Category: Urban & Regional Planning Project Topics & Materials

Nov 27

The challenges in the execution of public sector housing in Nigeria

The challenges in the execution of public sector housing in Nigeria

Abstract

Housing (Shelter) is unarguably one of the basic necessities of man. It used to be ranked second after food in the hierarchy of man’s needs but according to Ebie (2009) it is the first and most important of all rights. According to him, because of the importance attached to housing and coupled with the fact that housing in all its ramifications is more than mere shelter,then,execution of public sector housing embraces all social services and utilities that go to make a community or neighborhood a livable environment, this is now a right in Nigeria.This position is reinforced by section 16(1)(d) of 1999 constitution under the Fundamental Objectives of State Policy which compels the Nigerian State“to provide suitable and adequate shelter for all citizens” Even though this provision is not actionable, it reinforces the call for public sector driven mass housing provision in Nigeria. Housing being a right entails that all strata of a society including the less privileged members of the society, the old, the disadvantaged, the wondering psychotics should own or have access to decent, safe and sanitary housing accommodation at affordable disposal prices or rental with secure tenure.
Sep 10

Rural poverty and its aftermath effects on rural area

Rural poverty and its aftermath effects on rural area

Introduction

Recent discussion of the analysis of poverty and livelihoods draws attention to the limitations of currently dominant approaches. Measuring the incidence of poverty is an important first step in understanding it, but measurement alone does not explain the causes of poverty. Analysing livelihoods in terms of the assets and strategies of the poor opens up space for taking seriously the priorities, choices and initiatives demonstrated by poor people, but it risks underplaying the constraints thrown up by social relations and institutions that systematically benefit the powerful. It also risks making an assumption that such livelihoods are sustainable. This paper draws on these discussions to develop an analytic framework for the study of poverty, one that examines its causes, responses to it and the consequences of those responses. It then uses this framework to discuss the lives of people in a remote rural area in South Africa. People’s responses to poverty in this context appear to be becoming unsustainable and their livelihoods seem increasingly fragile. There is no necessary reason why responses to poverty should be sustainable.

Jul 30

Examination Of  The Impact Of  Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development. A Study Of Calabar, Nigeria

Examination Of  The Impact Of  Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development. A Study Of Calabar, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Nigerian real estate includes all types of property ranging from single and multiple dwelling units residential developments, commercial (office space, retail space, shopping malls and hotel or restaurants), agricultural farm land and industrial blocks of (go-downs  and  warehouses, factories). The real estate development is a process by which initial land use of a designated neighbourhood or planning zone is transformed into new land use(s) in order to obtain the highest and best use of the land parcel(s). This development is mainly undertaken through change of use and extension of use through the approval by the local authority under the area of jurisdiction. The major challenges currently facing sustainability urban environment is the inadequate practice of land use control measures. The real estate developments in Calabar are led by demand  rather than infrastructural capacity.

This research project  examined the Impact Of Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development. A Study Of Calabar, Nigeria since the urban area has experienced massive developments in real estate in terms of increased property investment. These high rise developments have stressed the existing environment in terms of infrastructure capacity and green spaces. This study shall try to address the prevalence and the nature of the developments in real estate; the causes of land use variations as developments; the effects of the real estate developments on infrastructure services provision and vegetation cover within the study area.

The literature was reviewed to determine on how real estate development affects the general urban areas, and the possible merits and demerit of development models under the study and the land use control measures. The target population was residents of Calabar while the study population will be chief officers, departmental heads and general staff from the real estate firm managing properties. Simple random sampling was used to pick out specific houses across the study area. The data obtained from the study was sorted out, analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented using photographs, maps, charts, simple tables and graphs.

CHAPTER ONE

 

 

         INTRODUCTION

 

                    Background to the study.

