zone of Oromia surrounding

Finfinne (Addis Ababa) reported that land grabbing and land acquisition by the government in

the name of development is quite a common practice in Ethiopia, especially in Oromia regional

state. The study discovered that the government’s weak policy or lack of policy on the proper

47

disposal of industrial pollutants is having a devastative effect on the wellbeing of the people of

Oromia surrounding Finfine city. There is irreversible environmental degradation caused by the

combined effect of industrial discharge and land expropriation by the government for sake of

development.

Ahmed (2011) in his study of the sprawl of Addis Ababa city and its problems emphasized

that the sprawl case in Addis Ababa city is more of a horizontal stretching and it has a direct

impact on agricultural lands and the ecosystem in general. He also mentioned that there are

hotspot areas in the Addis Ababa city and its environs where land grabbing practice encouraged

illegal land occupation (Burayu, Kara Kore, Lagatafo, Kaliti, Ashewa Meda and others) has

consumed fertile agricultural land and caused strain to the environment.

One of the recent studies conducted in Ethiopia on the issue of impact of urban expansion

is contributed by Dejene (2011). Dejene has studied the rapid urban expansion of one of the

small towns in the vicinity of Finfine (Addis Ababa) and its implications taking some peri-urban

farm communities of the town called Sabata. In his micro level study he revealed that expansion

of the town from recent times has affected the livelihood of the farming community (shortage of

farmland due to land conversion for urban use, land tenure insecurity and loss of assets). The

implication of such developments is in overall deterioration of the living condition of the farming

community which leads to poverty and impoverishment. Dejene has adopted the definition of

‘peri-urban interface’ given by some of the African scholars and projects like the Department of

For International Development.

From the above works it is possible to understand that researchers tried to provide their

own operational definition but the definitions given for the term ‘peri-urban’ largely shows the

characteristics than what really is peri-urban or urban fringe area.

Generally, it is possible to make an inference that there is still lack of precision in the

conceptual understanding of the fringe and the location (being both in the outer skirt of the main

48

city and also outside the city boundary surrounding the city). The present study takes the context

that the fringe area refers to the transition zone found surrounding Finfine (Addis Ababa) city

and located adjacent to but outside the municipal boundary of the city proper.

In a nutshell, conceptually there is significant difference not only in Ethiopia and in the

developing countries but also among regions of the world with much of their difference is on

nomenclature attached to the space. From the literature survey it is found that approaches to the

perception of fringe shows variations in the fact that the previous studies especially before the

1980s focus more on spatial dimension. The recent studies in addition to the spatial dimension

concentrate on the socio-economic dimensions and in aggregate the multi-dimensionality of

functions in fringe areas. Regardless of the difference in terminology used, there is an overlap in

meaning and characteristics.

2.3. Process and Structure of Urban Fringe Development

2.3.1. Development of Urban Fringe Areas

From the above definitions it can be inferred that the fringe area is subject to different

definitions and interpretations. There is also considerable difference among scholars regarding

the spatial location of urban fringe, some scholars arguing fringe areas begin from within the

boundary of the main city and in fact the majority of writers place the fringe areas outside the

administrative limit of the main city. In its evolution and development the fringe is gradual and it

takes varying forms as it is a receiving zone of any development.

Formation of urban fringe areas is influenced by several physical and socio-economic

factors which ultimately intrude on the natural resources prevailing around major cities. These

factors can be called collectively as driving forces. Driving forces of change in peri-urban areas

are influential processes in the development of this landscape. The drivers may vary from

country to country and from situation to situation. But for the sake of general understanding the

driving forces could be of socio-economic, political, technological, natural and cultural. Each

49

factor is determined by the spatial, temporal and institutional scale of the system under study

(Baxon et al. 2006). The study of process and structure of fringe areas is attempted by scholars in

the field based on the nature of its evolution and development in relation to the main city.

Ramachandran (1989), one of the prominent authors on fringe areas in India, has observed

the gradual phase wise development of rural-urban fringe and presented the transformation

processes which is taking place using a model called stages model. He postulates that the villages

beyond the limit of a rapidly growing city like Indian cities undergo a process of change that

ultimately result in the complete absorption within the physical city. This shows that the

mechanism of change involves primarily a land use change and then the socio-economic setup of

the community. The nature and magnitude of the change, in fact, depends on the interaction

between the surrounding villages and the city.

Therefore, Ramachandran has identified five distinct stages in the process of fringe

development and maturity (see Figure 2.1 below).

Figure 2.1: Stages of Urbanization of villages in the urban fringe

Source: Adopted from J.V. Bentinck (2000) quoting R. Ramachandran (1989)

Bengs and Schmidt Thome (2006) as quoted in Javetz et al (2013) said that it is confusing

that the peri-urban is always located between the urban and rural areas. This zone, thus, is

something between neither urban nor rural. This is a situation whereby the countryside close to

50

towns and cities become a potential place for living and recreation in which such development

leads to an expansion of cities not only in physical terms with low density housing but also in

terms of functional relationships creating an area of urban interface around cities. Such an area is

called as urban field as was developed by one of the prominent geographers Friedman and Miller

in 1965.

Pryor (1968) distinguished ‘urban fringe’ from ‘rural-urban fringe’ by narrating the urban

fringe as the zone that is contiguous to the central city and the rural-urban fringe is the bridge

between the city core and the rural hinterland. Bryant et al (1982) has also illustrated the blurring

of the rural-urban boundary by a model where the urban-rural continuum extends from the city

core to the remote rural hinterland.

Figure 2.2: Spatial Structure Model of Fringe areas in Urban Field

Source: Redrawn from Bryant (1982) by Masum (2009)

In the North American context the rural-urban fringe is the boundary zone outside the

urban area proper where rural and urban land uses intermix. It is an area of transition from

agricultural and other rural land uses to urban use. But the fringe zone is well located within the

urban sphere of influence. The location of rural-urban fringe is not fixed, changes over time and

51

the size as well as the nature of the change depends on the magnitude of the overall metropolitan

area and other competing towns and cities in the vicinity. The model representing the spatial

pattern and arrangement of the metropolitan area and the fringe areas are presented below

(see figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3: A Model of North American Urban Fringe

Source: http://www.geocases.co.uk/sample/urban_figure3.htm

Figure 2.4: Spatial Interaction of Inner city, Fringe areas and rural hinterland

Source: Adapted from Bryant and Johnston (1992)

52

Evolution of urban fringe is concomitant to urban expansion and consequent spill-over of

urban population and functions into the surrounding areas (Andrews, 1942). The demographic

spill-over generally moves along the traffic corridors as access to city remains a prime

consideration.

