CONSIDERING CLIMATIC FACTORS FOR URBAN LAND-USE PLANNING IN THE SAHELIAN ZONE

Examples are given to show how climatic factors could be taken into account in urban land use planning, reducing urban sprawl, selecting more appropriate building sites for extension, improving the living environment by appropriate street layout and alignment, standards and criteria, by controlling building densities and providing as well as propagating urban trees and green spaces, which would not only contribute significantly to improve the urban microclimate but also reduce problems of stormwater drainage and sewage disposal. A comprehensive planning approach appears to be indispensable, in which climatic factors such as insolation, precipitation, evaporation and direction of prevailing winds play an important role, in order to economize in those scarce resources available to the vast majority of the urban population and to the public authorities in Sahelian towns.