Patterns of Land Use Activities in Ghana’s Secondary Cities

Abstract

Ghana is rapidly urbanizing. This urbanization has resulted in villages growing into towns and towns
into urbanized areas. Theories and models have been employed to explain the internal structure of
urban areas, especially, with respect to land use variations. These models started with the classical
urban land use models in America. Urban scholars in Africa have struggled to fit the development of
the African cities into these classical models. They have therefore called for African scholars to
develop models for urban land use in Africa. This paper sought to identify the common patterns of
land use activities which shape the internal structure of Ghana’s secondary cities. The study
employed Geographic Information System (GIS) as a major tool of analysis in explaining the patterns
in urban areas. This is augmented with in-depth ground observations of the study areas. The findings
of the study showed the absence of homogeneity in most of the sectors and undefined industrial zones
as contradictions to the classical models. The study further revealed that residential zones were not
fully occupied by either lower income, middle income, or higher income residence. The income
groups may only dominate in a given sector. Based on the findings, a common pattern is proposed to
represent the land uses within the selected secondary cities in Ghana