The other major problem found in reviewing the previous researches conducted on urban

fringe areas is the fact that there is no common ground for the delineation of the boundary of the

area as the nature and context of urbanization varies among countries. This shows that the spatial

connotation of the area is also very subjective and used differently by different scholars. For

instance in situations where it is difficult to use the Burgess and Hoyt’s model which never be

applied for the structures of the cities of these days; it is not an easy task to clearly locate the

beginning and the end of the fringe area. There are researchers who even demarcate the boundary

for the urban fringe outside the boundary of the city in which the hinterlands are perceived to be

part of the urban fringe as they exhibit the same characteristics of land use like the areas found

on the outer part of the city along the boundary. The vast majority of researchers locate the urban

fringe in the outer part of the city that serves as the transition zone between the truly urban and

truly rural hinterlands, but never beyond the city boundary. It is with these differences in mind

that literature has been conducted for over five decades.

2.3.2. Drivers of Change, Actors and Characteristics of Fringe Areas

a) The Driving Forces

All over the world urbanization has resulted in cities rapidly growing and expanding to host

the increasing populations. Not only the expansion of city borders themselves, but also the

accompanying infrastructure such as roads and airports are part of this development. This

expansion often referred to as urban sprawl, has been significant and has several impacts on the

environment. The increasing number of urban residents are a result of three developments;

expansion of cities, where the growth of the cities is absorbing villages surrounding the cities,

53

migration from rural to urban areas and high population growth in the cities themselves (Bakary,

2005). According to Antrop (2004), nowadays urbanization is no longer typical for the growth of

cities or towns only, but it influences the process in the rural countryside as well. The actual

change of landscapes is induced by urbanization processes such as residential or industrial land

development.

A study carried out in Chennai Metropolitan Area, has identified factors influencing the

formation of peri-urban areas such as the driving forces (several urban pressures which quicker

the transition from rural to urban), increasing land cost (spiralling land cost within the city has

created huge demand for land outside the city boundary), congestion ( high density development

in Indian cities and the high traffic congestion prevailing on the city streets force the city

residents to spend more time for travelling and thereby subjecting themselves to pollution), the

desire to own land and exceptionally infrastructure related opportunities that the peri-urban areas

provide). A study conducted in China regarding the driving forces of urban land expansion by

Liu et al (2005), taking case studies of 13 mega cities in China indicated that urban expansion

had been largely driven by demographic change, economic growth and change in land use

policies and regulations. In the study it is found that while demography and economies are the

most important driving forces for urban expansion, social and economic behaviour dominates the

processes of urban growth and expansion.

In the same country China, Ho and Lin (2004) indicated that since the mid-1980s the

conversion of land to non-agricultural use has been arguably the most widespread in the

country’s history, and in no region has the process been more intense than in China’s coastal

province. Among the most important factors that have contributed to the conversion of land to

non-agricultural use is rural-urban migration, rapid economic growth, and increased investment

in roads. Many of the studies conducted in China conclude that peri-urbanization is primarily

driven by economic development and population growth. The study shows that manufacturing

enterprises as well as real-estate developers are increasingly seeking to locate in the urban

54

peripheries where land costs are lower and the environmental regulations are less restrictive (Lu

Sun 2012).

In India, according to Thirumurthy (2005) the socio-economic driving forces of peri-urban

development include population growth in cities caused by migration, deterioration of living

conditions in the cities, the desire to own a house, availability of communication facilities and

higher transport accessibility outside the city and community or friends influence. According to

Shuaib (2009), several drivers explain urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa. The drivers include

both underlying and proximate factors. The underlying drivers of urbanization include population

dynamics or urban population growth and rural to urban migration. These factors are the most

significant driving forces of urbanization. Through natural increase due to high fertility rates

across the region, coupled internal migration and international migration. The urban population

has steadily grown in the last three decades faster than the pace at which urban services and

housing are provided but also increasing the demand for services.

The slum population has also grown exponentially and urban vulnerability is on the

increase. These phenomena emphasize the importance of the underlying factors of urbanization

related to demographic dynamics. One of the proximate factors for urbanization relates with

policies for the economic transformation such as industrialization, which have been pursued for

the last five decades.

Sub-Saharan African cities continue to play a major role as industrial and commercial

centres in attracting increased population. As part of the market forces industrialization

influenced by globalization has led to increase in consumption levels leading to establishment of

numerous industries and commercial centres along the urban corridors. There has been

proliferation of the ‘emerging’ economic sector which absorbs most of the economically active

population. It is important to note that the growth of the emerging sector is not necessarily a

problem due to its role in providing employment to many in urban areas and contribution to the

national economies but the challenges of integrating such in spatial planning and development is

55

more evident. Due to these factors, the expansion of urban areas is steadily advancing leading to

engulfing of adjacent rural areas and other urban centres to form corridors. These changes have

far reaching implications to environment and social well-being of the population and pose a

challenge to sustainable urban development.

The other proximate driver for urbanization in some of the countries is the balkanization of

administrative regions in which smaller districts have been curved out of larger districts. For

example since 1986, the districts in Uganda have increased from 35 to 45 in 1998 to 56 in 2002

and currently 75 in number. For each of the district, the headquarters is automatically gazetted as

a town council which qualifies the population to become urban. Several of these towns rapidly

expand outside their gazetted boundaries and with no control in such adjacent areas, social,

environmental and economic problems set in more instantly (Shuaib, 2009).

Burgi et al. (2004) identified four characteristics of driving forces in the landscape change

that assist in the explanation of such changes. According to then the four characteristics of the

forces are on the basis of the scale of investigation (spatial, temporal and institutional, driving

forces as primary, secondary or tertiary whether at a particular scale forces are intrinsic or

extrinsic and whether the change is intentional accidental.

Webster and Muller (2002) in their analysis of peri-urbanization of East Asian cities argued

that the trend towards the dispersal of population and employment to the peripheries of

metropolitan cities is becoming a world-wide phenomenon, but the drivers tend to differ.

According to these authors large scale investment, especially in manufacturing is usually the

trigger that sets off the peri-urbanization. Often foreign directed investment is the trigger, but in

some cases, such as China, domestic investment is more significant. The second driver they

identified is public policy explicitly supporting dispersal of manufacturing away from core and

even suburban areas. Public policy is also related to the situation where the government decided

to relocate slum dwellers out of the city core. But the relocation decisions rarely takes in to

consideration the availability of employment opportunities. The third driver of peri-urbanization

56

is the availability of relatively inexpensive labour, both in situ and in rural areas that are being

enveloped by peri-urbanization, and in-migrants particularly from poor regions seeking

employment opportunities. Residential development was also identified as one of the drivers if

peri-urbanization (which is most commonly referring to suburbanization). As indicated by

several researches, in recent times one of the most reasons for transformation of urban fringe

areas is related to government’s plans and land regulatory frameworks. Rapid population growth

amidst weak government capacity to regulate and guide urban expansion process has resulted

into widespread informal urbanization and undesirable overspill into the peri-urban areas.

Economic development in recent decades in the rapidly advancing regions (BRICKS) has

been characterized by the emergence of modern manufacturing industries .This rapid process of

industrialization and modernization has been facilitated by massive foreign directed investment.

