Determinant factors hinder urban structure plan implementation: The case of Nekemte Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Urban structure plan is widely used plan in the process of urbanization and rapid urban spatial expansion. However, rapidly growing urban centers of Ethiopia are facing challenges to implement their structure plan within the time horizon. Thus, this study aims to investigate the determinant factors that hinder structure plan implementation in Nekemte town. Questionnaire survey, interview, observation and land use survey were used to collect data. Descriptive data analysis and regression model were used to analyze the data. The main findings of the study show that all identified factors: lack of active participation, lack commitment, political instability and lack of sufficient budget significantly contribute for the failure of structure plan implementation at P-value of 0.05. The regression analysis further indicated that, lack of community participation; - 0.0499 coefficients is the most determining factors and followed by customary land tenure and lack of awareness −0.0489 and −0.0468 coefficients respectively. Hence, future structure plan implementation endeavors of Nekemte city must be underpinned by inculcating community participation and awareness of structure plan that is required to implement the plan to the expected level. Furthermore, use of modern technology like GIS and appropriate man power are also equally recommended to enhance structure plan implementation of Nekemte city.

1. Introduction

According to Ref. [1], 55% of the world population lives in urban areas in 2018 and expected to reach 68% by 2050. This makes urbanization the most transformative process in this 21st century [2] (Zheng et al., 2020) and has caused urban areas to be hub of environmental, social and cultural interactions. As a result, cities and urban centers are facing a challenge for to provide sufficient urban housing, and basic services for its dwellers [3] (Evans et al., 2016) and adequate infrastructure for liquid waste [2,3]. As pointed out by Ref. [4], to address these challenges sustainably every cities and towns need to plan, design and finance and develop appropriate strategies.

A previous study by of [5] demonstrated that, east African countries has experienced demographic shift towards urban character. This demographic shift portends immense challenges due to rapid urbanization occurred without a strong economic base to support it and thereby contributing to the creation of informal urban settlement in the urban fringes by violating existing urban structure plan. For instance Ref. [6], found that urban areas in Kenya has faced challenges such as provision of adequate development control, provision of basic services in informalities, and adequate urban housing and maintenance of urban infrastructures due to rapid population growth and unplanned urbanization. In every urbanization process, urban growth requires a large scale of land for business, housing, services, public spaces and circulation that facilitates livable urban development. This large scale urban land allocation for every urban activity need appropriate and well managed urban structure plan preparation and implementation.

However, the rapidly growing urban centers of the developing countries like Ethiopia are facing challenges in implementation of their approved structure plan properly as proposed during their preparation. The failure of structure plan implementation leads problems such as poor waste management [2], inappropriate land management, shortage of infrastructures, shortage of affordable housing and development of housing in flood prone and inaccessible areas. Urban planning conveys the government policies and delivers planning right to landowners to overcome the challenges of unplanned activities within urban centers. This means appropriate structure plan implementation is helpful to ensure sustainable urban development by minimizing problems that are related with rapid urban expansion (such as homelessness, shortage of urban infrastructure, social services at proper locations, poor waste management, inappropriate land use change, expansion of squatter settlement, loss of natural resources and deforestation).

Urban plan implementation is the toughest and more challenging stage of urban plan preparation process in Ethiopia. Even though Ethiopia has 60 years of experience in urban planning practice, the prepared urban plans were left on the shelf as a blueprint and the purpose of the plan in service provision is in a fragmented (in informal way) and uncoordinated manner [7]. Nekemte town is one of the towns in Ethiopia that has four consecutive structure plans since 1967 to 2022. Majority of the planned uses on structure plan has not implemented on the real ground properly. Planned land uses such as open spaces, green areas, collector streets, swampy areas, urban agriculture were not implemented and abused by informal illegal settlements. Due to lack of structure plan implementation, squatter settlements are rapidly and irregularly expanding Nekemte town horizontally in all direction. Thus, unsafe pedestrian ways, shortage of public spaces, loss of green features and open spaces, unplanned and irregular utility arrangements are obviously observed in the town. These problems hinder the sustainable development of the town by creating increased wastage of limited urban land, low tax base, weak socio-economic activities and unsatisfied residents which are not achieved unless proper urban plan implementation can be made.

In our understanding, no study has explored the factors affecting urban structure plan implementation in the study area yet. This study investigates the hindering factors for structure plan implementation as it is prepared on the paper by incorporating the urban resident's perceptions and attitudes. In relation to this, our result suggests that within the boundary of Nekemte town administration, the physical development of the town, allocation of basic infrastructures such as road, green areas and urban agriculture are not implemented as per the proposed structure plan. Therefore, studying and identifying the determinant factors hinder urban structure plan implementation in Nekemte town is crucial to understand the major mitigation measures and strategies for improved and proper urban structure plan implementation.

Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the determinant factors of urban structure plan implementation in Nekemte Town and investigate the level of effects of identified factors. The specific objectives of this study are: to examine the current status of structure plan implementation in Nekemte town and to identify the major hindering factors for structure plan implementation based on the perception of the local resident. This study aims to fill research gap in the thematic area and has high level of contribution in identifying influencing factors in urban structure plan preparation and implementation for urban planners and implementers in the study town.

Considering the previous works, this paper contributes to various aspects of existing problems of urban structure plan implementation in Nekemte town. It contributes to change the current stands of the government from low level of community participation to high level participation in urban plan implementation. In Ethiopia in general community participation during planning process is very low. The lower the community participation, the lower the level of urban plan implementation. Thus, results of this study can contribute more to change urban planning system of Nekemte town and the country in general from the current top-down to participatory approach.

2. Related literatures

2.1. Urban planning and its importance

Planning is defined by researchers as the making of an orderly sequence of actions that leads to the achievement of some specified or stated goals [8]. A study by Ref. [9] stated that planning is essential to guide activities in the midst of uncertainty and provide the basis for future decision making. According to Ref. [10], urban physical planning is essential to show the uses of land within the administration areas of the town and issue the planning permission for the development of that land. Urban planning is a framework that helps the urban leaders and administrators to transform their stated vision into reality and enhance livability, prosperity and equity [11] in resource utilization [11],12]. found that urban planning is used by people to promote welfare of the current and future urban residents by creating healthful, attractive, efficient and convenient urban environment.

Previous studies by Refs. [13,14] demonstrated that action to enhance urban resilience improve the public health of the urban environment. This can be made by improving the urban environment through proper implementation of urban plan. In addition, fast growing urban areas need to steer planned investment towards low carbon [15,16], climate resilient focusing on the provision of core services [17]. Master plan: as described by researcher master plans featured the land use plan of the present and proposed as well as development control restrictions. As stated by Refs. [18,19] master plan preparation involves the estimation of future population, socio-economic conditions and their infrastructure needs and the preparation of land use for future development to ensure the necessary facilities are achieved when the development take place. According to Ref. [20], master planning is an exercise of resource planning resource generation and management and is perceived to be a process rather than end statement [19].

2.2. Practices of urban plan implementation in Africa

Rapid urban spatial expansion is occurring in regions of the world that are least equipped to deal with it in terms of their ability to provide the necessary infrastructure and services, their residents' ability to pay for those services, and their economies' capacity [21]. As elaborated by Ref. [22], the urban reality of African continent is less to accommodate demographic growth and territorial expansion, poverty, environmental degradation, and informality of a significant portion of urban activities. There is high increase in urban population in African cities and reached 400 million, which represent 40% of the total population of the continent [11]. This figure is estimated to reach 58% in the coming 2050. This demographic growth and spatial expansion of African cities and its effects in terms of poverty, urban inequality, environmental degradation and urban insecurity should be the foundation of urban planning [23]. According to the investigation of [12], urban planning is a tool used by people to promote welfare of the current and future urban residents by creating healthful urban environment.

In Africa, urban planning practice is yet to step into the arena of urban sustainability and built on design oriented approach to urban natural resource management [24]. Many African cities have common discontinuous territorial development dispersed in the periphery and influence the further continuous extension of urban area into the suburb arising questions on coherent and integrated regional development between the cities and countryside [25]. In developing counties like Ethiopia, implementation of urban plan is the toughest and more challenging stage of urban plan preparation process. As indicated by Ref. [26], the challenges of poor urban implementation are resulted the problems such as wastage of money, time and human resources that are important in plan making process. Without proper plan implementation, plan making is nothing for development.

2.3. Factors determines structure plan implementation

The physical expansion of urban areas is the results of internal and external factors [27]. According to Ref. [28], planning urban area is defined as an attempt to manage and determine the competing uses of urban land for variety of activities. Previous study of [29] identified that the central role of urban planning is to create policy related to the urban environmental, economic and social issues as well as to make decision based on the prepared policy. In order to achieve these roles of urban planning community participation is one of the most important factors. Urban resident should have more say in shaping their local area and create their own objectives on how to change their living neighborhoods [30,31]. Therefore, the power of planning and implementing urban areas to make better and standard living for the present and future generation should shift away from the hand of the government officials and planners towards local resident and should have impact on the status of urban plan implementations [32,33].

As indicated by Ref. [34] the process of urban development needs the closer interaction of the urban local resident and the government officials. Due to the failure of top-down approaches in urban planning process, the idea of public involvement in the planning and implementation of urban development plans became widely accepted in the late 1960s [35,36]. For development to succeed and be sustainable, public participation, particularly in decision-making, is essential [[37], [38], [39], [40]]. In order to have a detail understanding of the urban problems and come up with strong solutions, analyzing the condition of local resident and their level of involvement is the important of resilient urban development [41]. Community involvement in urban planning and implementation process is very essential to reduce social and urban spatial segregation in the urban settings [42] and create new opportunities for new connections [43] and increase the feeling of belonging among the residents [44,45].

