Study Conducted by Professor Peng Gong Unveils Evolutionary Patterns of African Urban Systems
An international team led by Professor Peng Gong, Vice-President (Academic Development) of HKU and Chair Professor of Global Sustainability in the Department of Geography, and Professor Limin Jiao from Wuhan University has published groundbreaking research in Nature Cities, titled “Underlying rules of evolutionary urban systems in Africa”. The team also includes members from various institutions, including Wuhan University, HKU Faculty of Architecture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Agricultural University, the University of Melbourne and Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Using remote sensing data on urban population and land use, the team analysed the evolution of over 9,200 towns and cities across Africa over the past 70 years (1950-2020). By applying the theories of Zipf’s law (the rank-size rule), Gibrat’s law (the law of proportionate growth), and scaling laws, the team reveals imbalances in urban system structures and land development in large African cities, particularly in East and West Africa. The study’s contribution lies in revealing the underlying rules, specificity, and geographical explanations of African urban system evolution from a complex systems perspective. It provides an analytical framework to understand the laws of urban system evolution and regional urbanisation processes, offering new insights for global urban science research.
The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and the Croucher Foundation of Hong Kong.