Status and Challenges of Urban Green Infrastructure Access in Rapidly Urbanizing Cities of Africa: the Case of Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia


 Background: Many studies have been conducted on the challenges underpinning the depletion and inaccessibility of urban green infrastructures (UGI) in cities of developed countries. Contrary to this, similar studies in rapidly urbanizing cities of Africa are scant. In this study, we assessed the status, accessibility and constraints of UGI in rapidly urbanizing city Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We first mapped and calculated the status of UGI from 2003 to 2016 based on the land use data in Arch GIS. We then analyzed UGI access such as recreational parks based on proximate and per capita green indicators by using the land use maps, road network and gridded population data. Finally, we examined the challenges behind the current states of UGI based on document review, expert interview and field observation. Results: Our study disclosed that the land use of UGI from 2003 to 2016 is decreased by 9.2%. The land use of urban agriculture decreased significantly (by 11.9%) followed by urban forest (by 3.7%). The accessibility indicators also revealed that the city residents have no sufficient recreational UGI. The city’s park per capita was very small (0.5m2) compared to Ethiopian UGI standards (15m2) and the large portion of the city’s population (above 90%) has no access to existing parks within the minimum walking distance thresholds. Expansion of built up environment, density, weak implementation of policies and plans, and lack of priority for UGI development were identified as the major constraints behind the current state of UGI in the city. Conclusion: we conclude that UGI is degrading and insufficiently accessible for the city residents due to weak enforcement of development plans, density, built up area expansion, and lack of priority for UGI. Thus, strict adherence to the development plans and regulations is of paramount importance to maintain UGI in the city. Moreover, developing small to median size parks in already proposed areas, new expansion and renewal parts of the city is vital to enhance recreational park access. We hope that this study serves as a benchmark for policy and planning to ensure accessible and adequate UGI in rapidly urbanizing city Addis Ababa and beyond.


Background
The world is becoming increasingly urban, and the number of population living in cities is also growing 2 rapidly. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNESA) forecasted that in 2030 3 more than 60% of the world's population would be living in cities (UNESA 2014). Currently, cities 4 occupy only 2.7% of the Earth's surface (UNESA 2014), but are responsible for 75% of total energy 5 consumption, 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and have generically had a harmful effect on natural 6 resources (Gret Regamey et al. 2013). In order to combat these urbanization imposed challenges urban 7 green infrastructures are becoming a popular strategy in different parts of the world. indicated that in sub-Saharan African countries, components of UGI are depleting at an alarming rate in 25 1

