Urban greening and city sustainability in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

The pace of urbanisation, especially with cities in the developing world, has negatively influenced green areas and, as a consequence, threatened the several benefits provided by vegetation cover. Green areas provide shade, evaporative cooling, rainwater interception, and storage and infiltration functions, with impervious built surfaces. Consequently, the ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces are often overlooked and undervalued. The study uses primary data, which were obtained, through a random and systematic sampling of Three Hundred and Forty Four respondents. Variables used in the analysis include socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, the types of urban green space, benefits of urban green space to the respondents as well as the management strategies involved. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. ANOVA result shows that there is significant variation in the types of urban greening with F- value of 4.920, 3.673, 4.822; and p- value of 0.001, 0.006 and 0.001 for road greening, residential greening and institutional greening respectively. Besides, the study reveals that most of the areas in the metropolis are more of concrete than open space with 41.8% covered up with 75% concrete, 18.4% with 50% coverage and 16.1% with100% coverage while14.3% was covered with 25% coverage and only 9.4% is less than 25% concrete coverage. The study therefore recommends the use of land development plan and the use of planning approval strategies among others, to ensure adequate room for urban green space in the metropolis.

Key Words: Urban Greening, City, Sustainability, Urban renewal and Metropolis