Much of such investments are mentioned to be related to industrial estates and locations in the

peri-urban regions either outside the main metropolitan centres or along the coasts, with

consequent implications for population and peri-urban growth. In connection with such

developments Webster (2001) explains that “peri-urban areas are where the forces of

globalization and localization intersect”.

Peri-urban growth, also referred to as suburban expansion by Torres (2007) is a challenge

to all countries of the world and is one of the main challenges in Latin American cities.

According to Torres, most peri-urban growth in Latin America results from massive rural land

reclamation by migrants trying to settle in poor tenements. Such areas are not only typically ill

regulated and distant from key employment hubs, but also present appalling sanitation conditions

and significant environmental problems, including deforestation and pollution of rivers and

streams.

In sum, the drivers for the formation of urban fringes or peri-urbanization could be several

and diverse with variations are significant among cities based on the nature and scale of the

economy in the respective regions of the world. The process is often highly dynamic one in

57

which rural areas located on the outskirts of established cities become more and more urban in

character.

b) The Role of Actors in Land Change

Land change science is relatively a young discipline. It is aimed at to understand the

biophysical and human causes of land use and land cover change, and the land use land cover

patterns and dynamics affecting the structure and function of the earth (Lambin et al, 2003;

Hersperger et al, 2010). To this end, theory, observation and models are an integral part of land

change research (Hersperger et al. 2010). Hersperger and the team came up with four conceptual

models for linking land use change with driving forces and actors. The driving forces are forces

that together with actors shape land change and these forces form a complex system of

dependencies and interactions and affect a whole range of temporal and spatial levels. Burgi et al

(2004) identified five groups of driving forces political, economic cultural, technological and

natural driving forces. Actors, on the other hand, make decisions and thereby influence the

environment with their actions. Actors actually could be individuals, agencies or institutions.

Land change, according to Hersperger et al (2010) refers to change in land cover or land use.

There are four conceptual models identified by the research team of Hersperger to link land

change with the driving forces and actors. The team also identified for individual models, their

description, strength and weaknesses and guidelines for the models selection. Hersperger et al.

have also explained guidelines on how to select the appropriate model for specific situations and

they mentioned that the selection depends on the aim of the study, the system under study and

resources and data availability. Details about this model can be accessed at

(http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art1/).

c) Characteristics of Fringe Areas

The fringe areas, according to the existing literatures, can be characterized by the following

properties: agricultural land use in general is intensive and the arable land is devoted to

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perishable commodities (e.g. vegetables, fruits, flowers and dairy products), encroachment of

residential and industrial estates (it is an area into which the city is expanding), the size of

holdings is generally small, social amenities and public utilities are inadequate, there is constant

change in land use, builders develop residential colonies in the rural-urban fringe, environmental

degradation caused by uncontrolled settlement and infrastructure development, lack of interest or

attention to retaining functional green areas - arable land, forests, recreational areas and changes

in land use, lack of forward development planning and control in peri-urban areas ,waste

disposal, in particular the use of treated urban water and sewage waste on peri-urban agricultural

land, lack of clarity of planning and development jurisdiction and the rural-urban fringe is a

problem area from the point of view of administration because nobody is responsible for the

management of complex problems.

Peri-urban areas are characterized by uncertain land tenure, inferior infrastructure, low

incomes, and lack of recognition by formal governments. Peri-urban areas are outside formal

urban boundaries and urban jurisdictions which are in a process of urbanization and which

therefore progressively assume many of the characteristics of urban areas (Oloto, and Adebayo,

2010).

Ravetz et al (2013) characterized the peri-urban areas in the developing countries as often a

zone of chaotic urbanization leading to sprawl. They also describe the peri-urban areas as not

only a zone of transition but also it is a new kind of multi-functional territory.

A peri-urban area is a distinct settlement pattern neither urban nor rural but an interface, a

transitional zone. Change is endemic to this interface region with a blurring of uses and urban

and rural activities. Change can be regarded as orderly or chaotic, threatening or opportune;

change from rural to urban in the peri-urban region is usually irreversible. Conflicts between land

uses are usually regarded as key characteristics of peri-urban regions. Regardless of this, little

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attention areas to have been given to the long term planning and management of land and

resource base in this region. The rural-urban fringe offers the greatest challenge to the urban

planners. It is an area of rapid change in utilization of land and population characteristics.

According to Dutta (2012) peri-urban interface along the rural-urban boundary forms a

dynamic semi-natural ecosystem, from where the intact natural resources of natural landscapes

are sourced into the growing city, transforming the peri-urban area in return. He also

characterises the area that it is subject to multiple transformations (physical, morphological,

socio-demographic, cultural, economic and functional).

In general sense, urban fringe area can be described as conflicting land uses, (residential

and non-residential), rapidly growing residential expansion, (new and more spacious housing),

the population is mobile and low or moderate density, speculative building and subdivision of

land, the provision of services and public utilities is incomplete, changing pattern of land

occupancy, poor network of public transport, crop production is intensive.

2.3.3. Urbanization, Urban Growth and Sprawl: A Glimpse

2.3.3.1. Trend of Urban Growth

The twentieth century experienced a great urban explosion. Between 1950 and 2000,

worldwide urban population tripled, increasing by 2.12 billion persons. Developed countries

contributed for less than 24 per cent of the increase, which is 503 million. The urban population

of developing countries increased fourfold growing by over 1.6 billion. At present nearly one

person out of two is an urban dweller and one out of ten persons live in a city of more than one

million in population. Moreover, this trend is set to continue. Between 1990 and 2025, the

world’s urban areas will add 2.7 billion persons and more than 90 per cent of the increase will

occur in developing countries.

Over the next 30 years, the urban population of developing countries is expected to reach

3.8 billion. Future projections of urban population growth also indicate uneven pattern of

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urbanization in the developing countries. African urbanization rate will be the highest but in

terms of absolute numbers Asia will have the highest increase. Latin America will be the most

urbanized region, followed by Africa and Asia. A striking dimension of this transformation will

be the growth of mega cities (Dowell, 2003).

Recent sources indicate that while urban expansion is a global phenomenon, the bulk of it is

going to occur in a few hot spots – the biggest of which is Asia, with China and India continuing

to lead. Though Asia will see the most expansion overall, the largest rate of expansion is forecast

to be in Africa, where a 590 % increase in urban land is expected to occur. This explosion of

urban land cover will be concentrated in just five regions of the continent: The Nile River Delta,

The Guinea Coast of West Africa, the North Shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda

and Burundi, the Kano Region of Nigeria, and greater Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Some specific

areas of these regions could see extreme localized expansion: The Eastern Afromontane (1,900

%), the Guinean Forests (920 %), and the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (900 %) are the leading

ones (Herlitz, 2012).

In Ethiopian context, the rate of urbanization had been in slow pace because of the

country's history of agricultural self-sufficiency, which had reinforced rural peasant life. But

from recent times Ethiopia like most African countries, has joined the race to urbanization.

