URBAN SPRAWL, PATTERN AND MEASUREMENT IN LOKOJA, NIGERIA

Lokoja have been experiencing a large influx of population from its surrounding regions, which had led to rapid growth and expansion that had left profound changes on the landscape in terms of land use and land cover. This study uses the GIS techniques and the application of Shannon’s entropy theory to measure the behavior of sprawl which is based on the notion that landscape entropy or disorganization increases with sprawl, analysis was carried out based on the integration of remote sensing and GIS, the measurement of entropy is devised based on the town location factors, distance from roads, to reveal and capture spatial patterns of urban sprawl. Then Entropy value for each zone revealed a high value, especially areas outside the core city area; like Felele, with the entropy of 0.3, Adankolo, 0.2 and Lokongoma, 0.2. These areas are evenly dispersed settlement, as one move away from the city core. Study shows a correlation of population densities and entropy values of 1987 and 2007, for areas like Felele ,Adankolo, and Lokongoma , which is indicative of spread over space , an evidence of sprawl. But as we go down the table the entropy values seem to tend towards zero. This study provides quantitative data for effective planning and decision making in projecting the town growth and in planning the direction of growth.urban sprawl, patterns of sprawl, entropy theory.

Assessing the Spatio-Temporal Rates and Extent of Land Use Changes in the Fringes of North Central Nigeria

The study analyzed spatial and temporal land use /land cover change in parts of north central Nigeria. This was carried out with the use of land sat images from 1974-2011. A hypothesis was put forward that there is no significant difference in the rate and extent of land use change among the cities under study from 1974 to 2011.The result shows that there is a significant difference in the rate of land use change in the fringes of the three cities under study, between 1974 and 2011,(F=1.481, p=0.025, p<0.05). This significant change in land use is obvious from the result, since the F probability ratio is greater than the threshold value at 0.05 significant level. Thus, the change among the three towns in terms of their land use varied significantly. This has serious implication to planning. Keywords: GIS, land use change; urban dynamics; land use pattern

Urban Landscape Planning and Soil Variation in Nigeria: Lokoja as a Case Study

The legacies of the colonial masters of a well landscaped environment have been left to rot due to negligence and increase need for urban land for anthropogenic activities. This had led to recent attempts of revival by the government through tree planting campaigns, which have not yielded desired result. Soil factor have been found to be neglected in landscaping the urban environment, this have been attributed to failure of landscaping attempts in the study area. This research attempted to find the relationship between the vegetation species distribution and soil physical properties with use of spearman’s correlation coefficient. The findings show that relationship between vegetation species distribution and soil physical properties are not significant, this may mean that there are other factors that must be considered in determining why certain species of plant thrive in certain areas than the other.Key words: Soil degradation; Colonial legacies; Landscaping; Vegetation specie

Sustainable urban form:Socio-demographic and permeability factors as determinants of crime spots in cities, case of Akure, Nigeria

ABSTRACTUrbanization comes with the price of the negative complexity of crime. It is a reflection of the socio-demographic and permeability factors. This paper aims to integrate socio-demographic crime factors with street permeability to find the association with residential burglary spots. We first find the residential burglary hotspots area related to socio-demographic factors of the study area, then identify potential residential burglary risk areas based on the factors of street permeability and find the association of residential burglary with socio-demographics and street permeability factors in Akure. The methodology employed includes the Inverse Distance Weight factor analysis, space syntax, and the Poisson regression analysis. The findings showed hotspots of burglary within neighbourhoods, confirming the relationship between the factors. Issues identified herein denote some logical starting points for criminological engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals. In the conclusion, we discussed the implications for the statistical output

Street Tree Canopy Cover Variation Effects on Temperature in Lokoja, Nigeria

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