Out of Control: On Urban Morphology of Informal Settlements in East Africa

Most of the ongoing extensive urbanization in East Africa is informal and occurs beyond the limits of state control and regulatory systems. The urban majority in the region resides in informal settlements characterized by limited urban planning, construction without formal permits, and lack of formal land titles. Issues with substandard housing, overcrowding, insecure tenure as well as inadequate access to water and sanitation are widespread in these areas and compromise the livelihood of tens of millions of urban dwellers. Few studies have investigated the urban form of informal settlements even though spatial factors and urban form indicators such as inadequate access conditions, inefficient use of space, high level of building coverage, and limited public space are linked to some of the urban deficiencies in informal settlements.

This PhD thesis presents analyses of the urban form of informal settlements in East Africa, based on urban morphology and location theory in order to enhance the knowledge on contemporary urban development in the region and thereby improve the basis for increasing the efficacy of urban planning and policy in addressing the wide-ranging issues linked to the proliferation of informal settlements. The thesis includes a number of practice-based design, architecture, and spatial planning projects that were produced in parallel with the research. These projects highlight central issues in relation to informal urban development in East Africa such as urban densification, access to sanitation, and innovation in spatial planning and land use management. The thesis is article-based and includes a number of research papers focusing on various subjects related to the urban form of informal settlements in East Africa.

The paper A New Hypothesis on Informal Land Supply, Livelihood, and Urban Form in Sub-Saharan African Citiespresents an analysis of informal urban land use in four major cities in East Africa, as well as an analysis of urban form and household conditions in a case study area in each city. The study found more compact urban form, higher proportion of tenants and overcrowding, and lower proportion of household access to water and sanitation in the examined cities with limited informal urban land use. The study argues that government repression of informal urban development decreases informal land supply and leads to increased competition in the informal land market, causing higher costs of accommodation and consequent fewer household resources for investments in infrastructure and thereby more compromised livelihood.

The paper On the Impact of Urban Planning of Informal Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa compares the urban form of three centrally located unplanned informal settlements with three adjacent planned informal settlements in Maputo, Mozambique in order to assess the long-term impact of urban planning on the urban form of informal settlements. The study found higher built densities, higher public space ratios, and higher average street widths in the planned areas compared to the unplanned areas. Accordingly, the study suggests that urban planning has a significant long-term impact on the urban form of informal settlements despite the lack of state control of the urban development.

The paper Urban Densification of Informal Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis of Recent Developments in Maputo, Mozambique and the book chapter Understanding density in unplanned and unregulated settlements of peri-urban Africa: a case study of Maputo, Mozambique examine built densification of three unplanned informal settlements and developments of population densities in Maputo, Mozambique. The studies found increasing built densities in all three case study areas and decreasing population densities in two case study areas. The studies thus suggest that the urban population growth in Maputo is mainly accommodated through urban expansion.

The papers A Fine-Grain Multi-Indicator Analysis of the Urban Form of Five Informal Settlements in East Africa and A Taxonomy of Informality: Exploring Block Types in Five informal Settlements in East Africa use statistical analysis of the urban form of informal settlements at high resolution. The first presents statistical comparison of indicators of urban form in order to explore similarities and differences of the analyzed settlements. The latter presents a clustering analysis of different block types. The papers highlight distinctive urban form features of the analyzed neighborhoods and thus provide new insights on the spatial conditions of informal settlements in the region.

Mainstream urban economic theory emphasizes the importance of transportation systems in relation to the development of urban form. This thesis adds new nuances to these theories by documenting that government attitudes towards informal urban development in cities where the majority is financially excluded from the formal housing market are critical for understanding the urban morphology of informal settlements. Finally, the thesis argues that Western planning paradigms are not appropriate in the context of much of East Africa as local authorities lack the resources to administer the urban development according to the regulation and much of the population lack the resources to comply with regulation. On this basis, the thesis discusses alternative approaches to urban planning that require fewer resources to administer and support production of affordable legal housing. The thesis presents a number of policy recommendations informed by the research papers, such as new forms of land titling, innovation in land use management, increasing mandate for decision-making to local administrations, road pricing, and implementation of robust street grids in peripheral areas before the urban fabric consolidates. The thesis argues that such policy measures may address some of the issues emblematic to informal urban development in the region and thereby enhance the future sustainable development of major cities in East Africa.