Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns

Ally Hassan Namangaya

doi:doi:10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns

Ally Hassan Namangaya

Published in Urban and Regional Planning (Volume 4, Issue 2)

Received: 26 April 2019 Accepted: 9 July 2019 Published: 19 July 2019

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Abstract

The largest share of urbanisation in Sub Saharan Africa is taking place in settlements that are smaller than cities. However, these small urban settlements are conceptually neglected and mostly mistheorised as overriding land governance concepts and institutional procedures were designed for large urban centres or the extreme opposite, villages. As a result, there is either a total lack of specific policies on small urban centres or the policies are designed wrongly thus contributing to challenges of informality, poor servicing and environment degradations. This paper, using the Tanzanian case, is an attempt to contribute in understanding the dynamics of small towns through establishing the population thresholds that can appropriately be classified as small towns and the factors driving their growth. The study analyses census data spatially using geographical information system and statistical software. The results indicate that the typical size of small towns where polarisation forces still gravitate towards the town has a number of people between 10,000 and 50,000 people with population density at the core of the settlements ranging from 40 to 120 people per hectare. The major factors for the development are the presence of economic activities that have value addition options contributing to off-farm employment, and the typical radius of its hinterland for each small town is about a one hour drive. As the number of small towns continues to grow in Sub Saharan Africa due to continued polarisation forces, policies and interventions for the management of small have to be pre-emptive and anticipatory.

Published in	Urban and Regional Planning (Volume 4, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
Page(s)	67-78
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Small Towns, Tanzania, Urban Planning, Urban Population Growth

References

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APA Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. (2019). Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban and Regional Planning, 4(2), 67-78. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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ACS Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban Reg. Plan. 2019, 4(2), 67-78. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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AMA Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban Reg Plan. 2019;4(2):67-78. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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@article{10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13,
  author = {Ally Hassan Namangaya},
  title = {Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns},
  journal = {Urban and Regional Planning},
  volume = {4},
  number = {2},
  pages = {67-78},
  doi = {10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.urp.20190402.13},
  abstract = {The largest share of urbanisation in Sub Saharan Africa is taking place in settlements that are smaller than cities. However, these small urban settlements are conceptually neglected and mostly mistheorised as overriding land governance concepts and institutional procedures were designed for large urban centres or the extreme opposite, villages. As a result, there is either a total lack of specific policies on small urban centres or the policies are designed wrongly thus contributing to challenges of informality, poor servicing and environment degradations. This paper, using the Tanzanian case, is an attempt to contribute in understanding the dynamics of small towns through establishing the population thresholds that can appropriately be classified as small towns and the factors driving their growth. The study analyses census data spatially using geographical information system and statistical software. The results indicate that the typical size of small towns where polarisation forces still gravitate towards the town has a number of people between 10,000 and 50,000 people with population density at the core of the settlements ranging from 40 to 120 people per hectare. The major factors for the development are the presence of economic activities that have value addition options contributing to off-farm employment, and the typical radius of its hinterland for each small town is about a one hour drive. As the number of small towns continues to grow in Sub Saharan Africa due to continued polarisation forces, policies and interventions for the management of small have to be pre-emptive and anticipatory.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns
AU  - Ally Hassan Namangaya
Y1  - 2019/07/19
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
T2  - Urban and Regional Planning
JF  - Urban and Regional Planning
JO  - Urban and Regional Planning
SP  - 67
EP  - 78
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1697
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
AB  - The largest share of urbanisation in Sub Saharan Africa is taking place in settlements that are smaller than cities. However, these small urban settlements are conceptually neglected and mostly mistheorised as overriding land governance concepts and institutional procedures were designed for large urban centres or the extreme opposite, villages. As a result, there is either a total lack of specific policies on small urban centres or the policies are designed wrongly thus contributing to challenges of informality, poor servicing and environment degradations. This paper, using the Tanzanian case, is an attempt to contribute in understanding the dynamics of small towns through establishing the population thresholds that can appropriately be classified as small towns and the factors driving their growth. The study analyses census data spatially using geographical information system and statistical software. The results indicate that the typical size of small towns where polarisation forces still gravitate towards the town has a number of people between 10,000 and 50,000 people with population density at the core of the settlements ranging from 40 to 120 people per hectare. The major factors for the development are the presence of economic activities that have value addition options contributing to off-farm employment, and the typical radius of its hinterland for each small town is about a one hour drive. As the number of small towns continues to grow in Sub Saharan Africa due to continued polarisation forces, policies and interventions for the management of small have to be pre-emptive and anticipatory.
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Ally Hassan Namangaya