World’s phenomena of urbanization and the government’s attention for urban growth have

facilitated the spur for urbanization in Ethiopia. The country is believed to be one of the rapidly

urbanizing countries in Africa. There are numerous small and medium sized urban centres

emerging in different regions of Ethiopia and in the presence of rapid rural to urban movement of

population these towns/cities will stand to be among the major population agglomeration centre

in the country.

Figure 2.5 below shows how the urban population surpasses the rural population in the

world. An attempt is also made to compare and contrast (Table 2.1) the rate of urbanization in

Ethiopia with global, continental and regional level and it is possible to conclude that though g

61

the current level of urbanization is very low compared to its African counterparts, there is huge

potential (with growth rate being one of the highest, 4.3 per cent) for Ethiopia to rapidly urbanize

in the coming few years.

Figure 2.5: World urban population crossed over the rural population in 2008

Ethiopia’s level of urbanization when compared with the urbanizing world, the African

urban average, eastern Africa standard it is by far less than any one of these. However, due to

different factors such as land policies which drive the rural small scale agricultural population to

urban areas, the future urbanization prospect in Ethiopia is promising.

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Table 2.1: Urbanization Rate in the World and in Ethiopia in 2011

Major Areas, Regions and

country

Population (in thousands) Per

cent

Urban Urban Rural Total

World 3,632,457 3341579 6974036 52.1

More developed regions 964,240 276140 1240380 77.7

Less developed regions 2,668,217 3065439 5733657 46.5

Least developed countries 242,686 608418 851103 28.5

Less developed regions excluding

least developed ones

2425532 2457022 4882553 49.7

Less developed regions excluding

China

1,962,022 2393128 4355151 45.1

Sub-Saharan Africa 309463 533786 843249 36.7

Africa 413880 632,043 1045923 39.6

Eastern Africa 81172 261,679 342850 23.7

Ethiopia 14402 70,332 84734 17.0 Source: UN (2012) World urbanization prospect in Wondimu A. (2012)

2.3.3.2. Urban Sprawl and the Rural-Urban Fringe

Today, with rapid urbanization and industrialization, there is increasing pressure on land,

water and environment particularly in the big Metropolitan cities of the world. Urban sprawl is

one the developments that causes rapid spatial expansion of the urban boundary both in and

outside the city municipal boundary. According to Galster et al. (2001) urban sprawl refers to a

pattern of land use in an urbanized area that exhibits low levels of some combinations of eight

distinct dimensions: density, continuity, concentration, clustering, centrality, nuclearity, mixed

uses, and proximity.

Sprawl in simple terms is just spreading out of a city and its suburbs over more and more

rural lands at the periphery of an urban area while in reality it is a complex phenomenon that

means different things in different areas and conditions (Haregewoin, 2005). Therefore, even

though sprawl is a pattern of land use in an urbanized area, there is no agreed comprehensive

definition. But one thing is clear; that is the fact that all development is not sprawl and all sprawl

does not have the same characteristics or dimensions.

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Most authors and researchers define urban sprawl as that kind of urban expansion where

the rate of land consumption is higher than the increase in population density. Steven and

Gulinck mention that Kasanko and colleagues performed a study on 15 European cities and

found out that whereas cities in the South of Europe tend to become denser, most cities in the

Northern and Western Europe become more dispersed in the countryside and therefore the

“fringe” phenomenon makes place for “sprawl”.

Urban sprawl has been criticized for inefficient use of land resources and energy and large

scale encroachment onto agricultural land which cause a number of problems associated with

fragmented conversion of agricultural land into urban use. Cities are expanding in all directions

resulting in large scale urban sprawl and changes in rural land use, where the spatial pattern of

such changes is clearly observed on the urban fringe or the on the periphery of cities.

There are a number of causes for urban sprawl, but the major one being relevant to the this

research is urban growth. This means that urban sprawl is the major effect of urban growth, be it

through in-migration or natural increase where the sprawl increases traffic, saps local resources

and destroys open spaces. It is also responsible for changes in the physical environment, in the

form and spatial structure of cities (Bhatta, 2010).

Many authors claim two important consequences of sprawl, the urbanizing landscapes and

fringe land use dynamics (i) landscape dynamics like sprawl causes such changes that the

resulting land use is difficult to be classified as either rural or urban land use (ii) because of

dynamic character of urban areas they become scattered broad or detached from the city core that

defining them as the border or fringe between city and countryside becomes ambiguous. Land

transformation associated with urban expansion can significantly affect biodiversity energy

flows, climate conditions and others at local and regional levels. Sprawl causes fragmentation of

open spaces and next to fragmentation it consumes land in which natural and agricultural land is

transformed into ‘artificial’ land covers like residential, industrial or other services.

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Forms and Types of Sprawl

Sprawl development consists of three basic spatial forms: low-density (radial) sprawl,

ribbon and leapfrog development (Barnes et al., 2001). Radial sprawl is the consumptive use of

land for urban purposes along the margins of existing metropolitan areas. This type of sprawl is

supported by piecemeal extensions of basic urban infrastructures such as water, sewer, power,

and roads. Ribbon sprawl is development that follows major transportation corridors outward

from urban cores. In this case, lands adjacent to corridors are developed, but those without direct

access remain in rural uses/covers. Over time these nearby “raw” lands may be converted to

urban uses as land values increase and infrastructure is extended perpendicularly from the major

roads and lines. The leapfrog development is a discontinuous pattern of urbanisation, with

patches of developed lands that are widely separated from each other and from the boundaries,

albeit blurred in cases, of recognised urbanised areas (Barnes et al., 2001). This form of

development is the most costly with respect to providing urban services such as water and

sewerage.

Figure 2.6: The different forms of Sprawl

Source: T.V. Ramachandra & K.S.Jagadish (n.d†)

† No date

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Sprawl generally refers to the increase in built-up and paved area with impacts such as loss

of agricultural land, open space, and ecologically sensitive habitats. Also, sometimes sprawl is

equated with growth of town or city (radial spread). In simpler words, as population increases in

an area or a city, the boundary of the city expands to accommodate the growth; this expansion is

considered as sprawl. Sprawl also takes place on the urban fringe or the peri-urban region, at the

edge of an urban area or along the highways but in leaps and bounds. Sprawl results in the

growth of villages into peri-urban areas, peri-urban areas to towns, towns into cities and cities

into metros. Even though different people defined urban sprawl using different verses and

phrases, generally there are two commonly used and comprehensive definitions.

1.Unplanned incremental urban development, characterized by a low density mix of land uses

on the urban fringe (according to EEA 2006).

2.Low density scattered urban development without systematic large scale or regional public

land use planning (Bruegmann, 2008). In fact in this second definition, in the presence of

land use planning itself sprawl development takes place if there is very weak implementation

of the plans and a situation where there is poor urban governance.

