One of the most suitable countries for witnessing the impact of development projects upon population redistribution is Sudan. The largest country in Africa, it possesses what appears to be almost limitless space, ranging from arid desert in the north to tropical rainforest in the south, across which flows one of the world's greatest water resources, the Nile and its two great tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The utilization of these waters has involved a long series of development projects, large and small, which have not only greatly affected the economic development of Sudan, but also its population distribution and growth. For each project involves the displacement and changed life styles of people, both local and remote, as it attracts people from far and wide. And the localization of projects is necessarily uneven, and so also is the accompanying urbanization. Consequently, development involves major movements of people.

It follows that government policies for economic and social development must give careful attention to the effects of development projects upon population redistribution, and over the last decade or so there has been growing awareness of the significance of this phenomenon. Among the interested international organizations, the International Geographical Union's (I.G.U.) Commission on Population Geography has played a role in holding symposia in different parts of the world, bringing together not only geographers but economists, anthropologists, sociologists, demographers, planners and others to discuss the problem.