Journal de génie civil et environnemental

Impact of Urban Expansion on Livelihood of Urban Fringe Agricultural Community: A Case of Ambo Town, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Taso Banja* and Gadisa Chimdesa

To investigate the spatio-temporal expansion of the town and its impact on the livelihood of urban fringe agricultural community, the study was made on land transformation analysis in between 1984 and 2015. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of urban expansion on livelihood of urban fringe of Ambo town as a result of land use change in pre urban area of the town. The 1984 and 2011 administrative boundary maps of the town were used to analyze the extent of area expansion of the town. During this period the town was expanded from 1020.220 ha to 8421.75 ha indicating that the net expansion of the town over the study years was about 7351.1062 ha with about 237 ha increment yearly within 31 years. This boundary expansion of the town directly or indirectly affecting the livelihood of the urban fringe agricultural community of the town. Predominantly at the expense of croplands in the hinterlands, built-up area was increased from 307.44 ha (in 1984) to 913.05 (in 2015). Beside to this, the productive farmland of the urban fringe of the town was decreased from 6651.65 ha (in1984) to 5625.75 ha in 2015. Land cover transformation analysis in between 1984 and 2000 the built-up area expansion was contributed by 451.6675 ha and 60.75 ha conversion of cropland and vegetation area respectively while cropland and vegetation area was negatively affected by 176.085 and 173.9703 ha respectively from its previous area coverage. A household survey was conducted on 146 households with different demographic composition through systematic and purposive sampling techniques. The data were collected from both primary and secondary data sources and analyzed using descriptive statistics and had arrived at conclusion that horizontal urban expansion has adverse impact on livelihood of urban fringe farming community. The analyzed information also indicates that the possession assets and hence annual income of dislocated farmers were declined due to declining their asset possession they had. The evidence from the sampled house hold shown that the majority (82.90%) of household heads’ annual income was below 5000 ETB indicating that majority of the affected community’s livelihood is not beyond subsistence way of life. This indicated that the intervention of governmental and non-governmental organizations should be needed to support the dislocated households financially and technically to make sustainable life and adaptive strategies with the change occurred.