Nigerian real estate includes all types of property ranging from single and multiple dwelling units residential developments, commercial (office space, retail space, shopping malls and hotel or restaurants), agricultural farm land and industrial blocks of (go-downs  and  warehouses, factories and light productions) (Masika, 2010). The real estate property development in Nigeria has been soaring high in the past few years because of the perceived high rate of returns and fewer risks involved. The Nigerian population records an annual rise of about one million and out of this has arose a significant group of investors that is aggressively seeking investments in real estate property. This has had the effect of exerting pressure on sustainable urban environment due to the need for adequate infrastructure and contusive living environment and the increased demand for housing, especially in urban areas which has far outweighed the supply. An immediate obvious impact of limited housing in urban areas has led to a trend that has seen the sustainability of the urban areas in terms of adequate facilities; environmental conservation and infrastructure services.

The real estate development is a process by which initial land use of a designated neighbourhood or planning zone is transformed into new land use(s) in order to obtain the best use and maximum returns of the land parcel(s). These developments process are mainly undertaken through either demand-led or infrastructure led developments approaches. The demand-led real estate development approach involves subdivision, change of use and extension of use. These procedures go through local approving authorities before the implementation of the desired developments. The other approach in real estate development under infrastructure-led, is where the implementation of the long term zoning plan is guided by the available infrastructure. This zoning plan indicates all aspects of real estate to be developed in terms of; land use, plot/ground coverage, plot ratio, building heights, and building line among others. However all the two approaches above tend to follow the available regulations; although the demand-led approaches

 

may encourage the violation of the initial zoning standards, for the planning zone as had been intended in the urban land use plan or the zoning plan.

There is an urban challenge of balancing the increase in demand and supply for real estate against the adequacy of infrastructures and conservation of the green areas or vegetation covers in urban areas. This research project therefore, provides an insight on urban land use management focusing meanly on the effects of the developments in real estate on infrastructure and vegetation cover within Calabaras one of the cities in the developing nations.

In recent past, Nigeria has experienced an urban growth of population which has led to pressure on existing infrastructure and necessary services and an abrupt growth of informal or unplanned urban settlement. Calabar is currently experiencing immense developments in real estate in many parts which are characterized by the various variations in the land uses. These land use variations exercises carried out are; change of user, extension of user, amalgamations, subdivisions and extension of lease. There is pressure on the low-density residential neighbourhoods within Calabar area due to high rate of population growth..

                    Problem Statement

The key challenges in land use control within Calabar metropolis  are; the enforcement and compliance with the zoning regulations due to weak enforcement and widespread non-compliance; and the housing deficit especial for low and middle class population. The private sector has been allowed to venture into provision of housing in order to bridge the gap in provision of housing. The observed trends within Calabar show the deterioration of the urban environments. The estates are characterized with flooding during rainy season; there is loss of trees and green spaces. Additionally as observed during reconnaissance, green fields and vegetations in the study area have been changing. The developments in real estate are demand-led development and not the intended infrastructure-led development which could have followed zoning regulations of  Calabar. These high rise developments have strained the existing environment in terms of infrastructure capacity.

This research project proposes to examine Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development in Calabar, Nigeria.

 

 

The objectives of the study

This research project aims at examining the impact  of Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development in Calabar. Therefore the following objectives shall be achieved.

  1. To determine the nature and causes of developments in real estate within Calabar metropolis
  2. To determine the impacts of the real estate developments on infrastructure services provision within Calabar metropolis
  • To evaluate the impacts of the real estate developments on vegetation within Calabar metropolis

                    The Research questions.

The following questions shall be addressed in detail:

  1. Which are the nature and causes of developments in real estate within Calabar metropolis?
  2. How have the real estate developments impacted the infrastructure services provision within Calabar metropolis?
  • What are the impacts of the real estate developments on the vegetation within Calabar metropolis?

                    The scope of the study

This work is on Examination Of  The Impact Of  Land Use Control Measures On Real Estate Development. The research were restricted to Calabar  metropolis.

 

                    Organization of the study

This research project is organized into five different chapters each having a specific section of the research.

 

Chapter one is an introductory. It contains the problem statement, objectives, hypothesis, research methodology, scope and the significance of the study as well as defining the key terms in the study.