School of Spatial Planning and Social Sciences, Ardhi University, Dares Salaam, Tanzania

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. (2019). Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban and Regional Planning, 4(2), 67-78. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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ACS Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban Reg. Plan. 2019, 4(2), 67-78. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

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AMA Style

Ally Hassan Namangaya. Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns. Urban Reg Plan. 2019;4(2):67-78. doi: 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13,
  author = {Ally Hassan Namangaya},
  title = {Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns},
  journal = {Urban and Regional Planning},
  volume = {4},
  number = {2},
  pages = {67-78},
  doi = {10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.urp.20190402.13},
  abstract = {The largest share of urbanisation in Sub Saharan Africa is taking place in settlements that are smaller than cities. However, these small urban settlements are conceptually neglected and mostly mistheorised as overriding land governance concepts and institutional procedures were designed for large urban centres or the extreme opposite, villages. As a result, there is either a total lack of specific policies on small urban centres or the policies are designed wrongly thus contributing to challenges of informality, poor servicing and environment degradations. This paper, using the Tanzanian case, is an attempt to contribute in understanding the dynamics of small towns through establishing the population thresholds that can appropriately be classified as small towns and the factors driving their growth. The study analyses census data spatially using geographical information system and statistical software. The results indicate that the typical size of small towns where polarisation forces still gravitate towards the town has a number of people between 10,000 and 50,000 people with population density at the core of the settlements ranging from 40 to 120 people per hectare. The major factors for the development are the presence of economic activities that have value addition options contributing to off-farm employment, and the typical radius of its hinterland for each small town is about a one hour drive. As the number of small towns continues to grow in Sub Saharan Africa due to continued polarisation forces, policies and interventions for the management of small have to be pre-emptive and anticipatory.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Determinants of Population Growth Trends for Tanzanian Small Towns
AU  - Ally Hassan Namangaya
Y1  - 2019/07/19
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
T2  - Urban and Regional Planning
JF  - Urban and Regional Planning
JO  - Urban and Regional Planning
SP  - 67
EP  - 78
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1697
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.urp.20190402.13
AB  - The largest share of urbanisation in Sub Saharan Africa is taking place in settlements that are smaller than cities. However, these small urban settlements are conceptually neglected and mostly mistheorised as overriding land governance concepts and institutional procedures were designed for large urban centres or the extreme opposite, villages. As a result, there is either a total lack of specific policies on small urban centres or the policies are designed wrongly thus contributing to challenges of informality, poor servicing and environment degradations. This paper, using the Tanzanian case, is an attempt to contribute in understanding the dynamics of small towns through establishing the population thresholds that can appropriately be classified as small towns and the factors driving their growth. The study analyses census data spatially using geographical information system and statistical software. The results indicate that the typical size of small towns where polarisation forces still gravitate towards the town has a number of people between 10,000 and 50,000 people with population density at the core of the settlements ranging from 40 to 120 people per hectare. The major factors for the development are the presence of economic activities that have value addition options contributing to off-farm employment, and the typical radius of its hinterland for each small town is about a one hour drive. As the number of small towns continues to grow in Sub Saharan Africa due to continued polarisation forces, policies and interventions for the management of small have to be pre-emptive and anticipatory.
VL  - 4
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download