Urban Growth and Front Development on Risk Zones: GIS Application for Mapping of Impacts on Yaounde North Western Highlands, Cameroon

Abstract

African cities today are confronted with the problem of rapid urbanisation, poverty and land use abuse. Yaounde, the political capital of Cameroon is a victim of this situation. Faced with population growth, competition, pressure and high cost of land in the heart of the city, populations involved in informal services for survival have been displaced by the Yaounde city council and ministry of Housing and Urban Development responsible for urban planning. These victims, many of whom are poor and vulnerable, have occupied marginal and suburban areas, some of which are risk prone environments. Mbankolo, Febe, Carrier, Nkolbisson and Messa areas amongst other in the north west of Yaounde are victims of this spontaneous land occupation characterised by urban front development. The victims comprising poor urban dwellers are dominated by migrants from western Cameroon and other regions of the country that have resisted returning to their place of origin. Urban disorder and land use abuse marked by uncontrolled deforestation, wetland occupation and soil degradation for settlement, agriculture and commerce is high in the newly occupied zones necessitating research and measures to pre-empt future disaster in this area. Faced with the volume of data to handle, this work exploits Geographic Information System techniques to map out this phenomenon in Cameroon for decision-making. The data exploited are sourced from field observations and surveys, analysis of remotely sensed data (satellite images of different periods, GPS data) and consultation of administrative and scientific documents (topographic maps, articles and reports) published on the area of research.