According to Ref. [41] Haus and Klausen (2011), this is the notion of leadership that consist collective practices of framing and targeting problems in which both the governmental actors and societal actors plays a crucial role for the success of the development [46]. also demonstrated that good leadership play crucial role for the successful urban project and always works important things to satisfy the needs of the residents in urban areas.

According to Refs. [47,48] integrative development planning which embraces citizens and the local government in achieving decent development objectives is very essential in urban planning process. However, developing countries face variety of challenges in order to bring sustainable urban solutions in their urban development. These challenges as identified by Ref. [49] are lack of locally specific data, shortage of finance and lack of critical capabilities in built environment professionals [17]. also stated that urban financial capability has crucial role to play in responding sustainable urban development. With the rapidly expanding pose of urban areas, technological advancement has changed the patterns of urban residents. According to the study by Ref. [50] implementation of urban plan framework or model for creating sustainable and livable city is usually more focused on specific urban center rather than all cities. Rapid population growth is the other major factors hindering the successfulness of urban development planning and implementations [51,52].

3. Research materials and methods

3.1. Study area

Nekemte town is one of the oromia regional state towns found in eastern wollega zone. The town has an area of 5380 ha as of 2008 structure plan which covered six kebele (the lowest level of administration) with the total population of 76,917. According to the revised structure pal of 2020 the total area of Nekemte town reached 8204 ha with the total population of 128,268. The town has four main exits: to Amahara Region (Nekemte-Bure-Bahirdar), to Benishangul Gumuz (Nekemte-Gimbi-Asosa), to Gambela Region (Nekemte- Mettu-Gambela) and the exit to Addis Ababa (Nekemte-Ambo-Addis Ababa). There is an active neighbourhood linkage with Jimma, Dambidolo, shambu, Gimbi and Bedele.

Moreover, the city is a huge economic corridor for the great Ethiopian renaissance dam, coffee and crop production area of Wollega zones, Buno-bedelle, Ilu Aba Bora and Jimma zone and western Ethiopia in general. The recent developments like Wollega Multipurpose International Stadium in the North, Wollega University Referral Hospital in the West, and Nekemte Specialised Hospital in the South and WollegaUniversity in the East are important and active socioeconomic corridors of the city that helped as the pull factors of overall socio-economic developments. Location of the study area is provided below on Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Location Map of the study area.

3.2. Data sources

For the purpose of this study, primary data were used to examine the determinant factors that affect the implementation of urban structure plan in Nekemte Town. Primary data were collected from site observation, field land use surveying and survey questionnaires. The observation was employed to collect data on real ground from the six kebeles of the town such as Bake-jama, Burka Jato, Chelaleki, Darge, Keso and Bakenisa Kase. The primary data such as the characteristics of urban expansion in relation to the proposed structure plan, the types of the land use on the ground in relation to the plan. Generally, detail of the research process was indicated on Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Flow diagram.

Site 1: is an area located near the center of the town. It is located in Keso and Bakejama kebeles of the town administration. The site is locally known by the existence of large market place. Site 2: is located in Cheleleki kebele administration. The site is located near the center and dominated by commercial and residential activities. Higher order service like Rift valley and Niwu Generation university colleges are also located in this site. Site 3: This area is known as Wollega University area. It is located at the fringe of the town along the entry route of Addis Ababa Asosa Road. It is included within burka Jato and Chelaleki Kebele administration. Site 4: this area is located in Burka Jato and Derge kebele administrations. The site is dominated by commercial, residential and worship places. Site 5: It is located in Derge kebele administration within the town boundary. The site is dominated by residential land use and commercial activities are thinly distributed throughout the site.

3.3. Methods

3.3.1. Data collection methods

In this study, during data collection the authors introduce on the purpose of data that is purely used for academic purposes and therefore, an introduction letter was obtained from Wollega University, College of Engineering and Technology, Urban and Regional Planning department and issued to respondents to assure them of the same. Informed consent from each research participant was obtained and utmost privacy and confidentiality were maintained at all levels of the study. The study was approved by Rebira Becho the head of Urban and regional planning department at Wollega University (Reference No. DURP/00120/2021).

After preparing introduction letter for the respondents, field observation, proximate land use survey and questionnaire surveys were employed to collect important data from the sample blocks of six kebele administration. Observation and land use survey were used to understand the types of existing land use and characteristic of Nekemte town urban expansion during the working period of 2008 structure plan. In order to conduct field observation and land use survey in the study area, 2 separate sites (Site 2 and 4 of Fig. 3) were selected. Within each site 6 blocks were selected randomly to reduce the complexity and difficulty of on field land use survey. Before site visit, the Authors prepared and assigned numbers to each blocks of the sample area (refer Fig. 7, Fig. 8) using 2008 structure plan as base map. Then, data were collected for two consecutive weeks starting from August 12, 2021 to August 25, 2021.

