Abstract
This study examines the spatio-temporal pattern of urban growth in Benin City, Nigeria for a period of 26 years (1987-2013) using remote sensing data and geographic information systems techniques. It also analysed the factors driving the observed pattern of growth in the city. The results show that Benin City is growing more towards the north, east and south along the major transportation routes. The land use pattern in Benin City is compact and radial from the city centre while the growth pattern makes Benin City a monocentric city. The settlement expanded from 220 km2 in 1987 to 359 km2 in 2013 with a mean annual growth rate of 1.5%. The growth of Benin City is observed to be influenced by the siting of public institutions such as schools, hospitals, government offices and industries. While this study demonstrates the importance of using geospatial technology in the acquisition of data for urban planning and management, the results highlight the influence of infrastructure development on urban growth pattern. Key words: Urban growth, spatial analysis, monocentric, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), Nigeria.
Highlights
The increase in population growth, especially in the developing countries of the world has brought about an increase in the rate of urbanization (Adeoye, 2012) and a concomitant growth in cities around the world
This study has shown the pattern of urban expansion in
The results show that the city is growing at a rapid rate in the north, south and eastern directions majorly along the transportation routes
Summary
The increase in population growth, especially in the developing countries of the world has brought about an increase in the rate of urbanization (Adeoye, 2012) and a concomitant growth in cities around the world. While urbanization is an increase in the size and proportion of the population living in urban settlements, urban growth refers to the rate, at which an urban settlement is increasing in spatial extent. The internal demographic, spatial and economic growth of cities has been explained by many theories.
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