Fig. 2 A) Population density map, and B) Road network map of Addis Ababa city 2
As indicated by La Rosa (2014), accessibility is a broad term and is often "misused" and confused with 3 terms like "mobility". Academicians and urban researchers also widely recognized accessibility as a 4 complex multi-dimensional construct that is associated with both spatio-physical and socio-personal 5 factors. In our study, UPs access is objectively measured UPs accessibility (spatial accessibility) based on 6 quantitative standards, i.e. proximity indicator and park area per capita (Lahoti et al. 2019; Barbosa et al. 7 2007). The detail methodology for analyzing data in each indicator explained below. 8 Per capita green indicator: -For calculating the park per capita, the aggregate of UPs acreage available 9 for the city and each sub-city is calculated using "calculate geometry" tool in Arch GIS 10. Then per 10 capita park index was calculated based on city and each sub-city population. Equation 1 was used for 11 calculating per capita green index (Anguluri & Narayanan 2017). Where; GAirefer to the park area and SPi -is a population which enjoys services within the boundaries 14 of the sub-city i, APi-per-capita park index indicated the amount of parks available in a sub-city for every 15 inhabitant of the sub-city. 16 Whereas, to calculate the service area gap/deficit of UPs in the city equation 2 was used (Anguluri & 17 Narayanan 2017). 18 Where; GA g-shows a shortage area of the park , P-Population number of the region, N P-denotes the 2 international standard and A Pi -per-capita park index indicated the amount of parks available in a sub-city 3 for every inhabitant of the sub-city. 4 Proximity Indicator: -in addition to the per capita green indicator, this study used proximity indicator to 5 examine level of UPs access to the city population. It is the widely used indicator to assess the proportion 6 of the population having access and without access to UPs that was modelled in GIS using Euclidean or 7 network distance (Nicholls 2001 the difference the study produced the maps of park service area by using both techniques (Fig 5 & Fig 6). 25 The accessibility or proximity analysis begins with an evaluation of the general park service coverage on 1 a citywide and sub-city level using GIS. Then, the study estimated the population with potential urban 2 park access at the city and sub-city levels. As mentioned above, ArcGIS based Network Analyst's Service 3 Area Analysis tool was used to create a 400m and 800m walking distance service area (polygon) that 4 defines the spatial extent of each park access. An additional setting under the "multiple facilities option" 5 was also used to make each polygon discrete, not allowing the polygons to coincide. These separate, non-6 overlapping polygons are used to represent the service area for each park. Then the created service areas 7 of parks and point data of the city population were overlaid on top of each other to calculate park service 8 area, and total number of population lying inside and outside each service area. Thus, individuals located 9 within a service area were assumed to have better access and easily use that particular park daily than 10 people a bit farther away from a park (Sister et al. 2007). A high service population ratio means that 11 inhabitants of residential areas could benefit more, and a high service area ratio means greater 12 accessibility of UPs for inhabitants in residential areas. 13 The accessibility was calculated based on the following equations: first the ratio of the service area of 14 UPs within 400m and 800m walking distance was determined by equation (3). As this ratio applied the 15 population of neighborhood parks, the 'total impact area population' was calculated by equation 4, 16 Where; SAR is a service area ratio, PSA is a service area of parks, TA-is the total area of the city and PA 18 is parks area. 19 Where; AI is accessibility indicator, which measures the proportion of the urban population that lives 21 within the service area of UPs. NA is the number of urban inhabitants who live within the 400m or 800m 22 walking distance to an urban park. NT is the total number of urban inhabitants within the city.  1 The challenges and constraints of UGI in the city are analyzed based on the data collected through 2 different techniques. The challenges are initially derived from the result of the study and then, supported 3 by the analyses of secondary materials, personal observations, and interviews with a variety of 4 government organizations that are responsible for UGI management. Personal observation was made by 5 the researchers in order to see the current states of UGI, and to crosscheck the proposal in the structural 6 plan and the implementation on the ground. Interviews with government officials and experts responsible 7

Challenges and constraints of urban green infrastructure
for UGI management were also conducted. Ten key informants were selected from four governmental    Table 1). Accordingly, in 2003, the land use of UGI covered 20956hr 20  When we look at the land use of urban forest, it was 12168hr which covers 23.4% of the city area in the 7

