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Factors determing land use patterns

I. Economic determinants The land economists view land use in terms of economic theory, with the use of each land parcel within the city being determined urban land market. Here the land is viewed as a commodity traded in the market subject to the forces of supply and demand. According to the classical equilibrium theory, prices of different parcels of land then become both a function of the costs of making land productive and a function of the net income returns realizable from the development of that parcel of land. All land are viewed as being in the market, competing for the consumer money and decision to buy or sell are prompted by opportunities for maximizing returns from a transaction in the market. Land is considered as having value because of its potential to produce income in the future; this value is based on what developers would be economically justified in paying for it according to assumed plan for its usage and development. In the urban land market users bid for sites in accordance with what will maximize their profits and minimize their costs. Land users in the retail business and services tend to bid for space at the highest prices and land best suited for this activities show the highest value, for this type of use, the revenue component is based on the volume of sales expected at alternative sites and the cost component is based on the costs of doing business to obtain this sales at this sites. II. Social rooted determinants The sociologist usually view the city partly within the context of urban ecology with its concern for the physical, spatial and material aspects of urban life and partly within the context of social structure in the city with its concern for human values, behavior and interaction as reflected in such institutions as church, mosques. Social determinants of land use can be explained in terms of ecological process. Urban ecology is a term the sociologist have adopted from biological sciences to describe the physical change process that take place within the city a) Dominance, gradient and segregation These are viewed as a group, and they offer means of understanding the social aspect of patterning of the town Dominance is used in the sense of one area in the city bearing a controlling social or economic position in relation to the other areas for instance westlands vs kangemi, muthaiga vs mathare, whereby it is the essence of growth and development of these up market residential that have greatly impacted on the growth of the lowly informal settlements since they form the bulk of workmanship to the up market and thus need to be closer to minimize on transport cost and others.

Gradient, a term indicating the receiving degree of dominance from some selected dominance or focal centre to more distance location in relation to that centre, for instance much of the surrounding setelite towns and settlements around Nairobi owe their existence to the city itself e.g kikuyu, limuru. Athi River, kiserian, rongai whereby in any advent that Nairobi fails them also in great deal fails. Segregation, is a relative proces of clustering, it is a selection process by homogenous units becoming grouped together to form clusters taken as a series. Birds of the same feather flock together, or it means living among your peers economically, for instance mid level income earner will try to leave amongst the same class he belongs. b) Invasion and succesion This two process usually linked in a sequence. Invasion refers to the interpenetration of one population group or use area by another or what is commonly termed in urban planning circle as gentrification. For instance, ideally the reserve of the rich, the leafy suburbs of the city have become so expensive that the average Kenyan whose earnings fall within the high end bracket cant afford them. Little wonder, then that lavington, runda, loresho and muthaiga are today almost exclusive neighborhoods for Nairobi expatriate community. The same goes for Mombasa and her serene Nyali offerings. the tragedy, however is that those who were supposed to live here have go to search lower in the housing pecking order, thereby starting a chain reaction that ends up in the city slum. Succession on the other hand occurs when the new population group or use type finally displaces former occupants. Other social factors, include cultural beliefs, ties and myths, such as the kaya forest being a holy place for mijikenda hence no development can take place there because it is a worship site III. Regulatory factors (public interest) Beyond the economic and social factors land within the cities and rural areas are viewed in context of public health, safety, accessibility and sustainability. The concern here is of the public interest in land development. The public interest usually comes into force in the form of legal action by formal government institutions. Such controls place strong emphasis on constraints to prevent hazardous and injurious conditions to the physical well being of people it also addresses convenience and economy, efficiency in land use and development plus amenity. a) Zoning plan This is a tool for development control and entrenched in the physical planning act of 1996 and implemented by local authorities supported by local government act chapter 265. It entails segregating incompatible land uses while bring together the harmonious ones by going further to delimitate various land use districts, coverage, densities, building materials, utility lines among others