The second Chapter discusses the literature related to the study and the theoretical model developed that acts as a basis of the research. It includes various relevant definitions as enumerated by different authors; the policies, legislations and international treats governing sustainable urban environment; the nature and level of real estate development; effects of real estate developments on infrastructure and environment. A theoretical framework is established to act as benchmark for the study.

The third Chapter illustrates the case study area and methodology. In the chapter, the characteristics of the study area are provided. The procedures used in sampling, the sample and methods used in collection and analysis of data are highlighted.

Chapter Four presents the responses and analyses of various respondents to whom questionnaires were administered as well as oral interviews conducted. The problems encountered in carrying out the research are also highlighted as well as hypothesis testing.

Chapter Five entails the main findings of the research and conclusions. The proposed appropriate management framework to ensure sustainable urban land management is presented in this chapter. Suggested areas of further research are mentioned.

                    Definition of key terms

  • Sustainable development: Sustainable development is the improvement or growth that meets the needs of the present conditions without compromising the ability of future conditions or generations to meet their
  • Unsustainability: This can be referred to a state at which development are being done either beyond their capacity of supporting eco-systems or development which cannot be done for a long time provided the same conditions prevails hence the resource may not available for the future
  • Urban environment: this an area where many buildings have been developed to yield high income and both the working and the living areas are closely placed together with the support services like schools and hospital with minimal empty or green spaces

 

available. The urban area may be plagued with several challenges like the vehicular (both personal and commercial) parking space and the movement from and to the work stations.

  • Green fields: this refers to virgin land that is characterized by indigenous trees and grass or thatches and without structures in an urban area. When there is a project for real estate development, there is definitely interference with the vegetation on the
  • Green spaces: Green space is the land that is either wholly or partially covered with vegetation like; grass, trees and shrubs. Green space in urban area is used for recreations parks
  • Sustainable urban environment: The sustainable urban environment involves ensuring the available resources in the urban areas are well managed in order to serve the future generations in terms of ecosystem integrity, carrying capacity and
  • Real estate development: It encompasses soil and everything below it to the centre of gravity and everything above it to the sky and anything that is permanently fixed to
  • Land Use: Land use involves the usage and access to natural resources on land in order to benefit on its output and yields such as pastures for grazing land in rural areas, and human settlements for urbanized areas. Land use can also be defined to include the social and economic importance like homesteads and market areas which may be managed or left unmanaged.
  • Land use Variations: Land use variation means complete replacement of one use by another, for instance a shift from one land use category to another or it may also mean additional of an another use to existing uses to have more than one use. It also involves the changing of the size of land in order to add or replace the land
  • Demand-led development: This refferes to development which depends on the dynamics of free spending economy led by the high demand and low supply of the products. The developments carried out under this model in the real estate leads to activities on like change of use, extension of use and subdivision of large tracks of land into small plot in order to provide avenue for expenditures on real estate
  • Infrastructure-led development: This is where the long-run development is based on public infrastructure such as roads, sewerage, piped water and waste management as the

 

main engine of growth in a given urban area. The proposed developments are evaluated based on the capacity of the infrastructures.

  • Effects of development: This is the impact observed or experienced as a result when something is done or happens: an event, condition, or state of affairs that is produced by an action caused by the real estate
Jul 04

Recycling as an effective waste management

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Waste management is a serious issue due to its human health and environmental control implications. It is really a pressing issue the world is facing today, since a high percentage of waste is currently disposed of by open dumping (Schiopu, Apostol, Hodoreanu, and Gavrilescu, 2007; Abdelnaser, and Gavrilescu 2008; Abdelnaser, EI-Amrouni, Latifa, Pakir, Ramli, and Aziz, 2009; Narayana, 2009).To buttress this assertion (Zamorano, Molerob, Grindlayb, Rodriguezc, Hurtadoa & Calvo, 2009; Jalil, 2010; Adekunle, Adebola, Aderonke, Pius and Toyin, 2011) posit that Waste Management is a globally challenging issue especially in developing countries, due to its adverse environmental effects. Mankind naturally depends on the environment to sustain their lives but solid waste is one of the three major environmental problems in Nigeria, many other developing and even the developed countries are threatened by this. It plays a significant role in the ability of nature to sustain life within its capacity.