Fig. 3.

Research sample site for land use survey.

Fig. 7.

Sample site for land use survey (Site 4 of Fig. 3).

Fig. 8.

Sample site for land use survey (Site 5 of Fig. 3).

In this study, questionnaire survey was also employed to identify the factors that contribute in the failure of urban structure plan implementation in the case of Nekemte town. The Authors conducted semi-structured interviews and administered questionnaires starting from June 10, 2021 to August 05, 2021. This survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were designed to elicit the knowledge and opinions of urban planning experts and the local residents about the status and the hindering factors of Nekemte town structure plan. In the beginning, the questionnaires were prepared by English language. However, in order to make the prepared questionnaires more understandable and clear for the key informant and the respondent the researchers translate into the local language-Afan Oromo.

The structure and contents of the interview as well as survey questionnaires were based on prior literatures on urban development plan implementation challenges and composed of both closed ended and open ended questions. Participants were assigned to respond to our questionnaires using purposive sampling techniques. For urban and regional planning experts, we distributed and retrieved 20 questionnaires at a target governmental departments such as Oromia Urban Planning Institute western branch (N = 8), Nekemte Town land Development and management (N = 7), and Nekemte town Municipality (N = 5).

For local communities, 385 survey questionnaires were distributed and regained using purposive sampling methods based on the experience of the researchers and the location at which high structure plan violation is experienced. The questionnaires were distributed over the six kebeles (the lowest administration boundary) of Nekemte town Administration among 35,182 households. For the purpose of this study, sample size was selected using the Kothari Formula of n = z²pq/E², where n is the required sample, P is population Proportion, z is the value that specify the confidence level (1.96 for 95% confidence level), E is the square of maximum allowance for error and q is 1-p. After the determination of the sample respondents, we have distributed the total sample size over each kebeles using the following formula (see Table 1).

$$N=\frac{TotalNumberofHouseholdsateachKebele*Samplesize}{TotalnumberofHouseholdsinthetown}$$ 1

Table 1.

Sample size of households selected for questionnaire.

No.	Name of Kebeles	Total number of Households	Formula to assign kebele level samples	Sample respondents from each Kebeles
1	BakanisaKase	7292	7292*385/35,182	80
2	Bake Jama	3646	3646*385/35,182	40
3	Burka Jato	6563	6563*385/35,182	72
4	Chalalaki	6197	6197*385/35,182	68
5	Darge	6744	6744*385/35,182	74
6	Kaso	4740	4740*385/35,182	52
	Total	35,182		385

Accordingly, the sample respondents from each kebele administration were taken as shown on Table 1 below.

3.3.2. Data analysis methods

This study adopted the use of both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Quantitative data was analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 24.0 to generate measured and quantitative information about the area of the land use that violates the land use allocated on the 2008 structure plan of the town. Qualitative data from interview, observation and documents were analyzed qualitatively through detail description and interpretation of the data.

Descriptive statistics was used to describe the relationship between the independent variables (allocation of human resource, leadership support and public participation) and dependent variable (structure plan implementation). The study adopted descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation to describe the basic features of the data and to provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures.

Linear regression analysis was used to examine the extent of the relation of dependent variable with each independent variable obtained from questionnaire survey. Likert scale data were encoded, cleaned and prepared quantitatively for multiple regression analysis. For the purpose of this study the Authors employed multiple linear regression analysis to analyze the cause and effect relationship of the dependent variable Y (structure plan implementation) and independent variables X₁, X₂, X₃, …and X₁₀ (Technological advancement, Lack of skilled man power, Quality of the structure Plan, and Lack of Good governance and Leadership) as of Table 2. The basic relationship between X and Y is given by Y = a + b₁X₁ + b₂X₂ + … + bnXn.

Table 2.

List of variables included in the regression model.

Variable	Broad Definition	Unit of Measurement	Nature of the variable
Dependent Y	Structure plan implementation	M2	Continuous
Independent
X1	Lack of Technological advancement	Number	Binary
X2	Lack of skilled man power	In Number	Continuous
X3	Quality of the structure Plan	Scale	Continuous
X4	Lack of Budget	In number	Continuous
X5	Lack of commitment/focus	Scale	Continuous
X6	Political instability	Scale	Continuous
X7	Customary land Tenure	M2	Continuous
X8	Lack of Awareness	Scale	Continuous
X9	lack of Active Participation	scale	Continuous
X10	Lack of Good governance and Leadership	Scale	Continuous

4. Data analysis and results

4.1. Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents

385 distributed questionnaires were properly attempted and returned from sample respondents. The sample (N) for each variable are indicated while narrating the results (refer Table 3). Accordingly, the result indicated that out of 385 samples 78% are males while 28% of them are females. Most of the samples (90%) confined between 18 and 55 age categories, where 18–35 and 36–55 age groups share about 42% and 48% respectively. 79% of them are married while 15% are singles and about of 84% of them attended first degree and secondary school (9–10). In terms of occupation 78% of the samples are government employed of various educational background starting from grade six to PhD holders. In terms of their awareness about structure plan implementation and patterns of urban expansion about 26% of the respondents know and informed about urban structure plan implementation very well while 30% of know well.

