Abstract
Understanding the transition of urban forms is important for urban planing. While one of the factors promotig urbanization may be the economic transformation by absorbing labor force into the urban industries, on-going urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) may not be the case. The research attempts to understand the differences and commonalities of urbanization process and the urban forms under the different economic structures by examining the applicability of common urbanization requence proposed by the Urban Life Cycle Model. Population growth and the ditribution as well as the centrality/decentrality of sampled 9 urban areas of Asia and SSA are studied. GHSL-POP, internationally comparable data with historic data dating back up to 1975, is utilized and statistically analyzed. According to the population growth rates calculated along the distance from the urban centers, sampled urban areas are either in the urbanization or suburbanization phases. While continuous urban growth in observed urban areas is observed, the applicability of the Urban Life Cycle Model is not fully identified. With the mixture of commonalities and differences between urban areas in Asia and Africa, it is unclear whether urbanization process and urban forms under the different economic structure.
https://ror.org/057zh3y96 