Domestic waste management, collection and disposal have always been a universal issue. This is because efficient and appropriate collection and disposal of solid waste has been recognized as essential to the hygiene and health of urban societies-since the nineteenth century. Over the course of the first half of the twentieth century, sanitary engineers and the broader public also came to understand that the inappropriate treatment of waste could cause major environmental degradation, while recycling could contribute significantly to environmental control.

Waste management is imperative because improperly stored refuse can cause health, safety andeconomic problems. All living organisms create waste, but humans create far more waste than other species. To prevent damaging the Earth’s ecosystems and maintain a high quality of life for the planet’s inhabitants, humansmust manage and store their waste efficiently and safely.

In addition, the problem of municipal waste has also turned into a global challenge because of an exponentially increased population, rapid urbanization, and worldwide industrialization and limited resources (Narayana 2009; Hazra,& Goel 2009). Also, developing countries are facing some typical problems when municipal solid waste management(MSWM) is discussed, which envisage poor and inefficient coverage and operation of services, inadequate or missing recycling strategies and activities, limited or unproductive management of hazardous waste etc, (Blight, and Mbande 1998; Henry, Yongsheng, and Jun, 2006; Abdelnaser, & Gavrilescu 2008). The major problem caused by wastes to the environment is pollution characterized byvarious types of solid wastes which include paper, textile plastic, metals, glass, bone, wood, vegetal matter and food remnant of multiple consistency. According to studies, it was noted that for years, the major problem in Israel (especially in Ramat Hovar) was the accumulation of tens of thousands of tons of organic wastes. Also in the U.S until the 1970’s, Federal Agencies had little authority to regulate hazardous and solid disposal in an unsafe manner at landfills or in inclined lagoons, with some wastes simply dumped on the ground or in surface waters. Today, solid waste management becomes a complex and multidisciplinary problem, needed to be approached from technical, economic, social points of view in order to ensure its control, since the concept of environmental control is a key criterion to design waste management systems, (Manfredi & Christensen 2009).

There are three components of environment control: economic development, social development and environmental protection. Environmental control ensures a developed world with secured and healthy environment for all; human beings, animals and plants. Since the primary function of solid waste management is to ensure public health protection together with environmental quality and environment control, national and local authorities must adopt sustainable solid waste management systems in a tight partnership with both the public and private sector. Since poor waste disposal habit of the people, corruption, weak government regulation, poor work attitude, insufficient fund, inadequate facilities such as plants and equipment among others are factors militating against effective waste management towards environmentalcontrol in Nigeria as a whole. Therefore, if there is to be environmental control in waste management in Nigeria, the availability of land (for landfill), human resources, adequate funds, plant and equipment and other tools must be readily available. We need to protect future for the next generation by cleaning up our environment of all types of waste, taking into consideration both physical and population development of the state. Generally, waste management is defined as the collection, keeping, treatment, disposal and recycling of wastes in such a way as to render it harmless to human and animal life, the ecology in particular and the environment in general. Despite this laudable attention, collection, disposal, processing, treatment, recycling and utilization have defied solution. At present, private sector waste disposal operators diligently visit homes and carry away refuse bags, load them into waiting trucks and cart them away for final disposal.

Recognizing the importance of waste management as an instrument of achieving environmental control in Anambra State, government has intensified efforts to create wealth and job opportunities for theteeming unemployed youths in the state, a sizeable portion of land has been acquired in Silas Works, Fegge area in Udoka, by the state government to establish a recycling plant.

