Spatial patterns of urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of Uganda
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Development Southern Africa
Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly urbanising. This urbanisation may
contribute to socio-economic development as more people
participate in the urban economy. Nevertheless, rapid
urbanisation is not always sustainable. Primary cities often grow
fast, leaving secondary towns lagging behind with weaker
economies. Viable strategies for sustainable urbanisation may
therefore also need to focus on developing secondary towns.
Nevertheless, very few studies, hitherto, have assessed the
(relative) importance of secondary towns in urbanisation process
in Sub-Saharan Africa. We aim to address this gap by studying
the patterns and explanatory factors of urban population growth
in Uganda. Based on a longitudinal analysis of population ranksize
distribution, we show that the population distribution gap
between secondary towns and the primary city is widening.
Nevertheless, statistical analyses further indicate that secondary
towns with above 50 000 inhabitants have the highest
population growth rates. This indicates that future investments
should aim at upgrading socio-economic infrastructures in
secondary towns.
Description
Keywords
Sustainable urbanisation, Rank-size analysis, Secondary towns, Sub-Saharan Africa
Citation
Samuel Tumwesigye, Matthias Vanmaercke, Lisa-Marie Hemerijckx, Alfonse Opio, Jean Poesen, Ronald Twongyirwe & Anton Van Rompaey (2021): Spatial patterns of urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of Uganda, Development Southern Africa, DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2021.1932426