Dadaab:
Suitability assessment for Metropolis Expansion
Objective: - Assess probable locations for iterative growth of existing and future camp sites that could strategically sustain the capacity to become an autonomous metropolis within Kenya serving 500,000 multinational camp inhabitants.
- Triangulate the proximity to key natural resources, geographic features, and man made features (roads, urban areas) to gain a geographical understanding of Kenya that could facilitate growth without disrupting existing conditions.
Background Following the internal conflict in Somalia the functioning central government was overthrown. This disruption caused tens of thousands Somali residents to flee to neighboring countries. Responding to the mass migration the UNCHR established the Dadaab refugee camp as a temporary settlement for displaced. The camp was designed to accommodate roughly 90,000 people, today over 500,000 thousand people call Dadaab home. Captured within that number is 400,000 Somali refugees, many of which are second and third generation camp inhabitants. Due to the vulnerability of drought, famine, and ongoing conflicts the camp continues to grow. As residents have adapted to camp conditions complex networks of commerce, education, and recreation have developed to become apart of everyday life.
How do you create a city that was never meant to be?? Some questions Asked: Where will it be located? Is there access to water? How much resources will be needed to sustain 500,000 people? Is it accessible to existing urban environments? Can it support industry? What kinds of industry? How do you provide the necessary infrastructure? How do you facilitate health care?
Situating Kenya:
Data Capture: Determining Natural Features
Identifying Kenya’s natural capital was priority as compromising existing resources by introducing an additional .5 million people into the ecosystem is an actual threat. Dadabb camp is semi-isolated at the eastern point of Kenya near Somalia.
Natural Features &
dadaab_camp Protected Area Bare Areas Water Source County
& & &&
Determining Slope
& & & &
Legend
Grade recognition was important in attempting to triangulate alternative locations for camp expansion as Kenya is home to several nature preserves and instances of intermittent flooding in low lying areas.
& dadaab_camp LCType.tif Value 0 - 3.2 3.200000001 - 6.4 6.400000001 - 9.6 9.600000001 - 12.8 12.80000001 - 16
Data Capture: Determining Natural Resources
& & &&
Charcoal Sources Bio-mass sqft &
dadaab_camp
Data Capture: Determining Man Made Features
The superimposition of man made behavior was integral in establishing a baseline for expansion sites. This provided the opportunity to identify existing networks of people and assumed developed infrastructure to access . & & &&
Legend Urban centers Electrical Transmission Network Major Roads
Data Capture: Proximity Analysis
Data Capture: Proximity Analysis
Joining identified features individually to the Dadaab camp file generated rich contextual information of age, country origin, sex, and population by country origin. Creating buffers that reflected comfortable distance form all identified features was assessed using class previous class exercises and objective distance mapping in order to not complicate the data.
Data Capture: Determining Human Capital
dadaab_camp
Population Distribution Total 0 - 240000 240000- 700000
Population by Camp 1702 - 52406 52407 - 133610 133611 - 152022
In conjunction with urban features and recognizing existing networks, population centers were equally important, based on the data provided by the Kenyan government Dadaab camp is treated as an urban condition. The next step was identifying additional urban population clusters, specifically in the proposal of financial markets that could possibly be integrated into the camp economy which is supported through public/private donations, informal and formal commerce, and remittances.
700000 - 1000000 1000000 - 1700000 1700000 - 3000000
Data Capture: Determining Human Capital Population by Country
Population by Country
dadaab_camp
dadaab_camp
Eritrean
Ethiopian
# # # # #
0-5 6 - 53 54 - 56 57 - 626
# # # # #
627 - 3665
#
51888 - 122762 122763 - 132460 132461 - 141755
2595 - 5150 5151 - 9086
# # # # #
9087 - 137171
#
Sudanese
Somali 18082 - 51887
519 - 2594
dadaab_camp
dadaab_camp 2 - 18081
0 - 518
Population by Country
Population by Country
# # # # #
# # # # #
# # # # #
#
# # # # #
0 - 71 72 - 864 865 - 911 912 - 931 932 - 36756
# # # # #
#
Results: Identifying alternative sites of growth for Dadaab presented sparse locations that were not analogous to initial assumptions
Sources:
/https://opendata.go.ke /http://data.unhcr.org/portfolio/tag/portal /http://www.naturalearthdata.com http://www.wri.org/resources/data-sets/kenya-gis-data http://www.ifpri.org/dataset/Kenya