Result
year 2003 (Table 1). It has, however, decreased to 10301.5hr in the year 2016 and this covers 19.7% of 8 the city area (Table 1). This coverage includes the forest covered, forest uncovered and proposed regional 9 forest. Currently, urban forest covered area in Addis Ababa is mostly found in the north and northeast part 10 of the city. Some forest patches are also found in the northwest and southwest part of the city. However, 11 other forest land of the city converted to built-up area and other land uses. For instance, the reserved land 12 for woodland forest in Akaki Kality and forest patches in Nifasilik sub cities were converted to built-up 13 area (Fig 3). 14 The situation of urban agriculture in the city is quite alarming. In 2003 agricultural land use of the city 15 covered 7176hr and this represents 13.8% of the city area ( Regarding river and riverside green, the city has 7 major and 6 medium rivers which are fed by 75 small 6 streams (Fig 4). These rivers and streams are mostly seasonal and start from the north, northwest and 7 northeast and flow towards the southern part of the city and ended at Lake Aba Samuel. The major rivers 8 of the city are Kebena, Ketchene, Little Akake, Kurtame, Bantiyketu, West Akaki and East Akaki (Fig 4). 9 In 2003, the land use of river and riverside green was about 1144hr (2.2% of the city area) and this was 10 increased to 4026.5hr (7.7 %) in 2016 (Table 1). However, based on field observation and interview with 11 experts, the proposed riverside green development during 2003 was not implemented. Most of the 12 proposed riverside buffer strips are highly abused and occupied by squatters and informal settlers.  Moreover, we observed that rivers and streams are increasingly choking with uncollected garbage and 2 solid waste from households, and industrial waste in the form of liquid effluence, agro-chemicals, 3 petrochemicals and metals. 4 In addition, in 2003 the city had 468ha of UPs land use. From this 188.8ha was existing UPs and 279.2ha 5 was proposed UPs (Table 1). However, almost all proposed UPs during 2003 was not realized and 6 implemented. During this period, the city had very few existing UPs and three sub-cities including Akaki 7 Kality, Lideta and Addis Ketema had no any existing UPs at all. In 2016 the city again allocated 825ha of 8 additional land for UPs development ( Table 2). Nefas Silk, Gullele and Kolfe Keraniyo sub-cities have 9 allocated the highest number of plots of land for UPs respectively, and Bole sub-city allocated small 10 number of plots of land for UPs. Until this research is undertaken, the city has 29 existing UPs with a 11 total area of 168.7hr (Table 2). Despite the recent development of the number of additional UPs, the total 12 area of existing UPs is decreased by 20.1hr compared to the total area of existing UPs in 2003. Out of ten 13 sub-cities, Addis ketema has no existing UPs and Lideta sub-city has better number of UPs than other 14 sub-cities (Fig 4). 15 1 In general, when we look at the change in land use of UGI from 2003 to 2016, about 4693.2hr (9.2%) of 2 UGI had been decreased or converted to other land uses. On the other hand, the proportion of built-up 3 area has increased by the same figure. The land use of urban agriculture was very much decreased (by 4 11.9%) followed by urban forest which was decreased by 3.7% ( Table 1). Many of the converted urban 5 forest land use were undeveloped or proposed lands. However, the land use of UPs and river buffer green 6 were increased by 0.9% and 5.5% respectively. This is because the city allocated more additional lands 7 for UPs and river buffer green during the revision of 2016 structural plan of the city (Table 1)  3.2. Accessibility of existing urban parks 10 11 When the per-capita of currently existing UPs is evaluated, the overall city average is 0.52m 2 and it 12 ranges from 0 to 1.2m 2 at sub-city level. Among the sub-cities, Arada and Kirikos have relatively the 13 highest ratio, while the other sub-cities have the lowest park per person ratio. The densest sub-cities such 14

Per capita of existing urban parks
as Lideta (26194 per km 2 ), and Addis ketema (41224 per km 2 ) have a very small park per-capita in 15 relation to other sub-cities ( Table 3). The percentage of UPs to the total area of the city was 0.32% and 16 ranges from 3.2% to 0.05% in sub-cities (Table 3). 17 18 19 Table 3 Currently existing urban parks coverage and per-capita in each sub city of Addis Ababa 1 Note: LU-land use 2 3 As indicated in section 2.3, based on road network and simple buffer technique in ArcGIS, the service 4 area map of UPs was produced for visualizing the difference between the two techniques ( Fig 5 & Fig 6). 5

