TITLE:
Defining the Centralities of Infrastructure and Basic Services in the City of Thies, Senegal
AUTHORS:
Alphousseyni Ndonky, Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacke Ndour, Ababacar Fall, Ibrahima Ndiaye
KEYWORDS:
Centrality, Hierarchy, Population, Functions, Attractiveness, Thies
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.16 No.1,
January
15,
2026
ABSTRACT: Even if urban centers represent significant social and economic opportunities, studies focusing on them in African urban areas are relatively scarce, particularly in Senegal. It is important to identify urban centers in order to highlight hubs that can sustainably support urban growth. Our main objective is to study the urban centralities of the Thies city, using a geographical approach. The data comes from the 2023 Senegalese General Population and Housing Census. We used hierarchical clustering, local spatial association measures, and the chi-square test to analyze the data. Our study allowed us to determine the main types of urban centralities and establish a hierarchy of urban localities within the Thies city. The results of our study also revealed that the level of centrality of neighborhoods is influenced by their distance from the main center and that the spatial organization of urban centers does not reflect the spatial distribution of the population.