Abstract
As urban areas in many developing countries continue to witness rapid spatial and demographic growth, the sustenance of greenbelts is seriously threatened due to increasing demand for land for housing and provision of urban infrastructure. However, in a country like Nigeria, there is a lack of clarity on some contentious issues regarding urban greenbelts. This study investigated the role of greenbelts in environment and socio-economic development of cities in southeastern Nigeria. A questionnaire survey of 300 built environment professionals, including architects, engineers, town planners, land surveyors, quantity surveyors and property developers was conducted in the study area. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests of significance and it was observed that although around 75.3% of the respondents agreed that green belts contribute to increasing pressure on the existing land in the study area; most of the participants indicated that greenbelts play significant role in urban environment sustainability and socio-economic development by protecting air and water, serving as local sources of food and medicine, means of preserving agricultural land, promoting biodiversity and preventing urban land degradation. In addition, prohibiting housing and physical developments in greenbelts and using Brownfields as alternative sources of land for housing were identified as the possible strategies for preserving urban greenbelts in the study area. This research is intrusive in revealing the key roles greenbelts play in urban development agenda and the possible ways for preserving them in rapidly urbanizing regions in Nigeria and beyond.
Highlights
One of the ways urbanization manifests in many countries in the global South is rapid transformation of semi-natural and natural ecosystems to built-up areas leading to a massive loss of biodiversity
This view was corroborated by Daramola and Ibem [5] who observed that rapid population growth accounts for the fast rate of spatial growth of urban areas leading to the proliferation of urban slums and Assessment of the Role of Greenbelts in Environmental and Socio-Economic Development of Urban Areas in Southeast Nigeria uncontrollable depletion of greenbelts in many cities in Nigeria
These results indicate that a majority of the participants are males, which goes to suggest that the built environment professions and real estate development in this part of Nigeria are dominated by male practitioners
Summary
One of the ways urbanization manifests in many countries in the global South is rapid transformation of semi-natural and natural ecosystems to built-up areas leading to a massive loss of biodiversity. Some authors [3,4] have noted that rapid urbanization coupled with unplanned and unabated incursion into green belts and depletion of natural landscape elements have exposed Nigerian towns and cities to serious environmental sustainability challenges This view was corroborated by Daramola and Ibem [5] who observed that rapid population growth accounts for the fast rate of spatial growth of urban areas leading to the proliferation of urban slums and Assessment of the Role of Greenbelts in Environmental and Socio-Economic Development of Urban Areas in Southeast Nigeria uncontrollable depletion of greenbelts in many cities in Nigeria. Gospodini and Manika [6] reported that large cities in Greece have been experiencing rapid and under-regulated spatial expansion, characterized by informal housing in urban periphery leading to a significant reduction in natural habitats, including greenbelts
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