Post-millennial Urbanisation Dynamics of the Traditional Inner City Core of Ibadan

Abstract

The rate of urbanisation has been fast-tracked by post-millennial occurrences within traditional cities. In understanding urbanisation trends in cities in Africa, such as Ibadan, limited evidence and study have documented the post-millennial changes in the organic and traditional inner city landscapes. Despite the unplanned and uncoordinated urbanisation that is characterised by the influx of people into the inner city core of Ibadan, knowledge in respect of the spatial growth of the inner city local government areas (LGAs) is lacking. The aim of this study was to analyse the form, trends and intensity of urban expansion in the traditional inner city core of Ibadan between the years 2000 and 2020. To attain the aim of this study, three sets of satellite imageries (the Enhanced Thematic Mapper for 2000 and the operational Land Imagers for 2013 and 2020) were subjected to a maximum likelihood supervised classification. The study revealed that four types of urban expansion intensity (highly rapid, rapid, moderate, and very low) were identified as the areas of expansion in the built-up environment −from 6603.12ha to 10287.54ha. The study also revealed that for the period, 2000- 2013, all the local government areas within the core of Ibadan experienced edge expansion, while leapfrogging was identified in two) local government areas, namely, Ibadan North andIbadan Northeast, and edge expansion in three, namely, Ibadan Southwest, Ibadan Southeast, and Ibadan Northeast for the period, 2013 - 2020. The study further revealed varying urbandensification areas within the local government areas in the core of Ibadan, where the urban intensity and expansion types were being influenced by the urban densities recorded in each local government area in the Ibadan core. This study concluded that swift urban planning is required to address the urban sprawl at the edge of each of the inner city LGAs of Ibadan.