Table 3.

Socioeconomic characteristics of survey respondents.

Variables	Category	Number of the Respondents	Percentage of the Respondent
Gender	Male	302	78.4
	Female	83	21.6
Age Characteristics	18–35	160	41.6
	35–55	186	48.3
	55–65	33	8.6
	65 & above	6	1.6
Marital Status	Single	59	15.3
	Married	306	79.5
	Divorced	17	4.4
	Widowed	3	0.8
Education Level of the Respondents	1–8	2	.5
	9–12	11	2.9
	Level II_IV	16	4.2
	Diploma	31	8.1
	Degree& above	325	84.4
Respondents' Occupation	Unemployed	6	1.6
	Private	29	7.5
	Government Employee	302	78.4
	Business man	11	2.9
	Student	19	4.9
	Others	18	4.7
Work Experience of the Respondents	No experience	13	3.4
	Less than 2	3	.8
	2–5	110	28.6
	5–10	49	12.7
	10–15	57	14.8
	More than 15	153	39.7
Year of stay in Nekemte town	<2 yrs.	6	1.6
	2–5 yrs.	80	20.8
	5–10 yrs.	85	22.1
	10–15 yrs.	60	15.6
	>15	154	40.0
Awareness of Urban plan implementation (N = 380)	Yes, I know very well	98	26
	Yes, I know well	115	30
	I informed a little	89	24
	no, I don't know at all	76	20

4.2. Perception of the resident on the level of urban expansion

In order to understand the perception of the local resident towards the status of urban plan implementation in Nekemte town, 17 attributes (among which 10 attributes were used for regression) were included in the survey questionnaires using 5-point Likert scale measurement. As shown on Fig. 4, the survey results showed that most of the respondents (about 64.67%) were strongly agree and agree on spatially rapidly expanding level of urban areas in Nekemte town. Only 27.79% of the respondents refuse the rapidly expanding state of the town by indicating strongly disagree and disagree from the Likert scale provided.

Fig. 4.

Perception of the Respondent on the status of Nekemte town Expansion.

4.3. Factors that hinders structure plan implementation in Nekemte town

In order to examine the major factors that hinder the implementation of structure plan implementation of the study town, the data collected using questionnaire survey were analyzed. The results of the questionnaire survey indicated that lack of good governance, lack of community participation, lack of awareness, customary land tenure, political instability, lack of commitment, lack of budget, quality of the structure plan, lack of skilled man power and lack of technological advancement were the major factors hindering urban planning implementation in Nekemte town. For instance, as shown by Fig. 5, most of the respondents were agreed and strongly agreed that lack of public awareness, lack of active community participation in the process of urban planning and customary land tenure (58.7%, 58.4% and 56.9%, respectively) are the major factors hindering urban structure plan implementation in the town.Where; 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree in Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7.

Fig. 5.

Perception of the resident on the factors that hinders urban planning implementation in Nekemte town.

Fig. 6.

Implementation status of Green spaces network.

The responses from the interview question indicate that the common challenges of human resource allocation in the key informants' office are insufficient man power, less technical capacity of the existing professionals, less commitment of existing professionals, and unrelated job positions. More than five respondents of the interview questions described that low number of man power and unrelated job positions as the main causes of poor structure plan implementation. For example, the first respondent from Land Use and Management office described that, “majority of the existing technical workers weren't assigned on their related fields”. This can be expressed by delayance of project completion time, poor data management, inappropriate working procedure and communication gap between the community, professionals and the leaders.

4.4. Status of structure plan implementation

In order to investigate the status of structure plan implementation of the study town, the data collected using field land use survey and questionnaire survey were analyzed. The results of the questionnaire survey indicated that the road network, green areas and urban forests, open spaces commercial land uses and agricultural land were not properly implemented. As shown in Fig. 6, most of the respondents were disagree and strongly disagree (63.9%, 63.12%, 61.8, 76.9 and 63.1% respectively) on road network, green space and forest, urban agriculture, commercial areas and open space implementation status. This indicates that the physical expansion of the town; the development of basic infrastructure such as urban street, open space, urban agriculture and green area that are located on the structure plan of 2008 were not implemented in accordance with the proposed structure plan.

Where; 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree in Fig. 3, Fig. 4.

In similar manner, the result from land use survey of sample sites showed that there is violation of structure plan regulations in most of the allocated land on the structure plan of 2008. As a result, the researchers identified that there was mismatch between the existing land uses and proposed land uses of 2008 structure plan document. The sample land uses and their implementation status were shown by Fig. 7, Fig. 8 and Table 4. The dashed contour line in Fig. 7, Fig. 8 below represents the boundary of the sampled piece of land not implemented in accordance with the existing structure plan of the town.

