Proliferation of Dichotomy Urban Settlements Plight: Land Governance And Sustainable Built Environment In Tanzania

Abstract

The observation of the juxtaposition of formal and informal urban settlements in the commonwealth and sub-Saharan developing countries is been trending as a common mundane phenomenon in emerging and fast-growing cities. In Dar es Salaam for example, one of the largest, high-density, and populous businesses cities in Tanzania; dichotomy of informal and formal land rights is ubiquitous in peri-urban areas and its urban vicinities where land evolves from village to urban. The dichotomy of urban settlements occurs when the public authorities do not satisfactorily provide public services which are customarily attributed to poor governance and policies formulated to guide market forces, urban management, and growth. Different strategies and approaches have been applied by the government for at least providing proper infrastructure; however, most of the approaches are not well successful and deliver the expected results following high cost of implementation. To understand the spatial dynamics of urban typology, population density and land cover maps of Dar es Salaam were used to comprehend the developmental characteristics of Dar es Salaam urban land transformation and change detection of built-up area. According to the analysis of the maps, rapid urbanization and dramatical growth in built-up area especially between 1990-2000 years were easily observed.