Dakar, Touba and the Senegalese cities network produced by climate change

•Degradation of climatic conditions has stimulated the mobility of the Senegalese.•Increased mobility has contributed to a rapid process of urbanization for Dakar, Touba and other Senegalese cities.•Touba, Mbour, Richard Toll, and Ourossogui are patent examples of new urbanization.•As a result of complex and shifting dynamics, Senegalese urban networks have been renewed in both typology and configuration.

In this paper we analyse the manner in which the degradation of climatic conditions has stimulated mobility in Senegal and contributed to rapid urbanization of Dakar, Touba and other Senegalese cities. The determining factors of migration are always multifaceted and complex. Overwhelmed by drought, conflict and territorial pressure, rural residents are attracted to the cities. The urban primacy of Dakar and the stagnation of secondary cities were two dominant characteristics of the Senegalese urban network until the 1970s. With the volunteer-based politics of urbanization initiated by the State, the process of decentralization of 1996, and the changes in the economic structure of the country, many small and secondary cities have subsequently been consolidated. The birth of numerous religious cities outside of the administrative or communal systems contributes to a disturbance of previously established schemas of urban creation. Touba, Mbour, Richard Toll, and Ourossogui are key examples of this new urbanization. However, all the components of the urban network are experiencing new dynamics, thus continuously renewing the urban network in both its typology and configuration.