Mapping spontaneous conflicts: planning with? incremental transformations of green space in Sinza D, Dar Es Salaam

Abstract

In Dar es Salaam, as in many fast-growing African cities, land-use conflict often develops gradually through everyday household actions, such as cutting trees or extending buildings, that reshape neighbourhood environments over time. This study examines the incremental transformation of green space in Sinza D, a planned neighbourhood in Dar es Salaam, tracing how household adaptations accumulate and intersect to generate collective concerns. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research employs timeline-guided narrative interviews, participatory mapping, and multi-scalar reflection to follow land-use change from plot to neighbourhood levels. Data were generated through household interviews, reflection sessions, neighbourhood workshops, public meetings, and dialogues with municipal professionals. Visual tools, including timelines, annotated satellite imagery, maps, and three-dimensional models, supported collective reflection, while narratives and visual materials were analysed iteratively to support cross-household and cross-scale comparison and to develop empirically grounded typologies of household-environment engagement. The findings show that household practices such as tree removal to enable rental construction, enacted through both formal approval and everyday negotiation, progressively reduce green space and reshape plot layouts. As these changes intensify, their environmental and social effects become shared, surfacing through increased heat, loss of shade, and neighbourhood-level disputes discussed in public forums. By foregrounding how private adaptations translate into collective issues, the study challenges dominant framings of urban land-use conflict focused on formal violations or large-scale interventions and argues for more adaptive and inclusive planning approaches grounded in lived experience and co-produced spatial knowledge.