Forest and Urban Integrated Housing Development to Respond The Urbanization trend in Forests

H E U C

Project idea

The main target of this research is to introduce the idea of forest urbanism, a housing development in forests with out any natural vegetation destruction. and another aim is to address the trend of urbanization in the urban and peri urban areas of addis ababa and it's impacts on the forest cover of the city of addis ababa and it's consequences on the climatic, sustainability and ecological issues which faces the Entoto forest.

This forest urbanism approach will solves the problems of deforestation and increase the forest cover of Entoto by redeveloping those informal settlements which affects the forest of Entoto. the approach blends the urban (housing) and the forest developments together and try to respond the environmental factors in terms of Climate change, Sustainability and ecology aspects

Project description

The appearance of urbanization in Addis Ababa city tells us that the amount of forest in the inner city and around the city has decreased significantly over time, and on the contrary, the built-up density of the city has increased significantly In recent watershed based LULC studies in Addis Ababa showed that land cover change is brutal and there has been built up land expansion at the expense of natural vegetation cover. as a result of the urbanization trend in the urban and peri urban areas of addis ababa shows that the portion of the density of forest cover became decreased dramatically and built up density is increased vice versa.

Previous studies have focused on urban expansion and its effects on urban forest. However, the impact of urbanization on UHIs and thermal comfort has received little attention. This study aims to fill the gap by assessing the impact of urban land use land cover (LULC) change and forest cover change on urban thermal comfort levels of Addis Ababa city. This study enhances our understanding of the urban thermal environment including the driving forces for urban climate change and variability.

The aim of this research is gives feedbacks to concerned development actors of the city to evaluate past development actions of urbanization and identify further intervention areas. It also helps policy makers to draw lessons to sustainable urban, peri-urban, and rural development policy formulation. The research also helps to suggest the multi-faceted benefits of urban development to different governmental and non governmental sectors on the application of forest and urban integrated housing development approaches.

Technical information

The surface temperature retrieved by Landsat is greatly affected by weather conditions and LULC change, which may bring uncertainty to the estimation of the difference in surface temperature annually. The LST of Addis Abeba City increased dramatically between 1991 and 2021 due to a decrease in vegetation cover and an increase in built-up area. The urban environment particularly the micro climate is influenced by LULC under rapid urbanization. The mean LST increased from 23.2 °C in 1991 to 28.7 °C and 31.5 °C in 2005 and 2021, respectively. Between 1991 and 2021, the average LST in Addis Abeba climbed by 8.3 °C. High LST values were recorded over built-up and bare land cover, while low LST values were observed over densely Vegetated areas. The findings of Worku et al (2021) revealed that the decline of vegetation cover leads to the increment of the LST of Addis Ababa City. Other study clearly indicates that LST is closely linked with LULC, population density, and weather condition.