Assessing Urban Land Utilization Using Geographical Information System

Abstract

In all urban centers of the Tigray region, Ethiopia in general, there is inefficient urban land utilization. Inefficient buildable urban land development and management is manifested in the form of vacant, partially utilized and underutilized lands. Most of these lands are exposed to urban sprawl, squatting and land speculation. Moreover, there is inadequate infrastructure provision, under regulation, and shortage of buildable lands; speculation and tenure insecurity are the problems of urban land utilization. Urban land utilization in Mekelle city in general and AdiHaki Dejen area in particular, is inefficient land development and management, lack of infrastructure provision and under regulation. Therefore, the objective the study was to understand the causes and effects of partially utilized and underutilized lands which results in poor land utilization and development in AdiHaki Dejen area. To do so, the research started by assessing and analyzing the current status of urban land utilization using primary and secondary data sources. ArcGIS was used to analyze the BAR, ILVR, building height, and use change and proximity of linear infrastructure. Then, ArcGIS SQL was used to identify the partially utilized lands, and then Improvement to Land Value Ratio (ILR) was used to analyze the underutilized parcels. Similarly, the spatial proximity of physical infrastructure to the parcels was analyzed using ArcGIS. The study shows that there are 441 (509,233 m2) parcels with 202 m2 and above identified parcels as partially vacant lands, because of the existing structures on the parcels are small enough to divide or sub divided to hold one or more additional housing units. Moreover, 616 (419781 m2) parcels were underutilized parcels with their Improvement to Land Value Ratio (ILR) below ‘1’, leading to low property improvement to land value. This indicates low real property investment per capita and/or low land consumption per square meter of land. Generally, the study concludes that the main problems of the study area are inefficient land utilization and management, inadequate infrastructure provision and under regulation. This result were used as base line for urban planners, land use planners and managers to use the application of ArcGIS in urban land use planning and utilization for economically efficient land development and management. Keywords: Urban land utilization, partially utilized lands, underutilized lands, improvement land value and spatial analysis Cite this Article Vanum Govindu, Haftay Hailu G/Yohannes, Yechale Kebede Bizuneh. Assessing Urban Land Utilization Using Geographical Information System. Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS. 2019; 10(1): 9–23p.