{"id":9229,"date":"2025-03-10T16:34:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T13:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/?p=9229"},"modified":"2025-03-10T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T13:42:55","slug":"dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Sumari, a SUA Scientist, Part of International Team Behind High-Impact Nature Journal Publication"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An international research team, comprising scholars from the\u00a0<strong>Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)<\/strong>, <strong>University of Hong Kong (HKU)<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Wuhan University<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Cairo University<\/strong>, <strong>The University of Melbourne<\/strong>, and other collaborating institutions, has published a groundbreaking research paper titled\u00a0<em>&#8220;Underlying Rules of Evolutionary Urban Systems in Africa&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0in the prestigious international journal\u00a0<strong>Nature Cities<\/strong>. From the perspective of complex systems, the study reveals the universality, specificity, and explanatory power of underlying rules governing urban system evolution.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hku.hk\/f\/news\/28144\/826p376\/Goba.JPG\" width=\"668\" height=\"376\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-neema-sumari\">Dr Neema Simon Sumari<\/a><\/strong> a Senior Lecturer from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania, contributed to the paper alongside <strong>Professor Peng Gong<\/strong>, Vice-President (Academic Development) of HKU, and\u00a0<strong>Professor Limin Jiao<\/strong>\u00a0of Wuhan University, who served as the corresponding authors.\u00a0<strong>Gang Xu<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Mengyan Zhu<\/strong>\u00a0of Wuhan University are the co-first authors. Other contributors include\u00a0<strong>Assistant Professor Bin Chen<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Professor Xiaoling Zhang<\/strong>\u00a0from the Faculty of Architecture at HKU,\u00a0<strong>Assistant Researcher Zhibang Xu<\/strong>\u00a0of the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences,\u00a0<strong>Professor Xuecao Li<\/strong>\u00a0of China Agricultural University,\u00a0<strong>Dr. Muhammad Salem<\/strong>\u00a0of Cairo University,\u00a0<strong>Associate Professor Patrick Brandful Cobbinah<\/strong> of the University of Melbourne, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-neema-sumari\">Dr Neema Simon Sumari<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/sua.ac.tz\/\">Sokoine University of Agriculture<\/a> in Tanzania.<\/p>\n<p>Urban systems are typically complex systems, and their evolution follows a series of universal laws that can be expressed through concise mathematical models, such as the rank-size rule (Zipf&#8217;s law), the law of proportionate growth (Gibrat&#8217;s law), and scaling laws. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the universality of these laws, paying insufficient attention to how these rules might vary at different stages of urbanisation or how these models can convey the changes in city systems over time.<\/p>\n<p>Africa, recognised as one of the most rapidly urbanising regions worldwide, boasts a rich array of natural geographical features. The influences of colonial history, socio-economic structures, and multiculturalism have shaped the unique urbanisation processes within African countries. This diversity has led to considerable variations in urban evolution across the continent, offering a multifaceted sample for the study of urban system development.<\/p>\n<p>Starting from a unified urban definition, the research team utilised remote sensing data on urban population and land use to comprehensively analyse the evolution of over 9,200 towns and cities across Africa over the past 70 years (1950-2020). Applying the theories of Zipf&#8217;s law, Gibrat&#8217;s law, and scaling laws, the study first verified the universality of urban system laws in African cities and then focused on their specificity and the explanatory power of model parameters. The parameters of Zipf&#8217;s law revealed a shift from dispersed to concentrated urban populations in Africa, with an increasingly concentrated trend toward larger cities. This shift was corroborated by the parameters of Gibrat&#8217;s law, which highlighted differences in population growth rates among different-sized cities. The scaling law results showed that, unlike in Western developed countries, land development in large African cities, particularly in East and West Africa, has been more extensive. However, as urban systems matured, economies of scale in land use gradually emerged, aligning with theoretical expectations.<\/p>\n<p>The study&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>The full paper can be accessed at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s44284-025-00208-y\">https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s44284-025-00208-y<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An international research team, comprising scholars from the\u00a0Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), University of Hong Kong (HKU),\u00a0Wuhan University,\u00a0Cairo University, The University of Melbourne, and other collaborating institutions, has published a groundbreaking research paper titled\u00a0&#8220;Underlying Rules of Evolutionary Urban Systems in Africa&#8221;\u00a0in the prestigious international journal\u00a0Nature Cities. From the perspective of complex systems, the study reveals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-9229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-stories","tag-publication"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Sumari, a SUA Scientist, Part of International Team Behind High-Impact Nature Journal Publication - Department of Informatics and Information Technology | Sokoine University of Agriculture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Sumari, a SUA Scientist, Part of International Team Behind High-Impact Nature Journal Publication - Department of Informatics and Information Technology | Sokoine University of Agriculture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An international research team, comprising scholars from the\u00a0Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), University of Hong Kong (HKU),\u00a0Wuhan University,\u00a0Cairo University, The University of Melbourne, and other collaborating institutions, has published a groundbreaking research paper titled\u00a0&#8220;Underlying Rules of Evolutionary Urban Systems in Africa&#8221;\u00a0in the prestigious international journal\u00a0Nature Cities. From the perspective of complex systems, the study reveals [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Informatics and Information Technology | Sokoine University of Agriculture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T13:34:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T13:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sumari-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joseph Telemala\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/\",\"name\":\"Department of Informatics and Information Technology | Sokoine University of Agriculture\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sumari-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Sumari-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conas.sua.ac.tz\/informatics\/dr-sumari-a-sua-scientist-part-of-international-team-behind-high-impact-nature-journal-publication\",\"name\":\"Dr. Sumari, a SUA Scientist, Part of International Team Behind High-Impact Nature Journal Publication - 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