Sustainable livable housing assessment model for traditional urban areas in Nigeria

Abstract

Sustainable livable housing entails meeting residents’ housing needs and well-being in terms of housing condition, facilities, safety and psychology. Reports and studies revealed that about 863 million people in developing countries live in slum, with 61.7% of this is in Africa. In Nigeria, approximately 75% of people living in urban areas live in poor housing conditions, manifested by overcrowding, poor urban living conditions, low facilities and high crime rates. At present, the absence of sustainable livable housing (SLH) assessment index for traditional urban areas (TUAs) has caused difficulties in determining housing that suits and meets the needs of the TUAs residents. The assessment index is critical in achieving housing-related target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that concerns with sustainable cities and communities on or before 2030. The main purpose of this study is to establish SLH assessment index toward improving TUAs housing condition in Nigeria. The first objective is to determine attributes and their indicators for assessing SLH according to their importance for TUAs. The second objective is to examine significant relationship between identified attributes and their indicators with SLH to establish structural model. The third objective is to develop SLH assessment index toward improving housing living condition in the TUAs. In achieving the first objective, the researcher carried out literature review, focus group discussions (FGDs), experts’ validity survey and TUAs resident field survey in Osun State, Nigeria as well as undertaken quantitative analysis. Seven identified attributes and their 36 indicators were found relevant and important. These findings were then subjected to further analyses such as measurement model, structural model and important performance matrix analysis (IPMA) using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), to achieve the second objective. Five attributes namely housing units, security and safety, facilities and services, community and neighbourhood, and economic development emerged as significant. These 5 significant attributes and their 27 indicators were utilized to achieve Objective 3 i.e. developing SLH assessment index (SLHAI) that is suitable for TUAs housing assessment, based on resident needs and perspectives in Nigeria. The result of the SLHAI validation and testing in Ile-Ife, Iwo and Osogbo TUAs, Osun State, Nigeria revealed that housing in study areas has been assessed as fair and scarcely suitable for participants’ housing need and requires improvements. Conclusively, the assessment index developed has shown aspects from which the improvement activity should commence; as such this study has successfully met its purpose.