NAN-H-60
Building
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, Feb. 9, 2017 (NAN) The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) has recommended that due process be followed in obtaining building plan approval to prevent haphazard development and illegal construction in the country.
The recommendation was contained in the institute’s newsletter which focused on its on-going research and monitoring of urban growth and land use cover change across the country.
The newsletter, which used Suleja Local Government Area of Niger as a case study, was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja.
According to NBRRI, the research was carried out by the Geographic information systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing Research Group.
It said that the research recommended that other measures be taken to address urbanisation challenges such as congestion, pollution, over-crowding, utility crime and over stretching of facilities.
According to NBRRI, the research stressed that the increase in population demands for more lands for housing construction to accommodate rising population growth.
NBRRI in the research further recommended that the Niger government, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and NBRRI should collaborate to train artisans.
According to it, creating jobs for the rising population will reduce dependency, poverty and crime in Niger.
“Niger State Government needs to expand urban observatory for land information management system in the four planning regions which include Kantogora, Bida, Minna and Suleja,’’ it said.
It said that NBRRI carried out the research to ascertain the rates of settlement and population growth over time in Nigerian urban centres.
It said that Suleja was selected because of its proximity to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“Three sets of satellite raw imagery of Suleja for 1980, 2000 and 2015 were acquired and used in the methodology.
“The software used for the study involves Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing Applications tools.
“The study involves the use of population data for the 1996 National Population Commission( NPC) ( 167,420 Growth Rate, 2.3 %) as the base year population for year 2000,’’ it said.
It also said the study also involved population data for 2006 NPC Population (216,578Growth Rate 2.49%) as the base year population for 2015.
NBRRI said that in carrying out the research, the period 1980-2000 showed built-up yearly increase of 2.6 Ha.
It also said that 2000-2015 showed built up yearly increase o 125.7 Ha while the projected built-up increase from 2015 -2035 showed an annual increase of 78 8 Ha.
The institute said that further projection to the built up to 2035 shows an increase up to 49 % signifying future loss of vegetation and agricultural land in the projected year. (NAN)
COA/EEM/OJO
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(Edited by Emmanuel Mogbede/Mufutau Ojo)