Factors Influencing Spatio-Temporal Variation of Urban Green Space in Ado-Ekiti Metropolis

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) have proven to be an accurate means of determining Urban Green Space (UGS), extent and pattern of changes in land use land cover of a large area of land over time. However, there is dearth of information on spatial variation of UGS and its perceived factors in Ado -Ekiti. Therefore, this study adopted RS and GIS techniques to determine the factors responsible for the UGS changes in Ado -Ekiti metropolis. Map of Ado-Ekiti metropolis and Landsat imageries of 1987 (TM), 1998 (TM) and 2019 (OLI) were obtained. A set of 112 well -structured questionnaire was randomly administered to respondents in the study area. Map of Ado -Ekiti was georeferenced and digitized to obtain its shapefile. Landsat imageries were classified using the maximum likelihood algorithm of supervised classification in ArcGIS. The shapefile was superimposed on the classified imageries and clipped for determination of land use land cover sizes. The questionnaire were analyzed to determine the perceived factors responsible for the spatial variation in the UGS using logit regression model in STASTICA. Four land use land cover; Green spaces, Built-up area, water body and bare land, were identified in Ado-Ekiti metropolis. The UGS decreased from 76.1% in 1987to 32.1% in 2019. In the same vein, water body reduced from 0.3% to 0.1% in 1987 to 2019 respectively. However, built up area and bare land increased from 20.3% and 7.5% to 54.6% and 13.2% in 1987 to 2019, respectively. Spatial and temporal variation in UGS was significantly influenced by population growth (103760.20 Odds -Ratio) and demand land for agriculture (15.53 Odds-Ratio) as represented with the equation FAUGS =-26.78+11.50(PG) - 20.20(Poverty) – 15.04(LLE) - 12.59(DT) + 2.74(AGR). However, other factors, whose contributions were not significant include lack of law enforcement, demand for timber and poverty.