b) Environmental management and coordination act of 1999 Aims at protecting or environment from injurious developments while also ensuring sustainable development , it influences a lot the location of activities through two major tools that is environmental impact assessment (EIA) and environmental audit (EA) c) Museums act Protects the historical and heritage sites and places of national importance from economic and political forces of land allocation, for instance the Uhuru gardens, kaya forests, gede ruins, the Lamu town d) Other acts that govern land use include public health act, water act of 2000, way leave and easement acts. We also have regulations such as protected area regulations for high risk security area for instance army barracks, state house, air and sea port whereby only certain kind of development densities and height are allowed say not more than two floors. IV. Natural and physiographic factors These to great extent determine types of land use, they include but not limited to altitude, soils, flooding, drainage patterns among many whereby certain soils with given level of technology can only sustain some kind of development V. Political factors In Kenyan context politics play great role in land allocation and thereby land use for instance allocation of Serena hotel inside uhuru park, alienating land for public purposes such as educational institutions, alienating public land for private individuals among others VI. Human activity and land use The land use themselves also have a bearing to other land use whereby a case of dominant land use having a bearing on other users, for instance where there is a higher education institution tend to attract residential development for students and staffs. Public administration attracting commercial uses such as eateries and service economies such as photocopy. VII. Tenure system Different interest in land will determine the kind of use it is placed under say case of leasehold and especially between short and long term, for short term it will attract temporary developments, also the case of private ownership will try to use them on what he thinks is suitable for him at a times not placing economic gain on mind 2. Role of infrastructure in development These are both public and private basic physical and organizational | structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. Can also be viewed as the stock of basic facilities both social and economic and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area, it can also be viewed as utilities built across a country to facilitate movement, communication, they include, transport facilities and traversing entities e.g

airports, road networks, railways, sea ports, bridges, canals, power lines, high tension cables, sewerage lines, communication masts, reservoirs and fibre optic cables. The social one includes hospitals, schools, recreational centres. One role they do play is the physical opening up of an area for interaction with outside world for trade where the do exist differentiation, social interaction, this can be achieved by infrastructures such as roads railway, airports and sea ports, communication facilities this enhances regional integration and also international one. Whereby raw material, labour and goods can be moved from one point to next During the construction of these facilities they create direct employment to people thus a source of income also at maintainance periods, further they create indirect employments to other independent entities relying on them. The infrastructures especially massive one calls for well laid research to be able to realize , thus they do spur research work They have multiplier effect owing to the back and front linkages they have in the economy hence spurring economic growth (economic stimulus), for instance while constructing road they need raw materials in terms of bitumen, ballast machineries such as graders, excavators among others and these are supplied by other manufacturing companies. In economics it increases production frontier or possibility because it is not direct consumable product (forgone consumption) but that used to further production Well laid infrastructures reduce the cost of doing business (operational cost) in terms of transportation cost and friction of distance and with the operational cost reduce this tends to attract private ventures. And thereby in other hand ensuring economies of scale Infrastructure help in urbanization process which inturn act as economic core centres. Like almost major towns in kenya grew out due to development of railway line an example of kisumu Infrastructure tend to improve land value there by increasing competetivenes of an area Most nations with high living standards and high life expectancies have in great deal invested in world class infrastructure both economic and social 3. An outline of a management system of a local authority and its efficacy Most of the local authorities tend to have leadership in two wings the first is the political one headed by the mayor for the case of city and municipalities and for the county is the council chairperson, on the other hand there is the administrative unit driven by professionals headed at the top by the town clerk as the chief executive officer.

Under the political wing below the mayor and his/ her deputy we do have them working in departmental committees headed by department chair like the chair for finance, town planning, environmental department, social affairs among others. Also along the professional line we have it working on departmental structure where we have town treasurer as the head of finance department, town planner heading planning department, social department and others. Defficiency With two centre of power there is unending feud where at times the political wing accusing the clerk and his team of mismanagement thereby reducing service delivery, cases of councilors locking out clerk is common With the decision being made at departmental committee and finally full council meeting increase bureaucracy and long time for decision making and approvals The frequent change at administration levels at a time brings inconsistency in implementation of policy this is due to personalization of policies instead of institutionalizing them Low level of accountability since most low cadre of workers are from the local and feel it is theirs and no question about it Efficiency The making of decision at departmental and full council meeting if well utilized ensures wide consultation and thus rational decision being arrived at. The frequent turnover and term limits of 2 renewable once of elected leaders starting from mayor to departmental chairperson reduces the chance of being an insider too much thus buffering againist corrupt deal and insider trading The seconding of qualified personnels by the parent ministry ensure profesionalism