Peri-Urban Settlement Essay

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK/LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Urban areas globally are expanding at an alarming rate due to a combination of factors such as population growth, economic growth and transformation, creation of new employment opportunities, improvement in transport infrastructure, outward spread of urban activities, as well as the decline of traditional rural economies. (Piorr et al., 2010)

In fact, OECD (1979) stated that: the economic growth and physical growth of urban areas are not confined within urban boundaries but spread into much wider areas surrounding urban centres creating peri-urban settlements. These newly emerging peri-urban settlements are the sites of the most dynamic changes which create an interface

Ravetz et al. (2013), supported the earlier arguments put forward by Garreau (1991) and further pointed out that: in older industrial or post-industrial countries, the peri-urban is a zone of social and economic change and spatial restructuring while in newer industrialising countries and most of the developing world, the peri-urban is often a zone of chaotic urbanization leading to sprawl. In other words, they linked peri-urban development in the developing world to urban sprawl and this was because peri-urbanization in the developing world is occurring amidst poor regulation and controls.

Furthermore, Hardoy et al. (2001) as cited by Ravetz et al. (2013) stated that the general process of urban expansion should not only be seen as a negative change but also as one with positive benefits.

Driving forces behind

The major factors underlying the development of peri-urban settlements in most parts of the developing world include the following;

1. Housing and land market failure and relatively affordable rent in the urban fringes

According to Lawanson et al. (2014) in their study of Lagos and Ibadan in Nigeria, the preference for the peri-urban areas for settlement and other commercial pursuits, is motivated by the fact that the fringes of most cities have some of the relatively affordable rent in comparison to that in the main cities or big towns