Proximity of existing urban parks
However, all the accessibility analysis was made by road network analysis technique. Table 3 shows the 6 total park service area and the number of city residences that can access parks within the service area. The 7 results showed that the service area within 400m covered 3234458m 2 (0.6%), while the service area 8 within 800m covers 15881803m 2 (3.0%) of the residential area of Addis Ababa city. In addition, more 9 than 75399 and 310799 population of the city resident are live within 3234458m 2 and 15881803m 2 service 10 area of UPs respectively. This mean 2.3% of the city dwellers has access to UPs within 400m walking 11 distance, and 9.5% of the city dwellers can access UPs within 800m walking distance. This indicated the 1 mismatch in available urban park service area with the city population and the improper spatial 2 distribution of existing parks with respect to built-up land use. When the percentage of park service coverage for each sub-city is evaluated, only 3 sub-cities (Lideta, 8 Kirkos, and Arada), which represent 6.4% of the city area have more than 3% of their area fall within the 9 400m distance and more than 16% of their area fall within 800m walking distance. Lideta has relatively 10 the highest park service area in both distance thresholds, followed by Arada sub-city ( Table 4). The three 11 outlying large sub-cities such as Bole, Akaki Kality, and Nefas Silk Lafto have the lowest park service 12 area and the highest demand of UPs respectively. 13 Table 4 The proximity of urban parks in Addis Ababa 1 Note: (0.2) indicates percentage, Pop-refers to population 2 When the number of each sub-city population within park service areas is analyzed, Lideta (17%), Kirkos 3 and Arada (13.1%) sub-cities have relatively the highest number of population that have access to UPs 7 within 800m walking distance. Other sub-cities have the small number of population that fall within the 8 service area of 800m walking distance. Overall, the proximity of UPs to the city residents within the 9 walking distances of 400m and 800m from their residences is inadequate and the majority of the city 10 residents are forced to walk more distances to use the existing UPs.  The study also evaluated the level of park pressure in each sub-cities based on mean park service area per 1 served population to know the congestion level at each sub-city. Considerable differences in park pressure 2 was found within a 400m walking distance, ranging from 312.5m 2 per person in Akaki Kality and 20.3m 2 3 per person in Lideta, which is the highest park congestion. In general, Lideta, Kirkos, Arada and Addis 4 Ketma have more park pressure than other sub-cities. 5 6 The current UPs per capita (0.52m 2 ) of the city and each sub-cities of Addis Ababa were computed with 7 the Ethiopian UGS, WHO, and African green index to see the level of scarcity in park service area. As 8 illustrated in Fig 7, the park deficit of the city was very high based on suggested standards by the 9

Level of deficit in park service area
Ethiopian UGS, WHO, and average African per capita. Thus, the Addis Ababa municipality has to 10 increase the amount of urban park area by 4739.3ha, 2775.5ha, and 2120.9ha, to reach the minimum 11 standards stated by Ethiopian UGS, WHO and average per capita green index of Africa. This reveals that 12 Addis Ababa city has a considerable deficit in UPs service and the city needs more additional recreational 13 parks to satisfy the current demand. 14 15

Fig. 7 Service area gap at municipal level 16
Further, by using the same standards and analytical technique, park service area gap at the sub-city level 17 was analyzed (Fig 8) and Arada (348ha) sub-cities relatively need the smallest UPs acreage amongst other sub-cities.    Our result in terms of park per capita indicated, the city has no sufficient amount of accessible 23 recreational parks that serve the city residents. As per the existing land use analysis of the city, currently 24 areas under existing UPs is around 168.7hr for a population of more than 3.5 million, making the per 25 capita availability of parks about 0.52m 2 (Table-3). This is insufficient and very small as per the standard 1 set by Ethiopian UGS (15m 2 ), WHO (9m 2 ) and the African green index (7m 2 ). It is far behind that of 2 some African countries such as Tunis-Tunisia (14m 2 ), Nairobi-Kenya (37.3m 2 ), Kumasi-Ghana (4.  In addition to the aforementioned park per capita indicator, our proximity analysis also revealed that the 7 available UPs are not easily accessible for the city residents. The majority of the city residents are 8 disadvantaged and forced to walk more than 400m (97.7%) and 800m (90.5%) distance to use UPs. 9 Different studies that mapped the distance people travel to their nearest green space have also identified access within the walking distance and its distribution is not even. Moreover, our proximity analysis also 14 revealed that the population in the outlying big sub-cities of Addis Ababa, such as Akaki Kality, Nifas 15 Silek and Bole are the most disadvantaged in access to UPs. This is due to the fact that these sub-cities 16 have very few parks that serve the community, and their population density is also lower than other sub-17 cities. Even though, the central sub-cities such as Lideta, Kirkos and Arada have better access to UPs, 18 park congestion was more observed in these parts of the city. This is because these sub-cities are the most 19 densely populated part of the city (Table 3 & Fig. 2). 20 having development plans, policy or regulation is not enough by itself; unless there is implementation or 6 enforcement of these development controls. Our study investigated that lack of proper planning and 7

