The evolution of built-up areas in Ghana since 1975
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Marcel Fafchamps, Stanford University; Forhad Shilpi, World Bank
Version: View help for Version V1
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application/pdf | 119.1 KB | 04/23/2021 05:00:AM |
Project Citation:
Fafchamps, Marcel, and Shilpi, Forhad. The evolution of built-up areas in Ghana since 1975. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-04-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/E138201V1
Project Description
Summary:
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We use high resolution satellite data on the proportion of buildings
in a 250x250 meter cell to study the evolution of human settlement
in Ghana over a 40 year period. We find a strong increase in built-up
area over time, mostly concentrated in the vicinity of roads, and
also directly on the coast. We find strong evidence of agglomeration
effects both in the static sense -- buildup in one cell predicts
buildup in a nearby cell -- and in a dynamic sense -- buildup in
a cell predicts buildup in that cell later on and an increase in buildup
in nearby cells. These effects are strongest over a 3 to 15 Km radius,
which corresponds to a natural hinterland for a population without
mechanized transportation. We find no evidence that human settlements
are spaced more or less equally either over the landscape or along
roads. This suggests that arable land is not yet fully utilized, allowing
rural settlements to be separated by areas of un-farmed land. By fitting
a transition matrix to the data, we predict a sharp increase in the
proportion of the country that is densely built-up by the middle and
the end of the century, but no increase in the proportion of partially
built-up locations.
Funding Sources:
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World Bank
Scope of Project
Geographic Coverage:
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Ghana
Time Period(s):
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1975 – 2014
Data Type(s):
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geographic information system (GIS) data;
other
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