Changes of urban green space patterns in Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

Unplanned urbanisation and disappearance of green spaces have prevented Nigerian cities from meeting international best practice standards. The World Health Organisation (WHO) requires that a city must attain a minimum of 9m2 per capita green space benchmark before it can be considered liveable. One important indicator of a liveable city is the amount of green spaces it possesses. Urban green spaces represent the unbuilt part of a city reserved for recreation, relaxation, and the promotion of health and wellbeing. They also provide opportunities for physical and psychological restoration, and the production of ecosystem services. However, cities grow in size and number in Nigeria without corresponding increases in the quantity of their green spaces. Akure in Ondo State, Nigeria, manifests this deteriorating condition. Making Akure greener, attractive and liveable, therefore, constitutes an important goal. This research studied the changes in the pattern of urban green spaces in Akure, with a view to preserving the availability of green spaces in the city. The rational choice theory and the theory of planned behaviour were adopted for this research. The study utilised a mixed method approach to elicit the opinions of 317 systematically sampled city residents. It also utilised remote sensing imagery to classify and detect land use changes and vegetation health. Survey questionnaires were analysed with SPSS Version 22.0, structural equation modelling, and the relative importance index. Findings revealed that although urbanisation, state creation and government policy initiated the conversion and loss of open spaces, the contribution of attitudinal factors to the process has been quite significant. Analysis of attitudinal factors revealed that lack of political will to enforce tree planting and conversion of incidental open spaces and urban gardens to residential and commercial uses were very strong. Analysis of remote sensing imagery revealed that increases in built-up area resulted in a two-fold disappearance of urban green spaces between 1987 and 2016. Further analysis revealed that Akure has a low per cent urban green space (PUGS) availability at 17 per cent, 4.3m2 per capita green space index, and between 0.2 and 0.3 normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI). The low greenness indices imply that Akure is currently not green enough or liveable. The necessity for mass education and enlightenment towards pro-environmental behaviour, adoption of open space master plan, and harmonisation and centralisation of Akure urban land, are therefore canvassed. Apart from Akure, other cities in Nigeria and other developing countries in general, may also find these recommendations useful.