Land use land cover change and land surface emissivity in Ibadan, Nigeria

There are many drivers of climate change. The urbanization process has been adjudged to be one of the major factors influencing spatial variation in land use and land cover change (LULC), land surface temperature (LST), land surface emissivity (LSE), increasing greenhouse gases emission, and climate change. This article uses a multispectral satellite remote sensing and survey-based approach to examine the nexus of LULC and LSE in the Ibadan city region, Nigeria. The spectral reflectance, the sun angle spectral radiance of the Landsat imageries (2000, 2010, 2018) was corrected and converted from digital number. The LULC, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-Up Index (NDBI), LSE and LST were obtained from the analysis of Landsat imageries. From the findings, temperature increase was identified as a peculiar environmental issue. Analysis of the Landsat imageries revealed that the NDVI value increased from 0.44 in 2000 to 0.47 in 2018. The NDBI values showed that built-up areas in the core of the urban areas have the highest NDBI values (0.023-0.602). The spatio-temporal trends of LST were related to the changes in LULC, and the built-up area had the highest LSE. The maximum LST (43°C) was observed in the year 2018 at the core area of the city where building density was highest. The study suggests an application of cool pavements, green development, and urban forest regeneration for sustainable development

Residential Satisfaction and the Organised Private Sector Housing in Nigeria

Level of residential satisfaction has become one major user-end means of evaluating the success or failure of any housing project, programme or policy.  The increasing shift towards expanding the role of the market in the social and public policy delivery system of nations call for such evaluation in the housing delivered by profit-driven organized private sector in Nigeria.  This study therefore is an evaluation of residential satisfaction of residents of organized private sector housing in Nigeria.  The study, which was based on structured questionnaire administered on 1,950 beneficiaries of organized private sector housing estates, covered two states with the prevalence of organized private sector housing developers (OPSHD) in each of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Ten percent (1,950) households were randomly selected from the occupied houses (19,500) in the selected estates.  The structured questionnaire asked residents to rate their level of satisfaction with their housing in three broad areas of dwelling components, in-house services and neighbourhood infrastructure/facilities on Likert Scale of between 1 and 3; where “Very satisfied”, “Just satisfied” and Not satisfied” were given the weight  of 3, 2 and 1 respectively.  The data collected from the residents’ rating of their level of satisfaction were analyzed using the Residents’ Satisfaction Index (RSI) technique.  The overall level of residents’ satisfaction expressed as RSI was 2.31 while 11 of 13 attributes of the housing rated have RSI of greater than 2, with only two of the attributes having RSI of less than 2.   This study revealed that residents of organized private sector housing estates in Nigeria have high level of satisfaction with most of their building components, in-house-services and neighbourhood infrastructure/facilities as reflected in the overall residents’ satisfaction index of 2.31.  However, developers of these estates should improve electricity supply and fire service to enhance the level of satisfaction of residents of estates of organized private sector housing delivery in Nigeria. Keywords: Residents Satisfaction Index, Organized Private Sector Housing, Residential Satisfactio

The Introduction, Adaption and Use of IBTs in South Africa: A Case Study of AV Light Steel Potchefstroom , SA

This paper examines how innovative building technologies (IBTs) could be used to off-set housing backlog in the post-apartheid South Africa using the AV Light Steel, along with its sister company, Tshitshirisang Construction Company as a case study of a committed trailblazer in the manufacturing and use of light steel as an IBT for housing production in South Africa. The Fortis Building System (FBS), its cutting-edge technology, is aptly described as a nexus between technology and construction as it affords the company significant advantages over competitors in the construction industry. The research methodology included participatory observation, semi-structured interviews with system producer officials and beneficiaries of IBT products. Beneficiaries attested to the efficacy of the AV Light Steel houses. The challenges of IBT and the company were found to include buy-in and marketing of its products despite the many successful projects. The conclusion confirms the beneficial prospects of IBTs in solving housing backlog in South Africa

Analysis of the Living Conditions at eZakheleni Informal Settlement of Durban: Implications for Community Revitalization in South Africa

This study investigated the living conditions of the eZakheleni informal settlement, Durban metropolis of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. The utilized data were collected with the use of a well-structured questionnaire through a multistage sampling of 255 households. The descriptive results indicated low levels of educational attainment, large number of female headed households, high unemployment rates, inadequate sources of income, poor security and low government intervention programmes. The results of inferential analysis indicate that factors such as water accessibility, toilet accessibility, years of working experience, food security status, educational status and access to good health were the significant factors that were key to improving the living conditions of the residents in the study area. The study therefore concluded that education, basic housing services (water accessibility, toilet accessibility), food security, working experience, social connectivity and health are key contributors to households’ living condition in the study area and recommended several future research and policy directions which could improve the living conditions of the informal settlement