Impacts of Anthropogenic Factors on Urban Air Quality in Lagos Metropolis

Peter Nkashi Agan

doi:10.5539/jgg.v11n2p35

Abstract

Land use is the utilization and reordering of land cover for human comfort. This process disrupts the pristine state of the environment reducing the quality of environmental receptors like water, air, vegetation etc. Air pollution is introduced into the environment as a result of anthropogenic activities from commercial, industrial and residential areas. These activities are burning of fossil fuels for power generation, transport of goods and services, valorization of raw materials into finished products, bush burning, use of gas cookers, generators and electric stove etc. The introduction of pollutants into the planetary layer of the atmosphere has impacted negatively on the quality of the environment posing threat to humans and the survival of the ecosystem.  In Lagos metropolis, commercial activities and high population densities have caused elevated levels of pollution in the city. This study aimed to investigate the spatial distribution of pollutant in Lagos metropolis with a view to revealing the marked spatial/temporal difference in pollutants levels over residential, commercial and industrial land uses. Commercial and industrial land uses revealed higher levels of pollutants than the residential areas. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients revealed strong positive relationship between land use and air quality in the city.

Highlights

Land use is the continuous ordering of anthropogenic activities and other physical structures within a geographical area (Gang et al 2016)
Land use was first coined by Stamp in 1948 and defined as the utilization of land cover by man for economic, cultural, social and political functions which reflects the physical use of land for a new activity or an existing utilization of land for the enjoyments and comfort of man (Bicik et al 2015).Several definitions of land use have been put forward; according to Bicik et al (2015) the Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) in 1998 referred to land use as the arrangements of activities and human inputs on a land cover for its production, transformation and maintenance
Pollutant concentrations were at variance over the different land uses during the period of 2010 to 2013 for Carbon (ii) oxide(CO), Fine particulate matter (PM2.5), Sulfur (iv)oxide (SO2) and Nitrogen(iv)oxide (NO2) as showed in figure 3 to 6

Summary

Introduction

Land use is the continuous ordering of anthropogenic activities and other physical structures within a geographical area (Gang et al 2016). Air pollution is one of the many environmental problems currently affecting cities globally as they expand in population, size and economic activities These economic activities which stemmed from rapid urbanization and high population densities have resulted in increased energy consumption, vehicular traffic and industrial emissions within the city built-up areas. These have exacerbated air pollution, urban heat island effects and ozone production within the city center (due to increase in impervious surfaces) to the surrounding country sides (Gang et al 2016, Superczynski and Sundar 2011 and Wang, et al 2017)

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