Analytically derived neighborhoods in a rapidly growing West African city: The case of Accra, Ghana

Abstract Large numbers of people are currently migrating from the poor, inland areas of West Coast Africa to the major cities of Lagos, Accra, Abidjan, and other budding metropolises (Figs. 1 and 2). The infrastructure of the Sub-Saharan African cities is inadequate to service their burgeoning populations. An argument is presented for using scientifically derived neighborhoods as the building blocks for current African urban understanding and planning. In this paper, I will explore the neighborhood concept and use available data and new heterogeneity statistics to derive homogeneous neighborhoods. The statistics are explained and maps of Accra neighborhoods are given.