Upshots and responses: mapping spat-temporal growth patterns inn peri-urban areas, Ghana

Inevitable consequences of Africa’s urban transition in literature skewed attention to the management of “urban space” and “social disorders” in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities. Often, periurban enclaves’ growth and absorptive capacities elude city authorities. Attention must be given to the periurban carrying capacity to strengthen its assimilation of urban blight. Situating this chapter within the framework of sustainable development goals 11 and 15, we trace the results and responses of spatiotemporal patterns in three periurban communities in North Western Ghana. Carefully, a mixed-method approach was used with remotely sensed high-resolution data, community mapping, and info-graphics complemented with a descriptive survey on 372 periurban residents. Data were analyzed using a pair-sample t-test and factor analysis augmented with narratives from interviews and focus group discussions. The results established changes in periurban land-use patterns in Bamahu, Kpongu, and Kperisi. The study revealed the outcome of the spatial changes from farmland and grassland to scattered but compact built-ups for commercial and residential purposes reflects the decline in local livelihoods. Also, Spatiotemporal dynamics have affected the livelihoods of periurban dwellers in terms of reducing their arable lots and yields despite the spillover of emerging opportunities that have monetized the periurban economy. The all-inclusive agenda of cities must drive policy to bring peri-urban regions into the sustainable development agenda in a way that works with their growth patterns, and outcomes on livelihood are synchronized.