Challenges and constraints behind the current status of urban green
implementation of UGI proposals were the main challenges of UGI access in the city. For instance, many 8 of the proposed UPs (273hr) in 2003 structural plan of the city were almost not implemented (Fig 9). 9 Through cross examination of the structural plan of the study area and the actual physical development 10 that have taken place shows that areas demarcated on the structural plan as UPs were either non-existent 11 or were converted into different land-uses. Similar studies conducted in Ghana, Kisumu also indicated 12 that public parks and green spaces were found only in the city plan document, but not implemented on the 13 ground (Collins 2014). Thomas (2013), who conducted a study in Addis Ababa indicated that lack of 14 political will to implement the proposed parks as the main reason for the undersupply of UPs in the city. 15 Expert interview also indicated, almost none of the master plans prepared at different times have been 16 effective, nor have they ever been fully implemented. The consequence of the weak enforcement of plans 17 and regulations leads to the encroachment of most proposed river buffer strips by squatter and informal 18 settlers. The same is true for other UGI components like urban parks, forests and urban agricultural lands. 19 In support of this finding, studies indicated that a lack of political desire to enforce regulations (Lara- Moreover, in addition to the formal settlement expansion, informal settlement through land squatting has 16 been contributing to the depletion of green spaces in Addis Ababa city. For instance, as illustrated in Fig  17   10, the land reserved for UPs and forest area of the city was encroached by many informal settlements or 18 urban sprawl. As mentioned above the cause of built up area expansion in Addis Ababa city is rapid 19 urbanization. We conclude that rapid urbanization is the indirect driving factor for the depletion of UGI in 20 the city. This rapid urbanization was partly attributed to the natural population growth and more of due to 21 high migration from other parts of the country. As aforementioned, Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia Population density is also another driving factor for the depletion and inaccessibility of UGI in the study 5 area. Our study revealed that the densest part of the city, especially the inner sub-cities of Addis Ababa, 6 such as Lideta and Addis Ketama (Table 1 & Fig. 2) have a small amount of UGI and recreational parks. 7 There is also high population pressure on the existing UPs of these sub-cities. This indicated population 8 density is another driving factor that affected the availability of different components of UGI in Addis 9 Ababa city. Similar studies also frequently cited population density as a driver of decreasing in urban Lack of priority and attention that is given to UGI indicated as the other factor for the degradation and 7 insufficient provision of accessible UGI such as UPs (Collins 2014). The study conducted in Nairobi city 8 also mentioned that green spaces for recreation and environmental protection are given low priority in the 9 development and spatial planning of the city (Makworo & Mireri 2011). Similarly, in urban centers of 10 Ethiopia especially in Addis Ababa, authorities did not give much attention and commit the needed funds 11 for the development of components of UGI (Abeje 2007;Thomas 2013). The main reason for lack of 12 priority for UGI especially UPs development in the city may be related to matters of poverty reduction. 13 Addis Ababa city has gone through largely organic changes that have lacked a clearly defined urban 14 patter and form. The city also characterized by lack of housing, poor social services and physical 15

Encroachment by formal and informal settlement
Urban Forest Area infrastructure such as road. Thus, the priority of the city authority is more on fulfilling these basic social 1 services and gray infrastructure of the city than UGI development. Studies also indicated that matters of 2 poverty reduction and provision of social amenities such as housing, roads, schools, hospitals, and pipe 3 water service constitute the top priorities of many African countries (Bolnick et al. 2006). The same study 4 also indicated, in Africa much attention is given to brown agenda by neglecting the green agenda 5 (Bolnick et al. 2006). However, this is in contrary to the study conducted in developed countries (Sweden, 6 Norway, Denmark) that found much attention given to green space development by the city authorities 7   18 The findings and discussion indicated in previous sections suggest several policies and strategies, which 19 might be used to improve the availability and increase the accessibilities of UGI in Addis Ababa city. 20

