Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa

Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa provides a variety of conventional and emerging theoretical frameworks to inform understandings and responses to critical urban development issues such as urbanisation, climate change, housing/slum, informality, urban sprawl, urban ecosystem services and urban poverty, among others, within the context of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa.

This book addresses topics including challenges to spatial urban development, how spatial planning is delivered, how different urbanisation variables influence the development of different forms of urban systems and settlements in Africa, how city authorities could use old and new methods of land administration to produce sustainable urban spaces in Africa, and the role of local activism is causing important changes in the built environment. Chapters are written by a diverse range of African scholars and practitioners in urban planning and policy design, environmental science and policy, sociology, agriculture, natural resources management, environmental law, and politics.

Urban Africa has huge resource potential – both human and natural resources – that can stimulate sustainable development when effectively harnessed. Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa provides support for the SDGs in urban Africa and will be of interest to students and researchers, professionals and policymakers, and readers of urban studies, spatial planning, geography, governance, and other social sciences.

Table of Contents

Part I: Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations

1. Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa: Concepts, Practices and Prospects (Patrick Brandful Cobbinah and Michael Addaney)

2. Deconstructing Africa’s Urban Space: Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning Challenge (Patrick Brandful Cobbinah, Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie, and Marita Basson)

3. Tradition Meets Modernity: Creation of Sustainable Urban Spaces in Africa (Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai Akanbang, Millicent Awialie Akaateba, and Prosper Issahaku Korah)

4. Local Activism and Climate Action in Africa: Protecting the Environment as a Social Justice Imperative (Luckymore Matenga)

5. Memories of Futures–Past and Visions of Future–Futures: An Architecture-to-Backcasting Metaphor Approach Towards Sustainable City Transitioning in Africa (Vipua Rukambe And Daniel Irurah)

Part II: Land Use and Ecological Integrity

6. Towards Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development: Rethinking Stormwater Management in Sub-Saharan African Cities (Desmond Ofosu Anim, Eric Gaisie, and Abena Boatemaa Asare-Ansah)

7. Monitoring changing land use-land cover change to reflect the impact of urbanisation on environmental assets in Durban, South Africa (Bahle Mazeka, Kwanele Phinzi, and Catherine Sutherland)

8. Informal Greenspaces in Peripheral Luanda, Angola: Benefits and Challenges (Euridice Lurdes Jorge Pedrosa, Seth Asare Okyere, Stephen Kofi Diko, and Michihiro Kita)

9. Collaborative Spatial Expressions of Sustainability: River Rehabilitation Projects in Durban, South Africa (Patrick Martel, Catherine Sutherland, Sylvia Hannan, and Fanele Magwaza)

10. Regulation of Physical Development in Ghana: Systems and Practices (Michael Addaney, Seth Opoku Mensah, and Florence Abugtane Avogo)

11. Spatial Expression of Climate Change in Rapidly Urbanising City of Tamale, Ghana (Enoch Akwasi Kosoe, Patrick Brandful Cobbinah, and Joseph Nyaaba Akongbangre)

12. Planning for Sustainable Metro Express in Mauritius (Roopanand Mahadew, Michael Addaney, and Patrick Brandful Cobbinah)

Part III: Urban Informality, Regeneration and Tenure Security

13. Situating Everyday Urban Struggles within the Context of the SDGs in an Informal Settlement in Accra, Ghana (Seth Asare Okyere, Louis Kusi Frimpong, Stephen Kofi Diko, Matthew Abunyewah, and Michihiro Kita)

14. Connecting solid waste management to sustainable urban development in Africa (Enoch Akwasi Kosoe, Issaka Kanton Osumanu, and Francis Diawuo Darko)

15. Urban Informality and Flexible Land Tenure Arrangements in Namibia: Lessons and Insights (Kennedy Kariseb, and Ivone Tjilale)

16. The Shifting Sanitation Landscapes Through the Lens of Governmentality in Durban, South Africa (Anthony Odili, and Catherine Sutherland)

17. Transforming Urban Informal Settlements in Kenya through Adaptive Spatial Planning and Tenure Regularisation (Collins Odote, and Philip Olale)