The recycling plant at Udoka will be transferred through a transfer system to Awka, Nnewi and other major cities in the state to recycle and decompose waste that comes from these major cities. The Managing Director, Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA), Mrs. Oraedum Njide, said that the plant which would soon start will generate wealth to the state, but expressed fear that Anambra State may not have enough waste to accommodate the plant if established. Recycling of waste generates wealth to states. This will in turn ensure environmental control in the state. ASWAMA in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government in the state have been moving round to see to these problems and very soon, they will start house to house inspection because we need to nurture and groom our environment like a baby. They have been trying to sensitize our people on the need to keep our environment clean. It is under the auspices of the foregoing that the study sets out to ascertain the effect of waste management on environmental control in Nigeria.

 

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Improper waste handling and management pose serious threats to the environment and public health. In Nigeria, the commonly practiced waste management option in Nigeria, basically involves the collection of mixed waste materials and subsequent dumping at designated dumpsites. It is not a practice to separate waste materials at source or any point during its management (Adekunle et al, 2011). Development is needed to enhance the quality of the lives of citizens in a country since developmental projects affect the environment, ecology etc. Therefore, for the past few decades people have been talking about environmental control. There are three components ofenvironmental control: economic development, social development and environmental protection. There are aswell, many factors that contribute to the degradation of environmental quality. One of the factors that contribute seriously to the degradation of environmental quality is household and industrial waste. Environmental controlrequires meeting the major needs of all people and extending opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life. During the past decade, the concept of environmental control attracted significant attention from researchers, governments of different countries and international environmental organizations. The reason is lucid, that is, the increased rate of environmental pollution and degradation. Since poor waste disposal habit of the people, corruption, weak government regulation, poor work attitude, lack of fund, inadequate facilities such as plants and equipment among others are factors militating against effective· waste management towards environmental control in Nigeria as a whole. Therefore, if there is to be anenvironmental controlin waste management in Nigeria, the availability of land (for landfill), human resources, adequate funds, plant and European Journal of Business and Management  equipment and other tools must be readily available.

 

 

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The broad objective of this study is to examine Recycling as an effective waste management

. The specific objectives of the study are:

*To determine whether improper disposal and handling of waste has any significant impact on environmental control in Anambra State.

*To ascertain the nature of the relationship between environmental protection and waste management systemin Anambra State.

*To examine the effect of waste generation on socio-economic development in Anambra State.

 

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions would guide this work:

*To what extent does improper disposal and handling of waste impact on environmental control in Anambra State?

*What is the nature of relationship between environmental protection and waste management system in Anambra State?

*To what extent does waste generation impact on socio-economic development in Anambra State?

1.5 Research Hypotheses:

Based on the research questions formulated above the following hypotheses. Guided the study:

Hypothesis 1

There is a significant relationship between improper disposal and handling of waste and environmental control in Anambra State.

Hypothesis 11

There is a significant relationship between Environmental protection and waste management systems in Anambra State.

Hypothesis 111

Waste generation affects socio-economic development in Anambra State.

1.6 Significance of the study

The general public, government and waste management agencies stand to benefit from this study. Empirically, the outcome of this research will enable the general public and government to grasp deeply the hazardous effect of reckless disposal of waste along every nook and cranny of the nation and factors that impede/hamper the implementation of waste management in Anambra State. Also, this study will equally strengthen government efforts towards the release of funds for waste evacuations and prompt payment of salaries to employees of these various agencies having vividly understood the import of poor waste management via extensive work done on this write-up.

Theoretically, this study will make a useful contribution in the field of management as it will serve as another source of knowledge in the management of waste and material resources of the various establishments in Nigeria.

 

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research focused on waste management and environmental control in Nigeria with particular emphasis on Anambra State Waste Management Agency.

 

1.8 Limitations of the study

Myriads of factors constitute impediments towards the successful completion of this work. One of the factors is availability of many relevant materials which the research found very tedious to articulate and coordinate. The researcher’s speed in executing this work was also hampered by her nature of job and family responsibilities. In addition, the investigator also encountered problems in eliciting vital information from the top personnel of the organization under study. But despite these hurdles, the researcher made frantic efforts to ensure the successful completion of the work.