Beskrivelse
This presentation illuminates how self-built housing economies are intertwinedwith environmentally harmful development practices and exacerbating flood risk. The presentation draws on insights from mixed-methods research conducted in 2019-2022 in Accra’s areas of recent urban expansion. Widespread encroachment on sensitive natural areas is part and parcel of ’peripheral urbanisation’ processes in Accra, where rising land values and dynamics of settlement consolidation create strong incentives to commercialize marginal land that may initially be perceived as unsuitable for construction. Wetlands, riparian zones and coastal lagoons are continuously transformed into land for development through drainage, landfilling, channelling of streams and construction of barriers. These environmentally harmful development practices occur in a wide range of neighbourhoods, which have attracted housebuilders from vastly different segments of the urban population. As such, nothing suggests that encroachment is associated with poverty and marginalisation or spatially concentrated in low-income areas. The persistent encroachment on sensitive natural areas is perceived as a primary cause of intensifying flood hazards. Flooding has become a recurrent hazard in the rainy season, where heavy rain events are frequent, the soil is often saturated from past rainfall and many streams carry significant water volumes. Heavy rain events are associated with inundation of low-lying road segments, retreat of public transport services and dirt roads transforming to slough, and causes widespread disruptions to everyday mobility of residents in peripheral neighbourhoods. Overall, the research calls for a stronger recognition of spatial planning in flood risk mitigation and highlights the urgent need to preserve space for water during rapid urban expansion processes.
| Periode | 5 mar. 2025 |
|---|---|
| Begivenhedstitel | LSE Housing Economies Workshop |
| Begivenhedstype | Seminar |
| Placering | London, StorbritannienVis på kort |