Land tenure systems and their contributions to impervious surfaces impact in African cities

The African continent has a complex land tenure system and a poor land administrative structure. In most African cities, the lack of administrative land tenure structures has negatively impacted land use management practices. This has resulted in informal settlement urbnisation, which carries the risk of urban disasters. This phenomenon has received little attention in its correct context. This research investigates this issue by comparing four African medium-sized cities: Accra, Durban, Nairobi and Tunis. We also looked at Accra’s (in Ghana) vulnerability to urban disasters, as hydro-meteorological impacts are a direct consequence of impervious surface expansion. The study proposes a geospatial tool (Ghana Spatial Data Infrastructure Commission) solution to address the flaws in the land administration regime by streamlining processes, integrating the traditional concept of land ownership and administration with government regulatory procedures. This proposed geospatial solution serves as the cornerstone for a proposed disaster risk reduction strategic framework. The random forest land cover classification revealed a continuous increase of imperviousness, ranging from as low as 6.23 % coverage to 84.70 % in 2000. As at 2018, the impervious coverage for Accra stood at 26.34 %, 88.21 % for Durban, 30.24 % for Nairobi, and 53.70 % for Tunis, demonstrating the relationship between population, urbanisation and a concomitant rise in disaster effects. This proposed geospatial-based solution can be adopted by other African scenarios. The findings will be relevant to land administrators, disaster relief organisations, scholars, and spatial planners in Africa.