1.1 Introduction
Urban centres face immense disaster risks aggravated with uncontrolled population growth and deteriorating physical living environment. As human actions are responsible phenomenon like climate change, global warming, etc., this has resulted in alteration of our eco cycle. Change in ecosystem is increasing the number and frequency of catastrophic events and hazards. The probability of people’s exposure to disasters is more with increase in disaster events. This has been indicated by facts and figures which conclude that there is a rise in disaster events causing immense loss to mankind in all fronts and destroying years of development of the regions.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Urban areas are concentration of resources and population. It is well known fact that people are responsible for natural disasters. Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, and co- recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, in his 1999 article entitled “An Increasing Vulnerability to Natural Disasters” Annan wrote; “today’s disasters owe as much to human activities as to the forces of nature. Indeed the term ‘natural’ is … increasingly misleading”. Thus human actions cause many problems and increase the risks in cities and accumulate them.
The concept of urban risk management is based on identifying and analysing the urban risks and their aggravating factors. The risks are typical of a region’s location and its exposure to natural hazards. But the recent trends indicate increase in hazard events and their impacts. Therefore in the next section we try to understand the increasing trends of disasters in order to understand the working of URM. The cities are growing at risk due to innumerable reasons, mainly unplanned expansion, rapid urbanisation, inappropriate landuse planning, poor enforcement of building regulations to mention as few (FH-Köln, 2010). “According to UN reports, the urban population increased from 220 million in 1900 to 732 million in 1950 (29% of the world’s population). With the rapid increase in population, the civic authorities are unable to keep the same pace of providing infrastructure and basic urban services and governance. This is deteriorating the urban environment and quality of life. Further in most of the cities there are no measures taken to adopt new regulations for continuously evolving new urban risks in light of climate change and increased disaster events. In the social structure of any society, the poor people are weakest sections and any adverse condition will first affect them. Thus urban poor are have inadequate living conditions, are under poverty, have no access to basic services and sanitation, have poor health conditions, have negligible literacy and are often located on high risk areas (Framework, 2011).
Risk-sensitive urban development is an innovative planning approach that can transform the way cities are built in order to face the uncertainties that arise from climate-induced disaster risks. However, the potential to initiate such a transformative approach has not materialized because of the many underlying issues that need to be understood properly. Their physical and social vulnerability cause everyday risks and this causes small scale disasters on a regular basis (FH-Köln, 2010). Thus the result is the process of risk accumulation. Risk accumulation in cities is high in urban areas due to its increased physical and social vulnerability. When risks due to natural hazards are compounded by everyday risks, it results in the process of risk accumulation.
Therefore, in Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to analyze the Integration of Risk Mitigation Strategies into Urban Planning and Development.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The vulnerability of urban areas are increased due poor local governance, environmental degradation and the over stretching of resources (FH-Köln, 2010. Thus urban risk management is a key to disaster management in urban areas. This has gained a lot of international recognition in past two decades. The study identified forty-six issues and challenges under seven key themes that need addressing in order to facilitate the desirable transition: trade-offs, governance, fragmentation and silos, capacity, design and development, data, and funding.
The issues and challenges that exist under trade-offs for negotiating solutions for risk-sensitive urban development and the governance of multiple stakeholders were identified as the top two areas that need attention in facilitating the desirable transition. This study also revealed that important information, such as scientific information, hazard and risk information, temporal and spatial information, and critical local details are not being produced and shared between stakeholders in decision-making. A profound participatory process that involves all the stakeholders in the decision-making process was identified as the pathway to ensure equitable outcomes in risk-sensitive urban development.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to analyze the Integration of Risk Mitigation Strategies into Urban Planning and Development using Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja as case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the Urban Planning and Development Risk Mitigation Strategies in Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja
- To assess the state of infrastructure provision towards Urban Planning and Development in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria
- To account for reasons for the dearth of infrastructure in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria.
- To highlight modern methods of construction (MMC) which can be adopted to enliven Abuja, FCT, Nigeria.
- To recommend ways of sustainably developing Abuja, FCT, Nigeria.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Are there any modern methods of construction (MMC) which can be adopted to enliven Abuja?
- Is there any Risk Mitigation Strategies proffered for Urban Planning and Development in Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja?
- What is the state of infrastructure provision towards Urban Planning and Development in Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja?
- What are the reasons for the dearth of infrastructure in Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: There is no significant Risk Mitigation Strategies proffered for securing Urban Planning and Development in Trade More Estate Lugbe
- H1: There is a significant Risk Mitigation Strategies proffered for securing Urban Planning and Development in Trade More Estate Lugbe
1.7 Significance of Study
The significance of this study is that it will analyze the Integration of Risk Mitigation Strategies into Urban Planning and Development using Trade More Estate Lugbe, document the reasons for the dearth of infrastructure in Nigeria and recommend methods of achieving sustainable infrastructure development in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria. Finance is a scarce factor in the development of infrastructure in Nigeria. Abuja is a strategic city that needs adequate infrastructure as a modern city. The government must evolve innovative method of providing infrastructure to ensure sustainability.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on analyzing the Integration of Risk Mitigation Strategies into Urban Planning and Development using Trade More Estate Lugbe, Abuja as case study
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Study Area
The territory is located just north of the confluence of the Niger River and Benue River. It is bordered by the states of Niger to the West and North, Kaduna to the northeast, Nasarawa to the east and south and Kogi to the southwest. Lying between latitude 8.25 and 9.20 north of the equator and longitude 6.45 and 7.39 east of Greenwich Meridian, Abuja is geographically located in the center of the country. The Federal Capital Territory has a landmass of approximately 7,315 km2, and it is situated within the savannah region with moderate climatic conditions (Wikipedia, 2021).
Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria, in the middle of the country. The skyline of the city, which was built largely in the 1980s, is dominated by Aso Rock, an enormous monolith. It rises up behind the Presidential Complex, which houses the residence and offices of the Nigerian president in the Three Arms Zone on the eastern edge of the city. Nearby are the National Assembly and the Supreme Court of Nigeria (Wikipedia, 2021).
Area: 1,769 km²
Elevation: 360 m
Postal codes: 900211–900288
Weather: 27°C, Wind NE at 10 km/h, 20% Humidity weather.com
Metro population: 6,000,000 (estimated)
1.11 Plan of the Study Area
The research work is organized into five (5) chapters. The first chapter focuses on the background to the study, the research problem, aims and objectives of the study, the scope of the study, significance of the study, research question, and research methodology etc
The second dwells on the literature review. While the third chapter entails the research methodology, data requirement/sources, data collection techniques. Chapter four deals with data presentation and analysis, in chapter five summaries of findings, conclusion and recommendations are discussed.
