The Evolution of Built-up Areas in Ghana since 1975

Marcel Fafchamps and Forhad Shilpi

No 9314, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Hydrology; Transport Services; Food Security; International Trade and Trade Rules (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9314

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