Effects of Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Population in Urban Centers on Land Use Arrangement: A Case of Nakuru Town, Kenya

Abstract

The study addressed the effects of spatiotemporal dynamics of urban of human population on land use arrangement in Nakuru town. Nakuru town attained its municipal status in 1952. Since then, its population has been growing steadily from 152289 in 1991 to 472126 in 2021 posing pressure on already limited urban land use arrangement. The study was guided by Hoyt Theory which assumes that urban land use arrangements are influenced by historical, economic and concentration of similar land use. The researcher used descriptive research design. Through Remote sensing, the study showed that area under settlement use increased from 7.66 to 54.78 km2, Lake increased from 36.02 to 44.01 km2 while area under Agricultural use decreased from 117.94 to 112.01 km2 and area under 'Others' decreased from 163.38 to 114.20km2. Field data from A sample size of 400 households showed that Settlement increased from 32. 67 to 42.34 km2, Lake increased from 36.02 to 44.01 km2, 8Others9 decreased from 35.44 to 29.42 km2 and Agricultural decreased from 195.95 to 158.72 km2. Fragmentation and zonal use mix-ups were cited by 24.9% and 46.9% of the respondents respectively. Pearson9s Correlation between spatiotemporal dynamics of urban human population and Urban Land Use Arrangement disruptions was r=0.94. The study concluded that urban population affects urban land use arrangements. The study recommended that human population in urban centres should be checked in order to promote sustainable urban land use arrangements. In addition, there is a need to eliminate factors that affecting urban zoning policy implementation.