Table 4.

Implementation status of sample land uses.

Code No.	Proposed Land Use	Existing Land Use	Area (ha.)	Status of structure plan implementation
C01	Social Service	Commercial	0.67	Violated
C02	Sport field	Transport	1.88	Violated
C03	Park	Residential	3.23	Violated
C04	Mixed use	Residential	19.74	Violated
C05	Mixed Use	Residential	3.4	Violated
C06	Urban Agriculture	Market place	4.42	Reserved
C07	Mixed use	Residential	3.48	Violated
C08	Sport field	Residential	5.02	Violated
C09	Play ground	Play ground	2.76	Conform with structure plan
C010	Mixed use	Residential	12.58	Violated
C011	Play ground	Residential	2.43	Violated
C012	Park	Residential	8.53	Violated
Total			68.14

Fig. 7, Fig. 8 and Table 4 shows that among the observed 68.14 ha of sample proposed land uses 65.38 ha or more than 95% were violated (against the proposed land use) which means land uses like proposed park, playground, mixed land uses and urban agriculture were occupied by other functions (residential units) and the proposed land uses were not implemented on the ground. This implementation problem results shortage of recreational area for children, youth and elders as green spaces, proposed parks and proposed play grounds were highly violated as shown on Fig. 7, Fig. 8 and Table 4. In addition to the shortage of recreational areas for the residents, improper use of proposed agricultural land brings the shortage of agricultural products and food insecurity on urban residents.

Generally, results of the observation and land use survey of Nekemte town indicates the violation of Nekemte town development plan for various activities is widely happened and currently happening. This plan violation is happened due to the emergence of new housing demand which needs sufficient land allocation the in entire structure plan. The structure plan violation of Nekemte town is happened in such a way that; the proposed formal green space mixed uses, urban agriculture and sport fields were changed to residential units through customary land tenure that has no legal title deed (see Fig. 7, Fig. 8).

The data from government official interview questionnaires related to the status and factors that hinders Nekemte town structure plan implementation shows that the 2008 revised structure plan of the town is not implemented properly as prepared on the plan. The problems related with proper implementation of the proposed structure plan in Nekemte town are low awareness of the community, weak leadership, poor monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation, insufficient land supply for residential house, low manpower and poor customer service delivery in land use and management office, municipality and construction office. Among 20 key informants of the interview about eight informants mentioned weak leadership as the cause for inappropriate structure plan implementation in the town while the other 12 informants put poor monitoring and evaluation as well as insufficient supply of residential land as the major causes of the problem. In general, the data indicates weak leadership, poor monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation and insufficient residential land supply are the core causes of inadequate structure plan implementation in Nekemte town.

The interview informants also stated that with the current rapidly increasing population of Nekemte town, weak structure plan implementation is causing rapid horizontal expansion, overcrowding of the population, shortage of open space and green space as well as degradation of natural resources like land, swampy areas and water bodies.

The data from observation and interview of key informant shows that in the development of urban roads, infrastructure, open space, housing there was the violation of structure plan and urban planning laws and standards. This negatively affects the socio-economic wellbeing of the urban residents. Thus, this finding indicates the need for providing standardized roads, walkways, attractive formal green areas and open spaces as proposed on the structure plan to accommodate the rapidly growing population of the town.

4.5. Regression analysis

In this study regression analysis was used to test the effect of skilled man power, technological advancement, awareness of the resident about structure plan, financial capacity, political instability, customary land tenure, good governance and leadership and public participation on structure plan implementation of Nekemte town.

Multiple linear regression analysis indicates that the independent variables have strong relationship at (R = 0.858) with the dependent variable (structure plan implementation). Moreover, the factors identified in this study were found to explain 73.5% of the challenges of structure plan implementation in Nekemte town at coefficient of determination (R² = 0.735). The adjusted R square (R²) of the model is 0.728. This means that 72.8% of the variance of dependent variable (structure plan implementation) was explained by the variation in the independent variables identified in the model. As such, 27.2% of the challenges of structure plan implementation in the town administration were because of other factors that are not investigated in this study (Refer Table 5).

Table 5.

Regression Analysis of independent Variables) and dependent variable (plan implementation).