Shalaby and Gad (n.d*) in their study of urban sprawl impact assessment on one of the

cities in the Nile Delta of Egypt remarked that urban sprawl is one of the major problems that

threaten the limited, highly fertile agricultural land. They used an integrated approach of remote

sensing and GIS in studying the spatial distribution of urban sprawl and its impact on agricultural

land where they found that the study area mentioned has undergone tremendous land use/cover

changes seen in terms of an increase in urban settlement at the expense of rapidly decreasing

agricultural land.

Urban sprawl is a form of spatial development characterized by low densities ,scattered and

discontinuous “leapfrog” expansion and segregation of land uses encouraging the massive use of

* No date

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private vehicles and strip-malls; where such development is found mainly in open, rural lands on

the edges of metropolitan areas. According to these authors, most sprawl measures in the

literature can be grouped into some five major groups;

i) Growth rate – urban sprawl according to this indicator is defined as a condition in which

population growth rates in the suburbs are higher than inside the central city. Another popular

growth rate measure is the so called ”Sprawl Index”, SI or sprawl Quotients defined as the ratio

between the growth rate of built-up area and population growth rate in certain area. In this case

the index showing greater than 1 always shows sprawl.

ii) Density – According to Galster et al 2001, the most popular sprawl measure is density.

Some scholars even argue that this measure is the best that represents the phenomenon very well.

iii) Spatial geometry – an ecological research approach used to measure how scattered or

uniform developments are in the peripheries of urban areas. Some common measures in this

category are leapfrog or continuity (Galster et al 2001) measure of circularity, fractal dimensions

and mean patch size all of which quantify the level of scattered and fragmentation of urban

landscape.

2.4. Urban Fringe Dynamics: An Overview

2.4.1. Transformation Processes and Dynamics of Fringe Areas

Many researches across the world regions now identified that the urban fringe is the

dominant urban form and spatial planning challenges of the twenty-first century (Ravetz et al

2013). When seen from the wider regional perspective the rural-urban region extends from the

urban core through the urban fringe to the rural area. Therefore, even if the dynamics begins

from within the core city boundary, there is a system of interconnectedness of activities and thus

the transformations in and around the urban core stretches far away to the rural surroundings.

The factors for the urban fringe dynamics and overall transformations of the region are a

function of numerous aspects than one. Ravetz and colleagues have identified five major factors

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or dimensional framework which reflects the complex processes of the development and changes

at the fringe areas. The first aspect is urban expansion which occurs as a direct result of growth in

population, economy and space demands. Then when cities expand they form regional

agglomerations, with step changes in economies of scale taking place, and new type of peri-

urban territory developing. Thirdly, underlying these developments are the effects of various

deeper political and cultural forces which shape the peri-urban territory. The whole urban system

can go through rapid transitions with radical change and restructuring and finally policy

responses to these changes and transitions which often feedback into the mix, and becomes

‘dynamics’ themselves.

2.4.2. Transformations of the Fringe Areas and the Impacts: The Socio- economic

and Livelihood Aspect

In the older industrial or post-industrial countries urban fringe is a zone of social and

economic changes and spatial restructuring. These countries have long history and experience of

peri-urbanization. On the other hand, in the newly emerging economies and most of the

developing countries the peri-urban zone is often observed to be an area of chaotic urbanization

with multiple effects of sprawl (Ravetz et al, 2013). Peri-urban according to these authors is not

just a fringe in between the city and the countryside (zone of transition), rather it is a new kind of

multi-functional territory.

Urbanization presents many challenges for farmers on the urban fringe. Wu (2008) has

studied land use changes and the impacts in USA from the economic, social and environmental

impacts point of view and he asserted that urbanization being the cause for land use change

produces a number of socio-economic and environmental impacts on the urban fringe and its

residents. Conversion of farmlands and forests to urban development reduces the amount of land

available for food and other biotic resources. Urban development has encroached to rural

communities in many of the cities of the world to such an extent that the community’s identity

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vanishes. Urbanization may also cause the “impermanence syndrome” leading to idling of

farmlands and farmers (Adelaja, 1988).

Cities today are spreading into their surrounding landscapes sucking food, energy, water

and resources from the natural environment without taking in to account the social, economic and

environmental consequences generated at all levels by their ‘urban footprint’.

While current peri-urban studies acknowledge the complexity of peri- urban

transformation processes, less attention has been put on peoples’ own account about

transformation processes, and particularly how they react to such complex processes and solve

the challenges associated with resource imbalances and changing livelihood.

Rao (1970) in his paper “a rural community on the Delhi Metro fringe” distinguished three

kinds of situations of social change in the rural areas resulting from urban influences (villages

near an industrial town, villages with a number of emigrants seeking for employment in far-off

cities and villages of an expanding metropolitan city). Rao has shown in his study how the

different social changes are affected by urban influences with a case from Yadavapur- the then

fringe village found outside the built-up suburb of Delhi.

Sofer (2009) in his study of the rural-urban space of Israel argued that while the dynamism

contributing to the contested urbanization of the rural-urban fringe and the ever increasing need

for land is too many, the changes in general can be perceived as transition from dependence on

farming to more diversifies but week economic base for the ex-rural people. He also identified

that because of dominance of external and internal capitalist forces, land based investment

(industry, real estates, commercial developments) all are consuming large amount of agricultural

lands.

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2.4.2.1. The Political Economy of Land Dispossession and Eviction of

Farmers: David Harvey’s Accumulation by Dispossession

Accumulation by dispossession is a concept presented by Marxist geographer David

Harvey, who defines the neoliberal capitalist policies in many western nations, from the 1970s to

the present day, as resulting in a centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few by

dispossessing the public of their wealth and land. The neoliberal policies are guided mainly by

privatization, financialization, management and manipulation of crises and state redistribution

practices.

Harvey (2003 a) reconceptualised Karl Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation. Marx in

his classic capital(volume 1) described primitive accumulation as a set of process that take place

at the formative stage of capitalism which includes commodification and privatization of land

and resulting forceful expulsion of peasant population ,conversion of common and collective

property rights exclusively into private property rights ,commodification of labour power

,suspension of indigenous forms of production and consumption ,colonial and imperial

appropriation of assets and natural resources.

David Harvey’s concept of accumulation by dispossession is now adopted b several

researchers in the developing countries who are researching the condition of rampant

governments’ land dispossession for private corporation through leasing agreement. One of such

researches is conducted by Levien (2011) who widely assessed the issue of Special Economic

Zone and political economy of dispossession in India. He underlines that Special Economic Zone

and land grab are affecting dozens of rural population of India for the past five years which has

yielded sever conflict between the community and investors to whom the state has leased the

land through dispossession. Levien further explains that Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have

become the epicentres of “land wars,” as farmers across the country have resisted the state’s use

of eminent domain to transfer their land to private companies for developing these hyper-

liberalized enclaves. The state affects peasant community in a number of ways which in the final

70

analysis would lead then to poverty and wage labourers. In the first place when the states

acquires land for industry, real estate or others, they transfer it at its nominal agricultural values

as determined by the government rather than at the price of commercial, industrial or residential

land to which it will be soon converted. Secondly, the agricultural value itself is always

underestimated as it is based on average listed sales price over several previous years in the

country.

