Biblio

This article discusses the structure and prevalence of land use in the urban space with a view to identifying similarities and dissimilarities in the two cities - Bahir Dar and Hawassa. From a theoretical standpoint, it is accepted fact that spatial occurrence of urban land uses is dependent on a host of factors including, among others, geographic location, topography, economic base, planning process and, often, the political philosophy of the country concerned. The basic research question addressed in this article is: how is the cities’ spatial form conditioned by the different categories of land uses and what do Bahir Dar and Hawassa have in common as far as land use is concerned? The data used for this article is secondary and of spatial nature. The trend indicator, i.e. increasing or decreasing, for the different land use categories in the two cities is analyzed based on trend analysis by linear regression. In the analysis, the correlation coefficient statistic is used to determine the strength level of the relationship between selected variables and the dependent variable, in this case ‘distance from the central business district, CBD. To that end, a close observation and careful analysis of the ten land use categories entailed in the current plans1 of the two cities is used as methodological input. The output from the linear trend/regression line graph for certain land use categories (administration, trade and commerce, road and transport) shows a general pattern of declining from the Central Business District area with distance in both Bahir Dar and Hawassa,although the rate of decline varies for both the land use categories and the cities. In contrast, land uses like manufacturing & storage, residential, special function show an increasing pattern from the centre with distance towards the periphery in both cities. The trend line pattern for service2 land use category is different for the two cities in that while prevalence increases with distance from the centre in Hawassa, it shows a declining pattern in Bahir Dar. In the case of forest land use, the trend in Hawassa is one of declining, whereas in Bahir Dar it is increasing. Again, the same variation is recognized in urban agriculture and recreational land uses both of which exhibit increasing and decreasing trends for Hawassa and Bahir Dar, respectively.