Regression statistics	Multiple R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Stand. Error	Overall P-value (P < 0.05)
	0.858	0.735	0.728	0.185	0.0000
	Coefficients (β)	Standard Error	t-Test	P-value (P < 0.05)
Constant	1.3441	0.0496	27.0763	0.0000
X1	−0.0244	0.0083	−2.9292	0.0036**
X2	−0.0233	0.0079	−2.9458	0.0034**
X3	0.0082	0.0067	1.2207	0.2230
X4	−0.0450	0.0077	−5.8482	0.0000**
X5	−0.0433	0.0082	−5.2602	0.0000**
X6	−0.0373	0.0080	−4.6565	0.0000**
X7	−0.0489	0.0079	−6.1820	0.0000**
X8	−0.0468	0.0085	−5.5283	0.0000**
X9	−0.0499	0.0082	−6.1035	0.0000**
X10	−0.0380	0.0078	−4.8568	0.0000**

X₁ = Lack of Technological advancement; X₂ = Lack of skilled man power; X₃ = Quality of the structure Plan; X₄ = Lack of Budget; X₅ = Lack of commitment/focus; X₆ = Political instability; X₇ = Customary land Tenure; X₈ = Lack of Awareness; X₉ = lack of Active Participation; X₁₀ = Lack of Good governance and Leadership.

** is significant at P < 0.05.

Furthermore, the results of the regression model (Table 5) revealed that all the independent variables such as X₁, X₂ …...X₁₀ have statistically significant effect on structure plan implementation of Nekemte Town at P-value of 0.05. For instance, the regression analysis of the independent variable (lack of active participation) and the dependent variable (structure plan implementation) is statistically significant with P-value of 0.0000 and Negative coefficient of Determination (β) −0.0499. The negative coefficient of determination implies that as independent variables increases, the dependent variables tends to decrease. This implies, a one unit shift in community participation leads to 0.0499 units decrease in the challenges of structure plan implementation keeping the other independent variables constant.

Similarly, the results of the other linear multiple regression show that the independent variables (X₁, X₂, X_4, X_5, X_6, X_7, X_8, X_9, X₁₀₎ and the dependent variable (Y = Master plan Implementation) is statistically significant with P-value of <0.05 and negative Coefficient (Table 5). However, the independent variable X₃ is not statistically significant and has no effect on the implementation of.

The analysis result of the data from open ended survey questions and interview questions argued that there is exclusive and passive public participation in implementing Nekemte town structure plan. This shows that the town residents have no sufficient information about the allocated land uses to protect them from illegal land holders. On the other hand, the residents have no chance to get sufficient awareness about the importance of structure plan implementation in order to push the town administration to implement the proposed land uses for their interest.

5. Discussion

This finding was contradicting with the Ethiopian urban plan implementation guideline that stated as the local governments should prepare the required institutional set up for plan implementation and for implementing bodies, establishment of proper technical information communication, and setting up of a suitable channel for following implementation activities to planning bodies and other stakeholders at different level.

As demonstrated by previous studies of [42,46,53], good leadership play crucial role for the successful urban project and always works important things to satisfy the needs of the residents in urban areas [49]. identified factors such as lack of locally specific data, shortage of finance and lack of critical capabilities in built environment professionals [54]. found that institutional arrangement has a potential to act as a barrier to urban plan implementation. The authors demonstrated that institutions have a great potential to offer support for urban plan implementation by providing the needed political will, institutional capacity and technical know-how.

[55] identified that urban plans were prepared in Pakistan starting from 1960s. However, they found that the plans were failed to yield the desired outcomes due to lack of strong legal support and institutional frameworks. The results of regression model (Table 5) also indicated that lack of active participation is the most influential factors with significance level (P- value) of 0.0000 and coefficient of determination (β) of −0.0499 and followed by customary land tenure and lack of awareness with a coefficient of determination −0.0489 and −0.0468.

As identified in previous study of [56] the challenges faced by developing countries in urban development plan implementation. The Author found that the greatest challenge of developing countries in implementing urban plans was the scarcity of reliable information and accurate statistical information during plan preparation. According to Ref. [6], the failure in urban plan implementation leads the challenges such as provision of adequate development control, provision of basic services in informalities, and adequate urban housing and maintenance of urban infrastructures due to rapid population growth [57] and urbanization. This study also revealed that the major causes of urban land violation is the failure to implement the proposed structure plan in the study area.

The study of [58], the use of plan conformance, plan influence and plan performance is very important in urban development plans implementation in order to have a deep understanding of how and why the plans failed. Plan conformance needs highly qualified and technically skilled man power and strong institutional capacity to judge the success and failure of the plan based on criteria. In addition, studies by Refs. [58,59] also found that advancement in technology provides the public an increased ability to access information and contribute data concerning their interaction with their urban environment and government. This increased access of information about their living environment will advance the productivity of the local resident and the planning staff.

As a study of [17] stated that urban financial capability has crucial role to play in responding technological advancement [60]. also demonstrate that, the explosive growth of advanced information technology offers greater potential for bringing diverse city planning issues to a shared platform and for addressing complexity challenges, generate new socio-economic activities in urban areas, mount the need for more flexible and change responsive urban planning interventions [61,62] and reduce and avoid urban problems [63].

However, the results of the analysis indicated that technological advancement and skilled man powers which are the most crucial in plan conformance and performance were the determinant factors that hinder the implementation of Nekemte 2008 structure plan. As a result, the local resident cannot easily understand the desired activities in their local area because they cannot easily have accessed the prepared urban structure plan.

