Challenges and prospects to sustain natural and working landscapes in the urban areas in Ethiopia

Implications of overlooked drivers in Ethiopia's urbanization: curbing the curse of spontaneous urban development for future emerging towns

“…Sebeta town is located at latitude 8 ◦ 52′30″–8 ◦ 59′30″ North and longitude 38◦34′00″–38◦42′30″ East ( Terfa et al., 2020 ), and about 25 km away the southwestern fringe of Addis Ababa city ( Girma et al., 2019 ). It was selected as a study area because of its large boundary overlap with the capital city, and containing large natural environments affected by spontaneous urbanization ( Benti et al., 2021 ; Y. Girma et al., 2019 ; Gutema, 1997 ).…”

“…Due to its proximity to Addis Ababa, the Sebeta town is also become the home for many people who work in the capital ( Andualem, 2019 ) and the factors that triggered the development of the capital also contributed to the emergence of the Sebeta town ( Benti et al., 2021 ; Chaka, 2018 ; Girma et al., 2019 ; OWWDSE, 2011 ).…”

“…Urbanization also creates energy dependent society due to high standard of living and it is an indicator of energy-inefficient society ( Streimikiene et al., 2021 ), it usually expose peri-urban farmers to loss agricultural land as urban expansion changes land available for agriculture ( Ayele and Tarekegn, 2020 ). The best example of urbanization trends that contribute to unmanaged land use change specially to farm land is spontaneous development, which is a type of urban growth that leads to an increase in the number of urban patches and acts as a diffusion mechanism ( Benti et al., 2021 ; Tian et al., 2011 ).…”

“…In general, spontaneously emerging settlements in Ethiopia contributed to the random urban growth, and undesirable changes to the natural, agricultural and related landscapes ( Benti et al., 2021 ). In order to manage the growth of spontaneous settlements from their early stages and reduce their impacts on natural and working landscapes, the driving factors, particularly the spatial drivers behind their formation, were largely overlooked and mostly spoken by urban historians.…”

“…However, the factors that drive the formation of urban areas are a major issue in urban development, making proactive management approaches necessary ( Kantakumar et al., 2020 ). In addition, the previous studies show that identifying the driving factors for urban development help to predict future urbanization hotspots and direction of urban expansion ( Benti et al., 2021 ; X. Li et al., 2021 ).…”