Land is increasingly becoming a scarce resource and the competition for land among different uses is becoming acute and is most apparent on the peri-urban fringe, where the continuing pressures of urban expansion compete with agricultural enterprises, and with recreational demands.
The rapidly growing population also forced people to possess land in the inhabited areas for settlement. Such situations frequently lead to rapid increases in the economic value of land and conflicts related to this competition become more frequent and more complex, quickly becoming an important political issue. The apparent and growing global warming and climate change also forced people to find better land viable for crop production with sufficient water availability.
Urban planners indicated that, poorly planned and unregulated urbanization and infrastructure development is expanding posing a big threat to the land use system even though Ethiopia at 20% is relatively non-urbanized compared to the average of 30% for Sub-Saharan Africa. But this is bound to change dramatically in the near future. With an estimated annual growth rate of 5.4 percent, the urban population of the country will triple by 2028. This would entail an unprecedented growth in demand for urban land.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the change towards urbanization is inevitable as the country industrializes and urban centers become hubs for factories, trade, financial and other social services and center of innovation.
However, the type of land use change experienced so far does not seem to follow a well-thought out land use and urban development master plan. It is common to see urban centers and industries expanding to wetlands, grasslands and fertile agricultural lands. A study that analyzed land use changes between 1986 and 2010 showed that about 82 km 2 along the five major development axis starting from Addis Ababa and ending on major regional or provincial towns showed the expansion of urban areas by 193%; other built-up areas by 384%. On the contrary, forests decreased by -14%, bush by -44%, shrub lands by -66%, and grassland including wetlands by -48%.
The change detection analysis of study shows that the expansion of urban centers, industries and agro-industries are mainly on cultivated lands, grasslands, wetlands and vegetation areas (forest, bush, shrub lands). While the Addis Ababa, Dukem, Bishoftu axis is a good example of urban centers and industries expanding into fertile cultivated lands, Sululta town's case is a good example of indiscriminate expansion of urban centers and industries into grasslands and wetlands.
Such expansion could have been best done towards bare lands and agriculturally unsuitable areas such as hills and undulating areas could have been selected for urban expansion avoiding incursion into ecologically sensitive and highly productive areas such as grasslands, wetlands and forest areas. The study clearly shows that potential based development principle and a well-thought land use master plan have not been guiding the observed urban expansion.
As indicated in the nation 10 years perspective economic plan, the country envisions rapid industrial and urban development. The plan calls for the transformation of productive sectors, integrated infrastructure development, and proactive management of rapid urbanization. Therefore, many of the targets will require substantial amounts of land.
This rapid urbanization with unregulated land use conversion is not desirable in the absence of proper planning and management that could ensure economic land utilization and maximize land use intensity. In the absence of proper and integrated management interventions to counter land degradation, rural livelihood would diminish and increase the number of households below the poverty line.
According to the World Habitat, the identification of urban development prioritizes towards socially and economically equitable and environmentally friendly urban and national development.
Guidance on the future development of the national urban system and its spatial configuration concretized through national and regional spatial plans for territorial development.
Better coordination and guidance of actions by national actors, as well as lower levels of government in all sectors comprises various stakeholders and pertinent institutions.
It also regarded the vitality of increased and more coordinated private and public investments in urban development and consequent improvement of cities' productivity, inclusiveness and environmental conditions.
Nevertheless currently the challenges of urban land use in the country are exacerbated by unplanned, rapid and uncoordinated use of the land and its resources management, rapid urbanization, Fast encroachment of agriculture into pastoral, forest, wetlands and natural conservation areas without policy directions and plans, encroachment of plantations into prime lands and water sources and unplanned establishment of west disposal sites mainly in urban areas and their surroundings.
In addition, excessive rural urban migration because of various factors including the search for better opportunity in the urban centers, scarcity of farmland and displacement put pressure on the areas and posed illegal settlement and the expansion of slum areas with poor sanitation services.
As the result, the residential places has become shanty and environmentally unfriendly.
Study proved that, most urban centers have been and are being developed without proper zoning for residential, commercial, industrial, social and green area and recreational sites. Restaurants, bars, and merchandise are flourishing in residential areas and around schools using buildings originally built for residential purposes. Cottage industries such as mills, edible oil pressing, dairy and spice processing facilities are found in the midst of residential areas polluting the area and posing inconvenience against the residents.
Most urban centers do not have master plans and even when they have, they are not adhered to. Decisions are made to change the plan, mostly converting reserved for green area to housing and commercial development.
Urban expansion in Ethiopia has mainly followed the direction of roads with unplanned and unguided haphazard construction of residential, commercial and industrial buildings. This practice promotes rivalry and uneconomical competition for land use rather than encouraging complementarity and synergy. A smart city or township development strategy which promotes self-sufficient sub system development that attempts to incorporate and localize all the basic urban functions (housing, jobs, services and recreation) in every locality in an integrated manner, should be promoted. Substandard building materials and technology were used to build houses, often leading to the development of informal settlements that have a low level of infrastructure, social services and poor housing conditions, necessitating urban renewal. Where urban growth has been planned, it has not been participatory by residents of the cities and towns and their surrounding areas. Major cities have been expanding by extending their boundaries to incorporate the neighboring satellite towns rather than co-planning the development of people.
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Infrastructure includes road, railway lines, high voltage power transmission, dams, and other service facilities such as places of worship, university and college campuses, hospitals and clinics, markets, sports stadium, storage facilities, parks. These infrastructure facilities are needed to enhance both social and economic development. The effort being applied by the government on this issue since the last 15 years is commendable. However, these developments were not sensitive to land use hotspot areas like other developments mentioned above. Many of them affected wetlands, fertile cultivated lands, grasslands, forestlands and protected areas. With some innovation in design and additional cost, it would have been possible to protect such land uses systems from being affected by development of infrastructure.
The Ethiopian public needs to be aware of its rights of land use and the obligations that come with it and the processes and procedures of land use right registration, land management, valuation etc. It should also be informed and educated on appropriate and prudent sustainable land use practices so that it will be part of the solution rather than the problem. Implementation of a proactive public awareness and information strategy throughout the formulation of the land use policy and its implementing laws as well individual and collective participation in its implementation is crucial for success.