The policy implication of the study
First, our study investigated that components of UGI in the city are destroyed at an alarming rate due to 21 encroachment by built up area such as formal/informal housing development and infrastructure 22 expansion. Thus, one of the strategies to control encroachment onto UGI is strict adherence to or 23 implementation of development plans and regulations. This strategy was highly recommended by the 24 officials and experts of UGI planning and management of the city. Application of the concept of green 25 infrastructure networking in the land use planning of the city is recommended as another strategy to 1 reduce the destruction of green components and maintain sustainable urban environment. Development of 2 green space networks is increasingly considered as a suitable approach to improve the ecological value of 3 urban green space and the urban environment (Conine, 2004;Hepcan et al., 2009). Besides, 4 interconnecting components of UGI in the entire landscape of the city would enable to generate 5 substantial ecosystem service such as shade, regulation of air temperature and air pollution, and improve 6 aesthetic values for the urban communities. The interconnectedness will be ensured through creating 7 spatial integration of road and riverside greens with other components of UGI such as urban forest, 8 agricultural areas, UPs and other green areas. 9 The per capita UPs of Addis Ababa city found to be 0.52m 2 , which is far below the minimum standard set 10 by Ethiopia UGS and WHO. Moreover, the majority of the city population has no access to existing parks 11 within the minimum walking distance that individuals are willing to walk. These problems were found to 12 be underpinned by unavailability and uneven distribution of UPs due to inadequate provision of these 13 recreational facilities during the past decades. The city needs more additional recreational park acreage 14 (4739.3ha) to fulfill the current need of the city residents (Fig 7). Thus, the particular strategy that could 15 be implemented to improve park access in the city is providing small to medium size UPs at different 16 scales of the city. Studies also indicated that the accessibility of green space can be expanded in the city 17 by building more small-to-medium sized green space (Tabassum & Sharmin 2013). In Addis Ababa, such 18 UPs can be developed on lands that have already been proposed for UPs developments. For instance, the 19 2016 structural plan of the city allocated 825hectar of land for UPs development, but yet they remain 20 undeveloped on the ground (Table 4). A typical example of such reserved space is Adawa Park (112.3hr) 21 in Bole sub-city which was proposed in 2003 and not developed yet (Fig 9). In addition, developing UPs 22 in condominium housing and real estate development sites as well as peripheral expansion area of the city 23 is also another option to enhance access to recreational parks in the city. 24 Moreover, the densest and the oldest sub cities (Lideta, Kirkos, and Arada) of Addis Ababa have also 25 fewer amounts of UGI and accessible recreational parks. In these sub-cities the provision of large parks 26 might be difficult because of the scarcity of land. Thus, in such parts of the city pocket/small parks are 1 one option for enhancing park access. Although pocket parks might be too small for physical activities, 2 they can meet a variety of social needs and functions, including small event space, children's playground, 3 and spaces for relaxation. Spaces like vacant building lots, small and irregular pieces of land, unused 4 areas, abandoned spaces, and rooftops are appropriate for converting into small parks. Providing small to 5 medium size parks in renewal parts of these sub-cities can also be another solution to minimize the high 6 demand of recreational parks. 7 Providing universal access to green spaces and urban parks is a target of the sustainable development 8 goals (SDGs) adopted by the international society in 2015 (Conghong et al. 2017). However, our study 9 can indicated that the environmental sustainability issue is not recognized and considered by the city 10 authority. Due to this the urban environment of the city is deteriorating and problems like air pollution 11 and urban heat island are becoming the major challenges of the city. Thus, this calls for legislation, 12 policies and strategies backed by scientific studies that consider the SDGs mentioned above. 13

14
UGI in general and UPs in particular are important settings for improving the quality of urban life. 15 Overall, this study provided important findings that show the status, accessibility and different 16 determinant factors that affect UGI, which has seldom been assessed before in Addis Ababa city, 17 Ethiopia. Our study yielded four important findings. First, this study investigated that components of UGI 18 in the city are destroying at an alarming rate and their distribution is also unequal within the city. Second, 19 the accessibility indicators also revealed that the city residents have no sufficient UGI access such as 20 recreational parks. The city's park per capita was very small (0.5m 2 ) compared with Ethiopian UGS 21 (15m 2 ) and the large portion of the city population (above 90%) has no access to existing parks within the 22 minimum walking distance thresholds. Thus, the city needs more additional park acreage (4739.3ha) to 23 fulfill the current demand. Third, our study investigated that the encroachment of UGI by built up area, 24