Analysis of Factors that Influence Land Use Dynamics in Nigeria

Abstract

The peculiar nature of land use dynamics is one of the main challenges besetting Nigerian cities. It has created environmental problems, urban sprawl and haphazard development. This paper identified factors that influence land use dynamics in Nigeria using Benin and Enugu to represent organic and inorganic cities. The study covers a period ranging from 1980 to 2010. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used extensively in this study. Principal component analysis was used to identify and classify factors that influence land use dynamics. The results show that eight factors namely housing development, communications, physical features, housing conversion, socio-physical feature, security, and physical development influenced land use dynamics in Enugu. For Benin-City, seven factors, namely public utilities, housing development, security, infrastructure, climatic condition, demography, and physical features accounted for the land use dynamics. This implies that informal sector activities were the main driver of land use dynamics in Nigeria. There is need to consider factors of land use dynamics in the formulation of urban development policy.