Sustainable Urbanism in Nyeri Town, Kenya
Abstract
3 out of 10 people in mid-20th Century lived in urban centers, while today, half of the
World’s population lives in urban areas. All developing regions, including Asia and
Africa, will have more people living in urban areas than those in rural areas by 2030,
with the tipping point in Eastern Africa anticipated slightly after 2050 (UNHABITAT,
2010). Locally, 1 out of every 3 Kenyans, live in an urban center and
according to the vision 2030, the level of urbanization in Kenya would have reached
44.5% with this percentage set to reach 54% by the year 2030 - the world is
inexorably becoming urban.
Urban centers have long been considered as centers of innovation, industrialization,
commerce, science and technology, and culture with urbanization being continuously
touted as a positive and necessary force for transformation for the world’s nations.
However, Kenya’s urban development; as evidenced by growth in unplanned
settlements in urban areas, urban sprawl, peripherization, congestion coupled with
property development in excess of the carrying capacity of available infrastructure;
indicates failure of existing urban development strategies, as reported by (Kimani,
M. and Musungu, T., 2010)
As a counterweight to these negative possibilities, urban sustainability strategies
have insistently been suggested at the international and national level as the best
approach to guide the present and future growth of urban areas (Rodriguez, R.S and
Bonilla A, ED, 2007).
Sustainable urbanism is one such strategy for urban sustainability.
This thesis studies the current state of urbanisation in Nyeri Town, against the
elements of sustainable urbanism, converted into 5 sets of sustainable urbanism
indicators (SUI) and makes observations and recommendations of strategies to steer
Nyeri town into a sustainable urban future.
Publisher
University Of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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