Assessment of conformity to demarcated environmentally sensitive areas in land use plans: The case of Abuja, Nigeria

Environmentally sensitive areas such as lands demarcated for urban green infrastructure and regional forest reserves by urban and regional plans are crucial to be protected due to the environmental, economic, social, and cultural services they provide. However, such environmentally sensitive areas are being threatened by various human activities, including urban dynamics. The current study, therefore, aimed to deploy existing scenario alternatives to predict and evaluate the environmental impacts of the possible future urban dynamics in environmentally sensitive areas to support the core of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process for sustainable urban and regional development planning and policy. The study deployed Geographic Information Systems, existing land cover maps, land use plans, calibrated and validated land use/land cover model, and scenario alternatives to predict the possible future urban and regional land dynamics using the Markov model. The matrix method of environmental impact magnitude and environmental sensitivity was used to define environmental impact significance. In so doing, the environmental impact magnitude in the environmentally sensitive area is categorised into very low (> 0% <5%), low (>= 5% < 10%), medium (>= 10% < 15%), high (>= 15% < 20%), and very high (>= 20%). Key findings showed a significant and non-significant environmental impact of the possible future urban dynamics in environmentally sensitive areas associated with the Business As Usual scenario and alternative scenarios, respectively. The information from the current study is useful to support decision-makers in addressing problems associated with the core of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process and its application to land use planning in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular and other parts of the Global South in general

Attitude and predictors of exclusive breastfeeding practice among mothers attending under-five welfare clinics in a rural community in Southwestern Nigeria.

BackgroundMuch previous research on exclusive breastfeeding has focused on urban and semi-urban communities, while there is still a paucity of data from rural areas. We assessed the attitude and practice of exclusive breastfeeding and its predictors among mothers attending the under-five welfare clinics in a rural community.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among consecutively recruited 217 mothers attending the three health facilities under-five welfare clinics in Ido-Ekiti, Southwest, Nigeria. Information was collected with a semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from previously published research works. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0.ResultsMore than half of the mothers, 117(53.9%) were ≥30 years old, and 191(88.0%) were married. Almost all, 216 (99.5%) attended an ante-natal clinic; however, 174(80.2%) delivered in the health facility. The respondent's mean ± SD exclusive breastfeeding attitudinal score was 29.94 ± 2.14 (maximum obtainable score was 36), and the proportion of mothers that practiced exclusive breastfeeding was 40.6%. Married mothers were more likely to practice exclusive breastfeeding than their unmarried counterparts (AOR:6.324, 95%CI:1.809-22.114). The common reasons for not practicing exclusive breastfeeding were work schedule 57(26.3%), cultural beliefs and the need to introduce herbal medicine 32(14.7%), and insufficient breast milk 30(13.8%).ConclusionThis study revealed a good disposition with a suboptimal practice towards exclusive breastfeeding. Also, being married was a positive predictor of exclusive breastfeeding. Therefore, we recommend policies that will improve exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in rural areas, especially those targeting the unmarried, to achieve the World Health Organization's target