On the Impact of Urban Planning of Informal Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa Johan Mottelson Pending publication Abstract In Sub-Saharan Africa, the urban majorities reside in informal settlements. Lack of knowledge on the spatial and socioeconomic impact of urban planning on informal settlements compromises the basis for policy and decision making. This study compares the urban form of three centrally located unplanned informal settlements with three adjacent planned informal settlements in Maputo, Mozambique in order to assess the long-term impact of urban planning on the urban form of informal settlements. The study includes field interviews on household conditions in each of the six cases in order to assess the relationship between the structure of the urban fabric and socio-economic conditions in informal settlements. The study found higher built densities, higher public space ratio, higher average street width, and a higher proportion of tenants in all three planned areas compared to the three unplanned areas. Accordingly, the study suggests that urban planning has a significant long-term impact on the urban form of informal settlements despite the lack of state control of the urban development. The study argues that planned urban areas are seen as more desirable which offsets the market value of land in these areas and leads to shifts in the socio-economic conditions of the residents. The study argues that this dynamic partially accounts for the higher proportion of tenants and the higher built densities found in the planned case study areas. The study argues that smaller plot sizes and more simple plot geometries may further explain the higher built densities in the planned case study areas. The study found urban form variations within the three planned areas which are suggested local governance practices account for. The study argues that urban management capacities should be strengthened in the local neighbourhood administrative systems in order to counter issues with street encroachment and thereby enhance the feasibility of future infrastructure investments. Keywords: urban form, urban morphology, urban planning, informal settlements, Sub-Saharan Africa, Maputo, Mozambique Introduction Most of the ongoing extensive urban growth in East Africa occurs beyond the limits of state control and regulatory systems (UN-Habitat, 2020). The urban majority in the region resides in informal settlements typified by construction without formal permits and lack of formal land titles (UNHabitat, 2020; OECD, 2008). The proliferation of informal urban development will likely continue in the coming decades due to high rates of urbanisation, high fertility rates, poor urban majorities, and limited state capacity to administer the urban growth (Jenkins & Mottelson, 2020). Lack of knowledge on the formation and development of informal settlements limits the capacity to develop effective policy and urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa (UN-Habitat, 2013). However, limited studies have investigated the urban
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form of informal settlements despite that spatial factors and urban form indicators such as inadequate access conditions, inefficient use of space, high level of building coverage, and limited public space are linked to common urban deficiencies in informal settlements (Mottelson & Venerandi, 2020). Inadequate urban planning compromises sustainable development in many urban centres in sub-Saharan Africa (Hove et al., 2013). However, the long-term spatial impact of urban planning in informal settlements remains understudied. This study provides a comparative analysis of the urban form of adjacent planned and unplanned informal settlements in Maputo, Mozambique in order to enhance the knowledge on the long-term spatial impact of urban planning on informal settlements and thereby improve the basis for assessing the impact of urban planning in contexts characterized by informal urban development. Urban Morphology Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements with the aim of describing their spatial structures and understanding the process of their development (Moudon, 1997). Muratori (1959) argues that the structure of a city is understood historically focusing on the diachronic processes of transformations through the ‘operative history’. Furthermore, Muratori introduces a classification of building typology and adjacent open spaces as the basis of understanding of the development of the city (Moudon, 1994). Conzen (1960) defines a town plan as a topographical arrangement of street-systems comprised of streets, street-blocks comprised of plots, and block-plans comprised of buildings. In addition, Conzen introduces a methodology for town-plan analysis focusing on the development of the formative processes of the pattern of streets, the pattern of building forms, and pattern of land use in order to gain an understanding of the socio-economic formative conditions of the development of the city. Hillier and Hanson (1984) use mathematical representation and analysis of street networks, which was later developed into a variety of algorithms and software applications for the analysis of urban form, such as Space Syntax (Hillier, 2007). Multiple methods for street network configuration analysis have emerged, such as node degree centrality, closeness, and betweenness (Porta et al., 2010). Node centrality degree measures the number of nodes that each node is connected to (the number of streets leading into each intersection) and measures the involvement of the node in the network (Opsahl et al., 2010). Closeness (integration in Space Syntax) is a measure of the number of transitions required from one street to reach all other streets in the network using the shortest paths (Vaughan, 2007). Betweenness is a measure of the number of times a node (street intersection) acts as a bridge along the shortest path between two other nodes (Porta et al., 2006). Correlation between street network configuration and human behaviour, such as frequency of crime, the intensity of commercial activities, and movement of people have been documented through the use of these applications (Scoppa & Peponis, 2015; Kim & Hipp, 2019; Hajrasouliha & Yin, 2015). However, configurational analysis does not account for other morphological aspects such as built-mass density thus limiting the scope of such methods