2.4.2.2. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework: A Theoretical Framework

for assessing Socio-economic transformations in urban fringe areas

In the contemporary world poverty reduction and sustainable development agendas are two

hot issues researchers all over the globe are largely engaged in. People both in urban and rural

areas are prone to poverty due to a number of factors and circumstances. One of the major key

threats to the communities living in the periphery of cites is the impact brought about by the ever

increasing pressure of cities beyond their urban boundaries. Rural agricultural lands in the fringe

are continuously under the threat of urbanization and developments related to it. Urban

researches from the recent decades tried to approach such impact of urbanization in leading the

fringe agricultural communities to poverty and loss of livelihood. In such cases urbanization and

urban expansion plays a transformative role in the livelihood of people, be it positively or

negatively.

In Africa and other world regions, there are a number of researchers who studied the

livelihood of people living in the urban fringe (peri-urban areas). The vast array of these studies

focus on how the urbanization of the previous rural areas and land acquisition for investment

under the sponsorship of the government have transformed the rural landscape and the livelihood

of the community residing there. Owusu and Agyei (2007) argued that a key challenge to the

urbanisation process is the rapid conversion of large amount of prime agricultural land to urban

land use as well as transformation in the livelihoods of peri-urban dwellers. There also a number

of studies in Africa related to this subject (Rakodi, 2002; Tacoli et al, 2003; Oduro, 2010;

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Michael, 2011; Ricci, 2011; Msangi, 2011; and et cetera). While the effect of urbanization on one

hand and the associated land grab for investment on the other hand is very huge on the residents

of urban peripheries, these people are not passive recipients of such impacts. They adopt

different strategies to cope with the effects of urbanization. This situation and process is best

explained by the sustainable livelihood framework which is a tool used to improve our

understanding of livelihoods particularly the livelihoods of the poor amidst loss of different

livelihood assets in the whole process of urbanization of their localities.

Figure 2.7: The Sustainable Livelihood Framework

Source: DFID (1999)

The sustainable livelihood framework abbreviated as SLF was conceived in the 1980s and

finally adopted by the Department For International Development (DFID) in 1997 as a strategy

for pro-poor policy intervention. The framework argues that the success of any development

intervention that touches the livelihood of the people requires an understanding of the underlying

conditions that supports the livelihoods. The sustainable livelihoods framework postulates that an

understanding of what comprises and supports the livelihoods of the people should be an entry

point for the success of interventions into the respective livelihoods in the peri-urban areas

(Msangi, 2011).

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The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach centres on both people and their livelihood;

prioritising both the tangible and intangible assets they utilise to achieve their desires. It also

considers the vulnerable environment the poor operate in and their ability to withstand shocks

and stresses, amidst external forces such as policies that affect accessibility of the assets that the

people depend upon. A livelihood comprises of capabilities, assets (both material and social

resources) and activities required for a means of living (Chambers & Conway, 1992).

The livelihood framework is therefore, a model that analyses livelihood strategies by

looking at different assets. Fagerlund (2010 quoting Meikle, 2002) argues the fact that the

presence of these assets alone does not guarantee but rather access to the assets is of much

importance for livelihoods of the community. A livelihood represents multiple ranges of

activities that households engage into in order to ensure their survival and improved well-being;

and at least a means of living (Rakodi, 2002).

A livelihood is considered sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stress and

shock, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood

opportunities for the next generation and contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local

and global levels and in the long and short term (Kabilla et al 2013). The DFID sustainable

livelihood has four main components: the livelihood assets, the external environment, livelihood

strategies and livelihood outcomes.

a) Livelihood Assets/Resources

Livelihood assets are resources that individual or households draw upon to build

livelihood. These assets many be financial or non-financial, material or non-material and may be

available at household, community or societal levels. Livelihood assets can also be conceived of

as stocks of capital that can be stored, accumulated, exchanged, depleted or used to generate

income or other benefits. The stocks of capital are classified in to natural capital, physical capital,

financial capital, human capital, and social/political capital (Rakodi 2002 as cited in Oduro

2010). The livelihood framework identifies five core asset categories or types of capital upon

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which livelihoods are built. Increasing access - which can take the form of ownership or the right

to use- to these assets, is a primary concern for DFID in its support of livelihoods and poverty

elimination.

Human capital is referring to the labour resources of the household. It can be measured

both quantitatively and qualitatively where the quantitative part is measured by the number of

people in the household and the amount of time that these people spend on income earning

activities. The quality of human capital is measured to the educational level and the skills of the

household members as well as their health. In fact, both measures are of great importance.

Social capital is a complex term and there is much debate about what exactly is meant by

the term “social capital”. In the context of the sustainable livelihoods framework it is taken to

mean the social resources upon which people draw in pursuit of their livelihood objectives.

Narayan defines social capital as “the rules, norms, obligations, reciprocity and trust embedded

in the social relations, social structure and society’s institutional arrangements which enable its

members to achieve their individual and community objectives. It can be networks, different

associations and other group relationships.

Natural capital is defined as access to land, water and other environmental resources.

Some people argue that this is not as such important in urban perspective compared to its quite

importance to the rural context. But others mention that definitely important in urban and peri-

urban areas as urban and peri-urban agriculture is highly dependent on access to land.

Physical capital refers to the basic infrastructures that can be accessed and the production

equipment of the households. For example, water, electricity, road and other infrastructures assist

in accessing health and educational institutions. Some of the physical resources like access to

shelter or housing are important for households to generate income through renting rooms.

Msangi (2011) also mentions that physical capital includes land, livestock and housing supports

agriculture for food production, shelter, income and social identity in peri-urban areas.

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Financial capital refers to monetary resources that are available to the households. It

includes savings, credits, income from work, and others. Financial capital also includes access to

relevant financial services which can help for saving and loaning money; adequate credit services

may also be equally important.

b) Vulnerability Context

In as much as access to assets is essential to households’ livelihood, these resources

(assets) can be deterred by events over which people have limited or no control. These events

define the vulnerability context and outline the external environment in which people exist

(DFID, 1999).Vulnerability implies the trends, shocks and seasonality factors that people are

susceptible to as they pursue various livelihood options (for example, seasonal shift in price,

employment opportunities, food availability; sudden shocks such as disasters-floods or

earthquakes; conflicts, and et cetera).Trends on the other hand refer to differential access to land.

c) Transforming structures and processes

These represent institutions, organizations, policies and legislations that shape livelihoods.

Households’ access, control, and use of assets are largely determined by the institutional

structures and processes such as laws, policies and societal norms. Therefore, apparent

understanding of the structures and processes provide the link

2.4.2.3. Expropriation (Compulsory Land Acquisition) in Urban Fringe Areas

The problem of compulsory acquisition, displacement and/or dispossession for long time

has mainly been confined to dam related projects and has been a research agenda among

scholars. But nowadays, this turns its face onto the urban sector (displacement and/or

dispossession by land acquisition policy in urban areas). Agricultural people in villages

surrounding cities are target for displacement due to urban development (Advani, 2006).

