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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).
24
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.
26
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
28
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
30
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
33
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
34
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.
35
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.
36
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
37
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
58
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
59
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;
71
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.
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