Urban Expansion and its Effect on the Tenure Security of Peri-Urban Landholders in Ethiopia

This study aims to assess the degree, rate, and direction of Robe Town's spatial expansion to the surrounding rural kebeles (the lowest level of administrative structure in Ethiopia) and its consequent influence on the tenure security of the peri-urban landholders. 202 sampled household heads provided socioeconomic data, while Landsat images from 1987, 2002, and 2020 provided spatial data. The findings revealed that between 1984 and 1994, 1994 and 2007, and 2007 and 2020, the town grew annually by 18.6%, 11.3%, and 9.3%, respectively. The area increased from 5.1 km2 in 1984 to 80.2 km2 in 2020, and the entire area increased by 40.9%. Over the past 33 years, the built-up area has expanded most rapidly in a southerly direction, at a distance of 9.91 kilometers from the town's mean center. Subsequently, the built-up area grew from 4.38 km2 in 1987 to 27.9 km2 in 2020. Therefore, in 33 years, around 10.2 km2 of farmland had become a built-up area (1987–2020). Such dynamicity of land use conversion consumes the peri-urban agricultural lands. At the peri-urban areas of Robe town 48.9% of the land owners lost around half of their farmland. In turn, this makes peri-urban landowners feel insecure about their tenure due to fear of eviction and expropriation at minimal cost. Therefore, in order to have excess land in the urban land bank and to meet the rising demand for housing, the town administration needs to incorporate peri-urban open spaces into urban jurisdiction with fair compensation.