A study by Ref. [64] also sought to find out several determinants of urban development plan implementation. According to the Authors the factors that affect urban plan implementation may be the internal such as the quality of the plan and the external factors that are related planning organization/institution such as institutional structures and the interactions among the planning and administration staff. Similar to the above study, this study found that the quality of structure plan (internal), institutional structures (financial capacity, skilled man power, commitment of the staff and participations) are among the hindering factors of urban plan implementation in Nekemte town (Fig. 5).

As indicated by Ref. [34] the process of urban development needs the closer interaction of the urban local resident and the government officials [53]. revealed that urban governance and leadership is all about how the government and the local resident decide on the way to plan, finance, develop and manage their urban areas. Similar to the above studies, this study found that the shortage of skilled man power, low technical capacity and lack of sufficient professionals in urban plan implementation leads to the increase of the violation of proposed activities. This indicates that inadequate manpower with poor professional skill is among the challenges of urban plan implementation.

6. Conclusions and recommendations

The study used questionnaire survey, interview, field observation and land use survey in order to examine the status and challenges of urban structure plan implementation of 2008 in Nekemte town. Based on the analysis and generated results of descriptive, regression and qualitative data, in this study the following conclusions were drawn. There is high level of urban structure plan violation due to the rapid population growth in the town and physical urban expansion to meet the housing demand of the resident.

The challenges of urban structure plan implementation of Nekemte town were influenced by the variety of factors. These factors are: lack of technological advancement, lack of sufficient skilled man power, the internal quality of the prepared structure plan, lack of budget, lack of commitment, political instability, awareness of the resident on the relevance of urban structure plan, customary land tenure, absence of active and interactive community participation in urban plan preparation and management as well as absence of urban good governance and leadership.

According to linear multiple regression model (Table 5), it is safe to conclude that lack of active participation in urban planning process, customary land tenure, lack of awareness, quality of the plan and budget related problems are the major factors that hinders the implementation of the prepared structure plan in Nekemte town. Based on the data and results acquired during the study, the following recommendations can be offered for future improvement of the current status of urban structure plan implementation of Nekemte town and the factors that hinders. As responsible organ of urban plan implementation, Oromia Urban Planning Institute together with the legal bodies should continuously monitor and evaluate the implementation status of the approved structure plan. For the proper implementation of approved structure plan the city government should assign skilled, committed, transparent and responsive leadership.

Related to the gap in human resource, the city administration, particularly land use and management office should increase the existing gap by hiring trained and skilled manpower to enhance proper urban structure plan implementation. The city government should encourage and facilitates the participation of the local resident in preparation and implementation of urban structure plan as active participation is the engine for urban plan implementation. The city government should develop and use the technology (GIS) that store, manipulate and display spatially referenced data including land use and population density as well as that can determine the physical availability and constraints of land based on various criteria. The city administration should develop urban data base using advanced technology to provide on time information about the violation of structure plan for the administrators, implementers and the concerned body to made appropriate timely decision about urban structure plan.

The scope of this study can be extended to the socio-economic effects of the factors that hinder urban plan implementation by extending the sampling duration, size. In addition to the identified factors, other factors should be studied in order to understand their level of influence and prioritize to come up with strong and fruitful solutions of urban plan implementation challenges. Intensive studies on the factors that hinder the implementation of urban structure plan should be takes place in Nekemte town to develop strategies to mitigate the challenge. The times for observation and land use survey as well as sampling site we choose for the purpose of this study are limited. In order to get reliable results, future studies should consider long time horizon and more sampling sites.

The findings in this study have contributed to the understanding that urban planning professionals and town administrators use active community participation in the urban planning and plan implementation processes. The findings concur with and provide basic theoretical understanding implications on hindering factors of urban plan implementation for all who are in the field of urban physical planning in general and for Nekemte town planners and administrators. This paper establishes that lack of active participation in the urban planning process, customary land tenure, lack of awareness on the benefits of urban planning and absence of quality plan is the main hindering factors of urban plan implementation. However, there is limitation of time and resource to study and identify the overall factors hindering urban plan implementation as it was intended. Therefore, further study is required to identify additional factors hindering urban plan implementation and its level of burdens by taking sufficient time in Ethiopia in general and specifically in the study area.

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Author contribution statement

Mulatu Dinsa Negeri: Contributed materials, analysis tools and data; Wrote the paper. Sitotew Haile Erena: Contributed materials, analysis tools and data; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Wrote the paper.

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Hereby, we Mulatu Dinsa, Mulugeta Soruma and Sitotew Haile consciously assure that for the manuscript entitled “The Determinant Factors that Hinders Urban Planning Implementation in Nekemte Town: The Case of 2008 Structure plan” the following is fulfilled.

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Manuscript entitled: The Determinant Factors that Hinders Urban Planning Implementation in Nekemte Town: The Case of 2008 Structure plan.