Publication: The Evolution of Built-up Areas in Ghana since 1975
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2020-07
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2020-07-06
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This paper uses high-resolution satellite data on the proportion of buildings in a 250x250 meter cell to study the evolution of human settlement in Ghana over a 40-year period. The analysis finds a strong increase in built-up area over time, mostly concentrated in the vicinity of roads, and also directly on the coast. There is strong evidence of agglomeration effects in the static sense -- buildup in one cell predicts buildup in a nearby cell -- and in a dynamic sense -- buildup in a cell predicts buildup in that cell later on, and an increase in buildup in nearby cells. These effects are strongest over a radius of 3 to 15 kilometers. No evidence is found that human settlements are spaced more or less equally over the landscape or along roads. By fitting a transition matrix to the data, this paper predicts a sharp increase in the proportion of the country that is densely built-up by the middle and end of the century, but there is no increase in the proportion of partially built-up locations.
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“Fafchamps, Marcel; Shilpi, Forhad. 2020. The Evolution of Built-up Areas in Ghana since 1975. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9314. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34029 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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