The emergence of city-regions and their implications for contemporary spatial governance: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

Over the years, urbanization has triggered complex spatial processes, such as the evolution of city-regions that defy traditional administrative regional boundaries. However, despite the growing body of research on city-regions, the evolution of this phenomenon and its implications for contemporary spatial governance remains a huge gap in urban planning literature, while approaches to their delineation have largely been restricted to commuting patterns data and approximations. This research examines the emergence of city-regions and their implications for contemporary spatial governance using Ghana as an illustrative case. In the process, inspired by Tobler's first law of geography and the concept of distance decay, the study engages a unique methodological approach that uses spatial mapping of rural-urban population continuum, transportation network, built-up patterns and GIS techniques for the delineation of city-region. The research finds a gap between the rapidly emerging spatial structure of Accra and the operational governance framework, as there is no provision in the latter for the planning and management of the evolving city-region which, territorially, spans multiple administrative regions. At the local context, while making the lagging spatial governance system more responsive to the dynamically evolving spatial structure, it is imperative that urban policy recognises city-regions, such as the Accra City Region (ACR), and their diverse opportunities; plan for them through joint development planning boards; and foster natural coordination even among local planning authorities across different administrative regions. At the global scale, the research practically illustrates that alternative methodologies based on spatial mapping and GIS techniques could provide useful insights into the study of city-regions.

Unravelling the Frontiers of Urban Growth: Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Land-Use Change and Urban Expansion in Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana

“…This was further reinforced by the very high-speed expansion intensity index (i.e., 2.06), suggesting that urban expansion has been very rapid and intensive. This finding is somewhat similar to two previous studies [52,53]. Atlas of Urban Expansion [52] showed that the urban extent of Accra in 2014 was expanding at an average annual rate of 5.3%.…”

“…Atlas of Urban Expansion [52] showed that the urban extent of Accra in 2014 was expanding at an average annual rate of 5.3%. On the other hand, [53] found that Accra had undergone considerable urban expansion at an annual rate of 6%. Collectively, these rates can be said to be significantly high, most especially in comparison with Kumasi, Ghana's second largest urban region, which expanded at a rate of 4.5 % per annum [54].…”

A Comparison of Satellite-Based Estimates of Urban Agglomeration Size for the Accra Area

“…The results obtained by the analyzed studies can be further contextualized by references to a few other recent studies: Agyemang, Amedzro [16] reports the "contiguous built-up" areas of the city to be 245 km 2 in 1990 and 1050 km 2 in 2015 based on the analysis of Landsat-TM imagery. It is noted that the classification results for the two years were obtained separately, using different methods.…”

“…These definitions may serve a number of purposes, but they do not necessarily reflect the status of urban development. Agyemang et al [16] who provides an extensive account of the recent development of Accra notes that it has evolved into a city-region that, territorially, defies traditional administrative boundaries and identifies a "gap between the rapidly emerging spatial structure of Accra and the operational governance framework". Similarly, Gaisie et al [7] notes that recognizing the Accra city-region based on its spatial structure rather than through political boundary delimitations has many advantages for urban planning and management.…”

“…Currently, a number of studies have presented city-wide land-cover maps of Accra based on medium-and high-resolution images (see [14][15][16][17][18] for recent examples). So far only a few studies have analyzed the challenges of comparing the maps resulting from different remote sensing-based studies.…”