Governments often require land for implementation of their development projects. Such

requirements, in most cases, cannot be met with the government’s own pool of land where in

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such circumstances compulsory land acquisition from private owners provide the answer to this

problem.

Different terms or phrase are used across the world regions for the process through which

properties are transferred from the private land users to the government for the purpose of public

use; eminent domain in the USA, compulsory purchase in some of European countries,

expropriation by others and compulsory acquisition still by other countries. Compulsory land

acquisition and expropriation are used by many of the African countries including Ethiopia.

FAO (2009) in its land tenure studies underscores important characteristics and nature of

compulsory acquisition. It is mentioned that compulsory acquisition of land has always been a

delicate issue and is increasingly so nowadays in the context of rapid growth and change in land

use. The process brings tension for people who are threatened with dispossession and the

compulsory acquisition of land for development purposes may ultimately bring benefits to

society but it is disruptive to people whose land is acquired. The power of compulsory land

acquisition is also always exposed to abuse which leads to inadequate compensation for the loss,

reduces tenure security, creates tension between the government and citizens and reduces public

confidence in the rule of law. Urban growth entails acquisition of land resulting into

displacement or dispossession of people every year in every city. The land is thus acquired by

urban development bodies or purchased by property housing cooperative societies or dealers at a

minimum cost from agriculturalists and it is developed and sold for housing, commercial or other

projects.

There are a number of literatures addressing that land acquisition results in displacement of

agriculturalists, poor people and uneducated who had been residing in the fringe areas of cities.

The displacement of people in urban and peri-urban areas detaches them from their agricultural

land and their ancestral homes. Advani (2009) explains that the intensity of urbanization induced

displacement is much larger than the involuntary displacement caused by setting up of industrial

or infrastructural projects. Farmland acquisition is one of the commonest practices in all parts of

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the world, particularly in the developing counties cities. HE Ga (2012) in studying the farmland

acquisition system in China reflected that land acquisition systems have different titles in

different countries of the world, but the actions and impacts are similar in all cases with only

variation in magnitude (“eminent domain”, “expropriation”, “compulsory purchase”,

“compulsory acquisition or resumption” and some others). Another study on the issue of

farmland acquisition (grab) in China is made by Xiubin (2011) who underscored that china is

undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization , which substantially increases pressure on

farmland resources, environment and peasants’ life as well. In the same study it is indicated that

during the past two decades, some 4 million hectares of farmland has been occupied by non-

agricultural sector.

Yuan et al (2008) quoting Long, pointed out that the gap between expropriation price and

selling price produces great economic benefits in the process of transformation. Governments of

different levels are the main benefit earners having the most direct impulses of provision.

Local governments are getting more and more tangible benefits from national lands, as a

result blind development and repetitious constructions are done at the cost of national interests

(there is inappropriate and irresponsible use of the acquired land).

2.4.3. Environmental Transformations in Urban Fringe Areas

Urban settlements account for only two per cent of the earth’s land surface; however, over

half of the world’s population resides in cities (UN 2001). High population density in urban areas

has resulted in a large scale modification of the environment in the fringe areas. Rapid urban

expansion due to large scale land use/cover change, particularly in developing countries becomes

a matter of concern since urbanization drives environmental change at multiple scales (Ashraf

and Dewan et al 2012). Urbanization is a complex process of converting urban fringe and rural

land to urban land use and has caused various impacts on ecosystem structures function and

dynamics (Luck and Wu 2002).

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Urbanization causes the exploitation of agricultural and forest land and open spaces by

towns and cities. In many cases there is premature urban development i.e., urban sprawl which

accelerates the expansion of urban areas in to rural hinterlands. Urban sprawl is mainly caused by

constraints in urban management, inappropriate phasing of development, absence of integrated

conversion of agricultural and forest lands to urban land use and informal holdings. This

phenomenon promotes deforestation and highly contributes to environmental resource depletion

and coupled with the inability of providing basic services in newly developed areas and the low

level of environmental quality in the already developed areas create an overall impoverished

urban environment.

Several structural changes are producing environmental degradation on the peri-urban

areas. Allen (2003) identified three processes of environmental changes in the peri-urban

interface, including a change in land use, such as from agricultural to residential or industrial

uses; a transfer of natural resources such as forest, water, and pollution from peri-urban to urban

areas; and thirdly a change in the generation of waste and use of environmental services such as

increased solid and liquid waste in the peri-urban zone. The rural-urban fringe is the frontier of

urban land expansion, which has active socio-economic activities, serious man-land relationship,

sharp contradiction, sensitive and fragile ecological environment, and is known as "natural

laboratory" for the research of environmental effects (Msangi, 2011).

The process of transformation in the rural-urban fringe is accompanied by many problems

of which the degradation of land and water resources is among the most serious ones.

Narayanan and Hanjagi (2009) in their work on “land transformation in Bangalore ‘s

ecology” defined land transformation as quantitative change in land, the act of change of form,

shape, structure, appearance or nature of land that have put in to some use. They described that

loss of ecology is primarily traceable to land transformation through fragmentation of natural

habitat and has often vandalized by urban sprawl. The authors have assessed the transformation

of forests lakes and agricultural lands and concluded that urbanization is a threat to ecology and

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loss of ecology also alters climate of an area. In their analysis they also found that rate of change

in ecological spaces and bio-geography of the area is also faster and negative.

According to Edessa (2010) Oromia is the land of fertile soils, immense mineral resources,

source of biodiversity, forest ecosystem, and many rivers that serve as sources of urban

agricultural and industrial uses. Edessa elucidates that currently many of these fertile lands

surrounding Finfine, the capital city of the country are now showing a paradigm shift from

agricultural food production in to horizontally protracted urbanization and non-food production

that anchored the dismantling of the local family, starvation and other environmental hazards.

The study also revealed that Ministry of Health has announced through media that 30 per cent of

the people suffer from diseases caused by flora farm chemicals, which have polluted the air, the

soil and water as well.

Urbanization and consequent formation of peri-urban areas have resulted in extensive

exploitation of agricultural land and land from water bodies and wasteland, which were

maintaining an ecological balance for centuries around bigger cities.

Sharma (1991) in his article on ‘land grab, Bombay style’, explained that urban

development in India, especially in and around large cities, is today largely oriented to the

expansion of the private business with the government having little say in the control and

direction of the use of the main resource, the land. He further indicated that several conscious

citizens of the area around hinterland of the city through their voluntary organizations are

protesting the indiscriminate urbanization of the region will adversely affect its ecology.

