Assessment of the growth patterns to aid planning of Hoima City, Uganda.

Abstract

Urbanization in Uganda’s cities has increased significantly over the past 5 decades with no sign of slowing down, and this could be the most powerful and visible anthropogenic force that has brought about fundamental changes in urban land cover patterns. Rapid urbanization is economically good through both increased local government revenues and improved land markets. However, if not properly monitored, managed and planned for, it could result into enormous challenges associated with poorly managed urban growth. To effectively manage and control urbanization, one needs to understand patterns of urban development. The Urban planning models being implemented apply strict land-use development control mechanisms like zoning regulations and building permits that have of recent been criticized for being ineffective and counter-productive towards sustainable urban development. These have led to growth of urban sprawl & informal settlements in the urban fringes. Therefore, planners need to shift from master planning and use of urban development tools to strategic spatial planning which requires comprehensive knowledge of spatial growth patterns of urban areas. In that regard, this study assessed the spatial-temporal patterns of Hoima city`s urban growth and quantified the spatial patterns of urban cover using Shannon entropy, urban sprawl matrix and map density. Results indicate that Kahoora zone is the center of urbanization in the city, which was the most urbanized in the year 2002 with 9.13%, 21.78% in 2011, 37.55% in 2022 and expected to be at 40.71% in the year 2032. Urbanization is continuously spreading to other zones following the transportation lines.