This study explores how the critical issue of urban territorial evolutionary changes from town to city status in Dodoma, Tanzania and its impact on the emergence of un-ecological urban villagization and land cover changes from 1998 to 2022 in the Dodoma City locality. A topic that remains underexplored in Tanzanian cities. The empirical evidence for this study has been drawn from interviewing 384 respondents in 17 wards and 56 sub-wards and through analysing Landsat satellite images of 1998, 2008, 2018, and 2022 years by semi-automatic classification plug-in (SCP) in Quantum Geographical information system (QGIS) software (version 3.12.3). Between 1974 and 2024, Dodoma City underwent significant urban expansion, with the built-up area extending from 3 to 50 kilometres from the Central Business District (CBD). Urban areas increased from 0.9% to 78.4% of the total city area. From 1998 to 2022, built-up land grew by 60%, while bare land, vegetation, and water areas decreased by 23%, 13%, and 1%, respectively. During this period, the number of rural villages dropped from 111 to none, urban villages rose from 33 to 74, and urban sub-wards expanded from 40 to 148.
Without adopting green building concepts, New Urbanism, and ecological modernization, Dodoma City risks undermining its resilience and liability by 2030. To address this, integrating ecological modernization concepts into urban development is recommended.
Keywords: Urban Territorial Regionalisation, Urban Villagization, Land Cover Changes, and Un ecological.