2.5. The Role of Geospatial Technologies in Urban Studies

2.5.1. Remote Sensing GIS and urban Studies

Urbanization is an inevitable phenomenon, when pressure on land is high, agricultural

incomes is low and population increases are excessive, as in the case of most developing

countries. Urbanization has been both one of the principal as well as engine of change and the

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21st century is the century of great urban transition for human society. However, uncontrolled

urbanization has been responsible for several problems in cities today resulting in substandard

living environment, acute shortage of services and environmental degradation in and around

cities (V.K.Rai and Kumra 2011). Remote sensing provides an important source of data for urban

land use/land cover mapping and environmental monitoring. Urban land cover/use mapping has

received an increasing amount of attention from urban planners, scientists and geographers.

The modern technology of remote sensing which includes both aerial and satellite based

systems, allow us to collect physical data rather easily with speed and on repetitive basis and

together with GIS helps us to analyse the data spatially offering tremendous possibilities of

generating various options (modelling and other planning processes). Satellite data are useful for

fast and inexpensive mapping and updating of urban land use/cover and road networks. Satellite

data are particularly useful for analysing changes over time by comparing images of the same

area taken on different dates (Paulson, 1992).

Remote sensing of urban land use change monitoring of the key technologies in support of

core of urban land use/cover database technology and access to an important tool for geospatial

data has been rapid developments in recent years (Dutta, 2012).

With urbanization, the increase in urban population, urbanization level leading to the city’s

’internal restructuring ‘and ‘peripheral geographic expansion’ are the great causes of changes in

urban land use. The study of land use /land cover change is very important to have proper

planning and proper utilization of natural sources and their management both in the centre and

peripheral areas. The traditional methods of gathering demographic data, censuses and analysis

of environmental samples are not adequate for the ever complex and wider environmental

studies. Therefore, remote sensing and GIS technologies are now providing tools for advanced

ecosystem management and projection of urban growth and its potential impacts. The power of

remote sensing is also seen from the fact that with multi-temporal analysis, remote sensing gives

a unique perspective of how cities evolve. The key element for mapping rural-urban land use

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change is the ability to discriminate between the rural uses (farming, pastures, and forest) and

urban land use (residential, commercial and recreational).

2.5.2. Satellite Images for Urban and Peri-urban Studies

The launching of Landsat in 1972 began an era of major achievement in the inventory of

resources and the monitoring of environment from space. Since that time techniques have been

developed in using satellite imageries to detect land use change to find out the type, amount and

location of land use changes that have taken place. Data from Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner

(MSS) , Thematic Mapper (TM, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) sensors with their

synoptic and regular coverage have potential for detecting and inventory of all changes in the

cover type, cover condition and therefore, land use in areas of research interest (Zahoor, 2011).

Landsat series have great potentiality in identifying and hence understanding the present and

projecting the future urban growth scenario both at regional and local levels.

The advancement in technology of remote sensing has brought miracles in the availability

of the higher resolution satellite imageries like IKONOS, Quickbird, Cartosat and others which

are of great use in cadastral mapping, urban infrastructure and utilities mapping, and so on. The

high spatial resolution images have increasingly been used for land use land cover classification,

but the high spectral variations within the same land cover, the spectral confusions among

different land covers and the shadow problem of buildings often lead to poor classification

performance on the traditional pixel-based classification method. In such conditions the use of

medium resolution images is very important in order to substantiate the problem in the high

resolution imageries.

The integration of remote sensing and Geospatial technologies helps us undertake both

spatial and temporal analysis more efficiently than the conventional methods of analysis. The RS

technology helps us in mapping change detection and therefore, subsequently helps in assessing

and monitoring land use planning strategies and policy formulations.

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The knowledge of process of land use/cover transformation especially in the urban core

and along the rural-urban boundaries is very important to identify and guide urban growth for the

future.

Studies of urban land use/land cover are the backbone of urban remote sensing. Although the

specific goals of many studies differ, most begin with the identification and classification of the

land cover and land use within the urban scene. The growth of world urban population has

necessitated frequent assessment of urban changes overtime. Humans continuously modify their

environment and remotely sensed imagery, both day and night time, can be used to study urban

populations, their sizes, density and distributions through the characteristics of their

environments.

2.5.3. Land use/cover Classification Approaches

The classification of remotely sensed data is a highly subjective process. Converting radiometric

values to user-specified thematic categories requires a level of interpretation that forgoes

objective multivariate measurements of reflected and emitted energy for the sake of semantic

expediency (Mesev, 2010). Mesev also adds that we live in a multi-faceted wold where our cities

are composed of a complex assemblage of both tangible substances and communicable

interactions. Urban image classification can be considered in different ways, whether it spectral

based or spatial based, hard or soft per-pixel of sub-pixel. Whichever method is used the

classification of remotely sensed data is the process that involves generating of thematic

interpretation from digital signals that represent the world. Classification usually entails

conversion of data from interval to nominal level of measurements based on spectral or spatial

rules and it is the basic process for the analysis of land cover/land use in urban and peri-urban

areas. Regardless of the complexities in classification method, we can identify and categorize the

various natural and man-made features in terms of land cover. Anderson and colleagues

developed one of the most commonly used classification systems. In their classification there are

two higher classification (levels I&II) for which space (satellite) images are most suitable and the

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remaining two are the subdivisions of the two higher classes and are given the category of (levels

III & IV).

Land use/cover Change Detection Methods

Land cover /land use detection information is necessary for updating land cover maps and the

management of natural resources. The change is usually detected by comparing at least two

multi-date data images, or sometimes between an old map and updated remote sensing image.

Lillesand and Keifer (1994) defined change detection as the use of multi-temporal datasets

to discriminate areas of land cover change. Change detection analysis in remote sensing is

usually applied in a number of areas like urbanization and suburbanization settlement pattern

change, change in agricultural land use, forest cover, soil erosion, flooding are among many

other areas of application. The approaches and techniques are change detection is also diverse

and complex. However, whichever technique is used depending on the details and the objective

of analysis the purpose is to quantify or judge the variations (change) in spectral response of a

pixel on two dates of imagery which happens due to a change in land cover.

Maps and measurements of land cover can be derived directly from remotely sensed data

by a variety of analytical procedures, including statistical methods and human interpretation.

Maps of land use and land cover (LULC) are produced from remotely sensed data by inferring

land use from land cover (e.g., urban = barren, agriculture = herbaceous vegetation).

Conventional LULC maps are categorical, dividing land into categories of land use and land

cover (thematic mapping; land classification), while recent techniques allow the mapping of

LULC or other properties of land as continuous variables or as fractional cover of the land by

different LULC categories, such as tree canopy, herbaceous vegetation, and barren (continuous

fields mapping). Both types of LULC datasets may be compared between time periods using

geographic information systems (GIS) to map and measure LULCC at local, regional, and global

scales (The Encyclopaedia of Earth, 2010).

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In general, an integrated uses of remote sensing and GIS technologies are important in

urban studies in the following application areas; urban land use monitoring and the study of

urban sprawl and growth trends, space use in the core areas, urban environmental analysis,

location and extent of urban areas, the nature and spatial distribution of different land use

categories within and around urban areas and monitor changes over time and space.