APPRAISAL OF THE BIRNIN-KEBBI CITY MASTER PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The study is aimed at appraising the Birnin Kebbi city Master Plan with a view to providing information that can influence policy for sustainable urban development. The objectives of this study are to assess the land use and land cover change from 1991-2018 and simulate the 2027 land cover change; to appraise the level of implementation/mismatch of the 1980 Master Plan; to assess the level of compliance of the Birnin Kebbi city development with International best practices for sustainable cities and upgrade a neighbourhood and develop an improved Land Use Plan that is sustainable for the growing population in Birnin Kebbi. Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and the administration of questionnaire through a stratified sampling technique were used for data collection and analysis. A supervised classification was applied to Landsat image of the study area from 1991, 2000, 2009 and 2018. The study revealed that urban/built-up area has increased from 1,687 hectares in 1991 to 7,725 hectares in 2018 and it is projected to increase by 2,034 hectares in 2027. Similarly, agricultural land increased from 9,270 to 43,921 hectares in 2018 and it is predicted to increase by 2,192 hectares in 2027, while vegetation has decreased from 73,030 to 54,992 hectares in 2018. It also revealed that the Master Plan was partially implemented, as the results indicated an increase in urban/built-up area, resulting from the conversion of other allotted land use into built-up/residential area. The assessment of the level of compliance to international best practices for sustainable development considered five major indicators and concluded that Birnin Kebbi is fairly sustainable in it development. Population growth and government policies are the major underlying cause for LULC change in the study area and the results indicated an increase in urban/built-up and agricultural land cover types, while vegetation and bare land cover decreased. This study recommend the deliberate measures to control natural increase in population through government partnering with NGOs such as Gate foundation, UNICEF and other aid organisation to invest more in the state in the area of family planning, education, poverty alleviation and green technology to improve child survival rate and ensure sustainable development.